“The wheel of fortune turns”. With these words, sung by the choir early in Carl Orff’s deservedly popular cantata Carmina Burana, the audience is introduced to one of the simplest yet most universal truths about the human condition. Because of the...
- July 16, 2024
“Orchestra of St John’s glorious summer concert series boasts exciting classical musicians, wonderful venues and inspiring music as well as debuts from the country’s fastest rising stars.” First up is rising star Elodie who last year performed with Ed Sheeran,...
- June 1, 2024
On Easter Saturday John Lubbock and his carefully assembled forces gave a powerful account of the St Matthew, more complex in its structure and composed on a much larger scale than the earlier work. This was successfully conceived not so much as...
- April 3, 2024
If Handel’s Messiah is among the most frequently performed choral works of the Western musical tradition, the challenge of rendering it fresh and alive today is monumental. The task, perhaps unwittingly, was proclaimed from high up in the splendid church of St...
- December 21, 2023
Mozart’s Requiem (7 and 8 April 2023) From time to time, one reads gloomy reports about the audience for classical music shrinking since the pandemic. There seems to be no evidence of this when it comes to concerts in Oxfordshire...
- April 17, 2023
As a long-term resident of Dorchester, I’ve had the good fortune to be able to enjoy so many wonderful OSJ performances, here and elsewhere. Tonight was simply majestic, full of goose-bumpy, breath-holding transports of ecstasy. At the end I commented...
- March 16, 2023
