Previous Concerts
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