My reviews of concerts in Durham. Full reviews on this page are written exclusively for this site. I generally buy my own tickets for concerts, especially when they are student or local amateur groups.
Past and present members of Durham County Youth Choir gave a magnificent performance of Handel’s Messiah in Durham Cathedral to celebrate their 50th anniversary in an evening that showed what a vital role the choir plays in music education in the North East. Read my review here:
Review of a concert given by the Clothworkers Consort of Leeds in the Norman Chapel of agonisingly beautiful music for Passiontide by early English composers.
My review of a recital of baroque chorale preludes played by Dr Ian Brunt at St Helen Auckland that reminded me that there is more to organ music than the pull-out-all-the-stops variety.
Ben Rowarth’s “Christus: A Passiontide Sequence” is a powerful and provocative new approach to the story of Christ’s Passion, combining imaginative writing with a firm grounding in musical history. This startling new work was combined with an energetic performance of Mozart’s Requiem, sung by the Durham University Choral Society and Chamber Choir, conducted by Mike Summers.
The Orlando Consort were in Durham this week for their annual residency and Musicon concert – I reviewed them for Bachtrack
Link to Gavin Engelbrecht’s review of Orchestra North East playing Sibelius and Tchaikovsky.
A review of Durham University Chamber Choir’s exciting performance of Bach’s St John Passion, conducted by Hugo Hymas, with guest soloists Benedict Hymas and Roderick Williams.
Guest reviewer Liz Watford of the Durham Amateur Pianists group reviews the Parnassius Piano duo performing at Durham University Music Department.
Durham Opera Ensemble put on a touching, witty and thoroughly entertaining performance of Mozart’s final opera, “The Magic Flute”.
