October performance of Mozart’s Requiem reunites choirs after pandemic
Cheltenham Bach Choir opens its 2022-23 season with a performance of Mozart’s Requiem in Tewkesbury Abbey on Saturday, October 29, 2022. For this concert, it will be joined by its twin choir, the Göttinger Stadtkantorei, from Göttingen – Cheltenham’s twin town in Germany. The two choirs generally meet to sing together every two years, but the Covid pandemic has meant that this will be the first reunion since 2018.
As well as the requiem, the choirs will perform a more contemporary work, the Sunrise Mass by the popular Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo. They will be accompanied by Regency Sinfonia, with the choirs’ music directors conducting one work each.
The Göttinger Stadtkantorei and Cheltenham Bach Choir (CBC) have exchanged visits roughly every two years since the 1950s, interrupted only by Covid. These exchanges form one of the most active and long-standing elements of the twinning between the two towns.
Around 35-40 visiting singers are mostly hosted in the homes of the receiving choir's members, and the choirs join forces to perform a large-scale concert as the climax of each trip.
In 2018, the two choirs performed Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony in the recently renovated Johanniskirche in Göttingen. That year, CBC also sang part of the Bach’s St John Passion in the house in Eisenach where Johann Sebastian Bach was born.
David Crown, music director of Cheltenham Bach Choir, says, ‘Cheltenham Bach Choir is delighted to welcome the Göttinger Stadtkantorei back for its first visit since the pandemic. There are few better ways to celebrate two such fantastic choirs coming together than with Mozart’s Requiem. This performance with massed voices, top young soloists and the Regency Sinfonia promises to be very special indeed.
‘The combined choirs will also be singing the Sunrise Mass by the ever-popular Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo. Those of you who already know his music – works such as the stunning O Magnum Mysterium – will not be surprised at the sheer beauty of this wonderful work. Join us for this grand celebration of music-making and friends reunited, in the wonderful setting of Tewkesbury Abbey.’
The soloists at this concert will be Katherine Crompton (soprano), Rebecca Afonwy-Jones (mezzo-soprano), Joseph Doody (tenor), and Edward Grint (bass-baritone).
For more details about the concert on Saturday, October 29, visit Cheltenham Bach Choir’s website: cheltbachchoir.com
