Very sad to report death in the early hours of Thursday morning (16th April) of Chris Burgess, conductor Drayton Choral Soc from September 1978, changing their name to Portsmouth Baroque Choir, led until June 1989. Also directed Hampshire Recorder Sinfonia A fine bass vocalist too. RIP.
'Messiah' (part 1) is on our Christmas list this year. To find out more about why it's so often performed around Christmas (and why it is so universally popular), have a listen (UK residents) to this morning's edition of 'In our time' on BBC R4: highly recommended!
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Shuke organ (1982) St. George's, Eisenach (largest in Thuringia) where Bach sang & Telemann & Johann Christoph Bach played. Different prospect at Portchester Methodist but sounds glorious: hear Peter Gould next Saturday in our concert Bach family motets.
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Blog re BWV 118, curtain-raiser for our March 14th concert, including suitable & practical replacements for litui, existential angst for the tenors and comparison with its pugnacious, elder sibling, BWV 101.
portsmouthbaroquechoir.co.uk/background-not…
Tickets: ticketsource.co.uk/baroquechoir
Bach motets: what do we know about the circumstances of their composition and how was Bach motivated by pride in his family’s musical connections to arrive at his singular approach to writing music?
portsmouthbaroquechoir.co.uk/background-n...
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Bach’s forebears set a precedent with their motets - the response was extraordinary portsmouthbaroquechoir.co.uk/events/bach-...
As a prelude and taster for our concert of Bach family motets in Portchester on March 14, which of these is the more numerous?
a. the number of Bachs who earned their living wholly or partly from music between the early sixteenth century and the mid-nineteenth?
b. types of German sausage?
Brightly shone the moon last night
Our term’s work done
In the small quiet church at the turn in the lane
To hear the legend of our play…
Tonight at 7pm the Portsmouth Baroque Choir Christmas concert at Havant United Reformed Church. See poster for highlights & tickets.
Poster
Vivaldi
Ospedale della Pietà, Venice
Vivaldi's Magnificat headlines our Xmas concert - concise, extrovert, bright, brisk and clear. Did it involve teamwork with the celebrated female choir of the Ospedale della Pietà? Harriet Constable's 2024 novel 'The Instrumentalist' has got us thinking. shorturl.at/g6NHF
🎟️ shorturl.at/g6NHF
Tapping once again into the endless resource that is new choral music for Christmastime - a peculiarly British phenomenon? Portsmouth-area composers Ian Schofield and Philip Drew pull some crackers with Joanna Marsh, Bob Chilcott and John Tavener. portsmouthbaroquechoir.co.uk/background-n...
Christmas concert poster - angels, stars
Pope Leo X painted by Raphael
Jean Mouton, master of music as soft power, and his involvement in the Medici Codex portsmouthbaroquechoir.co.uk/blog-post/mu...
Mouton's 'Nesciens Mater Virgo Virum', a highlight of the first half of our Christmas Concert on December 6th
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Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Jean Mouton whose elaborate and magical motet 'Nesciens Mater' is a highlight of the first half of our Christmas Concert.
Good overview of Mouton in Early Music Show www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
'Nesciens Mater' El León De Oro youtu.be/Rte5pBp_NeI?...
A selection of photos by David Harris of our concert at St Paul's Chichester last Saturday
portsmouthbaroquechoir.co.uk/gallery/
Doors ajar at St Pauls' Church Chichester for our concert of Baroque brilliance this evening.
What the papers and socials are saying -
Chichester Observer shorturl.at/2P8aS
musicinportsmouth.co.uk/preview-port...
musicinportsmouth.co.uk/preview-part...
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Handel and Alessandro Scarlatti this Saturday at St Pauls' Church Chichester. Malcolm Keeler, The Consort of Twelve and singers tell it like it is for the Chichester Observer.
www.sussexexpress.co.uk/community/po...
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Feedback from choir: "Dixit Dominus is like an intense, exhilarating rollercoaster ride"; "The St Cecilia Mass is a fitting tribute to one who sang to God in her heart"
portsmouthbaroquechoir.co.uk/events/hande...
NB Northgate Car Park closed on concert day. Use St Cyriacs or Orchard Street 🚘
Thankyou Music in Portsmouth!🤓
musicinportsmouth.co.uk/preview-port...
musicinportsmouth.co.uk/preview-part...
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PBC blog invokes Nora Fischer, St Cecilia and Ficino to argue for a more sympathetic hearing for Alessandro Scarlatti, once considered one of the best.
portsmouthbaroquechoir.co.uk/uncategorize...
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Alessandro Scarlatti & patrons Queen Christina of Sweden & Cardinal Acquaviva. Rare mentions, choice tracks in Lucy Skeaping’s EMS (2019)
🎧 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Sounds good? Hear his best sacred work in our performance on October 18
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Joyful for singers, players & audiences alike, but why did Handel make Dixit Dominus such a challenge? In the absence of substantial evidence from Handel’s time in Rome, I’ve played around with some ideas culled from that great psalmody in the Cloud portsmouthbaroquechoir.co.uk/blog-post/wh...
John Butt on Handel taking German thoroughness too far in Dixit Dominus www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz-o...
🎶 Love choral music from Byrd to Britten? Join Portsmouth Baroque Choir, friendly auditioned chamber choir singing great music past & present. Rehearsals Monday eve in Portsmouth. New singers welcome!
👉 [portsmouthbaroquechoir.co.uk] #choir #Portsmouth #baroque #choralmusic #joinus
No downplaying that Handel 'Dixit Dominus' is tough on our voices but @ifagiolini analysis does take us out of the gym www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
Special thanks to Binsted Viols, a beautiful complement to the programme & to our voices , proving composer Nico Muhly’s remark that “one of the most thrilling things about the sound of violas da gamba playing together is the sense of their phrasing being derived from vocal music”.
Always encouraging to see Dave Green in the audience & read his impressions next morning.
One of our best concerts in recent years.
davidgreenbooks.blogspot.com/2025/07/port...
Behold, all true faithfull hearts, Gibbons brings you glad tidings.
🎙Festival of Chichester organiser Phil Hewitt talks to PBC MD Malcolm Keeler
www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/portsmo...
It’s concert day. Last chance to buy a ticket www.ticketsource.co.uk/baroquechoir
Minding the vocal folds and inhabiting a piece of music emotionally. open.spotify.com/episode/5Xd5...
Composers let themselves go in full anthems, & even printers sensed the fun setting “praises” in Gibbons’s ‘O clap you hands’, a GOAT banger. Let’s also clap Chichester’s bad boy, Weelkes, whose ‘Hosanna to the son of David’ guarantees a raised roof.
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This Saturday's concert includes 2 Ascension anthems: Byrd 'Christ rising' & Gibbons 'We praise thee, O Father'. Gibbons may be missing a 3rd part: 2nd part doesn't end 'Amen'. But it does refer to the earlier anthem.
Get a ticket & spot the connection: www.ticketsource.co.uk/baroquechoir
