For their 2017 Lenten concert, the Choir of Christ Church St Laurence will be performing J. S. Bach’s incomparable Mass in B Minor. Written for 5-part chorus with orchestra and soloists, this setting of the Latin Mass was completed in 1749, the year before his death. It was Bach’s last finished work. Dr Neil McEwan…
For their 2014 Lenten concerts, the Choir of Christ Church St Laurence is joined by the St Laurence Baroque Orchestra conducted by Dr Neil McEwan to present J. S. Bach’s mighty St John Passion, BWV 245. Although Bach never wrote an opera, both his surviving Passions owe a great deal to the operatic tradition. The St John Passion is…
Handel’s Messiah, is perhaps the most famous oratorio ever written. Since it was composed in 1742, it has become a work that people seemingly never tire of hearing or performing. It is music infused with great drama and intense emotion, heightened by superb orchestral writing and word painting. As Sir David Willcocks said, “…. Handel was the exponent par excellence…