Hastings Philharmonic Choir offer ​​​​​​​JS Bach

Tickets are on sale via the choir’s website (www.hastingsphilchoir.org.uk), by phone 01424 437554 or at the Bookkeeper, Kings Road, St Leonards, priced at £22/£17.50/£13. Students, under 18s, JSA and universal credit recipients £5/free.

Spokesman Gareth Simpson said: “The concert will be conducted by the highly-respected HPC musical director Marcio da Silva with soloists Kieran White (Evangelist/tenor), Oshri Segev (Jesus/bass), Anna-Luise Wagner (soprano) and Maya Colwell (alto).

“The St Matthew Passion, BWV244, is a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra. The work is a musical setting of the dramatic and moving events of the last weeks of Jesus’ earthly life culminating in his crucifixion and burial. It is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of Baroque sacred music. It is the second of two Passion settings by Bach that have survived in their entirety, the first being the St John Passion, first performed in 1724. It was probably first performed on April 11 (Good Friday) 1727 in St Thomas’ Church, Leipzig. Bach revised the Passion for a performance on Good Friday March 30 1736. This is the version, with some possible later adjustments, that is generally known as the St Matthew Passion, BWV 244. Following Lutheran Protestant tradition, Bach set the Passion to a German text so that his original listeners could readily follow the sung narrative. With the same concern for communicability and accessibility, HPC will be singing the work in English translation.”

Hastings Philharmonic Choir can trace its beginnings back to 1928 when the organist at the Wellington Square Baptist Church merged his choir, the Wellington Square Choral Society, with the St Mary in the Castle Centenary church to celebrate the centenary of St Mary in the Castle with a performance of the Messiah. The concert was so successful that it was repeated the following year and there began a highly successful town choir that Hastings Borough Council was pleased to promote, alongside the Hastings Municipal Orchestra for the traditional Good Friday performances of the Messiah at its newly-built White Rock Pavilion. Nearly 100 years later, under its musical director, Marcio da Silva, the Hastings Philharmonic Choir has established itself as one of the foremost choirs in the area, thrilling audiences and critics alike with performances to rival those of many professional ensembles. Revolving around the major choral works of the baroque to romantic periods, the choir’s wide-ranging repertoire extends also to classics of the 20th century. Concerts in recent years have included works by Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, Brahms, Verdi, Orff, Britten and Lauridsen.

The choir is always happy to welcome new members, who enjoy singing and who can follow written-down music.