MOZART'S 'Great' C minor Mass, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana and Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time figure in the Sheffield Oratorio Chorus Diamond Jubilee Season which begins on November 8.
As has become usual, the opening concert coincides with Remembrance Weekend and programming the Tippett, after warming up with Fauré's Requiem, as it is particularly apt this year.
It was on the night of November 9 1938, 70 years ago and 24 hours
after the Oratorio Chorus perform Child of Our Time, that the events it symbolises took place.
Specifically, it is when the Third Reich made concerted attack on Jews in Nazi-controlled countries in retaliation for the murder of a German Embassy staff member in Paris by a 17-year-old Jew.
Baritone Jonathan Gunthorpe and the rather splendid tenor James Edwards, a very late soloist replacement for the chorus's Creation last season, are among the soloists.
The soprano soloist in the Creation, Elizabeth Watts, who needs no introduction, returns too for the Mozart Mass on April 25 and offers Bach's solo cantata Jauchzet Gott in Allen Landen into the bargain.
Carmina Burana next July 4 features an Oratorio Chorus regular, soprano Debra Morley, and sees the return of countertenor Daniel Keating-Roberts. It is preceded by something Sheffield Cathedral's master of the music Neil Taylor has up his sleeve involving children.
John Rutter's Gloria and the first performance of a short piece by Ron Law, Pro Chori, rub shoulders with music for voices and brass on January 31.
Except the Orff, at the Octagon Centre, the concerts take place in Sheffield Cathedral. All are conducted by Alan Eost and the orchestra is the South Yorkshire Symphony, except for the Mozart/ Bach concert when it is the Manchester Camerata – the chorus is really splashing out in its 60th anniversary season.
There is the offer of a free ticket for Carmina Burana if you purchase a full-price ticket for the November and January concerts and a season ticket is also available.
It costs £55, £40 concessions, and includes the annual carol concert at St Andrew's Psalter Lane Church on December 18 but, as with the offer, the form on the season brochure needs to be filled in to facilitate your purchase.
You should be able to obtain one at Sheffield Cathedral or at the Blue Moon Café nearby.
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