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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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A Fantastic French Feast

9 July 2017

Microphones and Eiffel Tower Ready for the Recording
 
Our Musical Director is ready to Record!

Last night the Northampton Bach Choir was joined by organist Stephen Moore, violinist Stephen Hague, cellist Corinne Malitskie, harpist Rowena Bass, and vocal soloists Philippa Hyde and Gwion Thomas, to perform the Requiem settings by Maurice Duruflé and Gabriel Fauré. Whilst this provided the audience with a slightly shorted concert than usual, it did enable us to have a very social interval, with wine and cheese, and to launch our latest commercial CD recording – Requiem Reflections.
 

Your new CD arrived yesterday – what a simply stunning achievement. From the quietest to the loudest moments, it was brilliant

The concert began with Fauré’s Requiem, sung in a new edition by David Hill, rescored the smallest chamber forces imaginable; it was this version of the Requiem that was recorded by the choir last October in the concert venue, St Matthew’s Church. Fauré’s setting of the Requiem is essentially a quiet and peaceful one, as are the other Fauré works on the recording – his Tantum ergo op. 55, the Pavane, Une châtelaine en sa tour ... for solo harp, and the Messe brève, arranged from Fauré’s Messe basse and Messe des pêcheurs de Villerville by our Musical Director, for organ, SATB choir, and two soloists.

In rehearsal for Fauré
 
Of course I knew the Fauré, but I had not heard the Duruflé before. In many ways it is even more exciting than the Fauré, especially in your dramatic performance. Even though the choir didn’t have a large orchestra, the organist more than made up for it, and the choir rose to the occasion, producing such singing of such incredible intensity – not only quiet, but also astonishingly loud!!!

After cheese and wine, and the launch of the CD by our President, Sir Peter Ellwood VLL, CBE, the choir tacked a very different beast – Duruflé’s rich, luscious, and plainsong-infused setting of the Requiem. There is much that is peaceful and quiet in the work, but there are also outbursts of incredible ferocity, which were superbly sung by the choir.

Cheese and Wine at the Interval
 
Our Latest CD - including Fauré's Requiem