30th April 2018

‘Pretty special‘, ‘blazing‘ and ‘a triumph‘ –  so thought critics at the Mahler 2 concert at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh on Sunday 29 April 2018. ‘The combined choruses of Leeds Philharmonic Chorus and Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus opened with a soft yet supported sound and displayed a majestic power for the final bars‘ The audience clearly agreed, many cheering and leaping to their feet once the final tumultuous chords had died away.

The two choruses had travelled up to Edinburgh to join the Bruckner Orchester Linz for the first concert in a six-date tour of the UK with their conductor Markus Poschner, one of Europe’s rising stars. ‘Chorus members always fall over themselves to sing this glorious work’ Chair Paul Henstridge reports, ‘but three times, with our friends from the Leeds Phil, along with such a maginificent orchestra and exciting conductor – we can’t believe our luck!’

Luck doesn’t come into it though. “You need a very, very good choir for Mahler’s Second,” explained Markus Poschner in a recent interview for the Scotsman. “We had the idea: could we join up with British choirs in a sort of joint venture? The best choirs are in Britain anyway – everyone knows that.” The work is truly epic, offering up Mahler’s apocalyptic vision of life, death and the hereafter, with an extended orchestra and almost 200 singers.

Mahler took his first professional conducting job just south of Linz in the summer of 1880, making the involvement of the 200-year old Bruckner Orchester Linz particularly relevant. The orchestra’s conductor Markus Poschner is one of the rising conducting stars on the continent, making significant waves in Germany and further afield. “We spent a lot of time creating our own interpretation of the Mahler 2, and we wanted to share it more widely.”  he explained.

The concerts in Edinburgh, Middlesbrough were sold out, as is the performance at the Cadogan hall on Thursday; tickets are selling fast for the other venues. The Northern leg of the tour concludes at Sheffield City Hall on Saturday 5 May; tickets  are available online and via the City Hall box office.

REVIEW – ‘Four Stars’ – Miranda Heggie – The Herald Scotland

REVIEW – ‘Assertive Mahler’ – Simon Thompson – Seen and Heard International

REVIEW ‘A triumph’ – Nachrichter

REVIEW – ‘ Markus Poschner’s musical vision’ Elizabeth Rathenbock, Krone

12th February 2018

The Chorus was thrilled to join Sheffield-born mezzo soprano Anna Harvey and three other wonderful soloists in a packed-out performance of Mozart’s Requiem at the City Hall on Saturday 5th February. Anna, a former student at Tapton School in Sheffield, graduated from Cambridge in 2009 and now sings with the Welsh National Opera. Fresh from a stunning performance at the Bridgewater Hall, Anna tweeted ‘I’m very excited to be repeating the programme in my home city with Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus at Sheffield City Hall. Last time I stood on this stage I was 13 singing with my youth choir!’

The performance was excitingly led by charismatic French Canadian conductor Jean-Claude Picard, and featured the highly-acclaimed Manchester Camerata as well as impressive soloists soprano Ailish Tynan, tenor Nicholas Mulroy and baritone Peter Harvey. A pre-concert talk enabled early arrivals to sort out myth from fact about Mozart’s final work, cut short by his untimely death at the age of 35.

Fr.

Trois Concerts de musique chorale

L’Eglise Saint Thomas, Excideuil Vendredi 13 juillet 19h 30

Le Cathedral at Perigueux on dimanche 15 July, avec l’ensemble vocal de Périgueux and L’ensemble vocal Arnault de Mareuil, 16h 00

et Lundi 16 juillet 21h 00 eglise St Astier

L’entrée est gratuite, mais la chorale accueillerait une contribution à ses frais, au moyen d’un don au chapeau signifiant Au chapeau, à la sortie (suggéré 20 € par personne)

Dimanche 15 julliet, le Cathedral Saint-Front, Perigueux avec deux chœurs français, 16h 30

A5 leaflets(OUTSIDE) Final for website downloadable

Membres du Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus (Royaume-Uni) et organiste

Chief de Chœur & l’orgue, Darius Battiwalla

site web et détails  www.sheffieldphil.org/excideuil
(+33) (0) 7 87 77 51 55
+44 77 199 28402

Promoteur, Matthew Morgan +44 77 199 28402  +33 787 77 51 55 (Bass II, Le Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus) 10 Rue Du Lavoir, 24160 St. Martial d’albarede, France

Transport par Autocars Cournil, Thiviers

En.
On the long weekend of July 12th – 17th, 46 members of the Sheffield Philhramonic Chorus will be on a Tour de France in the Dordogne, South West France
The will perform two solo concerts with mostly unaccompanied music, and a piece on the organ by their musical director, Darius Battiwalla. The concerts are on Friday 13th, at the Church in Excideuil (24160), starting at 19.30
The second concert being at the Church in St Astier (24) at 21.00
Entrance is free, but the choir would welcome a contribution to it’s expenses, by way of a donation “au chapeau” meaning In the hat, on your way out (suggested €20 per person)

The main reason for the tour is to join two French Choirs and orchestra in a joint performance on Sunday 15th in the Cathedral of Saint-Front, in Perigueux (24) at 16.30, where they will perform La messe de délivrance par François-Clément Théodore Dubois, which comences with a specially composed Trumpet Fanfare by Trumpter Player and composer Philip Singleton and a selection from Brahms Requiem.

2nd February 2018

The Chorus was thrilled to join the world famous Black Dyke Band in the world premiere of a new work by Paul Mealor, who sprang to fame in 2011 when his Ubi Caritas was featured at the wedding of His Royal Highness Prince William to Catherine Middleton, now TRH The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge.

The new piece, Paradise, was performed to a sell-out crowd at the Royal Northern College of Music’s annual Brass Band Festival. Two sections by chorus and band sandwiched a central section of fiendish difficulty, thrilling the packed-out hall. Iwan Fox reviewed the concert on the 4 Bars Rest specialist brass band website:

‘Black Dyke’s eagerly awaited appearance drew a near capacity audience to the RNCM Concert Hall to hear a trio of world premieres alongside three major test-pieces and a solo performer who stunned them into a state of sublime submission. Paul Mealor’s ‘Paradise’ was an engrossing interpretation of Dante’s poetic allegory of the pilgrimage of the soul.  Darius Battiwalla led an emotive journey; from the realms of evil to an eventual glorious affirmation of Christian faith, richly textured in its questioning search of an eternal life bathed in ‘supreme light’.  Not for a moment did Mealor lose sight of his goal, the text of the Requiem Mass bolstered by the subtly crafted writing for the band. ‘

The concert was recorded by BBC Radio 3 and broadcast on Wednesday 31 January 2018; hear it on the Radio 3 website.

16 January 2018

The Chorus is thrilled to have been invited to join the world famous Black Dyke Band in the world premiere of a new work by Paul Mealor, who sprang to fame in 2011 when his Ubi Caritas was featured at the wedding of His Royal Highness Prince William to Catherine Middleton, now TRH The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge.

The new piece is called Paradise, and features two elements to be sung by the chorus alongside the band, sandwiching a central section of fiendish difficulty that the band will use to showcase their virtuosity at the forthcoming Brass Band Festival. Brass band players, teachers and fans from across the country gather at this annual Festival, to be held at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th January 2018, with the Paradise premiere on Saturday 27th.

The Saturday concert will be recorded by BBC Radio 3 and broadcast on the following Wednesday 31 January 2018. From then it will be available on the Radio 3 website.

Chorus and band come together again a couple of weeks later to record the work for a new CD to be released by the band later in the year. ‘We are thrilled to be collaborating with our friends the Black Dyke Band‘ said Chorus Chair Paul Henstridge, ‘We are really enjoying rehearsing the work, which is very beautiful, and we can’t wait to hear it with the brass accompaniment.’

Born in North Wales in 1975, Paul Mealor studied composition privately as a boy and then at the University of York and in Copenhagen. His music has been commissioned and performed at many festivals and by numerous orchestras and choruses and has been broadcast on TV and radio throughout the world.

The Royal Northern College of Music has hosted an annual Brass Band Festival for 28 years, and this year’s Festival features no fewer than 16 world and UK premières as well as discussions and workshops hosted by Brass Bands England. Further information and ticket purchase. 

Download the Festival brochure

11 December 2017

We are delighted to announce that our Calypso Carol will be played on Classic FM at 6.30pm on Wednesday 13 December 2017. It’s a wonderfully upbeat carol written by Michael Perry (1942-1996) for a college carol concert in 1964, before he became an Anglican vicar. Cliff Richard made it famous when he included it in a selection for radio. Our version was arranged by our Music Director Darius Battiwalla for brass band accompaniment and features the incomparable Black Dyke Band.

Chorus Chair Paul Henstridge explained ‘Each year Classic FM chooses five carols from submissions sent in by choirs from across the country, and we are thrilled that they have chosen another of the carols from our Awake Arise! CD after being successful in 2015 with Joy to the World from the same album. We hope listeners will enjoy the carol as much as we and the band do!’ Classic FM were really impressed by the standard; ‘what a very strong set of candidates we had this year – it’s been a real pleasure to listen to them!’

Many of the carols on Awake Arise! were chosen for their connection with Yorkshire’s long choral tradition, or with Sheffield in particular. Local traditional carols have been sung around the area since the late 19th century. Written by local folk, they are sung with enthusiasm and joy, mostly in local pubs. Local carols on this recording include ‘Awake, Arise’, ‘Hail, Smiling Morn!’, ‘Hark Hark’ (Tyre Mill) and ‘Christians, Awake’ (Egypt). Well-loved Christmas classics include ‘Joy to the World’, ‘I Saw Three Ships’ and ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’. Darius Battiwalla’s arrangement of ‘O Holy Night’ was commissioned by the Chorus in memory of its former membership secretary, Miriam Gilchrist, and has become a firm favourite at our annual Christmas concerts at Sheffield City Hall.

Purchase our Awake Arise! Christmas CD

15 October 2017

“Wow. What a choir! And what a concert!” Philip Wilby was clearly thrilled with the performance of his new work ‘The Holy Face‘, written to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Halifax Choral Society, with whom our Chorus sang, along with the Yorkshire Youth Choir and the North of England Classical Orchestra. The work was premiered to a packed Victoria Theatre Halifax on 15 October 2017, following months of rehearsal by all three choirs, orchestra and soloists Catrin Pryce-Jones (soprano), Emma Stannard (mezzo), Peter Harris (tenor) and Jerome Knox (baritone). The concert included Mendelssohn’s Psalm 114 (When Israel out of Egypt came), dedicated to the Halifax Choral Society by the composer in 1839, and Bruckner’s Te Deum Laudamus.

The new work, an oratorio in the English tradition, celebrates the life of John the Baptist, patron saint of Halifax, a stylised image of whose head forms the town’s emblem. The text was assembled by the biblical scholar Canon Neville Boundy from various contemporary sources and the accounts of the four Gospels. His dramatic narrative includes the Birth of St John and the Baptism of Christ, with Herod’s Banquet, Salome’s Dance, and the final beheading. Composer Philip Wilby scored the piece for both orchestra and brass band, as well as including a substantial part for organ.

The Chorus was delighted to join musicians from across Yorkshire to perform this marvellous new work, difficult though it was, and especially thrilled with the composers reaction. “As a lad from Pontefract, I couldn’t have been prouder last evening, so marvellous was the delivery of this tricky new score.”

The solists and choirs recorded The Holy Face with the Black Dyke Band in July 2017, and the resulting CD is now available for purchase.

Review from Halifax Courier 3 April 2012

‘Expressive’ and ‘impressive’ was Halifax Courier’s view of the performance of Philip Wilby’s Bronte Mass given by Halifax Choral Society and Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, accompanied by the world-famous Black Dyke Band.

“The choir, unfazed by the formidable technical difficulties, was expressive, particularly in the concluding Gloria, which John Pryce-Jones insisted on playing twice”. “The choir sang John Cameron’s arrangement of Elgar’s Nimrod Variation with quiet authority and did full justice to Brucjner’s richly textured Three Motets.”

Download the full review: BronteMassReview

Press Release: 25 April 2017

A joint venture between Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and The Montgomery is solving the problem that stairs can cause to both audience members and performers with mobility impairments. Due to the style and age of The Montgomery and the Chorus’s home venue of the City Hall, both venues have some tricky steps to negotiate that can’t be solved by adding lifts or ramps.

“We have been successfully using our stair-climber backstage at the City Hall to reach the choir risers since 2012 when we were thrilled to receive Big Lottery funding for our Singclude project” explained Anne Adams, Administrator of the Chorus, “And, in keeping with the project’s aim to improve accessibility to performance spaces, we are even happier to announce that we are now in a position to share the use of the climber with The Montgomery. With 35 steps to reach the auditorium, the climber will be a welcomed addition to the facilities of the theatre.”

The climber will next be put through its paces on Saturday 6th May, smoothly aiding singers up to the performance level of the City Hall when over 270 singers from both the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and the Hallé Choir will be performing Tippett’s A Child of our Time. “This powerful work is large and dramatic so we need a huge number of voices, hence the welcome collaboration with the Hallé Choir. And we 2 certainly wouldn’t want any of our less mobile singers to have to sit out for the sake of not being able to negotiate a few flights of stairs,” said Chorus Chairman Paul Henstridge.

Dawn Reynolds, Managing Director of The Montgomery is equally keen that audience members to The Montgomery’s shows benefit from the stair-climber sharing arrangement. “We realise that the steps can be daunting for some people so we are thrilled to be able to provide this new facility to help more theatre goers enjoy our performances”.

If you’d like to join the Chorus for A Child of Our Time, call 0114 2 789 789 or visit www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk for ticket details. And if you’d like to attend a performance at The Montgomery using the stair-climber, give them a call on 0114 272 0455 prior to booking your ticket.

The relevance of classical music

24 April 2017

We’ve heard it before, many times; “What possible relevance could classical music have in today’s world? It’s a music form that is ‘dull’ and lacks resonance with real life. It’s for old people sitting in posh concert halls, nursing a G&T, whose view of the world hasn’t changed for the last 40 years. Classical music has nothing to do with me. It doesn’t reflect my situation, and it has no connection to my experience of this world. It doesn’t resonate with me, it doesn’t ‘touch’ me in anyway”. Those speaking such words point to the rise of Punk, Hip Hop, and Rap, suggesting these, and their related genres, tell it like it really is. And they may well do, but there are always at least two sides to a story, and a narrow view of the world – musical, political, whatever – can be a dangerous thing.

I’m not ashamed to say that I have struggled recently to rehearse what others may consider to be ‘safe’, ‘staid’, ‘dull’ music since my thoughts have turned to war, conflicts, genocide, leaders with hate in their hearts and in their very public words. Who wouldn’t when put in the place of the Persecutors to sing “Away with them! Curse them! Kill them! They infect the state”. To be answered with “Why? Why? We have no refuge” from the Persecuted. As I sit politely in my choir bench, flinching whilst Tippett’s brutal words scar the air, my mind reels. The words could have been written this very morning rather than inspired by the assassination in 1938 of a German diplomat by a young Jewish refugee, and the Nazi government’s reaction in the form of a violent persecution against its Jewish population – the Kristallnacht pogrom of 9 November 1938.

I’m rehearsing A Child of our Time, written and composed by the British composer Michael Tippett (1905–98), a conscience objector, jailed for two months during World War 2, and I’m deeply troubled, since I’m sure Tippett would have hoped while composing his oratorio, such dark days as he was writing about would be far behind us. The soprano sings “How can I cherish my man in such days, or become a mother in a world of destruction? How shall I feed my children on so small a wage?” The work talks of the plight of migrants who “shall not work nor draw a dole” and find there is no-one to turn to, that authority does not help them and desperate souls are met with hostility. The global terror of man’s inhumanity to man is writ clear; in “Burn down their houses! Beat in their heads!” we see reflected the wars and conflicts facing us daily from our TVs, massacres, starving and unwanted children.

And yet, Tippett’s use of poignant spirituals, sees an equally heartfelt desire to see a world where dark forces no longer rise like a flood. Classical music can, and does both resonate and have deep relevance in today’s troubled world, and anything we can do, however minuscule, to help lighten the load of those suffering should and must be done. If such music has even the tiniest possibility to cause a solitary person to stop, consider and perhaps rethink their prejudices and behaviours then this musical form should be seen for what it is – the gentlest of butterfly effects – that with hope and perseverance can be deeply powerful.

Paul Henstridge, Chairman – Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus

Download: Press Open Letter Child of Our Time