Jewish choir's oratorio evokes emotion of war for Armistice Day

Zemel Choir sings poems such as ‘They Shall Grow Not Old’ and songs such as ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’, arranged by Benjamin Wolf, to remember victims of the First World War

The UK’s leading mixed voice Jewish choir has launched a new oratorio evoking the “conflict and emotional toll of the First World War through text and music” in the run-up to Armistice Day.

‘Armistice,’ a new CD from Zemel Choir, is composed by Benjamin Wolf and includes choral settings of famous poems such as ‘They Shall Grow Not Old’ and ‘In Flanders Fields’, plus arrangements of popular songs such as ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ and ‘Roses of Picardy.’

“Both familiar and innovative, it combines poems by famous figures such as Rupert Brooke, Isaac Rosenberg and A E Housman with texts drawn from the Book of Common Prayer, classical Greek poetry and the Hebrew psalms,” said a spokesman.

A conductor, pianist, singer and academic, Wolf is musical director of both the Zemel Choir and the Wallace Ensemble, and paid tribute to “outstanding performances by professional soloists and instrumentalists in an uplifting and thoughtful musical memorial… especially fitting for Remembrance Sunday this week”.