A world-class choir in London
2022-23 Season
Andrea Bocelli: Believe World Tour
Saturday 24 September 2022 8.00pm
Birmingham Utilita Arena, Birmingham B1 2AA
Friday 30 September 2022 8.00pm
Saturday 1 October 2022 8.00pm
The O2 Arena, Peninsula Square, London SE10 0DX
Andrea Bocelli brings an all-new show format to his legions of fans – the first part a more classical program, showcasing his most well-known operatic arias, with the second part containing his most popular hits. More information
Adams To Elgar
Sunday 23rd October 2022 7.30pm
Alexandra Palace Theatre, Alexandra Palace Way, London N22 7AY
Elgar Sea Pictures
Cassie To Songs of the Reef
John Adams Harmonium
Crouch End Festival Chorus
London Orchestra da Camera
Finchley Children’s Music Group
Jess Dandy contralto
David Temple conductor
Cassie To’s new work Songs of the Reef is a Crouch End Festival Chorus commission and is indeed a symphony of the sea. The piece explores the deterioration and resurgence of the coral reef, incorporating underwater sounds recorded by Marine Biologist Steve Simpson which are heard alongside the ‘live’ sound of choir, children’s choir and orchestra. The music is full of extraordinary colours and vitality.
Elgar’s Sea Pictures, performed by the young contralto Jess Dandy, includes the song ‘Where Corals Lie’ – a fitting link to the theme of Songs of the Reef.
The most substantial work in the concert is Harmonium by John Adams. Harmonium sets the poetry of John Donne and Emily Dickinson, ending with the words ‘…ahh the sea’.
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 Emperor & Symphony No. 9
Saturday 29 October 2022 7.30pm
Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP
A breathtaking all-Beethoven concert with the Philharmonia Orchestra, featuring the master’s final Symphony No. 9, The Choral Symphony, with its climactic Ode to Joy. More information
Ennio Morricone The Official Concert Celebration
Monday 28 November 2022 7.30pm
The O2 Arena, Peninsula Square, London SE10 0DX
A unique, large scale arena production, curated by Ennio Morricone and conducted by his son, Andrea Morricone. The program will include iconic film scenes and never before seen footage of the Maestro and some of his illustrious collaborators. The programme will also pay homage to the Maestro, with never before seen footage of the legend at work. More information
Home Alone in Concert
Saturday 10 December 2022 2.30pm & 7.30pm
Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP
This beloved holiday favourite features renowned composer John Williams' charming and delightful score performed live to picture by a live symphony orchestra and choir. More information
Sing Christmas
Saturday 17th December 2022 7.30pm
St Michael's Church, South Grove, Highgate N6 6BJ
A concert of Christmas favourites presented by Crouch End Festival Chorus.
Christmas with King's College Choir
Wednesday 21 December 2022 7.30pm
Barbican Hall, Barbican Centre, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS
The world-renowned Choir of King's College, Cambridge herald the Christmas season, joined by the superb Crouch End Festival Chorus for a glorious programme of festive classics. More information
Bach Mass in B minor
Saturday 28th January 2023 7.30pm
Alexandra Palace Theatre, Alexandra Palace Way, London N22 7AY
Bach Mass in B minor
Anna Thorvaldsdottir Heyr þú oss himnum á
Crouch End Festival Chorus
The Hanover Band
Anna Dennis soprano
Marta Fontanals-Simmons mezzo-soprano
Benjamin Hulett tenor
Henry Waddington bass-baritone
David Temple conductor
Bach’s Mass in B minor is an inspired reworking of compositions from different periods of his life, drawn together in his final years. The result is a choral masterpiece that uses the full range of musical styles Bach explored in the course of his career, and one that stretches the stamina and technique of singers and players alike. As such, the Mass could be seen as the ultimate Bach showcase: a unified expression of his genius as a composer.
Heyr þú oss himnum á translates as Hear us in heaven. Anna Thorvaldsdottir wrote the piece for the Skálholt Summer Concert Series, August 2005, using words from four verses of an old Icelandic psalm by Olafur á Söndum (1560–1627).
For this performance, Crouch End Festival Chorus is delighted to collaborate with The Hanover Band, one of the UK’s finest period instrument orchestras, as well as four outstanding soloists.
Rachmaninov 'Vespers'
Saturday 25th March 2023 7.30pm
St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead, London NW11 7AH
Friday 31st March 2023 8.00pm
Christ Church, Brixton Road, London SW9 6BE
Rachmaninov All-Night Vigil 'Vespers'
Laura Mvula Sing to the Moon
Rani Arbo Crossing the Bar
Crouch End Festival Chorus
David Temple conductor
Featuring an extraordinary variety of styles, colours and drama, Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil (more commonly known as Vespers), was written in 1915 and, unlike his romantic orchestral music, the Vespers is truly sacred choral music.
As an unaccompanied piece, hearing a full symphony chorus perform a capella is a rare treat. This ability to sing unaccompanied is just one of the reasons why Crouch End Festival Chorus is one of the most versatile and in-demand choirs in the country.
As well as the Vespers, the concert will feature two shorter works - Sing to the Moon by critically acclaimed, Ivor Novello Award-winning British composer and performer Laura Mvula and Crossing the Bar by American folk musician and classically trained cellist and chorister, Rani Arbo.
Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem
Sunday 9th July 2023 6.00pm
Alexandra Palace Theatre, Alexandra Palace Way, London N22 7AY
Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem
William Grant Still Wailing Woman
Ethel Smyth The Wreckers Overture
Crouch End Festival Chorus
London Orchestra da Camera
Francesca Chiejina Soprano
Oliver Zwarg Baritone
David Temple conductor
Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem is considered by many to be the greatest of all the Requiems, and given the competition, that is no mean feat. Unlike most Requiems, Brahms' does not set the Latin Requiem Mass but instead uses his own native German language, focusing more on those who are left to mourn than those who have departed. It is a work of great comfort, with moments of joy as well as sadness.
William Grant Still’s work Wailing Woman was written in 1946. The music and the words - by Verna Arvey, the wife of the composer - highlight the similarities between the black and the Jewish experience of prejudice.
Starting the concert will be Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers Overture which begins her opera, recently performed at Glyndebourne and the BBC Proms in 2022.
BBC Proms - Prom 21: Adams, Copland and Skye
Monday 31 July 2023 7.00pm
Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft present an all-American Prom. Two poems by Emily Dickinson provide the starting point for Harmonium, one of John Adams’s most powerful works for chorus and orchestra. Propulsive, motoric urgency gives way briefly to blissful waves of sound, before a blazing conclusion. Jazz runs through the veins of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, commissioned by ‘King of Swing’ Benny Goodman and performed here with soloist Annelien Van Wauwe. The concert opens with a world premiere from Los Angeles-based composer Derrick Skye, whose music has been described as ‘deliciously head-spinning’. More information