<img src='' title='Event Category: Masterworks' alt='' id='templ_icon_' width='' height='' /> Event Category: Masterworks

The Tallis Scholars: Lamentations

The Tallis Scholars perform Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories. The musical soul of Passiontide, sounding more urgent than ever across five centuries.

Few renaissance composers felt their religious faith more passionately than Tomás Luis de Victoria. As the Christian year sinks to its darkest moment, his Tenebrae Responsories follow the spiritual drama in music of haunting power, and few living performers understand the path to their heart better than Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars – for more than half a century, some of the world’s pre-eminent performers of early vocal music. Now, on Maundy Thursday, they perform Victoria’s sequence alongside works by Gesualdo, Palestrina and Tallis: four renaissance masters, united in faith and sorrow. Come and hear what they have to say to each other.

Monteverdi Choir: Bach St Matthew Passion

This Easter, experience the power, the drama and the undimmed glory of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in one of London’s great churches – performed by Masaaki Suzuki and the Monteverdi Choir.

“My heart swims in tears…” Bach’s St Matthew Passion is more than one of the greatest of all sacred works. It’s a profound human drama; a heartbreaking musical exploration of eternal hopes and sorrows. As director of the Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki has built a worldwide reputation in baroque sacred music. Now he shares all his insight and devotion with another legendary name in Bach performance, the Monteverdi Choir: a one-off meeting of musical hearts and minds, united in their devotion to a masterwork that transcends any one performance. Still, this one should be rather special…

Echo Vocal Ensemble: Cozzolani Unbound!

To celebrate International Women’s Day, Echo Vocal Ensemble performs the bold, sensuous music of the 17th century abbess Chiara Margarita Cozzolani – along with specially-commissioned responses by three powerful contemporary voices.

Meet Chiara Margarita Cozzolani – singer, nun and composer of genius. Born in Milan and a contemporary of Monteverdi, Cozzolani spent her life in a convent, but her music soared free, creating sounds and sacred dramas of intimate beauty and blazing imaginative power. Cozzolani Unbound! interleaves her music (including the striking Vespers of 1650) with three electrifying modern responses to her work, specially commissioned from Héloise Werner, Shruthi Rajasekar and Anna Rocławska-Musiałczyk. Voices call out to each other across centuries in this passionate celebration of women’s creativity from Echo Vocal Ensemble under their director Sarah Latto.

Stile Antico: Toward the Dawn

From dawn to dusk with Stile Antico: twelve superb singers sing the music of the night, from Allegri’s Miserere to Taverner’s mighty Ave Dei patris filia.

As the world turns, twilight deepens into night until the first rays of dawn herald the rebirth of day. It’s no secret that composers have found the hours of darkness inspiring, and Stile Antico follows their nocturnal wanderings tonight. Renaissance masters mourn the setting sun, sacred harmonies glow in the dark and blossoming polyphony illuminates the returning day. With composers like Allegri, Tallis, Monteverdi and Nico Muhly the music creates its own light: a beautiful showcase for the “breathtaking freshness, vitality and balance” of these twelve exceptional singers. One critic called them “a cappella heaven” and you’re about to hear why.

Dunedin Consort: Handel Belshazzar

The writing on the wall: Handel’s epic Belshazzar returns to the West End with the Dunedin Consort and a world-class cast.

“Help, help the king! He faints, he dies!” A nation in chains, a tyrant’s feast – and at the height of the revels, four words that spell doom. Handel retold a classic Old Testament tale when he premiered his oratorio Belshazzar in 1745 – but this being London, he was out to entertain as well, and this red-blooded Biblical epic pulses with drama. First performed right here in the West End, it gets superstar treatment tonight, with a cast that includes singers of the calibre of Beth Taylor and Ed Lyons plus the unstoppable vocal and orchestral forces of John Butt’s Dunedin Consort.

Olivier Latry: Organist of Notre Dame de Paris

The great French organ tradition comes to the heart of London as St Martin-in-the-Fields welcomes Olivier Latry, organiste titulaire of Notre Dame de Paris.

To be organiste titulaire of Notre Dame de Paris is to be royalty in the organ world; to stand in a tradition that extends back to such giants of French organ playing as Widor, Vierne and Marcel Dupré. Olivier Latry has held that role since 1985, and it goes without saying that he’s one of the finest organists on the planet. Naturally, Latry will be playing masterworks from the French tradition, as well as colourful virtuoso transcriptions. But above all, he’ll be improvising on melodies suggested by you, the audience – an unmissable demonstration of this ancient art by one of its most brilliant living exponents.

Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists: A Venetian Christmas

Christmas in Venice, renaissance style. And who better to paint that magnificent scene than the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists?

In the midwinter mists and shadows of renaissance Venice, the annual celebrations of Christmas burned with a special splendour. For the Monteverdi Choir, it almost goes without saying that this music is special – it’s in their name, after all! But after decades of immersion in Monteverdi and Gabrieli, there should be a special freshness to this seasonal collaboration with the dynamic Italian conductor Francesco Corti. He’ll weave luminous Christmas music by Schütz and Grandi into a radiant musical panorama. Expect to be thoroughly immersed in the spirit (and ravishing sounds) of Venice at its most mysterious, and joyful.

Sound of Christmas with the London Gay Men’s Chorus

The London Gay Men’s Chorus return to St Martin’s with a fun and festive performance of Christmas classics old and new!

Programme to include arrangements of carols and classic Christmas hits, and a host of other tunes from the stage and screen. Under the direction of their Artistic Director, Simon Sharp, the LGMC will get you set for the festive season with a selection of upbeat songs and stunning a cappella arrangements.

Ex Cathedra: Christmas Music by Candlelight

Chamber choir Ex Cathedra presents a candlelit sequence of Christmas music: a quietly beautiful celebration of mystery, wonder and the deep, quiet heart of this magical season.

Imagine a carol concert with an unforgettable difference. In the deep, still darkness of St Martin-in-the-Fields, only candles pierce the winter twilight. And then, upon the silence, comes the luminous sound of a choir in harmony: familiar melodies, magical discoveries and readings to make you smile as well as reflect. Ex Cathedra’s Christmas concerts are both a well-kept secret and a cherished tradition, unmistakably seasonal but aimed – in these loud and anxious times – at the eternal peace of the Christmas story. This year, encounter the mystery as well as the merriment, and reconnect with the timeless wonder of the season. Once experienced, it’s never forgotten.

The Sixteen: Messiah

Handel’s Messiah meets Harry Christophers and The Sixteen: a seasonal tradition from this world-famous chamber choir.

The Times called The Sixteen as “a tiny soundbite of heaven”, and under their founder-conductor Harry Christopher, this world-beating chamber choir makes even the most familiar classic sound new. “A realisation of Handel’s work that suggested it was written yesterday” was how Bachtrack described one of their previous performances of Messiah at St Martin-in-the-Fields. Now they’re bringing Messiah back again: an intimately scaled, historically informed interpretation, here in the heart of the city that Handel called home. And with artists as brilliant as these (and a masterpiece as evergreen as Messiah) every note, every chorus and every beloved melody will sound fresher than ever.