POSSIBLY the most loved composition in the canon of church music, Handel’s Messiah will be performed by Limerick Choral Union and Orchestra on Saturday December 5 at 8pm. It’s going to be a huge occasion, driven by demand “as we see people coming every two years for the Messiah at Christmas. The challenge for us is to make it exciting and to bring in exciting soloists,” observes Darragh Curtin.
A baritone with LCU since 2011, he is current chairperson leading in, with Malcolm Green as musical director, a choir of 134 singers and Limerick Choral Union Symphony Orchestra’s 26 musicians. The concert hall is venue.
“It’s a collective effort,” Darragh underlines, “the voices of so many people coming together to deliver something ethereal”.
This year’s soloists are Limerick’s magical Jean Wallace, soprano; alto Martha Bredin; Patrick Hyland, tenor, and bass John Molloy. For the choir itself, weekly rehearsals expand to full days committed to perfecting the soaring harmonies of this sacred oratario, a concert that will be recorded to further LCU’s performance stature in 2016.
You can preview in Ennis Cathedral this Sunday November 29 at 7.30pm when Trevor Selby accompanies the choir on organ with Niall O’Sullivan on trumpet in a fundraiser (€15 at door) for Cahercalla Hospital and Hospice.
The soloists are destined for University Concert Hall only, each representing the harmonies of soprano, alto, tenor and bass. “The real complexity is in singing your own part alongside people singing different parts. That’s what creates the harmonies and this Messiah is a great example of that”.
Limerick is privy to this inspirational and dignified occasion that will define Christmas sanctity for many. Bear in mind that LCU has 50 years to its songbook. Book at www.uch.ie
