In a new venture for the Society, a Sunday evening concert in The Fire Station, starting at 7.30 p.m. and under the direction of David Murray.

Tickets £20.00, with online ticketing via the Fire Station website or at their box office, which is open Wednesdays to Saturdays – phone lines 2 pm to 6 pm, counter 4 pm to 6 pm. Ticket Office will also be open for in person sales when there is a performance from 6 pm.

This concert is a revue showcasing the music and lyrics of the undoubted giant of American Musical Theatre, Stephen Sondheim. It celebrates the large body of work he had produced from the outset of his career, when he was a lyricist for Jule Styne’s show ‘Gypsy’, and more famously Leonard Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story’.

He had also had a whole raft of shows in his own name – some of them are remembered – for example ‘A Little Night Music’, ‘Follies’, ‘A Funny thing happened on the way to the forum’ and ‘Company’. Some of them are not, but the songs live on in their own right as little masterpieces.

Astonishingly this revue, created in the mid 1970’s, was written before the emergence of his greatest works, in the form of ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘Into the Woods’, so we’ve added more material to bring things up to date, and we’ve also rewritten the libretto which connects all the songs together.

So why wasn’t his rise to the top of musical theatre more meteoric? Its easy to look back in hindsight and say this, but its clear now that his words were often too clever, too subtle, for the audiences steeped in a tradition of Rogers and Hammerstein etc, and his subjects were so often based around his own very cynical view of the success of human relationships. So people didn’t fall in love and live happily ever after.  His treatment of this dim view of humankind can be both incredibly funny and incredibly sad as the context of the song changes within the drama.

The songs you hear will make you laugh and make you cry – they are about life. They are often provocative, racy, slightly outrageous. And to return to why his success wasn’t immediate, the shows were simply playing in the wrong theatres to the wrong audiences. Its no surprise that now much of his work finds itself in opera houses where the complexity of his music can be taken on board more easily not only by opera companies but also by their audiences.

The ‘cast’ consists of four singers,(who also introduce the songs and put them in their context) as well as delivering some very funny anecdotes) two pianists, and  Bishopwearmouth Choral Society .

Come, sit back and enjoy.

A Saturday evening concert in Sunderland Minster, starting at 7.30 p.m., conducted by David Murray.

Featuring a special guest performance by Bradley Creswick of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto

and Haydn Nelson Mass (No.11 in D Minor) and Te Deum (in C Major).

Soloists: Laurie Ashworth – soprano, Clare McCaldin – mezzo-soprano, Nick Smith – tenor, Patrick Owston – bass

Tickets – £14.00 for Nave (£8 concessions for full-time students and on income related benefits) or £8.00 (Gallery – limited view). Accompanied under 16s free. Tickets will be available from members of the Society, at the door, or on-line from www.wegottickets.com/BCS – who also have a direct link on the home page of this website.

Doors open from 6.45 p.m. Apart from seats marked for Patrons there are no allocated seats.

Bradley Creswick has been described as “an outstanding, internationally renowned, musician and leader of the Royal Northern Sinfonia orchestra who has endeared himself to audiences at the Sage Gateshead for the quality of his playing and his sheer enjoyment of the role.”

Now retired from RNS, he was appointed Leader Emeritus and more recently an MBE for services to music. Playing with friends remains a vibrant part of his life and he continues to give recitals across the UK. The Society is delighted that he can join us to perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, one of the best known violin concertos.

The Missa in angustiis (Mass for troubled times) or Nelson Mass, is one of fourteen masses  written by Joseph Haydn. It is one of the six masses written near the end of his life which are, together, now seen as a culmination of Haydn’s liturgical composition. Haydn’s original title may also have come from illness and exhaustion at this time, which followed his supervision of the first performances of The Creation, completed a few months earlier. Though Haydn’s reputation was at its peak in 1798, when he wrote this mass, his world was in turmoil. Napoleon had won four major battles with Austria in less than a year. The previous year, in early 1797, his armies had crossed the Alps and threatened Vienna itself. In May 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt to destroy Britain’s trade routes to the East.

The summer of 1798 was therefore a terrifying time for Austria, and when Haydn finished this mass, his own title, in the catalogue of his works, was Missa in angustiis (Mass for troubled times). What Haydn did not know when he wrote the mass, but what he and his audience heard, was that on 1 August, Napoleon had been dealt a stunning defeat in the Battle of the Nile by British forces led by Admiral Horatio Nelson. Because of this coincidence, the mass gradually acquired the nickname Lord Nelson Mass.

The Te Deum is a magnificent choral drama in three parts was a commission from Empress Marie Therese, the wife of Franz I of Austria. Haydn was a frequent visitor to the imperial palace in Vienna. The Empress had a good voice; Haydn once accompanied her on a private performance of the soprano part of The Creation. The Empress repeatedly used to ask Haydn for some specially-composed church music, but Prince Esterhazy was reluctant to allow his famous employee to write for anyone but himself.

Evidently, however, Marie Therese finally got her way – we know not how! The Te Deum was composed around 1799, but its first recorded performance was not until 1800 at Eisenstadt, the home of the Esterhazy family, to celebrate Lord Nelson’s (and, inevitably, Lady Hamilton’s) arrival there.

The Te Deum is a choral work throughout, without the solo sections that are heard in Haydn’s masses and other sacred works. Two lengthy Allegro passages surround a central Adagio, effectively making the work a concerto for chorus and orchestra.

A Saturday evening concert in Sunderland Minster, starting at 7.30 p.m., conducted by David Murray.

Soloist : Anna Dias.

Come and enjoy an evening filled with a fine mixture of traditional and contemporary choral music which will fill you with the spirit of Christmas. The content ranges from Holst to Todd, Chilcott and Rutter festive favourites, and a Christmas Medley by David Murray.

Tickets – £14.00 for Nave (£8 concessions for full-time students and on income related benefits) or £8.00 (Gallery – limited view). Accompanied under 16s free. Tickets are available from members of the Society, at the door, or on-line from www.wegottickets.com/event/560106 – who also have a direct link on the home page of this website.

Doors open from 6.45 p.m. Apart from seats marked for Patrons there are no allocated seats.

A Saturday evening concert in Sunderland Minster, starting at 7.30 p.m., conducted by David Murray.

Tickets remain at their pre-Covid prices and can be obtained via any member of the choir or by making a request using the Contact Us page of this website.

On this occasion we are not using the WeGotTickets option to offer tickets, so please ignore the ‘Booking Tickets’ page and any reference and link to WeGotTickets on the ‘Contact Us’ page.

In the Nave £14.00, £8.00 (students & income related benefits), accompanied Under 16s free (but they do need a ticket to ensure a seat), and £8.00 in the Gallery (with restricted view).

Soloists : Laurie Ashworth – soprano, Clare McCaldin – mezzosoprano, Richard Pinkstone – tenor,

Patrick Owston – bass.

Gioachino Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle (Little solemn mass) was written in 1863, possibly at the request of Count Alexis Pillet-Will for his wife Louise to whom it is dedicated. The composer, who had retired from composing operas more than 30 years before, described it as “the last of my péchés de vieillesse” (sins of old age).

The extended work is a missa solemnis, but Rossini labeled it, not without irony, petite (little). He scored it originally for twelve singers, four of them soloists, two pianos and harmonium. The mass was first performed on 14 March 1864 at the couple’s new home in Paris. Rossini later produced an orchestral version, including an additional movement, a setting of the hymn “O salutaris hostia” as a soprano aria. This version of the mass was not performed during his lifetime because he could not obtain permission to perform it with female singers in a church. It was first performed three months after his death, at the Salle Ventadour in Paris by the company of the Théâtre-Italien on 24 February 1869.

The unusual scoring for voices, two pianos and harmonium is in the Neapolitan harpsichord tradition of the 18th century. Rossini specified, on the second page of his manuscript, twelve singers in all, noting on the title page: “Twelve singers of three sexes, men, women and castrati will suffice for its execution: that is, eight for the choir, four soloists, in all twelve cherubim”.

The planned Rossini concert will now take place on Saturday the 18th June 2022

Petite Messe Solennelle – Rossini

A Saturday evening performance at St.Mary’s Church, Claremont Gardens, Whitley Bay, NE26 3SF, conducted by David Murray, starting at 7.30 p.m.

Come and enjoy an evening filled with a fine mixture of traditional and contemporary choral music which will fill you with the spirit of Christmas. The content ranges from Holst to Todd, Chilcott and Rutter festive favourites, and a Christmas Medley by David Murray.

Tickets are from £5 to £15 and can be obtained from their website Bishopwearmouth Choral Society Concert | St Mary’s (stmarysmonkseaton.org.uk) or at the door.

This concert has been CANCELLED.

A Saturday evening concert in Sunderland Minster starting at 7.30 p.m., conducted by David Murray.

Tickets £14.00 for Nave (£8 concessions for full-time students and on income related benefits) or £8.00 (Gallery – limited view). Accompanied under 16s free. Tickets are available from members of the Society, at the door, or on-line from http://www.wegottickets.com/BCS – who also have a direct link on the home page of this website. Doors open from 6.45 p.m. Apart from seats marked for Patrons there are no allocated seats.

To be sung in the original German.

Soloists :          Elinor Rolfe Johnson – Soprano, Jorge Navarro Colorado – tenor (Evangelist), James Laing – countertenor, Felix Kemp – baritone (Christus), Nathaniel Thomas Aitkin – tenor, and Patrick Owston – baritone.

From 1723 until his death Bach was employed as Kantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig. It was a prestigious but demanding post, requiring him not only to teach at the school but also to play the organ, train the choir and compose the music for the city’s two principal Lutheran churches, Thomaskirche and Nikolaikirche, as well as supervising and training the musicians at two others. Despite this heavy workload and frequent disputes with his employers, Bach composed some of his greatest music during this period. His choral compositions alone include such enduring masterpieces as the Mass in B minor, Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio, and the St John and St Matthew Passions.

The St John Passion, a sacred oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, is “carefully designed with a great deal of musico-theological intent”.

The original Latin title Passio secundum Joannem translates to “Passion according to John”. Bach’s large choral composition in two parts on German text, written to be performed in a Lutheran service on Good Friday, is based on the Passion, as told in two chapters from the Gospel of John (John 18 and John 19) in the translation by Martin Luther, with two short interpolations from the Gospel of Matthew. During the vespers service, the two parts of the work were performed before and after the sermon.

Part I covers the events until Peter’s denial of Jesus, Part II concludes with the burial of Jesus. The Bible text is reflected in contemporary poetry and in chorales that often end a “scene” of the narration, similar to the way a chorale ends most Bach cantatas. An anonymous poet supplied a few texts himself, quoted from other Passion texts and inserted various stanzas of chorales by nine hymn writers. The Passion, close to Bach’s heart, has an “immediate dramatic quality”.

The anonymous libretto draws on existing works and is compiled from recitatives and choruses narrating the Passion of Christ as told in the Gospel of John, ariosos and arias reflecting on the action, and chorales using hymn tunes and texts familiar to a congregation of Bach’s contemporaries. Compared with the St Matthew Passion, the St John Passion has been described as more extravagant, with an expressive immediacy, at times more unbridled and less “finished”.

Originally Bach intended that the St John Passion would be first performed in the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, but due to a last-minute change by the music council, it was first performed on Good Friday of 1724 in the St. Nicholas Church, shortly after Bach’s 39th birthday. Bach quickly agreed to their desire to move the service to St. Nicholas Church, but pointed out that the booklet was already printed, that there was no room available and that the harpsichord needed some repair, all of which, however, could be attended to at little cost; but he requested that a little additional room be provided in the choir loft of St. Nicholas Church, where he planned to place the musicians needed to perform the music. The council agreed and had to send out a flyer announcing the new location to all the people around Leipzig!

A Saturday evening concert in Sunderland Minster starting at 7.30 p.m., conducted by David Murray.

The proposed programme is Brahms Requiem but may be subject to change.

A Saturday evening concert in Sunderland Minster starting at 7.30 p.m., conducted by David Murray.

The proposed programme is Handel’s ‘Messiah’ but may be subject to change.

A Saturday evening concert in Sunderland Minster starting at 7.30 p.m., conducted by David Murray.

It is hoped that this concert, which was due to have been performed in April 2020, will take place with the same soloists if at all possible in the circumstances. Content and details will be confirmed in due course as the public health situation is clarified.

Tickets £14.00 for Nave (£8 concessions for full-time students and on income related benefits) or £8.00 (Gallery – limited view). Accompanied under 16s free. Tickets are available from members of the Society, at the door, or on-line from http://www.wegottickets.com/BCS – who also have a direct link on the home page of this website. Doors open from 6.45 p.m. Apart from seats marked for Patrons there are no allocated seats.

To be sung in the original German.

Soloists :          Elinor Rolfe Johnson – Soprano, Jorge Navarro Colorado – tenor (Evangelist), James Laing – countertenor, Felix Kemp – baritone (Christus), Nathaniel Thomas Aitkin – tenor, and Patrick Owston – baritone.

From 1723 until his death Bach was employed as Kantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig. It was a prestigious but demanding post, requiring him not only to teach at the school but also to play the organ, train the choir and compose the music for the city’s two principal Lutheran churches, Thomaskirche and Nikolaikirche, as well as supervising and training the musicians at two others. Despite this heavy workload and frequent disputes with his employers, Bach composed some of his greatest music during this period. His choral compositions alone include such enduring masterpieces as the Mass in B minor, Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio, and the St John and St Matthew Passions.

The St John Passion, a sacred oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, is “carefully designed with a great deal of musico-theological intent”.

The original Latin title Passio secundum Joannem translates to “Passion according to John”. Bach’s large choral composition in two parts on German text, written to be performed in a Lutheran service on Good Friday, is based on the Passion, as told in two chapters from the Gospel of John (John 18 and John 19) in the translation by Martin Luther, with two short interpolations from the Gospel of Matthew. During the vespers service, the two parts of the work were performed before and after the sermon.

Part I covers the events until Peter’s denial of Jesus, Part II concludes with the burial of Jesus. The Bible text is reflected in contemporary poetry and in chorales that often end a “scene” of the narration, similar to the way a chorale ends most Bach cantatas. An anonymous poet supplied a few texts himself, quoted from other Passion texts and inserted various stanzas of chorales by nine hymn writers. The Passion, close to Bach’s heart, has an “immediate dramatic quality”.

The anonymous libretto draws on existing works and is compiled from recitatives and choruses narrating the Passion of Christ as told in the Gospel of John, ariosos and arias reflecting on the action, and chorales using hymn tunes and texts familiar to a congregation of Bach’s contemporaries. Compared with the St Matthew Passion, the St John Passion has been described as more extravagant, with an expressive immediacy, at times more unbridled and less “finished”.

Originally Bach intended that the St John Passion would be first performed in the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, but due to a last-minute change by the music council, it was first performed on Good Friday of 1724 in the St. Nicholas Church, shortly after Bach’s 39th birthday. Bach quickly agreed to their desire to move the service to St. Nicholas Church, but pointed out that the booklet was already printed, that there was no room available and that the harpsichord needed some repair, all of which, however, could be attended to at little cost; but he requested that a little additional room be provided in the choir loft of St. Nicholas Church, where he planned to place the musicians needed to perform the music. The council agreed and had to send out a flyer announcing the new location to all the people around Leipzig!