Past Events

2023

Saturday, 18th November 2023, 7:30 pm
St. Mary’s Church, Banbury

Music for Remembrance and Peace
Conductor: Benedict Goodall
Jenkins – The Armed Man
Barber – Adagio for Strings
Bernstein – Chichester Psalms

Jenkins’ The Armed Man and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms both reach thematically and structurally across communities and languages: Bernstein through his combination of traditional Hebrew psalms with a Christian musical setting, and Jenkins by embracing texts and musical idioms from many cultures.

A small number of people attending the concert were unable to buy a copy of the programme. Therefore, we are making it available as a free download.

Saturday, 17th June 2023, 7:30 pm
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Benedict Goodall
“Summer is icumen in” – Part Songs and Madrigals

“And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals.” (Christopher Marlowe)

Perfect entertainment for a summer evening, with traditional folk songs, delightful madrigals and well known part-songs.

Including works by Elgar, Mozart, Bruckner and Morley.

Sunday, 26th March, 2023, 7:30 pm
St. Mary’s Church, Banbury

Conductor: Benedict Goodall
Brahms – Ein deutsches Requiem

Unique amongst Requiems, Brahms’ masterpiece is a humane and consoling work intended to bring comfort to the living rather than to plead for the souls of the dead. The text, sung in German, is drawn from the Lutheran Bible and brought to intense dramatic life by one of the greatest choral composers.

2022

Saturday, 17th December 2022, 7:30 pm
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Benedict Goodall
Family Christmas Concert
Charlie Baigent (baritone), Rebecca Nicholas (cello) & Bernard West (organ)

A concert of seasonal carols featuring the fun and exciting Christmas Mass by Ronald Corp, setting the words of the Latin Mass to the tunes of well-known Christmas carols; and Fantasia on Christmas Carols by Ralph Vaughan Williams whose 150th anniversary we are celebrating this year.

Saturday, 23rd July 2022, 10:30 am – 6:30 pm
Town Hall, Chipping Norton

Sing Day: Fauré Requiem

Saturday, 11th June 2022, 7:30 pm
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Benedict Goodall
“Pomp and Pimms”: Songs from the Coronation

A week after the official Platinum Jubilee celebrations, The Chipping Norton Choral Society performed a programme inspired by the music played at the Coronation in June 1953.

Saturday, 2nd April 2022, 7:30 pm
St. Peter & St. Paul’s Church, Deddington

Conductor: Benedict Goodall
with Adderbury Ensemble
Soloists: Michael Gibson (tenor) & James Berry (baritone)
Puccini – Messa di Gloria
Verdi – Stabat Mater

Unashamedly operatic and clearly influenced by his idol Verdi, the Messa di Gloria (more correctly, Messa a quattro voci) was written as a graduation piece when Puccini was only eighteen, shortly after Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle and Verdi’s Requiem, and brings the same sense of heightened drama, vitality, musical dexterity and sheer exuberance to the Latin mass.

2021

Saturday, 18th December 2021, 7:30 pm
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra

Benjamin Britten – Saint Nicolas
Excerpts from Handel – Messiah

Saturday, 14th August 2021, 7:30 pm
St. Peter & St. Paul’s Church, Deddington

Conductor: Peter Hunt
Anne Page (harmonium) & Stewart Taylor (piano)
Gioachino Rossini — Petite Messe Solennelle

2019

Saturday, 21st December 2019, 7:00 pm
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt
Family Christmas Concert:
Carols & Chilcott

Sunday, 3rd November 2019, 5:30 pm
Cheltenham Town Hall

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra
& North Cotswold Chamber Choir
William Walton – Belshazzar’s Feast
James MacMillan – Cantos Sagrados

Saturday, 6th April 2019, 7:30 pm
Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Deddington

Conductor: Peter Hunt
Fanshawe – African Sanctus

2018

Saturday, 15th December 2018, 7:30 pm
St. Mary’s Church, Banbury

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra
Soloists: Carris Jones (mezzo-soprano) & James Berry (baritone)
Elgar – The Music Makers
Vaughan Williams – Dona Nobis Pacem

Saturday, 16th June 2018
Chipping Norton Secondary School & St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt
Community Sing Day:
Vivaldi – Gloria
Bob Chilcott – The Voyage

Saturday, 12th May 2018
St. Mary’s Church, Witney

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with Baroque Orchestra Oxybaroxy
Vivaldi – Gloria
George Frideric Handel – O Praise the Lord with One Consent (Chandos Anthem No. 9)
Verdi – Pater Noster
Stanford – Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in C

2017

Saturday, 9th December 2017
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with Cotswold Baroque Players
Charlotte Beament (1st soprano), Rebecca Outram (2nd soprano), William Purefoy (counter tenor) & Robert Rice (bass)
J.S. Bach – Mass in B Minor

2016

Saturday, 17th December 2016
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with Cotswold Baroque Players
Charlotte Beament (soprano), Esther Brazil (mezzo-soprano), Guy Cutting (tenor) & Robert Rice (bass)
Haydn – Nelson Mass (Mass in D Minor)
Mozart – C Minor Mass

Sunday, 26th June 2016
All Saints’ Church, Churchill

Conductor: Bernard West
Tim Wakerill (organ) & Esther Brazil (mezzo-soprano)
César Franck – Psalm 150
J.S. Bach – Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541
Hector Berlioz – Premiers transports que nul n’oublie
Felix Mendelssohn – Grant us Thy Peace, Nachtlied, Drei geistliche Lieder, Op 96
Hanny Hensel – Frühling
J.S. Bach – Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541

Saturday, 7th May 2016
Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Deddington

Conductor: Peter Hunt
Catherine White (harp), Nathan Cole (percussion), Bernard West (piano and organ), Martyn Lane (piano) & Matthew Ernst (treble)
Folk Songs from the British Isles – Braes o’Yarrow, Bobbin John & The Road to Ford
Cecilia McDowall – A Fancy of Folksongs
Trad. – Londonderry Air
Bob Chilcott – Extracts from Songs and Cries of London Town
Francis Poulenc – Piano Sonata for Four Hands
Leonard Bernstein – Chichester Psalms

2015

Saturday, 5th December 2015
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt
Julie Cooper (soprano), William Purefoy (alto), Matthew Minter (tenor), Ben Bevan (bass) & The Cotswold Baroque Players – lead by Catherine Weiss
George Frideric Handel – Messiah

2014

Saturday, 21st June 2014
All Saints’ Church, Churchill

Conductor: Bernard West
Cynthia Hall (organ), Esther Brazil (mezzo-soprano), Ben Phillips (countertenor) & Martin Davies (baritone)
Stanford – various works including Te Deum Laudamus, Nunc Dimittis and Psalm 150
Purcell – Come, ye sons of art

Saturday, 10th May 2014
Methodist Church, High Street, Witney

Conductor: Peter Hunt
Bernard West (organ) and Oxybaroxy, Esther Brazil (soprano), Rachel O’Malley (alto), Tom Dyer (tenor) & David le Provost (bass)
Vivaldi – Kyrie
George Frideric Handel – Let thy hand be strengthened
George Frideric Handel – Zadok the Priest
D’Astorga – Stabat Mater
J.S. Bach – Jesu Joy

2013

Saturday, 7th December 2013
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with The Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra
Rebecca Outram (soprano), Greg Tassell (tenor) & Robert Rice (baritone)
Joseph Haydn – Creation

Saturday, 22nd June 2013
St. Mary’s Church, Charlbury

Conductor: Bernard West

David Lee (tenor), David Le Prevost (baritone) & James Brown (organ)
Maunder – Olivet to Calvary

Saturday, 18th May 2013
Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Deddington

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with The Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra
Bernard West (piano) & Marion Ackrill (flute)
Dreams of the Summer Night – an evening of music by English composers, featuring:
Arthur Bliss – Pastoral
Hubert Parry – An English Suite for Strings
Colin Touchin – Adlestrop

2012

Saturday, 8th December 2012
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Bernard West
with The Cotswold Baroque Players
Mozart – Requiem
Haydn – Requiem in C minor

Saturday, 23rd June 2012
All Saints’ Church, Churchill

Conductor: Bernard West
Pomp & Pimms:
Coronation Music

Saturday, 26th May 2012
Church of St. Peter & St. Paul, Deddington

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with The Oxfordshire County Percussion Ensemble & Cotswold Children’s Choir
Bernard West & Stewart Taylor (piano)
Orff – Carmina Burana

2011

Saturday, 3rd December 2011
St. Mary’s Church, Banbury

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with The Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra
Verdi – Requiem

Saturday, 25th June 2011
All Saints’ Church, Churchill

Conductor: Bernard West
Fauré & Fizz:
Fauré – Requiem

Saturday, 16th April 2011
Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Deddington

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with The Cotswold Baroque Players
J.S. Bach – St. John Passion

2010

Saturday, 4th December 2010
St. Mary’s Church, Banbury

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with The Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra
Mendelssohn – Elijah

Saturday, 12th June 2010
Charlbury Church

Conductor: Bernard West
Vivaldi and Vino:
Beatus Vir
Gloria
Ostro Picta

Saturday, 8th May 2010
Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Deddington

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with Acer Saccharum (Bassoon Quartet)
Britten – Rejoice in the Lamb
Rutter – Gloria

2009

Saturday, 5th December 2009
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with The Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra
Brahms – Ein Deutsches Requiem

Saturday, 27th June 2009
All Saints’ Church, Churchill

Conductor: Bernard West
Edward Tambling (organ scholar-elect, Westminster Cathedral)
Purcell and Pimms:
Funeral Sentences
Thy word is a Lantern
O Sing unto the Lord
Rejoice in the Lord Always

Saturday, 16th May 2009
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with The Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra
Haydn – Nelson Mass (Missa in Augustiis)
Haydn – Te Deum (for the Empress Maria Therese)
Haydn – Symphony No. 6 in D ‘Le Matin’

2008

Saturday, 13th December 2008
St. Peter’s Church, Hook Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with The Cotswold Baroque Players
Candlelight Concert:
Buxtehude – Magnificat
Monteverdi – Beatus Vir
Pergolesi – Magnificat
Schutz – Christmas Story

Saturday, 17th May 2008
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with the Adderbury Ensemble
Puccini – Messa di Gloria
Vaughan Williams – Serenade to Music

2007

Saturday, 1st December 2007
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt
with The Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra
Karl Jenkins – The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace
Schubert – Symphony No. 8 ‘Unfinished’

Saturday, 16th June 2007
St. Edward’s Church, Stow-on-the-Wold

Conductor: Peter Hunt

Bernard West (piano)

Bubbles and Betjeman:
David Pope – From Here to Burgess Hill: Setting of Seven Poems by John Betjeman
Elgar – From the Bavarian Highlands

Saturday, 31st March 2007
Witney Methodist Church

Conductor: Peter Hunt

Bernard West (organ)

An Evening of French Music:
Maurice Duruflé – Requiem and Motets
Gabriel Fauré – Cantique de Jean Racine

2006

Saturday, 16th December 2006
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt

Handel – Messiah

Saturday, 10th June 2006
All Saints’ Church, Churchill

Conductor: Peter Hunt

An Evening of Musical Entertainment and Summer Refreshment:
Purcell – Dido and Aeneas

Saturday, 1st April 2006
St. Peter’s Church, Hook Norton

Conductor: Peter Hunt

Three Oxbridge Music Professors:
Sir Charles Stanford – Three Motets Op. 38
Sir Hubert Parry – selection of Songs of Farewell
Sir John Stainer – The Crucifixion

2005

Saturday, 10th December 2005
St. Mary’s Church, Chipping Norton

Christmastide Concert:
An evening of carols, readings and seasonal songs for the choir and family audience

Looking back further…
(thanks to Roger Stein for the research)

June 2005

Tippett – A Child of Our Time

2004

December 2004

Vivaldi – Gloria
Haydn – Little Organ Mass
Hummel – Mass in Bb

June 2004

Summer Concert: ForeverEngland!
Rutter – The Reluctant Dragon

2003

December 2003

J.S. Bach – Sleepers Wake
Vaughan Williams – Fantasia on Christmas Carols
Mathias – Ave Rex

May 2003

Rossini – Petite Messe Solennelle

2002

December 2002

J.S. Bach – Christmas Oratorio

May 2002

Brahms – Songs of Love
Elgar – From the Bavarian Highlands

2001

December 2001

Charpentier – Messe de Minuit
Fauré – Requiem

May 2001

Sullivan – Trial by Jury; and lighter pieces

February 2001

J.S. Bach – St. Matthew Passion

2000

March 2000

Rutter – Requiem
Andrew Carter – Benedicite

1999

December 1999

Handel – Messiah

May 1999

Mozart – Requiem and Great Mass in C Minor (conducted by Shauni)

1998

December 1998

Britten – Ceremony of Carols

March 1998

Monteverdi – Vespers

1997

November 1997

Dvorák – Mass in D
Kodály – Missa Brevis (Peter’s first concert)

July 1997

Music for a Summer Evening (conducted by Shauni)

March 1997

Handel – Israel in Egypt (Stewart Taylor’s final concert)

1996

November 1996

Fauré – Requiem (from scratch)

June 1996

Purcell – The Fairy Queen

1995

November 1995

Haydn – St. Nicolas Mass
Mozart – Piano Concerto in F K459 (Michael Liddell, soloist)
Britten – St. Nicolas

March 1995

Mendelssohn – Elijah

1994

November 1994

Music for Choir and Organ:
Parry – I was Glad
Gardiner – Evening Hymn
Parry – Blest Pair of Sirens
Durufle – Requiem
Plus organ solos performed by Thomas Trotter

June 1994

Handel – Chandos Anthem No 11 “Let God Arise” and Acis and Galatea

March 1994

J.S. Bach – Mass in B minor

1993

Summer 1993

Pergolesi – Magnificat
Schubert – Mass in G

March 1993

Purcell – Rejoice in the Lord Alway
J.S. Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
Handel – Dixit Dominus

1992

November 1992

Brahms – A German Requiem

June 1992

German – Merrie England

April 1992

J.S. Bach – St. John Passion

1991

November 1991

Mozart – Solemn Vespers and Mass in C

June 1991

Purcell – Bell Anthem, Come ye sons of art and King Arthur

March 1991

Stainer – Crucifixion

1990

November 1990

Vivaldi – Gloria
Haydn – Nelson Mass

July 1990

Handel – Semele

March 1990

Handel – Coronation Anthems
J.S. Bach – Magnificat

1989

November 1989

Handel – Messiah