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Tuesday 26 May 2026 The Royal Festival Hall, London ★★★★★ The Bach Choir’s moving and supremely human interpretation marks the 150th anniversary of their first performance of Bach’s masterpiece The Bach Choir © Marc Gascoigne Tuesday night’s concert marked another significant milestone in The Bach Choir’s 150th anniversary season, which opened late last year with …
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Sunday 8 March 2026 Royal Festival Hall, London ***** A dramatic and deeply devotional performance, part concert, part religious ritual The Bach Choir, London Youth Choir, Florilegium and conductor David Hill © Michael Whitefoot The Bach Choir's 150th Anniversary season, which opened last October with a superb performance of Mahler's Eighth Symphony, was marked on Sunday with Bach's St Matthew …
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Manchester was the place to be for superb performances in 2025 The Year in Classical Music Sometimes going abroad reminds you how good things are at home. In the spring of 2025, I went to the Shostakovich Festival in Leipzig, featuring world-class performers such as the Gewandhausorchester and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. So it was …
Thursday 9 October 2025 St Paul's Cathedral, London ***** A stunning opening to the Bach Choir’s 150th anniversary season in the most dramatic of settings How do you open the 150th anniversary season of one of Britain’s finest choirs? An announcement from an official at St Paul’s Cathedral welcomed us to the site of Christian …
A Memorable Year for Music: Highlights from Manchester and Beyond The BBC Philharmonic with Chief Conductor John Storgårds. Image © Chris Payne. Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the death of my father, John Charles Holmes, under whose benign and loving influence I developed a lifelong passion for music. He was the choirmaster and …
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Wednesday 30 October 2024 Westminster Cathedral London ***** A moving and passionate performance of Britten's pacifist masterpiece The Bach Choir perform Britten's 'War Requiem' with The Philharmonia Orchestra at Westminster Cathedral, conducted by David Hill. Image © Andy Paradise "My subject is War, and the pity of War.The Poetry is in the pity...All a poet …
Thursday 16 May 2024 Royal Festival Hall, London ***** A premiere by Roderick Williams explores the humanity of Elgar's choral masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius David Hill conducting the Philharmonia. Image credit Andy Paradise Edward Elgar’s choral masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius, with words by Cardinal John Henry Newman, describes the journey of a soul …
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