Coventry Cathedral News
cathedral in Coventry, England, UK
- Coventry
- United Kingdom
Last update
2024-03-29
Refresh
2023-12-06 07:44:00
A lifetime's experience: John Nelson finally records Messiah in a finely engaged performance, with a fantastic quartet of soloists
[…] have one alto soloist so that the regular alto solos, including 'He was despised' are all sung (very finely) by Potter. But Nelson does seem to have been fascinated by Messiah's history so there is a bonus section of eight variants, including the original 12/8 'Rejoice greatly', a selection of beautiful feet and even an alternative 'But who may abide'.Handel: Messiah - Lucy Crowe, Alex Potter, Michael Spyres, Matthew Brook, English Concert & Choir, John Nelson - Coventry Cathedral (Photo: Jamie Gray)Nelson's recordings have largely been on modern instruments, including his Berlioz series from Strasbourg and the very fine recording of Handel's Semele with Kathleen Battle in the title role, a recording which uses one of the longest versions of the work on disc. Here, he is conducting the period instrument forces of the English Concert. But his approach is pretty traditional, the speeds in the overture and the subsequent arias certainly do […]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2023-08-24 13:25:23
Music Remembers Wartime Trauma
[…] a book with 60 pages of endnotes, Eichler’s book is suffused with 47 pictures embedded into his text without captions, in an homage to the great German author W.G. Sebald (1944-2001) whose books of fiction also used this haunting technique. (At the book’s end the illustrations and photos are all identified). Even the book’s eerie cover gives a glimpse of music as a conveyor of historical memory, juxtaposing a ghastly photo of the ruins of Coventry Cathedral from 1940—a wretched image one does not soon forget—and a bar and a half from Britten’s War Requiem. Time’s Echo took Eichler ten years to research and write, during which time he also served as Chief Music Critic for The Boston Globe. His book contends that “the art of music possesses a unique and often underappreciated power to burn through history’s cold storage. Its power may originate in the visceral immediacy of sound […]
2022-07-11 07:42:45
An Evening by the Sea: the National Scout and Guide Symphony Orchestra and the National Scout and Guide Concert Band in Coventry and Birmingham
The National Scout and Guide Symphony Orchestra and the National Scout and Guide Concert BandAfter a 2 year gap due to the pandemic, the National Scout and Guide Symphony Orchestra (NSGSO) and the National Scout and Guide Concert Band (NSGCB) are holding their first ever joint concert in Coventry Cathedral on Friday 5 August 2022. Titled An Evening by the Sea, the concert will feature Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade, Handel's Fireworks Music, Arnold's Cornish Dances and more.There will be over 160 youth members of the Scout Association and Girlguiding performing, aged 12-25 and all proficient to a minimum of grade 4 in an orchestral or concert band instrument. There will be further concerts at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Saturday 6 August 2022.The orchestra is now in its 47th year and its membership is over 80 players, whilst the band was reformed in 2016, also totally 80 players. Both courses offer an intense week of […]
2022-06-20 13:41:14
From Father Willis' last organ to English musical life around 1700 and the musical coal-merchant: King's Lynn Festival's Early Music Day
Thomas Brittain, the musical small coal-manThe King’s Lynn Festival takes place from Sunday 17 July until Saturday 30 July 2022, presenting a range of classical music, recitals, choral performances, jazz, folk, talks, walks, exhibitions and films. On Saturday 23 July, the festival is presenting its 2022 Early Music Day with three concerts at St Nicholas Chapel.The day begins with a lunchtime organ recital from Coventry Cathedral’s director of music, Rachel Mahon. She will play the chapel's Henry Willis organ, the last instrument on which Father Willis worked on before his death.Period instrument ensemble Spiritato will be joined by mezzo-soprano Ciara Hendrick for The Taste of the Nation, a programme that explores English music at the juncture of the 17th and 18th centuries, following Henry Purcell's death in 1695, giving a vibrant picture of the changing fashions and astonishing success of Italian styles, genres and indeed musicians at the dawn of the 1700s.For the […]