Oxford Harmonic Choir concerts are held in major central Oxford venues:
- Oxford Town Hall
- Sheldonian Theatre
All concerts start at 7.30pm. Doors and venue box office open at 7.00pm. Join our Mailing List to hear about future concerts. See recent performances on our Previous Concerts page.
Mendelssohn Elijah
1 April 2023, 7.30 pm, Oxford Town Hall
Katherine Crompton – soprano
Arlene Rolph – mezzo soprano
Simon Ashmead – tenor
Edward Grint – baritone
For our spring concert, we will perform another huge favourite with audiences and singers alike: Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah. First performed in Birmingham Town Hall in 1846, it contains some of the composer’s greatest music, with magnificent choruses, beautiful arias and imaginative orchestration. The story from the Old Testament, containing many natural phenomena – drought, fire, rain, and earthquake – offers much scope for expressive writing, and the work combines many moments of high drama with more lyrical passages of the kind normally associated with the composer. Together with Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s Creation, Elijah forms a trio of the most popular oratorios in the choral repertoire.
Click on an image for more information.
Duruflé & Fauré Requiems
10 June 2023, 7.30 pm, Oxford Town Hall
Our summer concert offers a wonderful opportunity to enjoy and compare the two requiems of Fauré (first performed 1888 and revised for performances in 1893 and 1900) and Duruflé (written 1947, revised 1948 and 1961). Both composers chose a similar set of texts (omitting most of the terrifying Dies Irae and adding in the final hopeful In Paradisum) and both adopted an intimate, reflective approach to these texts. Both, too, took inspiration from plainsong. The Fauré is famously lyrical and serene, while the Duruflé moves between tranquillity and anguished drama. Comments posted by listeners on performances that can be heard on YouTube testify to the emotional power of both.
