The famous Manchester orchestra will join forces with St Peter’s Singers for a concert of Baroque classics in Leeds Minster on Saturday 29 June.
One of Manchester’s most exciting orchestras, Manchester Baroque, will be crossing the Pennines to join forces with Leeds choir St Peter’s Singers in a stunning programme of music from the Baroque era (1600-1750).
Manchester Baroque specialises in recreating the musical sounds of that period, using instruments dating from the time, and reviving musical techniques and styles previously left behind as musical technology progressed. This allows music fans now to hear the music as its composers may have intended or expected it to sound.
Based at Leeds Minster, St Peter’s Singers have long been established as one of the leading choirs in the region, but this is the first time they have performed with Period Instruments.
The music chosen for the concert showcases Baroque music in all its glory and variety, and is sure to raise the spirits. Among them is Francesco Scarlatti’s neglected but achingly beautiful Miserere mei, a work that is very rarely performed with orchestra in the UK, despite the fact that Scarlatti followed Handel to London, and eventually settled in Dublin.
Manchester Baroque will play a concerto by Corelli, while St Peter’s Singers will sing JS Bach’s great motet Jesu, Meine Freude. The concert will conclude with Handel’s riotously exuberant and virtuosic Dixit Dominus.
This is a rare opportunity to hear Period Instruments live and, at £20, for a very reasonable price.
For more information and tickets go to stpeters-singers.org.uk
Baroque Classics
7.30 pm on 29 June at Leeds Minster
St Peter’s Singers
Manchester Baroque artistic director Pauline Nobes
Alexander Woodrow conductor
Main image: archive photograph of St Peter’s singers in rehearsal.
