Bach - B Minor Mass - St. James’s Piccadilly - Dulwich Chamber Choir

I performed Bach’s B Minor Mass [BWV 232] at St. James’s Piccadilly in London on Saturday 9th October 2021. The performance was directed by Richard Mayo and was led by Lesley Larkum (violin); singers stepped forward from the choir to sing the solo and duet arias. 

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The brass section played, as did the rest of the orchestra (the English Heritage Chamber Orchestra), on modern instruments. I played first trumpet and it was wonderful to play with two of my former Royal College of Music contemporaries, Sam Kinrade and Ryan Linham. They made for an excellent section, and it was great to spend the day with them. Richard Bayliss played a stylish and flawless Quoniam on the horn, and it was great to see him again after our epic 2018 trip to Southeast Asia. Richard had already performed Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden that morning.

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Everything seemed to be happening in London today. London’s Piccadilly was even busier than I remember from before the pandemic. Things seemed almost back to ‘normal’. This performance felt like another milestone in the Covid recovery process; it was wonderful to hear a choral society making music again (this was the Dulwich Chamber Choir). It is the first time I have played with a choral society since before the pandemic, when the English Chamber Choir held a concert for Crispian Steele-Perkins’ 75th birthday at St. James’s Piccadilly on 22nd February 2020.

Olivia Clark (soprano) stepped forward from the choir to sing the duet ‘Et in unum Dominum’ with the alto Karen O’Keeffe. Olivia remembered me from our time together in St Andrews in 2015, and it was lovely to see her again, and to be reminded of that project.

It was great to play Bach’s B Minor Mass again, and I was glad of an afternoon and evening away from my computer – where I am spending a lot of time writing, editing, and seeking image permissions for my upcoming book about the natural trumpet.

Russell Gilmour
Russell Gilmour Blog
writing on music, photography, engraving, travel and life as a freelance professional musician.

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