THIS year, instead of Christmas carols, we are featuring excerpts from Part 1 of Handel’s Messiah, which is concerned with the birth of Jesus as foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament and reported in the gospels of Luke and Matthew.
Accompagnato: ‘For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.’ (Isaiah 60, vv 2–3)
Air: ‘The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.’ (Isaiah 9, v2)
This is my second selection from the 2018 performance in South Africa is by the Cape Town Youth Choir and Junges Vokalensemble of Hanover, with baritone Bongani Justice Kubheka.
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