JS Bach is one of a very small collection of composers who seem incapable of writing second-rate music. His Lutheran Masses are a perfect illustration of this: overshadowed by his monumental B Minor Mass, they nevertheless contain what might conceivably be his favourite music from the cantatas, lovingly revived in succinct works of vibrant colour and indefatigable inspiration. Loved by all who know them, they give the lie to the idea that the devil gets all the best tunes. The…

October 29 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
The Queen’s Hall, 85 - 89 Clerk Street
Edinburgh, EH8 9JG United Kingdom + Google Map

A menu of Bach is on the cards, as Dunedin perform three of his well-loved Lutheran masses with fantastic soloists.

The Christmas Oratorio shows Bach at his most utterly joyful, presenting the story of Christmas with music of luminous warmth and festive exuberance.

“Shout and exult!” Bach did not conceive the Christmas Oratorio as a work to be heard in a single performance. It was a collection of 6 cantatas – one for each feast day between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day – displaying the composer’s unerring talent for harvesting and revivifying his own material. The piece suggests to the listener a spiritual journey from the Nativity to the Epiphany, and is full of wondrously memorable colour - from the trumpets and…

Handel’s Messiah is now a firm fixture in the festive calendar, yet, as with any great masterpiece, retains a breathtaking freshness and dynamism, even at this the 275th anniversary of its sensational Dublin premiere. Its enduring appeal lies in music of tireless and white-hot inspiration (he wrote it in three weeks), irresistible chorus writing, and, ultimately, a universal message of hope for humanity, thanks to its superbly plotted trajectory from suffering to salvation, and from darkness to light.

Known even in Bach’s time as his ‘great’ Passion, the Matthew Passion lays out the narrative of Christ’s suffering and death in epic proportions: double chorus, double orchestra, and in music of staggering beauty and profundity. It unfolds with intractable dramatic momentum, as well as presenting a succession of tableaux that invite the listener to contemplate the many resonances of this journey. However, the work also suggests a more fundamental question: how, even in the depths of despair and subjected…