Saturday 5 December 2015 at 7:30pm
Sherborne Abbey

Schütz The Christmas Story
Praetorius Christmas Mass
With In Echo and the Altenburg Ensemble

Join us as we start the festive season off in Baroque style, with two joyous and colourful works from the early seventeenth century.

Praetorius’ Christmas Mass is a reconstruction of a Lutheran mass as it might have been performed on Christmas Day in Germany around 1620.  Many of the main themes are familiar, having since been adapted into Christmas Carols, and in keeping with the style of the time there are a number of chorales for the audience to join in with, so do come ready to sing!  The Schütz is a similarly colourful Baroque work written in 1660 narrating the story of the birth of Christ.

We’re joined by two of the UK’s top Early Music ensembles, who between them play a wide variety of unusual instruments, including sackbuts, crumhorns and cornetts. The Altenburg Ensemble provide us with no fewer than five natural trumpets – not to be missed!