SPC enjoyed another full season of fantastic concerts in 2024-25. We are the Resident Chorus at the City Hall and continue to enjoy glowing reviews. We are Royal Philharmonic Society Award nominees, one of four shortlisted for the Inspiration Award in 2024.
Friday 15 November 2024, 7pm Sheffield City Hall
- DEBUSSY Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
- BOULANGER Psalm 130: De Profundis (Out of the Depths)
- SAINT-SAЁNS Fantaisie in Eb major for organ
- SAINT-SAЁNS Symphony No.3, “Organ”
Our season in Sheffield started with a fantastic concert featuring works by French composers, in the City Hall with Resident Orchestra the Halle, award-winning conductor Delyana Lazarova and our own Darius Battiwalla playing contrasting pieces by Saint-Saens on the magnificent City Hall organ.
Delyana Lazarova, winner of the inaugural Siemens Hallé International Conductor’s Competition, began this concert with Debussy’s sensuous evocation of the poet Mallarmé’s dreams and desires of a faun. Delyana then directed the massed forces of the Hallé, Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, a rising RNCM star and the stunning mezzo-soprano, Hanna Hipp, in Lili Boulanger’s ominous setting of Psalm 130, widely believed to be a reaction to the outbreak of World War One. Written from her sickbed in the year before her untimely death aged just 24, the work formed her own personal requiem and reflects her grief, anger and despair.
In the second half Chorus Musical Director and leading organist Darius Battiwalla pulled out all the stops in music by Saint-Saёns. His first published organ work, Fantaisie, has two contrasting movements: one, full of elegance and charm and the other, strong and confident. The concert concluded with his monumental, fascinatingly-textured “Organ” Symphony. – a very popular work that left the audience uplifted and exhilarated in equal measure.
The Hallé
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus
Delyana Lazarova conductor
Hanna Hipp mezzo-soprano
RNCM vocalist tenor
Darius Battiwalla organ
Saturday 14 December 2024 Sheffield City Hall at 2.30pm
Christmas Concert with Black Dyke Band
A Christmas tradition like no other! The Black Dyke Band and Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus returned once again for this wonderful seasonal celebration with carols for choir, singalongs for the audience and gems for the band. Presented by the multi-talented broadcaster, presenter, actor and author, Zeb Soanes, who led an almost full City Hall through a programme that included perennial favourites such as Sleigh Ride, Winter Wonderland and O Holy Night as well as newly-arranged pieces by one of the most successful of all living composers, John Rutter. There were also local Sheffield carols, including Hail Smiling Morn, a long-neglected carol by Barnsley composer, Arthur Godfrey, entitled Christmas Eve, and a new arrangement of Christus Natus Est by African-American composer Rosephayne Powell.
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus
Darius Battiwalla – conductor
Black Dyke Band
Nicholas Childs – conductor
Zeb Soames – presenter
The concert was recorded by World of Brass and can be watched again by those with a subscription, at https://wobplay.com
Composer Rosephayne Powell sent this message: “I just listened to [the concert]. Your arrangement and performance of “Christus Natus Est” is wonderful! ……The power, beauty, and sensitivity of this arrangement cannot be missed. It is most effective and captures the essence and heart of the work. Thank you and have a safe and Merry Christmas! Best, Rosephayne”
World of Brass reported: “We had a great time filming and recording Black Dyke Band and Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus at Sheffield City Hall on Saturday. Capturing their performances for the Yorkshire Christmas Extravaganza was a lot of fun! From Sleigh Ride and Winter Wonderland to local Sheffield carols, this concert is packed with classic Christmas music. Big thanks to Darius Battiwalla, Nicholas Childs, and Zeb Soanes for helping bring it all together.”
Zeb Soames enthused as follows: “…Queue backstage for mince pies (and a SMALL sherry) as the @sheffphilchorus come offstage at the interval during our YORKSHIRE CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR at a packed @sheffieldcityhall They deserve it — singing to such a high standard is hungry work!”
Sunday 23 March 2025, St Marie’s cathedral, Sheffield at 8pm
Fauré Requiem
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus
Darius Battiwalla – conductor
Neil Taylor – organ
Jane Burnell – soprano
Charles Murray – baritone
The Chorus was pleased to be closing the Classical Sheffield Festival Weekend 2025 with a programme featuring four world premieres and Fauré’s beautiful Requiem in the wonderful acoustic of St Marie’s cathedral.
The first half started with Gerald Finzi’s rousing Lo, the full final sacrifice and featured three new compositions by composer and broadcaster Stephen Johnson with texts by poet Fiona Sampson MBE and Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 to 1926) translated by Stephen Johnson. Stephen has made hundreds of radio programmes, most notably as presenter of Radio 3’s critically-acclaimed Discovering Music, where he explored pieces of music in detail, playing extracts to help discover what makes them work. Stephen was there on the night to hear his compositions performed for the first time. Read more about Stephen on his website. Past programmes are available on the Discovering Music Archive.
The first half concluded with the world premiere of the winning work from the Stella Jockel Young Composer Competition, and the prize-giving for the five shortlisted composers; Stephen Johnson presented the prizes. Set up by the Chorus in 2022, the competition was open to young people from Sheffield, funded by a generous legacy bequeathed by Stella, who sang alto with the choir for many years. The young people had to compose a choral work to one of two poems, commissioned specially for the competition by poets Katharine Towers and Susie Wilson. Read more about the competition at Young Composer Competition 2024-25
The second half featured Gabriel Fauré’s much-loved Requiem, composed between 1887 and 1890. Fauré was extremely pleased with this work: “Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest.”
- Gerald Finzi: Lo, the full final sacrifice
- Stephen Johnson: three new works:
- “The Miracle Tree”
- “This going hence”
- “Epithalamion in North Herefordshire “
- Thomas Stearn: “for music like the sea (Curlew at Redmires)” – the winning work of the 2025 Stella Jockel Young Composer Competition
- Interval
- Gabriel Faure: Requiem
Tickets were £16, £6 (students), free for carers and under 16s.
The concert was extremely successful; a packed-out cathedral clearly enjoyed themselves enormously, with many saying how moved they were by the Curlew piece and by the Requiem.
Saturday 24 May 2025
Come and Sing English Anthems in Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, Sheffield
Darius Battiwalla – Conductor
Peter Shepherd – organ
Rachel Fright – piano
Following the success of our first Come and Sing event in Upper Chapel last year, we returned to this wonderful venue to host another. This time visitors were invited to join us in a day’s workshop featuring English Anthems. On the programme were popular delights including Toward the Unknown Region by Vaughan Williams, A Blest pair of Sirens and I Was Glad by Parry, and Faire is the Heaven by Harris. With no solo performances, choral singing was the order of the day, and plenty of folk came along and sang their hearts out!
The workshop was led by our fantastic Musical Director Darius Battiwalla. Darius has conducted choral performances with leading orchestras including the Halle, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Manchester Camerata, and he has prepared the Chorus for appearances at the Proms and for recordings with the BBC Philharmonic for Chandos. He has worked regularly as guest chorusmaster or conductor with many other choirs including the Northern Sinfonia Chorus, Leeds Philharmonic Chorus, Huddersfield Choral Society, CBSO chorus and Netherlands Radio Choir. Darius is Leeds City Organist and has appeared as organ soloist with the Halle, London Philharmonic Orchestras and the BBC Philharmonic, and he gives regular chamber concerts with members of the Manchester orchestras on piano and harpsichord. Despite this impressive record he is a very friendly conductor, encouragingly supportive and challenging in equal measure – qualities that were much in evidence both last year and this.
The day began at 10.30 with registration from 10am, with the morning session running to 12.30 including a break for tea or coffee and cake (included in the admission price).
We re-commenced at 2pm, giving time for participants to have lunch in one of the many varied eateries in the city centre. The afternoon session ran until 4.30pm, with another generous break for tea in town, until the FREE performance for family and friends at 6pm. Scores were provided for those who didn’t have their own.
Information about joining the Chorus was available on the day; see https://sheffieldphil.org/membership-join/new-members/
Tickets for visiting singers were available online costing £25 including score and refreshments. NB. There wasn’t much note-bashing, so prior knowledge of the pieces or a reasonable ability to read music did help participants make the most of the day.
Sunday 8 June 2025 Sheffield City Hall at 4pm
Haydn Creation
The Sheffield International Concert Series season finale was designed to leave the audience in awe of the wonders of creation – and they certainly enjoyed it, many jumping to their feet to applaud. Under the baton of the Hallé’s charismatic Choral Director, Matthew Hamilton, the massed forces of the Hallé and the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus were joined by a trio of exceptional soloists to breathe hope and joy into Haydn’s divine masterpiece, The Creation. The composer dreamt of a big sound with this oratorio – around 180 musicians and singers took part in the Viennese premiere – and this life-affirming work takes you on a musical journey from chaos and darkness to the creation of a new world. The perfect antidote to a world of despair and tyranny, this concert was a celebration of the beauty of life and the power of music.
The Hallé
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus
Matthew Hamilton conductor
Rowan Pierce – soprano – Gabriel/Eve
James Way – tenor – Uriel
Matthew Brook – bass-baritone – Raphael/Adam
Pre-Concert Talk with BBC Broadcaster Trisha Cooper & Guests: 6pm
Tickets were available from the City Hall box office, online, or on the door on the night.