Winter is a time of the departing sun, and of the reigning stars and moon. These visual references are deeply intertwined in the Christmas story, with Christ himself a symbolic “Light of Gold” (in Whitacre’s Lux aurumque) and his mother Mary as the “Bright Star of the Sea” (in Grieg’s Ave maris stella). The three wise men, guided by a star, are heard in Mendelssohn’s unfinished oratorio, Christus. This concert’s major work is Morten Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs, with its virtuosic piano part played by Ingrid Verhulsdonk.

• The dark around us, come, by Giselle Wyers
• O nata lux, by Thomas Tallis
• Ave maris stella, by Edvard Grieg
• Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, by J.S. Bach
• Die geburt Christi, from Christus, by Felix Mendelssohn
• Moon Man, by Greg Bartholomew [world premiere]
• O Radiant Dawn, by James MacMillan
•     intermission
• Mid-Winter Songs, by Morten Lauridsen
• Lux aurumque, by Eric Whitacre

Full program