National Festival Orchestra – Sheffield Bach Society

Choir gives “outstanding” sell-out Messiah in Cutler’s Hall

4 December 2025

A sold-out Cutler’s Hall was the venue for an outstanding performance of Handel’s Messiah from Sheffield Bach Choir on Monday 1 December in a concert conducted by Philip Colin and attended by the Mistress Cutler Gina Jackson and other dignitaries.

Messiah, first performed in Dublin in 1742, has been performed countless times the world over ever since, including every year by Sheffield Bach Choir in partnership with the National Festival Orchestra. With guests from Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and a team of talented soloists, the mastery of Handel’s magnificent oratorio from both singers and players was very much on show on Monday night.

“The performance from your choir was outstanding and I felt very privileged to be there.” said the Mistress Cutler Gina Jackson. “The hall normally has a buzz during our annual feast but tonight your choir beat that hands down.“

A collection was taken for the Master Cutler’s charity, the Weston Park Cancer Charity, and the concert was dedicated to the memory of Helen Frances Walker, a keen supporter of the choir for over 35 years and often seen knitting on the back row of the audience.

The choir now looks forward to its annual Come and Sing Christmas Messiah at St James’s Church Norton. Open to anyone, it costs £15 including mulled wine and mince pies. See Current Season Concerts for further information and to buy tickets.

Faure and Britten prove to be big hits

19 November 2025

A substantial audience at St Mark’s Church were treated to a superb concert on Saturday 15 November 2025, with Sheffield Bach Choir and choristers from St John’s Ranmoor, with players from the National Festival orchestra and organist Peter Shepherd, conducted by Philip Collin.

The pairing of Benjamin Britten’s exciting oratorio Saint Nicolas with Gabriel Faure’s beautiful Requiem proved to be very popular, with an almost-full church greatly appreciating the performances from choir, choristers, soloists and players.

Britten’s piece featured young choristers singing beautifully from the back of the church, with the three pickled boys (actually girls on this occasion) making the most of the drama by singing while moving up the central aisle to the front.

Dramatic Elijah enjoyed by all

Monday 20 November 2023

Sheffield Bach Choir were very pleased with their first concert of the season, when Mendelssohn’s wonderful oratorio was presented in St Mark’s church Broomhill.

“This amazing and popular work tells the story of the prophet Elijah” said choir Chair Chris Walker. “It’s certainly dramatic – there’s a duel of the Gods, temptation by Jezebel, Elijah’s time in the wilderness seeking the Lord in tempest, earthquake, and fire, and his final ascent into heaven!”

The choir was conducted by their new Music Director Philip Collin, with the National Festival Orchestra and Peter Shepherd on the organ.

Standing ovation for Messiah

Sheffield Bach Choir, along with friends from St Peter’s Singers and Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, sang Handel’s Messiah on Monday evening, and the audience leapt to their feet in appreciation at the magnificent conclusion.

‘What a terrific performance! … With the orchestra in fine form and a great team of soloists keeping us on our toes it’s no wonder the adrenaline flew in abundance.’ said conductor George Nicholson. The choir ‘clearly picked up the charge that was in the air and the results were amazing. …..a brilliant performance!’

Sally Robinson’s National Festival Orchestra were on great form, giving a polished and committed performance, not least the amazing Anthony Thompson, who played the trumpet accompaniment to ‘the Trumpet shall sound’, marvellously sung by bass-baritone Florian Stӧrtz. Tenor David Brown started the evening with a lyrical ‘Comfort Ye’, and beautiful singing from both alto Hannah Mason and soprano Nicola Hooke soared around the cathedral as though from angels themselves.

‘It was amazing and although I’m no expert ,the music and the atmosphere was definitely the best and I have listened to 35 of your Messiahs.’ said one audience member. ‘It was most enjoyable and such a quality performance by ALL. Thank you.’ echoed another.

Brilliant evening of Bach

The “Brilliance of Bach” turned Saturday 18 June 2022 into a suitably brilliant evening. There had been some apprehension, because the choir are still recovering from the long shut down due to the pandemic and we were only able to field about half of our usual complement.

But the evening was a splendid mixture of different Bach delicacies, with variety being the key. Darius Battiwalla’s organ playing, especially in the Toccata and Fugue in D minor was stunning, bringing some of the audience to their feet at the end in appreciation. There was a similar rapturous reception for the excellent rendering of the Concerto in D minor BWV1043 by members of the National Festival Orchestra. The audience watched spellbound as the violins of Sally Robinson and Rachael England seemed to come alive in their hands.

Against this background of brilliance the choir presented several pieces, from simple to highly complex, with variety again being the theme, demonstrating the mastery and talent of this most special of composers.

Stand-in conductor, our President George Nicholson, who has been instrumental in encouraging the choir back from such a long, enforced absence, together with our highly accomplished accompanist Ruth Nicholson on organ and harpsichord completed a splendid evening of music.

We had a capacity audience, and are so grateful to all of you for supporting us. We hope you enjoyed your evening.

Paul Downing

Celebrating the American way on June 21st at St Mark’s Church Broomhill

Truly can Sheffield Bach Choir’s upcoming Summer Concert be said to live up to the title Summer Time – An American Celebration! (writes Simon Lindley..)

Although, alone among the three composers – Donald Hunt, Morten Lauridsen and John Rutter – only Morten Lauridsen is American born and bred, the repertoire for the whole gala evening has been either devised for, or specifically involving, American musical celebrations of one kind or another.

Often heard in Worcester concerts or at the Worcester Three Choirs’ Festival over the years, Dr Donald Hunt’s American Serenade explores the rich diversity of repertoire from the tradition of the American “musical” and is a celebration of the art of George Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter – with individual numbers for smash hit shows such as High Society, Porgy and Bess, Show Boat, Sally, Very warm for May and Girl Crazy. Dr Hunt has orchestrated his American Serenade especially for this particular concert to match the instrumental provision of the rest of the programme, and Sheffield Bach Choir is profoundly grateful to him for this extremely generous undertaking.

The first performance of English composer Dr John Rutter’s Requiem took place in October 1985 at Lovers’ Lane United Methodist Church, Dallas in Texas and the same composer’s Feel the Spirit was first heard in New York’s Carnegie Hall in June of 2001. On each occasion, the music was under the directorship of the composer himself. English mezzo-soprano Melanie Marshall was the soloist at the first hearing of Feel the Spirit.

The traditions of the American “musical” and the sacred “spiritual” are wonderfully served and celebrated by Dr Hunt and Dr Rutter and this is immediately, and memorably apparent from the very first bar of each piece.

American composer Morten Lauridsen’s setting of the Christmas Respond O magnum mysterium comes from the traditional Latin liturgy of the Feast of the Nativity, being part of the service of the First Matins of Christmas. This deeply expressive motet was commissioned by Marshal Rutter in honour of his wife, Terry Knowles, and first heard sung by Los Angeles Master Chorale under Paul Salamunovich in Los Angeles’ Dorothy Sanders Pavilion on 18 December 1994.

John Rutter’s Requiem – an intensely personal work dedicated to the memory of the composer’s father – is a work more in the traditions of Fauré and Duruflé rather than those of Berlioz and Verdi. Rutter, like Walford Davies and Herbert Howells before him, sets a mixture of vernacular texts in English (mostly from the magical prose of the Book of Common Prayer Office for the Burial of the Dead and the Psalms of David) alongside more ancient Latin stanzas from the traditional Missa pro defunctis of the Roman rite. The easy companionship of these two separate inspirations is a highlight of Rutter’s profound and expressive setting. Rutter’s music incorporates an earlier anthem, The Lord is my Shepherd – a movement enhanced by a magical oboe obbligato, and an item composed almost a decade previously, in 1976.

Messiah on the Move on Monday 2nd!

Sheffield Bach Choir’s December presentation of Handel’s “Messiah” (as usual, a complete rendition, from “cover to cover” as we say in Yorkshire) moves this year to the City’s Victoria Hall Methodist Mission just opposite the stage door of the Crucible Theatre. The invasion is necessitated by building work in historic Sheffield Cathedral and the “Messiah” concert will be the second occasion this season that finds the Bach Choir and the National Festival Orchestra being made warmly welcome in the Victoria Hall – the first was a Baroque Festival concert in October.

A magnificent quartet of soloists – Philippa Hyde, David Allsopp, Ben Thapa and Sheffield’s own Matthew Palmer – will be joined by organist and harpsichordist Alan Horsey. Advance booking is strongly advised, as this event traditionally attracts a very substantial audience. Monday 2 December is the date and the concert begins at 7.00 pm to accommodate the rendition of the whole work within a reasonable time-scale at the end of the evening. As usual at Bach Choir performances of “Messiah”, we follow the tradition of holding a Retiring Collection for charitable endeavour and this year the proceeds will go to a special project of social outreach devised by the Victoria Hall.

Musicians Muster for Centenary

Musicians from all over the North of England and further afield head for Sheffield on Saturday 23 November, the weekend of the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten in Aldeburgh in 1913, for a gala concert of British Music at St Mark’s in Broomhill – a church celebrating itself this Autumn the fiftieth anniversary of its re-consecration in 1963 following war damage, and now widely acknowledged as one of the finest of England’s more modern churches.

The concert by Sheffield Bach Choir with the National Festival Orchestra features the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and the “St Nicolas Cantata” by Britten. Special guests include the acclaimed choristers from St John’s Ranmoor, directed by Ian Roberts and young soloists from Wakefield Cathedral and Leeds Minster. It is the second occasion in recent years that the Bach Choir has been joined by the Ranmoor choristers – on the first occasion they played the parts of ragamuffins in Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana”; this time their music is rather more conventional in character. Well-known horn soloist Jenny Cox joins Bach Choir regular guest Tenor Stephen Liley from Bedfordshire in the line up and the evening unfolds from Gustav Holst’s Two Psalms of 1912 featuring Stephen and Sheffield soprano Jenny Leadbeater in principal roles. Getting on for 120 performers in all, we reckon!