Choral Workshop 2024
Bach Cantatas BWV 22 & 23
Saturday 27 January 20249.30am–4.00pm
St Swithin’s Church, Bath BA1 5LY
From Leipzig to Bath: Bach Cantata Cycle
2024 marks the 300th anniversary of J S Bach’s appointment at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig and, as our name suggests, we in Bath Bach Choir have a particular love of the great composer’s music. At our 2024 choral workshop we focused on the ones Bach wrote as his audition for the job in Leipzig. We sang in large and small groups throughout the day as we explored Cantatas BWV 22 and BWV 23, ending with an informal performance of both cantatas.
For the final sing-through we were joined by Clement Collins Rice, tenor, Choral Scholar with Oxford Bach Soloists. Clement has toured widely, including singing at the first ever Anglican evensong at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. He has also sung with ensembles including the Oxford Bach Choir, The Facade Ensemble, The Rodolfus Choir, and Ipswich Chamber Choir.
Over the coming years, we will be studying all of Bach’s magnificent and well-loved Leipzig cantata cycle, described as “one of the greatest contributions to Western Civilisation”. These future workshops will be led by some of the most recognised exponents of Bach, starting with David Hill, Musical Director of the Bach Choir, as guest conductor in 2025.
Benedict Collins Rice workshop director
Sacred Bruckner
Saturday 2 March 20247.30pm
Prior Park Chapel, Bath
Favourite motets, a rarely performed requiem and three trombones
The spacious chapel of Prior Park College will resound to a trio of trombones from Southern Sinfonia as they introduce Bath Bach Choir’s spring concert of sacred works by Anton Bruckner. Come and hear the choir perform his glorious Requiem in D minor, several of his most loved motets, including Locus iste and some that are perhaps less well-known. Among the choral works to be performed, there will be a rare performance of Psalm 114 with its glorious five-part double fugue.
Celebrating the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth, the programme will showcase the breadth of the composer’s writing as well as the full range of the choir’s skills, with an opportunity to hear some unusual combinations of singers and instruments. There will be all the excitement of the symphonic landscape, reworked by Bruckner for choral singing without diminishing the thrilling dynamic and harmonic ranges for which he was renowned.
Prior Park College is an 18th-century mansion overlooking the city of Bath and is set in 57 acres of parkland. Designed by John Wood the Elder, its Grade I listed chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows, is an integral part of the building and resembles a magnificent Roman basilica. The splendid organ of the chapel, built by Matthew Copley in 1984, will be expertly played by the choir’s loyal accompanist and soloist, Marcus Sealy.
Requiem in D minor
Motets including Locus iste
Ave Maria
Psalm 114
Two Aequali for three trombones
Marcus Sealy organ
Benedict Collins Rice conductor
The concert was dedicated to the memory of Brian Woodford, a long-standing member of Bath Bach Choir who sadly passed away in January 2024. His cheerfulness, amiability, musical talent and generosity to everyone – especially to Bath Bach Choir and the local arts community – were an inspiration and will be sorely missed.
Laudate!
Saturday 6 July 20247.30pm
Bath Abbey
Johann Sebastian Bach
Magnificat in D major
Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major
Marianna Martines
Dixit Dominus
Laudate Pueri Dominum
This summer Bath Bach Choir proudly presents an exciting and inspiring evening of orchestral and choral music by two masters of Baroque music. Join us in the awe-inspiring setting of Bath Abbey to hear some of the finest works of the 18th century!
The choir will be joined by The Geldart Ensemble to perform Bach’s Magnificat in D major, marking the 300th anniversary of the first performance of this splendid work. The choir regularly includes in its programmes works by the outstanding composer whose name it proudly bears; the Magnificat is a long-standing favourite with singers and audiences alike. Bach put his heart into writing this hymn of praise in order to prove his skills to his new employers in Leipzig, and audiences are still thrilled by those soaring sounds. The Geldart Ensemble, fine exponents of Baroque music, will delight us with their performance of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3, featuring the famous Air on the G string.
The choir will also perform two sublime pieces by one of Bach’s near-contemporaries, Marianna Martines, a lady admired by both Haydn and Mozart but whose compositions have been unjustly neglected for centuries – until now. Much-acclaimed in Vienna in her day, Martines was a genius, a trailblazing female musician, acknowledged by her contemporaries as one of the greatest of her age. The Dixit Dominus (Psalm 110) is probably her finest composition, a sacred masterpiece; alongside this will be a rare opportunity to hear her remarkable setting of Laudate Pueri Dominum (Psalm 112).
Anna Cavaliero soprano
Jess Dandy alto
Hugo Hymas tenor
Malachy Frame bass
The Geldart Ensemble – Rachel Stroud leader
Marcus Sealy organ continuo
Benedict Collins Rice conductor
The concert was dedicated to the memory of our much-loved former Musical Director, Nigel Perrin (4 November 1947 – 23 June 2024)
Evening Star
Saturday 2 November 20247.30pm
St Mary’s Church, Bathwick
Music for autumn by Josef Rheinberger
Cantus Missae Mass for double choir in E flat op 109
Motets for Advent
Heimweh
Abendlied
Zum neuen Jahr
Morgenstern der finstern Nacht
Abendfriede
Movements from four organ sonatas
For an autumn evening of romance and enchantment, Bath Bach Choir is delighted to present a concert spotlighting the genius of Josef Rheinberger (1839–1901), masterful weaver of choral harmonies from the late Romantic period.
The centrepiece of the concert is the powerfully romantic Mass in E flat scored for double choir: an emotive working of the familiar words set to unusual, inventive rhythms. The choir will also sing Rheinberger’s most famous motet, the glorious Abendlied.
For the rest of the programme, Musical Director Benedict Collins Rice has selected some of Rheinberger’s most captivating sacred and secular works for unaccompanied voices, and movements from four of his organ sonatas.
Born in Liechtenstein, Rheinberger spent most of his life in the German alps and was a prolific composer. The audience will be treated to a broad spectrum of his work, from the passionate musical explorations of his youth to pieces modelled on plainchant that foreshadowed the musical styles of the 20th century. In his secular songs, Rheinberger ponders on the delights of home and the comfort to be drawn from the moon and stars on a dark night, looking forward to the dawn of a new day.
Do join us in the intimate setting of St Mary’s Church, Bathwick, the perfect backdrop for what promises to be an evening of musical delight.
Benedict Collins Rice conductor
Marcus Sealy organ
Carols by Candlelight
19 & 20 December 20247.00pm | 8.30pm | The Pump Room, Bath
Carols by Candlelight has been a diary fixture since 1947 when Bath Bach Choir first presented an intimate evening of carols and Christmas music by candlelight in the Roman Baths’ atmospheric Pump Room. For the 2024 edition, the choir presents four short concerts, each just an hour long to fit conveniently into everyone’s pre-Christmas evening calendars.
This year’s Pump Room programme contains the familiar mix of sacred pieces, lively arrangements of well-known carols and cosy old chestnuts from Christmas movies to get everyone in the mood for fireside celebrations. There will also be a nod to Gustav Holst, that pedlar of classic Christmas tunes such as ‘In the bleak midwinter’ and ‘Good Christian men rejoice’, 150 years after his birth.
Voices for Life Bath Children’s Choir will make a welcome return for the early performances, adding the pure sound of young voices to the evening’s line-up. For the later performances, we are delighted to be joined by Belinda Gifford-Guy, BBC Young Chorister of the Year 2023. As is traditional, there will be key moments for the audience to join in where invited.
Come along and help light up the Pump Room in celebration of the true start of Christmas.
Voices for Life Bath Children’s Choir
Belinda Gifford-Guy BBC Young Chorister of the Year 2023
Marcus Sealy accompanist
Benedict Collins Rice conductor