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News & Reviews

Read reviews of our performances and find out what the choir has been up to...

News & Reviews

Read reviews of our performances and find out what the choir has been up to...

Edward Elgar: The Apostles

Paul Hale Conductor. Philippa Boyle Soprano. Jessica Gillingwater Mezzo soprano. Timothy Langston Tenor .Stephen Cooper Baritone. Marcus Farnsworth Baritone. Julian Empett Bass

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A grandly dignified richness of sound, laying before the audience with judiciously paced clarity some of the oratorio’s major themes

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Review by William Ruff
Nov 24, 2018

An Elgar oratorio with plenty of Wagnerian intensity

If you’re not religious (and even if you are) it could have been a bit daunting to open the Nottingham Bach Choir’s programme for Elgar’s The Apostles and see the nine pages of words which…

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J S Bach: St John Passion

Paul Hale: Conductor. Ruairi Bowen. Evangelist: Stephen Cooper. Christus: Clare Lloyd-Griffiths, Soprano Jessica Gillingwater, Mezzo-soprano David de Winter, Tenor Greg Skidmore Bass

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Incisive, high-energy music making which gripped from the outset

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William Ruff, Nottingham Post
Mar 24, 2018

Nottingham Bach Choir deliver ‘one of their best performances of recent years’ at St Mary’s Church

Bach’s Passions, his musical settings of the events of Good Friday, are the nearest things to operas that he wrote. The compelling biblical narrative…

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JS Bach: Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 Parts I, II, V & VI

Conductor: Roger Bryan. Soloists: Ruth Provost, Martha McLorinan, Peter Davoren & Andrew Ashwin

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They sang as if Bach’s notes had been swirling in their bloodstream for years

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Review by William Ruff, Nottingham Post, November 2016
Nov 26, 2016

About this Work

In late 1734, and in his eleventh year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, Bach composed a major new cycle of six cantatas. The cantatas were to be performed at the Thomaskirche and the Nikolaikirche on six feast days from Christmas…

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Vivaldi: Gloria

Soloists: Alison Rose (Soprano), Jeremy Jepson (Alto)

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The biggest feather in the choir’s cap was their premiere of David Machell’s Gloria, clearly inspired by Vivaldi but speaking in its own distinctive voice and exploding in a starburst of energy

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Review for Nottingham Evening Post
Jun 23, 2012

AS befitting a Diamond Jubilee concert, there was a lot to celebrate.

First of all, Her Majesty’s glorious reign, so it was right and proper that the Bach Choir opened with a full-throated setting of the National Anthem and ended with a specially…

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Bach: St Matthew Passion (BWV 244)

Soloists: Mary Bevan (Soprano), Katie Bray (Alto), Andrew Tortise (Evangelist) and Joshua Ellicott (Arias) (Tenor), Stephen Cooper (Christus) and Marcus Farnsworth (Arias) (Bass)

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The choir’s deep knowledge of this music expressed itself in crisp articulation and never-flagging commitment

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Review for Nottingham Evening Post
Mar 24, 2012

EVEN before the first note of the Nottingham Bach Choir’s performance on Saturday the audience knew that the narrative was paramount.

Suspended above the choir in Southwell Minster was a huge screen on which were projected translations of every…

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Mendelssohn: Te Deum | Schubert: Mass in G | Bach: Jesu, meine Freude (BWV 227)

Soloists: (members of the Nottingham Bach Choir) Susannah Hale (Soprano), Tim Bacon (Alto), David Tranter (Tenor), Stephen Cooper (Bass)

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The Te Deum allowed the singers, under their conductor Paul Hale, to demonstrate their excellent balance and tight ensembl

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Review by William Ruff for Nottingham Evening Post
Jun 26, 2010

THE Bach Choir’s programme was well-chosen for a summer Saturday. Not too much knotty complexity – but plenty of light-textured music thoughtfully split between the concert’s two halves with choral music interspersed with solo organ works.

There…

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