Bach - B Minor Mass - York
11 December 2021, 22:00I will always remember the performance of Handel's Israel in Egypt in York Minster on the 11th March 2020, with the Yorkshire Bach Choir. That performance would be my last for 172 days. So, it was with great delight to be back in York and – thankfully – in front of a live audience in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at York University. (I had visited York with Spiritato for a recorded performance in December 2020, as well).
Nick Wright and I travelled together by car, and we arrived in York quite early. We parked in the vicinity of the National Centre for Early Music, ready for a quick look around York city centre. We noticed that some colleagues, including the cornettist Gawain Glenton, were performing in a lunchtime recital so we popped in to say hello before having a look around York. It was great to catch up. York was busy with Christmas shoppers and there was a fantastic atmosphere. After a quick bite to eat, we headed up to Heslingden to rehearse.
I drove back to Bedford that night. The next day I bumped in to one of the soloists on the 16:31 Eurostar, on our way to separate projects in Paris!
Nick Wright and I travelled together by car, and we arrived in York quite early. We parked in the vicinity of the National Centre for Early Music, ready for a quick look around York city centre. We noticed that some colleagues, including the cornettist Gawain Glenton, were performing in a lunchtime recital so we popped in to say hello before having a look around York. It was great to catch up. York was busy with Christmas shoppers and there was a fantastic atmosphere. After a quick bite to eat, we headed up to Heslingden to rehearse.
I played first trumpet in Bach's B Minor Mass, with Nick Wright on 2nd, George Parnaby on 3rd and Rosie Toll on timps. Peter Seymour directed from the harpsichord, and had gathered his excellent orchestra – the Yorkshire Bach Soloists – the Yorkshire Bach Choir, and soloists Hannah Ely (who stood in at short notice for Bethany Seymour), Helen Charlston (mezzo), Matthew Vernon-Long (tenor) and Jonny Hereford (bass) – with whom Richard Bayliss (horn) played a fantastic Quoniam alongside bassoonists Will Gough and Tristan Lambert. There was also excellent oboe playing from Angelika Stangl, Cherry Forbes and Tony Robson. There was an emotional end to the concert, with a palpable sense of achievement at having been able to perform in some semblance of normality.
I drove back to Bedford that night. The next day I bumped in to one of the soloists on the 16:31 Eurostar, on our way to separate projects in Paris!
Russell Gilmour
writing on music, photography, engraving, travel and life as a freelance professional musician.
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Bach
Baroque
Baroque Style
BBC Proms
Beethoven
Berlioz
Biber
Brandenburg
Brandenburg Baroque Soloists
Brass Instrument Making
Broadcast
Chronicles
Classical
Concert
Cornetto
Education Outreach
English Slide Trumpet
Engraving
Festival
France
Germany
Gorczycki
Guts and Glory
Göttingen Handel Festival
Handel
Haydn
Historic Royal Palaces
Horn
Instrument
Instrument Making
Interview
Isle of Man
Keyed Trumpet
Kuhnau
Le Concert Lorrain
Lecture
Leipzig
Les Talens Lyriques
London
Masterclass
Modern Trumpet
Monteverdi
Mozart
Museum
Music
Natural Trumpet
Natural Trumpet Courses
OAE
OAEducation
Opera
Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century
Oxford
Period Costume
Photography
Poland
Purcell
Radio Broadcast
Recording
Renaisannce
Review
Royal Academy of Music
Royal Society of Musicians
Schelle
Schütz
Shakespeare
Solomon's Knot
Spain
Spiritato!
St. Martin-in-the-Fields
Switzerland
Taverner Consort
Teaching
Telemann
The English Concert
The Netherlands
The Section
Tour
Touring
Toyota Classics Tour 2018
Travel
Trumpet
Trumpet and Organ
Venice
Ventless
Vivaldi
Vox Luminis
Wedding
Wigmore Hall
Workshop
Wrocław Baroque Orchestra
York
Zelenka
Zugtrompete
‘Just’ Natural Trumpet