Choir News

September 2009

The long tradition of cathedral visits by the St Peter’s Choir continues, with the most recent expedition to Bath Abbey and Llandaff Cathedral (15-18 August 2009).  The standard of the choir’s singing was highly commended by the clergy and staff at both churches.  A number of recordings from the visit are available on the choir homepage.

St Peter’s Choir at Bath Abbey, August 2009

Other visits during the past year have included:

  • Westminster Abbey (24-26 August 2008)
  • Gloucester Cathedral (3 January 2009)
  • Lichfield Cathedral (19 April 2009)
  • Peterborough Cathedral (4 May 2009)
  • Bath Abbey (15-16 August 2009)
  • Llandaff Cathedral (17-18 August 2009)

June 2009

MOZART AND FAURE
St Peter’s Church
Peter Palmer

A new organ is needed for St Peter’s, and Saturday’s fund-raising concert demonstrated the outstanding standard of music-making at the ancient city church.

The evening ended with a stunning local first – something very close to Fauré’s Requiem as he originally conceived it, using just a handful of players.

Under Peter Siepmann’s direction, the expressive accents and climaxes of the choral writing were gauged to perfection. Adele Charter sang a celestial Pie Jesu. The playing of SaraBande was nothing short of revelatory.

Equally engaging was an authentic pared-down version of the first piano concerto that Mozart composed after moving from Salzburg to Vienna: No. 12 in A major.

The Andante amounts to a mini-requiem for Mozart’s childhood mentor, Johann Christian Bach. It formed the core of Martin Jacoby’s beautifully phrased performance, the strings adding to the gaiety of the outer movements.

For their part, the Choir of St Peter’s shone in a polyphonic motet by Palestrina and a neo-romantic piece by William Harris. Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus completed a splendid programme.

Nottingham Evening Post, 1st June 2009