Leeds Festival Chorus - Recent Performances

Recent Performances

The Chorus provided the choral accompaniment (from the Mozart Requiem) to the British première of the ballet Requiem!! by Birgit Scherzer at the Grand Theatre Leeds in February 2003, for the Northern Ballet Theatre. The Chorus has sung a series of highly successful concerts in Ripon Cathedral, for example French Choral Glories in July 2008, which included Fauré's Requiem and Poulenc's Gloria. Other notable performances have included Berlioz L’Enfance du Christ with the Northern Sinfonia, Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time with the BBC Philharmonic, Mahler Symphony no. 2 with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, the British premieres of Markus Stockhausen's Christus and Maxwell Davies' Canticum Canticorum, "Classical Spectaculars" in the Manchester Arena with the Hallé, John Adams' Harmonium with the BBC Philharmonic, Elgar's The Music Makers and Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky.

In December 2007, the Chorus performed Handel's Messiah in Leeds Town Hall for the first time for many years. This was a major event with Northern Sinfonia, organised entirely by the Chorus, independently from the Leeds International Concert Season. The soloists were William Dutton (treble), Joanne Lunn (soprano), Michael Chance (counter-tenor), Mark Wilde (tenor) and Michael George (bass-baritone). Handel's Messiah was performed by the first Festival Chorus in 1858, soon after the opening of the Town Hall by Queen Victoria. A notice for this historic performance, from the Leeds Intelligencer, appears below.

Just before the performance of Shakespeare Requiem by Judith Bingham on 29 November 2008, free copies of a CD and a booklet, both entitled Celebration 2008, were distributed free to the audience to mark the 150th anniversary of the first formation of Leeds Festival Chorus. The CD contains 13 excerpts from recent live recordings with the BBC Philharmonic in Leeds Town Hall, and was produced by kind permission of the BBC. The tracks include a March 2000 recording of The God of quake and thunder, from The Fall of Jerusalem by Dominic Muldowney, which was a Leeds Festival Chorus commission, and In Cubiculo Nuptiali, which is Part 3 of Canticum Canticorum by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. This was a British premiere.

The illustrated booklet, subtitled A Brief History of Leeds Festival Chorus, was written by Richard Wilcocks. It includes many details of the first Leeds Musical Festival in 1858, the contributions of many composers and conductors, including Sir Michael Costa, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Antonín Dvořák, William Walton, Sir Thomas Beecham, Alexander Goehr and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Free copies of the CD and the booklet may be obtained by contacting the Chorus Secretary through the website at http://www.leedsfestivalchorus.co.uk

On 20 November 2010, the 2010/11 season began with Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony at the Chorus's spiritual home of Leeds Town Hall with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra directed by David Hill. On 27 November, the Chorus took part once again in Raymond Gubbay's Classical Spectacular in the MEN Arena, Manchester. On 29 January 2011, the Chorus was joined by Northern Sinfonia for Mozart's C Minor Mass in Leeds Town Hall. On 9 April 2011 Bach's St Matthew Passion was performed by the Chorus in Leeds Town Hall along with choristers from Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School and Leeds Parish Church. On 21 May 2011, Mahler's Symphony No 8 (Symphony of a Thousand) was performed in York Minster along with the Hallé Choir and the Minster's choristers, accompanied by the York Guildhall Orchestra. On 2 July 2011, the annual Summer Concert in Ripon Cathedral included Puccini's Messa di Gloria in the programme. The Chorus was chosen to sing at Opera in the Park (organised by Leeds City Council) which took place at Temple Newsam on Saturday 30 July.

On 8 October 2010, in a new venture, the Chorus contributed to Leeds Light Night with Vespers. Performances took place in the Victoria Quarter, on the steps of the Leeds Art Gallery and on the steps of the Leeds City Museum in Millennium Square. On 7 October 2011, the Chorus followed this up with performances of a selection of Bruckner's Motets conducted by Tony Kraus from Opera North.

The 2011/2012 season began on 12 November 2011 with Mahler's Symphony No 2 (Resurrection) and Bruckner Motets (Ave Maria, Afferentur regi, Christus factus est, Os Justi, Ecce sacerdos magnus) at Leeds Town Hall with The Hallé directed by David Hill. On 26 November, the Chorus was part of Raymond Gubbay's Classical Spectacular in the MEN Arena, Manchester. On 10 December 2011, the Chorus was joined by English Chamber Orchestra for Handel's Messiah in Leeds Town Hall, conducted by Simon Wright.

Leeds Festival Chorus does not perform Handel's Messiah every year. When it does, it is treated as a very special event. Conductor and Artistic Adviser Simon Wright wrote an article for the programme for a Messiah concert in Leeds Town Hall, in December 2007, in which he stated ...we will be performing this masterpiece of the Baroque age at modern pitch and with modern instruments but, I hope, in a style based on the performance practice of the mid-18th century. The full article is at http://www.leedsfestivalchorus.co.uk/news/2/121/What-Mr-Handel-expected.html

On 10 March 2012 Dvorák's Stabat Mater was performed by the Chorus in Leeds Town Hall with the BBC Philharmonic. On 19 May 2012 at Leeds Town Hall, Simon Wright conducted Mendelssohn's Die erste Walpurgisnacht and Beethoven's Symphony No 9 (Choral) with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. On 7 July 2012 the Chorus took part in a Jubilee Concert in Ripon Cathedral, with the York Guildhall Orchestra. The programme included Mozart's Coronation Mass and Paul Mealor's Ubi Caritas. On 21 July 2012, the Chorus sang Fauré's Requiem with the Ryedale Festival Ensemble at St Peter's Church, Norton, as part of this year's Ryedale Festival. Verdi's Requiem was performed in the York Barbican on 6 October 2012 when Leeds Festival Chorus became the major part of the Ryedale Festival Chorus, in an unprecedented collaboration with members of The Chanticleer Singers, York Cantores, Simeon Singers, Micklegate Singers and North Yorkshire Chorus. On Saturday 24 November 2012, the Chorus performed at Leeds Town Hall with BBC Philharmonic - Schumann Nachtlied, Bruch Violin Concerto No.1, Rachmaninov Vespers (a selection), Rachmaninov The Bells.