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Keeping you updated with the latest news
 

2023

28 June 2023
A Rousing end to the 2022/23 Season with Viva Italia!
9 June 2023
Cathedral Visits - Summer 2023
12 May 2023
Simon Toyne appointed as our new Musical Director
20 March 2023
Dame Ethel Smyth Mass in D - A resounding success!
13 February 2023
The Ethel Smyth full score has arrived

2022

13 December 2022
Christmas 2022 Concert & Fundraising
1 October 2022
New Accompanist Announced
1 September 2022
2022/23 Season Launched
31 August 2022
2022/23 Season : Our Conductors
1 August 2022
2021/22 Season - Done!
30 July 2022
Another (!) Special Evensong
13 June 2022
Jubilee Proms - Staggering Success
30 May 2022
MD steps down after 15 years
29 May 2022
A Special Evensong
2 April 2022
Carmina in Style
1 March 2022
Song for Ukraine
21 February 2022
#22for22 Update
7 February 2022
The Armed Man

2021

16 December 2021
#22for22 is launched
4 December 2021
Christmas is Back! with a brassy bang!
6 November 2021
714 Days... Back in Concert
27 October 2021
660 Days... We're Back
4 October 2021
Annual General Meeting
1 August 2021
2021/22 Season Launched
7 June 2021
Expanding the Canon
18 May 2021
Live Singing started ... stopped
17 May 2021
Fridays and the Future
14 April 2021
Virtual Video
12 April 2021
Summer in the Alps
26 March 2021
Fridays at Four - Spring Done
9 March 2021
International Women's Day
22 February 2021
Cooking up a Feast
12 February 2021
Centenary Classics
11 January 2021
Classical Classics

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Monteverdi Vespers Success!

2 April 2017

St Matthew's Church was packed last night with both audience (our largest in recent years) and performers! Nearly 110 members of the Northampton Bach Choir were joined by the 25 members of the Malcolm Arnold Academy Chapel Choir, 6 soloists, and the 12 players of the period orchestra Charivari Agréable - that's over 150 musicians.

The concert began in dramatic style with a solemn procession of soloists from the rear of church, accompanied by a marching drum beat and drones in the orchestra ... the tenor soloist Gwilym Bowen made his way to the very top of the choir staging, turned round, and on the loudest stroke of the drum, the drones were silenced and we began. Singing the first movement from memory the choir gripped the audience from the very moment they began to sing.

110 members of the Northampton Bach Choir

Using our own Musical Director's edition of the score, we were able to weave plainsong into the performance, sung by the men of the choir, and many of the choruses used our six soloists in ensemble, to create dramatic tension between smaller and larger groups of singers. Indeed, the Director of Charivari Agréable wrote to say:

What an evening of revelation it was for me, Lee! I thought I knew the work like the back of my hand, but you showed us how to make the quirky and uneven Vespers work for a large choir. And it was a stroke of genius to give the semi-chorus elements to the soloists. Please thank the Northampton Bach Choir for the very many beautifully-shaped phrases, exquisite pianissimos, raging fortissimos ... the gentle ebb and flow of the Ave Maris Stella was particularly memorable, especially the lozenge dynamics at the closing Amen.
 
Monteverdi Vespers Success!

After the Interval the second half began in silence, with tenor Gwilym Bowen on stage, and the echo tenor Robert Anthony Gardiner, accompanied by chitarrone in the far distance by the High Altar. The drama continued right through the remainder of the concert, not least with the addition of both the full chorus and a superb soloist from the Malcolm Arnold Academy Chapel Choir in both the Sonata and the Magnificat. A member of the audience wrote to say:

What a fantastic performance which I enjoyed almost more than any other Bach Choir concert despite my misgivings about this era of music. I am full of admiration for the way in which you can put together such a complex performance with soloists (all excellent), the specialist orchestra and the choir.

The choir now have a well-earned break before beginning rehearsals next term for both our July concert performance of the Requiem settings by Maurice Duruflé and Gabriel Fauré, as well as for our tour to Venice at the end of May.