News
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

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

 

Ten Years with Bach and Haydn

20 November 2017

Having completed our Viva Italia! series of concerts (Verdi Requiem, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle, Montevedi Vespers), and before we start out Wond’rous Machine! series (beginning with Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, taking in concerts of music from the UK and US, and another of French music, before culminating in a programme of Sir C. Hubert H. Parry’s works, upon the centenary of his death), the choir took the opportunity to reprise the concert they gave almost ten years ago to the day, our first concert with Musical Director Lee Dunleavy.

Mezzo Kitty Whately in Haydn's Agnus Dei

Over these ten years Lee has worked with the choir in concert of music by mainstream composers including Bach (Cantatas, Magnificat, Mass in B minor, St John Passion, St Matthew Passion), Beethoven (Choral Symphony), Britten (A Ceremony of Carols, Saint Nicolas), Duruflé (Requiem), Fauré (Requiem), Handel (Messiah), Haydn (‘Great’ Organ Solo Mass, Nelson Mass, St Nicholas Mass), Monteverdi (Vespers), Mozart (‘Great’ Mass in C minor, Requiem), Orff (Carmina Burana), Poulenc (Gloria), Rachmaninov (Vespers), Rossini (Petite Messe Solennelle), Rutter (Gloria, Magnificat), Vaughan Williams (A Sea Symphony, Five Mystical Songs), Verdi (Requiem). He has also conducted the choir in première performances of a number of major works, not least four choral-orchestral works by David Conte (September Sun), Steve Dobrogosz (My Rose: a Shakespeare Oratorio), Dan Forrest (in paradisum…), and Craig Phillips (Dies gratiæ), and carols by four of his predecessors as Musical Director: John Bertalot, Stephen Cleobury, Simon Johnson, and Michael Nicholas.

Bach Magnificat reached new heights for the Trumpets

The choir have toured both locally and abroad, performing in venues including the Royal Albert Hall, St Paul’s Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, Notre Dame in Paris, the Papal Basilica in Rome, and St Mark’s Venice. In addition they have made no fewer than four commercial recordings: Congaudeat! (2010), I was glad! (2012), Be Merry! (2014), and Requiem Reflections (2017).

Haydn's Nelson Mass in Full Flight

Last Saturday’s concert (18 November 2017) was an exact reprise of Lee’s first concert with the choir on 17 November 2007. Beginning with Bach’s Magnificat, and ending with Haydn’s Nelson Mass, with Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in the middle. The Bach Camerata were on superb form, and our soloists – Katherine Crompton (who also sang in the 2007 concert), Kitty Whately, Nathan Vale, Toby Girling, and Rachel Bedford – performed with incredible aplomb. It was a superb way to mark ten incredible years.

We offer grateful thanks to Silvio Sicignano for the use of his superb photographs of the concert.