News & Reviews

Rachmaninov: All-night Vigil – CD Review

***** This recording of Rachmaninov’s beautiful All-Night Vigil is the third by non-Russian choirs to come my way in less than a year. It’s good to report that the latest, from the Vasari Singers under Jeremy Backhouse, is every bit as excellent as we have come to expect from that stable. As far as this […]

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Mahler: Resurrection Symphony Concert Reviews

A selection of reviews from the highly successful Vivace Chorus performance of Mahler: Symphony No.2 & Bruckner: E minor Mass at Guildford Cathedral on the 11th November 2017. Robert Benjafield Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony is one of those works which, when sung and played with passion, is a truly visceral experience. Sit near the orchestra and […]

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Michael Hurd: Choral Music Vol.1 – CD Review

**** (4 stars) Michael Hurd’s Night Songs of Edward Thomas is the finest setting I’ve ever heard of that songful but somehow musically resistant poet. Thomas’s words call for very careful setting and singing, and the Vasaris do both composer and poet proud. There is a Missa brevis, too, which fills out the middles section […]

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Launch of new CD of Rachmaninov ‘All-night vigil’

The Vasari Singers’ and my association with Rachmaninov’s All-night vigil stretches back nearly forty years, pretty much to the earliest days of the choir, when we would often include in our mixed-bag programmes the evergreen ‘Bogoroditse D’evo’. It was to become a firm favourite, to such an extent that we included it in our repertoire […]

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Gearing up for triumphant performance of Mahler 2

Mahler Symphony No.2, ‘Resurrection’ Why, for a flagship Vivace Chorus concert to celebrate my 60th birthday, would I select a work which has only about 15 minutes of choral singing at the end of the Symphony? Simply, because they are some of the best 15 minutes in the choral repertoire, moving from a whispered, barely […]

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Excited about new 2018 commission

The Salisbury Community Choir is already looking forward to its new commission from Alexander L’Estrange about the Power of Song, which it will premiere in Winchester Cathedral on Saturday 3 November 2018. Rehearsals for the exciting new work begin in January. To find out more about the composer and his music, visit his website on […]

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All the world’s a stage – Concert Review

All the world’s a stage – or – No holds ‘Bard’ The Vivace chorus and The Brandenburg Sinfonia directed by Jeremy Backhouse joined forces with members of the Guildford Shakespeare Company to present an evening of Shakespearian delight at GLive on Saturday evening. The works of Shakespeare have influenced composers from his own time until […]

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Handel: Dixit Dominus & Bach: Motet – Concert Review

****  London Evening Standard, 4th November 2016 St Peter’s, Eaton Square, an imposing neoclassical church in the heart of Belgravia, has been hosting chamber music concerts for ten years. With its bright, welcoming interior and generous acoustics it’s a delightful venue, just five minutes from Victoria, and one I wish I had discovered long ago. […]

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Leith Hill Festival Adjudicator

Jeremy is delighted to be acting as an Adjudicator at the Leith Hill Music Festival in April. The Festival, founded by Ralph Vaughan Williams and conducted by him until 1953, is firmly established as the leading choral music festival in the country. The Festival has been conducted by former King’s Singer, Brian Kay since 1995 […]

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“Jeremy Backhouse is the real deal” – Francis Pott

“Jeremy Backhouse is the real deal: a commanding and fearless conductor of impeccable technique and with a matchless ability to combine iron structural grasp on the grandest scale with a sensitivity to every expressive nuance and possibility. His calm, unflappable temperament and warm personal rapport with his performers have endeared him to a huge range […]

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© Jeremy Backhouse