CONCERTS

Oxford Harmonic Choir concerts are held in major central Oxford venues:

  • Oxford Town Hall
  • Sheldonian Theatre
  • SJE (St John the Evangelist Church)

All concerts start at 7.30pm. Doors and venue box office open at 7.00pm. Join our Mailing List to hear about future concerts. Read about recent performances on our Previous Concerts page. .

 Christmas Oratorio concert small
JS Bach Christmas Oratorio
25 November 2017
Oxford Town Hall

‘Rejoice, exult!’ So begins Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in a rousing chorus with trumpet fanfare and kettledrums, launching a work bursting with exuberant and joyful music to celebrate the birth of Christ…. Click here to read more ....

Written in 1734, the Oratorio has six cantatas for performance on specific days during the Christmas season. They combine narrative recitatives and lilting arias with exhilarating choruses and tender chorales based on familiar contemporary hymn tunes. A perfect start to the Christmas celebrations!
 Missa Solemnis concert small
Beethoven Missa Solemnis
24 March 2018
Oxford Town Hall

Missa Solemnis is one of the great choral masterpieces and Beethoven himself considered it his finest work. It is a towering piece with extraordinary dramatic contrasts in mood … Click here to read more ....

– from glorious exaltation and peaceful tranquillity to funereal solemnity and the ominous sounds of war. It was also a deeply personal spiritual expression: on the manuscript Beethoven wrote ‘From the heart – may it return to the heart’.

Completed in 1823, Missa Solemnis takes its name from a tradition of grand settings of the mass but so eclipsed the rest that today the title is used solely for Beethoven’s masterpiece.
 Seasons concert image small
Haydn The Seasons
23 June 2018
Oxford Town Hall

The Seasons, first performed in 1801, was written as a sequel to The Creation and has received equal critical acclaim ever since…. Click here to read more ....

In music full of vitality, colour and humour, Haydn vividly evokes the seasonal changes both in nature and village life – brilliantly depicting the villagers as they flee from summer storms, hunt, dance and drink (excessively!) at harvest time, spin and tell stories by the fire in the desolation of winter.

Finally, in a magnificent climax amidst brass fanfares, Haydn takes us beyond the earthly seasons to a vision of ‘unbounded Spring, and everlasting happiness’ in heaven after death.