Classical music and jazz: Preview - Bach’s B Minor Mass, Highgate Choral Society at All Hallow Church,
Published: 11 March 2010
BY SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
THE Highgate Choral Society will be put to the supreme test on Saturday evening when they take on Bach’s monumental B Minor Mass under conductor Ronald Corp at All Hallows Church in Gospel Oak.
The mass is widely regarded as one of the greatest works in classical music. To many, it is the summation of Bach’s contribution to music, written in sections over between 1733 and his death in 1750.
Testing for the choir will be the fugal choruses, most difficult being the Osanna where the choir splits into two to sing eight parts.
Some cracking singers from very different backgrounds have been enlisted to take on the solo roles.
Soprano Anna Devin is from Ireland where she studied at the Irish Academy of Music before coming to London to study at the Guildhall School of Music. She’s just been chosen by the Royal Opera House to join its Jette Parker Young Artists programme in September.
Countertenor Majid El-Bushra is from Khartoum in the Sudan. After studying music at Magdalen College, Oxford, he’s already built a huge reputation on the early music circuit in Europe.
Tenor Daniel Auchincloss is from Canada, and is another early music specialist of considerable experience; bass Samuel Evans is from Wales, a graduate of King’s College, Cambridge, and the Royal Academy of Music.
Conductor Ronald Corp is giving a pre-performance talk about the work, starting at 6.50pm
• Bach’s B Minor Mass, Highgate Choral Society at All Hallow Church, Savernake Road, Gospel Oak, NW3, 07952 508234, 7.30pm, from £13/con £10