Chorus in Concert

Why yet another Messiah? ‘I went through the different scores that exist and decided on the very interesting 1754 version, which features five soloists. You must remember that, when Handel arrived somewhere to perform his oratorio, he had soloists of varying standards available to him. So he quickly revised his score accordingly… All this is directly related to the reality of Handel’s situation as a concert promoter.

Why yet another Messiah? ‘I went through the different scores that exist and decided on the very interesting 1754 version, which features five soloists. You must remember that, when Handel arrived somewhere to perform his oratorio, he had soloists of varying standards available to him. So he quickly revised his score accordingly… All this is directly related to the reality of Handel’s situation as a concert promoter. In those days, to earn a living from his music, a composer absolutely had to get his works performed and make a profit on the evening.

The growing genius of a titan of English music comes vividly into focus in a stunning collection of Edward Elgar’s music for chorus and orchestra from the Brighton Festival Chorus and BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth. The voice was at the centre of Elgar’s musical life as a child – his sister recalled family evenings when ‘[we] sang and sang for the very joy of singing’ – and it was to play a defining role in his own compositions.

Crouch End Festival Chorus presents two Britten classics: Saint Nicolas and A Ceremony of Carols. Full of vibrancy and drama, Saint Nicolas is performed alongside the fabulous BBC Concert Orchestra and features tenor Mark Le Brocq as well as Coldfall Primary School Choir, members of Hertfordshire Chorus and Hannah Brine Choirs.The ever popular A Ceremony of Carols is performed with harpist Sally Pryce, with both works conducted by David Temple.A Ceremony of Carols (1942) and Saint Nicolas (1948) are the earliest works that Benjamin Britten composed for public performance primarily for boys’ voices. These performances, recorded here at London’s All Saints' Church and Alexandra Palace Theatre, truly show how glorious these two pieces of music are, and why they have remained so popular.

(Les Misérables in Concert) is a concert version of the musical , produced to celebrate its 10th anniversary. It was filmed in October 1995 at the Royal Albert Hall. Sir Cameron Mackintosh hand-selected the cast, which has come to be called the Les Misérables Dream Cast, assembling cast members from around the world. The end of the programme comes to a dramatic conclusion when seventeen international Jean Valjeans take to the stage to each sing a few bars of "Do You Hear the People Sing?" in their native languages. They are then joined by the entire cast and choir to sing the last verse of "One Day More!", receiving applause and a standing ovation.

The legendary conductor Neeme Jarvi celebrated his eighty-fifth birthday in the summer of 2022, in Tallinn, giving a series of concerts with his beloved Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. This album serves not just as a commemoration of those wonderful concerts, but also as a personal calling card for this remarkable musician. The concert overture Polonia, published in 1836, may well have been inspired by Wagner’s encounters with defeated Polish nationalists in Leipzig in 1832. Wagner wrote several concert overtures during this period – whilst plans for his revolutionary operatic output were developing – including Christoph Columbus and Rule Britannia!! Max Reger composed the Serenade in G major in 1905 – 06; it demonstrates the style and talent of this too-little-heard composer. Brahms set Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny), a poem by Friedrich Holderlin, in two movements with chorus, but then added a third, an orchestral postlude. Ave verum corpus, possibly Mozart’s best-known setting for chorus, rounds off the programme.