STEAL AWAY - SPIRITUALS TO MELT THE HEART

A beautiful & moving programme of Afro-American spirituals

sung by Birmingham Bach Choir with Martyn Rawles being brilliantly jazzy on the piano

Saturday 22 June 7.30 pm

Pershore Abbey, Pershore

Saturday 6 July 7.30 pm

CBSO Centre, Birmingham

Tickets on sale here

We start our tour of northern France (late May)

We will be staying in Rouen, performing in Chartres & Lisieux Cathedrals and the ancient church of St Catherine in Honfleur.

The programme will include many of the motets sung at our Passiontide concert this year (including by Bach, Lotti, Lassus, Tallis & Bruckner) plus wonderful motets by Villette, as well as Howells’ Magnificat.

Paul Spicer will conduct us throughout, with Alex Mason as our tour organist

Photo © Simon van Boxtel

Our centenary recital: Patron of the choir Roderick Williams OBE sang Beethoven & Schubert accompanied by pianist Susie Allan

"What a recital this was….. he and Allan discovered a multitude of expression…

   …encore  of An die musik was an absolute bedtime tucking-in joy”

   ( Review***** : Chris Morley)

To read Morley’s complete review visit. www.midlandsmusicreviews.com

Thank you to all our hugely appreciative audience who came to this superb performance.

And a particular thank you to Bromsgrove School for hosting this concert

Roderick & Susie have recently recorded this entire programme - it will be released later this year

Review….

I cannot recall previously leaving a concert wishing that it hadn’t ended, but that was the effect on me following Saturday night’s Passiontide concert at St Philip’s Cathedral given by the Birmingham Bach Choir……  

Click here for full review by Martyn Parfect

Paul Spicer wrote of the performance…..

The Bach Choir’s recent Passiontide concert was amongst the most memorable of my more than quarter of a century with them. For one thing I had vowed never to perform Howells’s extraordinary Requiem with an amateur choir after having a terrible experience some years ago. I also know that when my predecessor, Richard Butt, attempted to do it it was extremely touch and go! But the choir is now in such a good place (really better than it has probably ever been) that I was confident in programming it alongside Leighton’s almost equally moving Crucifixus pro nobis and other beautiful Passiontide works. My confidence was justified as the choir not only sailed through the challenges of both works but gave memorably moving performances of both. It is an exciting time for the choir and we look forward to some wonderful repertoire challenges in the next couple of years.

(Paul Spicer April 2019)