CityLife

Classical highlights: September 3 to 9, 2010

Harry Christophers

Manchester has long been a centre for choral music, and I’m picking out some of the highlights of the 2010-11 season today.

The Bridgewater Hall has made The Sixteen one of its two groups of associate artists this year, and Harry Christophers brings them first on October 8, in a programme of music inspired by the Virgin Mary.

It’s wide-ranging in content, from Josquin and Palestrina to Grieg, Elgar, Poulenc and MacMillan.

Then on June 17, they bring their ‘choral pilgrimage’ to Manchester, in a celebration of the music of Victoria, the Spanish Renaissance composer.

Of our own choruses, the Hallé Choir takes pride of place, with its role in Cherubini’s Requiem on November 11, Delius’s Sea Drift on March 17, and in the big concert including Britten’s Spring Symphony (with the Hallé Children’s Choir, too) on May 14. There’s Handel’s Messiah (December 5), and the popular carol concerts on December 18, 19 (twice) and 21.

There’s also a ‘Sing with the Hallé’ day on October 9, conducted by Greg Batsleer and Sir Mark Elder and involving Choir, Youth Choir and Children’s Choir, plus those who join in on the day. The music is excerpts from Orff’s Carmina Burana and Parry’s Blest Pair Of Sirens.

Manchester Chamber Choir features in the BBC Philharmonic’s programme with HK Gruber on October 22 (in Poulenc’s Les Biches), and in Manchester Camerata’s performance of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream music on May 28.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus joins the BBC Philharmonic for Mozart’s Requiem on November 27 and also on February 26. The Brummies are also with Manchester Camerata for Beethoven’s ninth symphony on January 29.

The Manchester Consort – founded by Greg Batsleer and Ged Marciniak – plans a Mozart Requiem on October 29 at the Royal Northern College of Music and continues with its series at St Ann’s Church in Manchester.

And the Renaissance Singers from Blackburn feature in the Northern Chamber Orchestra’s series at Macclesfield on Saturday, December 4, singing Sasha Johnson Manning’s Manchester Carols.

St George’s Singers, based in Poynton, give a concert of English classics in Poynton on November 13, Bach’s St John Passion with Manchester Camerata at the Bridgewater Hall on April 19, and music by Janáček and Kodály at Gorton Monastery on June 25. They have a singing day based on Haydn’s Nelson Mass at St George’s on January 15.

The William Byrd Singers celebrate their 40th anniversary on November 13 at Christ Church, West Didsbury (Byrd, Pärt, Rutter, Vaughan Williams, Barber’s Agnus Dei and Howells’ Requiem) and celebrate Gabrieli and Monteverdi on February 27 at the Royal Northern College of Music, with the English Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble. They’re at Christ Church on May 14, with Vaughan Williams’ Serenade To Music and other works, and have a workshop day, on July 2, at Sale United Reformed Church.

Bolton Choral Union are among those looking for new members – tenors and basses in particular. Rehearsals are on Friday evenings, from September 3, in St Andrew and St George URC in St George’s Street, Bolton.

The London Welsh Male Voice choir is at the Bridgewater Hall tomorrow, with tenor Wynne Evans, and presenter Andy Hamilton, in support of the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Wynne Evans is that man with the moustachios, Gio Compario, in the TV ad for a certain comparison website. Conductor is Edward-Rhys Harry, in songs and hymns from the valleys plus arias and choruses from opera and other favourites.

There’s vocal music at Rochdale Parish Church tomorrow, too, as the Blagovest Ensemble, six star singers from the St Petersburg Conservatoire on a three-week tour of Britain, present a concert of Russian sacred and folk music.