Previous Concerts
2023
Sunday 14 May 2023 5:00 p.m.
St Andrew’s Church, Kirkgate, Kildwick, Keighley BD20 9BB
O Sing unto the Lord:
Music for the Restoration Chapel Royal
Leeds Baroque Choir,
Leeds Baroque Consort,
Directed by Peter Holman and Bryan White
with
Francis Gush alto
Stuart O’Hara bass
Programme Notes available with the link below.
St Andrew’s Church, Kirkgate, Kildwick, Keighley BD20 9BB
O Sing unto the Lord:
Music for the Restoration Chapel Royal
Leeds Baroque Choir,
Leeds Baroque Consort,
Directed by Peter Holman and Bryan White
with
Francis Gush alto
Stuart O’Hara bass
Programme Notes available with the link below.
| programme_restoration_chapel_royal_lb__2023_final.pdf |
Sunday 12 March 2023 3:00pm
Leeds Conservatoire, 3 Quarry Hill, Leeds LS2 7PD
Henry Purcell The Indian Queen & Masque of Cupid and Bacchus fromTimon of Athens
Leeds Baroque Choir & Orchestra Directed by Peter Holman
with Pippa Hyde soprano, Peter Davoren tenor, Stuart O’Hara bass
Henry Purcell’s greatest late theatre work, is based on a tragedy by Sir Robert Howard and John Dryden,
originally put on in 1664. It was adapted as a dramatic-opera (a spoken play with elaborate musical interludes) probably by Thomas Betterton in 1695.
The plot depends on the audience knowing little or nothing about the Americas and their history, for it involves accepting that the Inca and Aztec empires in ancient Peru and Mexico are adjacent and at war. It concerns the Aztec queen Zempoalla, and her unrequited love for Montezuma, a warrior of unknown origin; he leads the Incas to victory, only to have his suit for Princess Orazia rejected, whereupon he changes sides. Purcell died before he could complete The Indian Queen, so we conclude the concert with a rare performance of the delightful masque he contributed to Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, also composed in 1695.
2022
Sunday 13 March 2022, 3 pm
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall,Leeds University School of Music, LS2 9JT
Leeds Baroque Choir and Orchestra,directed by Peter Holman
with
Francis Gush counter tenor* Sarah Ridy Baroque harp.
Masterpieces from Baroque Spain
Colourful sacred music for divided choirs and instruments by Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), Francisco Valls (d. 1747), José de Torres (1670-1738), José de Nebra (1702-68) and others, including a complete performance of Nebra’s great Requiem (1758), commemorating Doña Bárbara, Queen of Spain.
Supported by Instituto Cervantes.
programme_spanish_baroque_lb_2022_-_final.pdf
Download File
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall,Leeds University School of Music, LS2 9JT
Leeds Baroque Choir and Orchestra,directed by Peter Holman
with
Francis Gush counter tenor* Sarah Ridy Baroque harp.
Masterpieces from Baroque Spain
Colourful sacred music for divided choirs and instruments by Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), Francisco Valls (d. 1747), José de Torres (1670-1738), José de Nebra (1702-68) and others, including a complete performance of Nebra’s great Requiem (1758), commemorating Doña Bárbara, Queen of Spain.
Supported by Instituto Cervantes.
programme_spanish_baroque_lb_2022_-_final.pdf
Download File
Sunday 5th December 2021 at 3:00pm at Leeds Conservatoire
Leeds Baroque, directed by Peter Holman, provide the perfect start to your pre-Christmas preparation, with Baroque Christmas favourites from across Europe performed on period instruments. Their programme includes Bach’s Advent Cantata 61, Corelli’s Christmas Concerto and Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit with some less familiar works by Jan Dismas Zelenka , Heinrich Biber and J.C.Bach.
Programme, Notes, text and translations PDF to download and print at home HERE
"... The balance / blend of the choir and orchestra was superb: they’re a very talented group."
Leeds Baroque record their first virtual concert.
A Portrait of Henry Purcell directed by Peter Holman
The programme brings you music for the Court, the theatre and the home; vocal and instrumental, familiar and less so reflecting the working life of the 17th-Century's most admired composer, acknowledged during his short life not just by his contemporaries but to the present day.
2020
Sunday 8 March 2020, 3.00 p.m.
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, the University of Leeds LS2 9JT
Pre-concert talk 2:00pm Dr Alan Howard (Slewyn College, Cambridge)
Purcell and Handel: Music for Great Occasions
Leeds Baroque soloists, Choir and Orchestra, directed by Peter Holman with Crispian Steele-Perkins (natural trumpet) and Daniel Auchincloss (tenor)
Three superb works by Henry Purcell and Handel written for great occasions in Restoration London. Handel’s ‘Eternal source of light divine’ was written for Queen Anne in 1713. Purcell’s Te Deum and Jubilate was first heard on St Cecilia’s day in 1694, and his Yorkshire Feast Song was written to entertain Yorkshire emigres at a dinner celebrating the county in London in 1690; it is the greatest musical tribute to all things Yorkshire.
Tickets available now Book HERE
Saturday 6 June 2020, 7.30 p.m. NOTE: THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED DE TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS
National Centre for Early Music, York YO1 9TL
Schütz and Carissimi
Leeds Baroque soloists, Choir and Ensemble, directed by Clive McClelland with Peter Holman (chamber organ) and Stuart O’Hara (bass)
An engaging double portrait of two of the greatest and most influential Baroque composers in Germany and Italy, Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) and Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674). We contrast grand double-choir works by both composers (including Schütz’s ‘Saul, Saul’ and a Dixit Dominus by Carissimi) with intimate solos with instruments, ending with Carissimi’s superb oratorio Jephte, famous all over Europe in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Tickets available NOW - Book here
Sunday 28th June 2020, 3.00 p.m. NOTE: THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED DE TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS
The Garden Rooms at Tennants Auctioneers,
Leyburn, North Yorkshire DL8 5SG
“… most fam’d Italian Masters “ - Corelli, Stradella, Scarlatti and Vivaldi
Leeds Baroque Orchestra, directed by Peter Holman with Philippa Hyde (soprano),
Stuart O’Hara (bass) and Asuka Sumi (violin)
A programme of dazzling summer music by four great Italian Baroque composers. Alessandro Stradella is mainly known for his lurid life, but his music is equally adventurous and colourful. His extended dramatic cantata ‘Qual prodigio’ was written for an outdoor performance during a Roman summer evening; it caught the attention of Handel, who used it as a quarry for Israel in Egypt. We include two superb early vocal works by Handel, written in Rome in 1708, as well as concertos by Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti. Asuka Sumi, our very own violin virtuoso, completes the programme with Vivaldi’s evergreen Summer Concerto from The Four Seasons.
Sunday 25 October 2020, 3.00 p.m.NOTE: THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED DE TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS
Clothworkers’ Centenary Concert Hall, the University of Leeds LS2 9JT
Pre-concert talk 2:00pm: Dr David Vickers.
Handel: Messiah
Leeds Baroque soloists, Choir and Orchestra, directed by Peter Holman
Messiah, the first work performed by Leeds Baroque, is a fitting conclusion to our 20th anniversary season. For this very special performance we welcome back some of our colleagues who have gone on from Leeds to make exciting professional careers. Peter Holman has chosen the fast-moving and dramatic version of the oratorio that Handel settled on in the 1750s, when he gave it annually to support the Foundling Hospital in London; it includes the rarely heard and dramatic soprano version of ‘But who may abide’, used at the Foundling Hospital in 1754.
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, the University of Leeds LS2 9JT
Pre-concert talk 2:00pm Dr Alan Howard (Slewyn College, Cambridge)
Purcell and Handel: Music for Great Occasions
Leeds Baroque soloists, Choir and Orchestra, directed by Peter Holman with Crispian Steele-Perkins (natural trumpet) and Daniel Auchincloss (tenor)
Three superb works by Henry Purcell and Handel written for great occasions in Restoration London. Handel’s ‘Eternal source of light divine’ was written for Queen Anne in 1713. Purcell’s Te Deum and Jubilate was first heard on St Cecilia’s day in 1694, and his Yorkshire Feast Song was written to entertain Yorkshire emigres at a dinner celebrating the county in London in 1690; it is the greatest musical tribute to all things Yorkshire.
Tickets available now Book HERE
Saturday 6 June 2020, 7.30 p.m. NOTE: THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED DE TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS
National Centre for Early Music, York YO1 9TL
Schütz and Carissimi
Leeds Baroque soloists, Choir and Ensemble, directed by Clive McClelland with Peter Holman (chamber organ) and Stuart O’Hara (bass)
An engaging double portrait of two of the greatest and most influential Baroque composers in Germany and Italy, Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) and Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674). We contrast grand double-choir works by both composers (including Schütz’s ‘Saul, Saul’ and a Dixit Dominus by Carissimi) with intimate solos with instruments, ending with Carissimi’s superb oratorio Jephte, famous all over Europe in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Tickets available NOW - Book here
Sunday 28th June 2020, 3.00 p.m. NOTE: THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED DE TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS
The Garden Rooms at Tennants Auctioneers,
Leyburn, North Yorkshire DL8 5SG
“… most fam’d Italian Masters “ - Corelli, Stradella, Scarlatti and Vivaldi
Leeds Baroque Orchestra, directed by Peter Holman with Philippa Hyde (soprano),
Stuart O’Hara (bass) and Asuka Sumi (violin)
A programme of dazzling summer music by four great Italian Baroque composers. Alessandro Stradella is mainly known for his lurid life, but his music is equally adventurous and colourful. His extended dramatic cantata ‘Qual prodigio’ was written for an outdoor performance during a Roman summer evening; it caught the attention of Handel, who used it as a quarry for Israel in Egypt. We include two superb early vocal works by Handel, written in Rome in 1708, as well as concertos by Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti. Asuka Sumi, our very own violin virtuoso, completes the programme with Vivaldi’s evergreen Summer Concerto from The Four Seasons.
Sunday 25 October 2020, 3.00 p.m.NOTE: THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED DE TO THE COVID-19 CRISIS
Clothworkers’ Centenary Concert Hall, the University of Leeds LS2 9JT
Pre-concert talk 2:00pm: Dr David Vickers.
Handel: Messiah
Leeds Baroque soloists, Choir and Orchestra, directed by Peter Holman
Messiah, the first work performed by Leeds Baroque, is a fitting conclusion to our 20th anniversary season. For this very special performance we welcome back some of our colleagues who have gone on from Leeds to make exciting professional careers. Peter Holman has chosen the fast-moving and dramatic version of the oratorio that Handel settled on in the 1750s, when he gave it annually to support the Foundling Hospital in London; it includes the rarely heard and dramatic soprano version of ‘But who may abide’, used at the Foundling Hospital in 1754.
2019
Sunday 3 March 2019 at 3:00pm
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall University of Leeds, LEEDS LS2 9JT
Marc-Antoine Charpentier: David et Jonathas
with Daniel Auchincloss (haute-contre)… a voice full of beautiful nuances… singing the role of David.
A rare opportunity to hear this dramatic 'biblical opera' first performed at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, Paris, in 1688.
Tickets:£18/£20 free to students. Book on line concerts@leeds.ac.uk
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall University of Leeds, LEEDS LS2 9JT
Marc-Antoine Charpentier: David et Jonathas
with Daniel Auchincloss (haute-contre)… a voice full of beautiful nuances… singing the role of David.
A rare opportunity to hear this dramatic 'biblical opera' first performed at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, Paris, in 1688.
Tickets:£18/£20 free to students. Book on line concerts@leeds.ac.uk
Sunday 16 June 2019 at 3:00pm
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall University of Leeds, LEEDS LS2 9JT
Claudio Monteverdi: A Venetian Vespers
Not the usual 1610 Vespers written for Mantua but a Vespers drawn from the wonderful music written in the 1620s and 30s for Venice, including the evergreen ‘Beatus vir’.
Tickets:£18/£20 free to students. Book on line with TicketSource HERE
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall University of Leeds, LEEDS LS2 9JT
Claudio Monteverdi: A Venetian Vespers
Not the usual 1610 Vespers written for Mantua but a Vespers drawn from the wonderful music written in the 1620s and 30s for Venice, including the evergreen ‘Beatus vir’.
Tickets:£18/£20 free to students. Book on line with TicketSource HERE
Sunday 27 October 2019 at 3pm
The Venue, Leeds College of Music, 3 Quarry Hill, Leeds LS2 7PD
Soli Deo Gloria: A Portrait of J.S. Bach
with Crispian Steele-Perkins natural trumpet, Stuart O’Hara bass and Asuka Sumi violin
Leeds Baroque present a programme of great works by Bach, marking the debut of the orchestra's new timpani.
The concert includes the festive cantata Gloria in excelsis deo, Brandenburg Concerto 3, the Sinfonia in D BWV1045 andthe great solo bass cantata Ich habe genug.
Tickets: £20/£18/£5 students Book online: www.lcm.ac.uk/whats-on/ (Box Office: 0113 222 3434 between 10am and 5pm)
In person: at reception between 10:00AM to 5:00PM & on the door
Leeds Baroque’s Audience Development programme is supported by Wade’s Charity
The Venue, Leeds College of Music, 3 Quarry Hill, Leeds LS2 7PD
Soli Deo Gloria: A Portrait of J.S. Bach
with Crispian Steele-Perkins natural trumpet, Stuart O’Hara bass and Asuka Sumi violin
Leeds Baroque present a programme of great works by Bach, marking the debut of the orchestra's new timpani.
The concert includes the festive cantata Gloria in excelsis deo, Brandenburg Concerto 3, the Sinfonia in D BWV1045 andthe great solo bass cantata Ich habe genug.
Tickets: £20/£18/£5 students Book online: www.lcm.ac.uk/whats-on/ (Box Office: 0113 222 3434 between 10am and 5pm)
In person: at reception between 10:00AM to 5:00PM & on the door
Leeds Baroque’s Audience Development programme is supported by Wade’s Charity
2018
Sunday 28 October at 3:00pm
The Venue,
Leeds College of Music
George Frederick Handel
L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
A rare opportunity to hear one of Handel’s greatest works. He wrote his oratorio L’allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato, based on texts by John Milton, at the height of his powers in 1740, just before Messiah, and it is its secular equivalent: a glorious evocation of Nature in all her varied moods, vividly portrayed by the choir and large orchestra.
Celebrating 250 Years of Leeds Library
The Venue,
Leeds College of Music
George Frederick Handel
L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
A rare opportunity to hear one of Handel’s greatest works. He wrote his oratorio L’allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato, based on texts by John Milton, at the height of his powers in 1740, just before Messiah, and it is its secular equivalent: a glorious evocation of Nature in all her varied moods, vividly portrayed by the choir and large orchestra.
Celebrating 250 Years of Leeds Library
Sunday 10 June at 3:00pm
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall,
University of Leeds LS2 9JT.
Henry Purcell's The Fairy Queen
William Shakespeare and Henry Purcell: the perfect companions for a summer’s afternoon.
The Fairy Queen is an extravagant operatic adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, first put on with Purcell’s music in 1692. There are lots of additional elements to Shakespeare’s dreaming, including a scene of drunken poets tormented by the fairies (satirizing Purcell’s stuttering friend Thomas D’Urfey), an evocative nocturnal masque in which Night, Mystery, Secrecy and Sleep appear to entertain Titania, a grand Masque of the Four Seasons, and a final wedding masque set, for no particular reason, in China.
Leeds Baroque’s performance of Purcell’s wonderful score is linked by a specially devised narration by Richard Andrews conveying the essence of play as adapted for Restoration taste. Fun for all the family.
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall,
University of Leeds LS2 9JT.
Henry Purcell's The Fairy Queen
William Shakespeare and Henry Purcell: the perfect companions for a summer’s afternoon.
The Fairy Queen is an extravagant operatic adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, first put on with Purcell’s music in 1692. There are lots of additional elements to Shakespeare’s dreaming, including a scene of drunken poets tormented by the fairies (satirizing Purcell’s stuttering friend Thomas D’Urfey), an evocative nocturnal masque in which Night, Mystery, Secrecy and Sleep appear to entertain Titania, a grand Masque of the Four Seasons, and a final wedding masque set, for no particular reason, in China.
Leeds Baroque’s performance of Purcell’s wonderful score is linked by a specially devised narration by Richard Andrews conveying the essence of play as adapted for Restoration taste. Fun for all the family.
Sunday 4th March 2018 at 3:00pm
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, University of Leeds LS2 9JT.
A Portrait of Jean-Philippe Rameau
2:15pm: Pre Concert talk by Prof. Graham Sadler Rameau and his world
A musical portrait of Bach and Handel’s great French contemporary. The programme brings together his superb early grand motet ‘Quam dilecta tabernacula’ with a cross section of his theatrical music. We include the colourful overture to Pigmalion (1748), in which the sculptor can be heard hammering away at his statue, superb haute-contre solos from Dardanus (1744) and Castor et Pollux (1737) sung by the distinguished tenor Nicholas Sales, and a grand choral and orchestral chaconne from Les fêtes de Ramire (1745), a setting of Voltaire. We also explore Les Indes galantes (1736), a ground-breaking evocation of love and conflict in various exotic climes. We match the majestic and dramatic Adoration of the Sun from ‘Les Incas de Perou’ with the peace-pipe ceremony from ‘Les sauvages’, set on the north American plains – a brilliant choral and orchestral reworking of a harpsichord piece Rameau wrote after witnessing two American Indians performing in Paris in 1725.
En Francais
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) est l’un des plus grands compositeurs français. Pour ce concert, Leeds Baroque, chorale et ensemble d’instruments anciens sous la direction de Peter Holman et avec l’artiste invité Nick Sales (haute-contre) présentera un portrait en musique de ce grand compositeur contemporain de Bach et Händel.
Le programme réunit son superbe grand motet « Quam dilecta tabernacula » et un échantillon de sa musique théâtrale. Il comprend l’ouverture haute en couleurs de Pigmalion (1748) au cours de laquelle on entend le sculpteur marteler sa statue, de magnifiques solos hautes-contre de Dardanus (1744) et de Castor et Pollux (1737) interprétés par le brillant ténor Nicholas Sales, et une superbe chaconne des fêtes de Ramire (1745 –livret de Voltaire) avec chœur et orchestre. Nous explorons également Les Indes galantes (1736), évocation sans pareille de l’amour et des conflits sous des cieux exotiques.
Translation: with thanks to Valérie Harkness
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, University of Leeds LS2 9JT.
A Portrait of Jean-Philippe Rameau
2:15pm: Pre Concert talk by Prof. Graham Sadler Rameau and his world
A musical portrait of Bach and Handel’s great French contemporary. The programme brings together his superb early grand motet ‘Quam dilecta tabernacula’ with a cross section of his theatrical music. We include the colourful overture to Pigmalion (1748), in which the sculptor can be heard hammering away at his statue, superb haute-contre solos from Dardanus (1744) and Castor et Pollux (1737) sung by the distinguished tenor Nicholas Sales, and a grand choral and orchestral chaconne from Les fêtes de Ramire (1745), a setting of Voltaire. We also explore Les Indes galantes (1736), a ground-breaking evocation of love and conflict in various exotic climes. We match the majestic and dramatic Adoration of the Sun from ‘Les Incas de Perou’ with the peace-pipe ceremony from ‘Les sauvages’, set on the north American plains – a brilliant choral and orchestral reworking of a harpsichord piece Rameau wrote after witnessing two American Indians performing in Paris in 1725.
En Francais
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) est l’un des plus grands compositeurs français. Pour ce concert, Leeds Baroque, chorale et ensemble d’instruments anciens sous la direction de Peter Holman et avec l’artiste invité Nick Sales (haute-contre) présentera un portrait en musique de ce grand compositeur contemporain de Bach et Händel.
Le programme réunit son superbe grand motet « Quam dilecta tabernacula » et un échantillon de sa musique théâtrale. Il comprend l’ouverture haute en couleurs de Pigmalion (1748) au cours de laquelle on entend le sculpteur marteler sa statue, de magnifiques solos hautes-contre de Dardanus (1744) et de Castor et Pollux (1737) interprétés par le brillant ténor Nicholas Sales, et une superbe chaconne des fêtes de Ramire (1745 –livret de Voltaire) avec chœur et orchestre. Nous explorons également Les Indes galantes (1736), évocation sans pareille de l’amour et des conflits sous des cieux exotiques.
Translation: with thanks to Valérie Harkness
2016/17
29 October 2017:
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall - University of Leeds
Leeds Baroque Choir and Orchestra directed by Peter Holman
Friends & Rivals: Johann Sebastian Bach & Georg Philipp Telemann
A fascinating programme marking two anniversaries: Martin Luther’s initiation of the Reformation in 1517 and the death in 1767 of J.S. Bach’s friend and rival Georg Philipp Telemann.
The programme includes Bach’s Actus Tragicus BWV 106 and Telemann’s Trauer-Actus ‘Ach wie nichtig, ach, wie flüctig’, poignant funeral works featuring recorders and viols, Bach’s violin concerto in G minor BWV 1056 is paired with Telemann’s fine concerto for recorder and flute and the concert ends with Bach’s mighty Easter cantata ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’ BWV 4, setting one of Luther’s greatest chorales.
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall - University of Leeds
Leeds Baroque Choir and Orchestra directed by Peter Holman
Friends & Rivals: Johann Sebastian Bach & Georg Philipp Telemann
A fascinating programme marking two anniversaries: Martin Luther’s initiation of the Reformation in 1517 and the death in 1767 of J.S. Bach’s friend and rival Georg Philipp Telemann.
The programme includes Bach’s Actus Tragicus BWV 106 and Telemann’s Trauer-Actus ‘Ach wie nichtig, ach, wie flüctig’, poignant funeral works featuring recorders and viols, Bach’s violin concerto in G minor BWV 1056 is paired with Telemann’s fine concerto for recorder and flute and the concert ends with Bach’s mighty Easter cantata ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’ BWV 4, setting one of Luther’s greatest chorales.
March 12 2017
Clothworkers centenary Concert Hall - University of Leeds
Leeds University School of Music Choir with Leeds Baroque Choir and Orchestra
Directed by Clive McClelland and Peter Holman
Young Mendelssohn and Mozart
Leeds Baroque break new ground with early classical repertoire in works by Mozart and the youthful Mendelssohn
For the first half of the concert, directed by Peter Holman, Leeds Baroque venture into the nineteenth century to explore some of the remarkable choral works the young Felix Mendelssohn wrote at the height of his youthful enthusiasm for Johann Sebastian Bach.
The four chorale cantatas display his mastery of the Bach style but with occasional intriguing glimpses of a much more modern musical world. By contrast there is his charming, gentle setting of the Salve Regina, written in 1824, an extraordinary achievement for a teenager.
For the second half of the programme they are joined by the School of Music Choir and directed by Clive McClelland , for a performance of Mozart's Requiem. As a tribute to their late friend and colleague Duncan Druce, (1939 – 2015), they will be performing his splendid completion of the work. It remains faithful to Mozart's original yet tastefully expands on ideas that he left unfinished. With classical period instruments including basset horns, trumpets and trombones, this promises to be a thrilling rendition.
If you were unable to hear the concert on Sunday you can hear the "Livestream" recording HERE
Clothworkers centenary Concert Hall - University of Leeds
Leeds University School of Music Choir with Leeds Baroque Choir and Orchestra
Directed by Clive McClelland and Peter Holman
Young Mendelssohn and Mozart
Leeds Baroque break new ground with early classical repertoire in works by Mozart and the youthful Mendelssohn
For the first half of the concert, directed by Peter Holman, Leeds Baroque venture into the nineteenth century to explore some of the remarkable choral works the young Felix Mendelssohn wrote at the height of his youthful enthusiasm for Johann Sebastian Bach.
The four chorale cantatas display his mastery of the Bach style but with occasional intriguing glimpses of a much more modern musical world. By contrast there is his charming, gentle setting of the Salve Regina, written in 1824, an extraordinary achievement for a teenager.
For the second half of the programme they are joined by the School of Music Choir and directed by Clive McClelland , for a performance of Mozart's Requiem. As a tribute to their late friend and colleague Duncan Druce, (1939 – 2015), they will be performing his splendid completion of the work. It remains faithful to Mozart's original yet tastefully expands on ideas that he left unfinished. With classical period instruments including basset horns, trumpets and trombones, this promises to be a thrilling rendition.
If you were unable to hear the concert on Sunday you can hear the "Livestream" recording HERE
November 20th, 2016
Howard Assembly Room
A Portrait of Heinrich Biber - a birthday concert for Peter Holman
Heinrich Biber (1644-1704) was the greatest Austrian composer of the seventeenth century, to be ranked with his contemporaries Marc-Antoine Charpentier in France and Henry Purcell in England. The centrepiece of this concert is Biber’s Missa Sancti Henrici, a mature masterpiece written in 1696 to mark his daughter becoming a nun; we perform it complete with motets and sonatas interspersed as in a church performance at the time. After the interval we let our hair down with a selection of Biber’s secular instrumental music, including a virtuosic suite for two scordatura violins and continuo, the remarkable Battalia, vividly portraying seventeenth-century armies in action, and the popular Nightwatchman’s Serenade, in which the watchman can be heard calling out the hours in a chorale. Biber has long been one of Peter Holman’s favourite composers, and this concert is an appropriate way of celebrating his 70th birthday.
SUNDAY 28 February 2016
Leeds Early Music Festival: Concert Spirituel
with Philippa Hyde (soprano) and Daniel Auchincloss (haut-contre) Asuka Sumi (violin)
Motets by Couperin, Rameau, Mondonville and Boismortier. Featuring Corrette’s Laudate Dominum, an extraordinary, imaginative reworking of Vivaldi’s Spring Concerto
14:00 Pre-Concert Talk by Prof. Graham Sadler
SUNDAY 15 November 2015 | 15.00 - 17.00
Leeds Baroque brings together the four grand anthems Handel wrote for the coronation of George II in 1727 (including Zadok the priest) with other pieces celebrating other Hanoverian state occasions, including the fine but neglected anthem This is the day, written for the marriage of princess Anne and the Prince of Orange in 1734.
There will also be the first performance of new work specially commissioned for Leeds Baroque by Christopher Roberts (supported with a grant from Leeds Inspired)
Pre-concert talk by Dr Christopher Roberts.
A Bach-Abel Concert: early classical soprano arias, symphonies and concertos by J C Bach, Abel, Stamitz and the young Mozart (collaboration with the School of Music, University of Huddersfield)
Restoration Theatre Music by Purcell, including Dido & Aeneas [Saltaire United Reformed Church]
J S Bach: B Minor Mass (special alumni concert)
Handel & Croft: Music to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht (with James Laing, countertenor)
Restoration Theatre Music by Purcell, including Dido & Aeneas [Saltaire United Reformed Church]
J S Bach: B Minor Mass (special alumni concert)
Handel & Croft: Music to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht (with James Laing, countertenor)
2012/13
Flute concerti by Handel and Vivaldi, along with J S Bach cantatas nos. 82 and 209 (with Rachel Latham, flute)
Carissimi: Jephte and Charpentier: Acteon (with Daniel Auchincloss, tenor/haute-contre) [Skipton Holy Trinity Church]
Handel: Israel in Egypt (collaboration with the School of Music, University of Leeds)
Purcell: Dioclesian (with Crispian Steele-Perkins, trumpet)
Carissimi: Jephte and Charpentier: Acteon (with Daniel Auchincloss, tenor/haute-contre) [Skipton Holy Trinity Church]
Handel: Israel in Egypt (collaboration with the School of Music, University of Leeds)
Purcell: Dioclesian (with Crispian Steele-Perkins, trumpet)
2011/12
Scenes from Moliere: music by Lully and Charpentier
The Glories of Venice: Monteverdi, Gabrieli and Vivaldi (collaboration with Bradford Chorale) [Bradford Cathedral]
C P E Bach: St Matthew Passion
Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610 (collaboration with the School of Music, University of Leeds)
Vivaldi: Venetian Vespers
The Glories of Venice: Monteverdi, Gabrieli and Vivaldi (collaboration with Bradford Chorale) [Bradford Cathedral]
C P E Bach: St Matthew Passion
Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610 (collaboration with the School of Music, University of Leeds)
Vivaldi: Venetian Vespers
2010/11
Purcell: The Indian Queen (with Crispian Steele-Perkins, trumpet) [Salt's Mill, Saltaire]
J S Bach: Magnificat and cantatas nos. 11 and 34
Haydn: The Creation (collaboration with the School of Music, University of Leeds)
J S Bach: Magnificat and cantatas nos. 11 and 34
Haydn: The Creation (collaboration with the School of Music, University of Leeds)
2009/10
Purcell and Handel: a celebration (Dixit Dominus and Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem)
Handel in Italy (including Pergolesi: Stabat Mater) (with Philippa Hyde and Beth Mackay)
Handel: Messiah
Restoration court odes: music by Purcell, Clarke and Blow
Handel in Italy (including Pergolesi: Stabat Mater) (with Philippa Hyde and Beth Mackay)
Handel: Messiah
Restoration court odes: music by Purcell, Clarke and Blow