Services &
Ceremonies

Free as part of the entrance fee.

For more information on the Lunchtime Recital Series please click here.

Sung by the Temple Church Choir

Organ Prelude: Messiah Overture
Behold the Lamb of God (chorus)
He was despised (alto)
Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows (chorus)
And with his stripes we are healed (chorus)
All we like sheep have gone astray (chorus)
All they that see him laugh him to scorn (tenor)
He trusted in God that we would deliver him (chorus)
Thy rebuke hath broken his heart (tenor)
Behold and see if there be any sorrow (tenor)
Organ voluntary: Fantasia in C minor BWV562 (Bach)

The History of the Temple Church, 850 extraordinary years: from the design of the Round Church (1163), perhaps the first Gothic building built in England, to match the round Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem; through the tumultuous years of Magna Carta (1214-1215), whose hero William Marshal was buried in the Round, where his effigy still lies; the building of the Chancel (1240), a glorious hall-church planned as the burial-place of Henry III and his Queen; the 17^th and 18^th century roles of the Church and Temple in the development of our modern rule of law and in the foundation, independence and constitution of America; to the Blitz (1941) and the post-War repair of the Church. Robin is glad to answer questions about The Da Vinci Code too!  

This is a beautiful, historic and numinous place, in the therapeutic calm of the Temple just yards from the bustle of Fleet Street. To be here in the 12^th century was to be “in” Jerusalem, at the centre of the world. The Temple and its Church were central to the formation of Magna Carta, the first great bill of citizens’ rights that constrained the power of the government. It is still, over 800 years later, the professional home of the lawyers who protect those rights. It is rightly known as the Cradle of the Common Law.  

Sung by the Temple Singers

Organ prelude: Valet will ich dir geben BWV735 (Bach)
Introit: Pueri Hebraeorum (Victoria)
Setting: Mass for Four Voices (Byrd)
Anthem: O sacrum convivium (Messiaen)
Preacher: The Reverend Mark Hatcher, Reader of the Temple
Organ voluntary: Fantasia in G minor BWV542 (Bach)

Ashley Riches bass-baritone

Tim Lowe cello

Libby Burgess piano

A heart-rending programme of love and loss, combining the rich sonority of cello and bass-baritone voice. Soulful and spiritual, prayerful and passionate, this lunchtime concert opens our Holy Week Festival with two late works: Beethoven's visionary 'Free Sonata' and one of the very last things Brahms wrote.       

Beethoven: Sonata No 4 for cello and piano
Brahms: Four Serious Songs
Bloch: From Jewish Life
Vaughan Williams: Love Bade Me Welcome

For more information and booking please click here.

The Choir of Magdalen College Oxford

Oxford Bach Soloists

Alexander Pott conductor

Founded in 1480, the Choir of Magdalen College Oxford was one of the largest choral foundations in late-medieval England. This historic legacy has been preserved and maintained over five centuries, and the choir now enjoys an international reputation. They join forces with Oxford Bach Soloists to perform Buxtehude’s 1680 masterpiece Membra Jesu Nostri.  Deeply expressive and pure, this extraordinary work is a cycle of 7 cantatas, meditating on the Passion of Christ.

For more information and booking please click here.

Libby Burgess piano

Performance 1 of 6

The Well-Tempered Clavier is one of the glories of Western art, only rarely performed in its entirety. In 1722 JS Bach published a prelude and a fugue in each of the twelve major and twelve minor keys (Book 1), and twenty years later he repeated the process (Book 2). Each of ‘The 48’ lasts only a few minutes, but between them they explore a wealth of characters, styles, and moods, representing not only the diversity of musical language available to the composer at the time, but also exploring the whole gamut of human emotional experience.

Acclaimed pianist Libby Burgess is performing Bach's masterpiece 48 times; once in each of England's 48 counties. She is half way through her epic journey around the country, and we are thrilled to be hosting the City of London performances as part of our Holy Week Festival. During the festival, Libby will perform the entire collection across six concerts. Each concert will include a carefully crafted selection of preludes & fugues from Book 1 and Book 2 (the set lists will be published shortly).

Bach wrote his massive and magnificent collection "for the benefit and use of the musical youth eager to learn, as well as for the special pastime of those already skilful in this study". The project is fundraising for musical charities who provide much-needed help to those same categories of people today – musicians young and old. The nominated charities are: Help Musicians, Youth Music, Live Music Now and Future Talent. Between them they help hundreds of thousands of musicians every year, offering financial support, creating opportunities, addressing inequalities, and altogether safeguarding the future of the music world.

So far the project has raised over £30,000. The concerts are free, with a retiring collection in aid of the charities.

For more information and booking click here.

TEMPLE SOLOISTS

Olivier Stankiewicz oboe

Julian Bliss clarinet

Ben Goldscheider french horn

Amy Harman bassoon

Libby Burgess piano

This exceptional ensemble bookend Mozart's sublime Quintet for Piano & Winds with intense and deeply felt sonatas by Poulenc. 

Poulenc: Oboe Sonata
Mozart: Quintet for Piano & Winds
Poulenc: Clarinet Sonata

For more information and booking please click here.

Temple Singers

Thomas Allery director

One of London's finest professional church choirs present a devastatingly beautiful programme of laments, including pleas for mercy by William Byrd and Thomas Tallis; a choral masterpiece of the Franco-Flemish Renaissance; and Rudolf Mauersberger's plangent motet composed in Holy Week 1945 in the aftermath of the bombing of Dresden. The concert concludes with Tavener's best known work 'Song for Athene' ("May Flights of Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest").

Tallis: Miserere nostri 
Phinot: Incipit oratio Jeremiae prophetae
Rubbra: Tenebrae - Third Nocturne
Tomkins: When David heard
Mauersberger: Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst
Byrd: Miserere
Tavener: Song for Athene

For more information and booking please click here.

Libby Burgess piano

Performance 2 of 6

The Well-Tempered Clavier is one of the glories of Western art, only rarely performed in its entirety. In 1722 JS Bach published a prelude and a fugue in each of the twelve major and twelve minor keys (Book 1), and twenty years later he repeated the process (Book 2). Each of ‘The 48’ lasts only a few minutes, but between them they explore a wealth of characters, styles, and moods, representing not only the diversity of musical language available to the composer at the time, but also exploring the whole gamut of human emotional experience.

Acclaimed pianist Libby Burgess is performing Bach's masterpiece 48 times; once in each of England's 48 counties. She is half way through her epic journey around the country, and we are thrilled to be hosting the City of London performances as part of our Holy Week Festival. During the festival, Libby will perform the entire collection across six concerts. Each concert will include a carefully crafted selection of preludes & fugues from Book 1 and Book 2 (the set lists will be published shortly).

Bach wrote his massive and magnificent collection "for the benefit and use of the musical youth eager to learn, as well as for the special pastime of those already skilful in this study". The project is fundraising for musical charities who provide much-needed help to those same categories of people today – musicians young and old. The nominated charities are: Help Musicians, Youth Music, Live Music Now and Future Talent. Between them they help hundreds of thousands of musicians every year, offering financial support, creating opportunities, addressing inequalities, and altogether safeguarding the future of the music world.

So far the project has raised over £30,000. The concerts are free, with a retiring collection in aid of the charities.

For more information and booking please click here.

Lunchtime organ recital

Virtuoso organist Daniel Moult presents a programme showcasing Temple Church's magnificent instrument.

Bach: Fantasia in G minor (BWV 542i)
Schumann: Study in Canonic Form (Op 56 No 1)
Mendelssohn: Sonata in F minor (Op 65 No 1)
Boulanger: Petit Canon
Widor: Allegro vivace from Symphonie V (Op 42 No 1)

For more information and booking please click here.

Sung by the Temple Singers

Organ prelude:  Passion Chorale (William Lloyd Webber)
Introit: Remember not, Lord, our Offences (Purcell)
Psalm: 25. 13-end
Canticles: Howells in B minor
Anthem: Vinea mea electa (Poulenc)
Organ voluntary: Prelude on ‘Rockingham’ (VWilliam Lloyd Webber)

Libby Burgess piano

Performance 3 of 6

The Well-Tempered Clavier is one of the glories of Western art, only rarely performed in its entirety. In 1722 JS Bach published a prelude and a fugue in each of the twelve major and twelve minor keys (Book 1), and twenty years later he repeated the process (Book 2). Each of ‘The 48’ lasts only a few minutes, but between them they explore a wealth of characters, styles, and moods, representing not only the diversity of musical language available to the composer at the time, but also exploring the whole gamut of human emotional experience.

Acclaimed pianist Libby Burgess is performing Bach's masterpiece 48 times; once in each of England's 48 counties. She is half way through her epic journey around the country, and we are thrilled to be hosting the City of London performances as part of our Holy Week Festival. During the festival, Libby will perform the entire collection across six concerts. Each concert will include a carefully crafted selection of preludes & fugues from Book 1 and Book 2 (the set lists will be published shortly).

Bach wrote his massive and magnificent collection "for the benefit and use of the musical youth eager to learn, as well as for the special pastime of those already skilful in this study". The project is fundraising for musical charities who provide much-needed help to those same categories of people today – musicians young and old. The nominated charities are: Help Musicians, Youth Music, Live Music Now and Future Talent. Between them they help hundreds of thousands of musicians every year, offering financial support, creating opportunities, addressing inequalities, and altogether safeguarding the future of the music world.

So far the project has raised over £30,000. The concerts are free, with a retiring collection in aid of the charities.

For more information and booking please click here.

Libby Burgess piano

Performance 4 of 6

The Well-Tempered Clavier is one of the glories of Western art, only rarely performed in its entirety. In 1722 JS Bach published a prelude and a fugue in each of the twelve major and twelve minor keys (Book 1), and twenty years later he repeated the process (Book 2). Each of ‘The 48’ lasts only a few minutes, but between them they explore a wealth of characters, styles, and moods, representing not only the diversity of musical language available to the composer at the time, but also exploring the whole gamut of human emotional experience.

Acclaimed pianist Libby Burgess is performing Bach's masterpiece 48 times; once in each of England's 48 counties. She is half way through her epic journey around the country, and we are thrilled to be hosting the City of London performances as part of our Holy Week Festival. During the festival, Libby will perform the entire collection across six concerts. Each concert will include a carefully crafted selection of preludes & fugues from Book 1 and Book 2 (the set lists will be published shortly).

Bach wrote his massive and magnificent collection "for the benefit and use of the musical youth eager to learn, as well as for the special pastime of those already skilful in this study". The project is fundraising for musical charities who provide much-needed help to those same categories of people today – musicians young and old. The nominated charities are: Help Musicians, Youth Music, Live Music Now and Future Talent. Between them they help hundreds of thousands of musicians every year, offering financial support, creating opportunities, addressing inequalities, and altogether safeguarding the future of the music world.

So far the project has raised over £29,000. The concerts are free, with a retiring collection in aid of the charities.

For more information and booking click here.

Sung by the Temple Singers

Organ prelude: Chant donné (Duruflé)
Setting: Missa brevis (Palestrina)
Anthem: Ubi caritas (Duruflé)
Organ voluntary: Christus, der uns selig macht BWV620 (Bach)

Libby Burgess piano

Performance 5 of 6

The Well-Tempered Clavier is one of the glories of Western art, only rarely performed in its entirety. In 1722 JS Bach published a prelude and a fugue in each of the twelve major and twelve minor keys (Book 1), and twenty years later he repeated the process (Book 2). Each of ‘The 48’ lasts only a few minutes, but between them they explore a wealth of characters, styles, and moods, representing not only the diversity of musical language available to the composer at the time, but also exploring the whole gamut of human emotional experience.

Acclaimed pianist Libby Burgess is performing Bach's masterpiece 48 times; once in each of England's 48 counties. She is half way through her epic journey around the country, and we are thrilled to be hosting the City of London performances as part of our Holy Week Festival. During the festival, Libby will perform the entire collection across six concerts. Each concert will include a carefully crafted selection of preludes & fugues from Book 1 and Book 2 (the set lists will be published shortly).

Bach wrote his massive and magnificent collection "for the benefit and use of the musical youth eager to learn, as well as for the special pastime of those already skilful in this study". The project is fundraising for musical charities who provide much-needed help to those same categories of people today – musicians young and old. The nominated charities are: Help Musicians, Youth Music, Live Music Now and Future Talent. Between them they help hundreds of thousands of musicians every year, offering financial support, creating opportunities, addressing inequalities, and altogether safeguarding the future of the music world.

So far the project has raised over £30,000. The concerts are free, with a retiring collection in aid of the charities.

For more information and booking click here.

TEMPLE SOLOISTS

Jonathan Stone violin

Martyn Jackson violin

Meghan Cassidy viola

Tim Lowe cello

Julian Bliss clarinet

A programme of musical outpourings in response to war, from Suk's elegiac Meditation on an Old Czech Hymn 'St Wenceslas', through Shostakovich's powerful 8th String Quartet, to one of the loveliest moments in music - the closing of Herbert Howells' Rhapsodic Quintet. To perform this landmark in English chamber music, clarinettist Julian Bliss joins forces with the exceptional string players of Temple Soloists. Completing their programme is Puccini's gem of a quartet, Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums), written in one night in response to the death of a friend.

Suk: Meditation on an Old Czech Hymn 'St Wenceslas'
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 in C minor
Puccini: Crisantemi
Howells: Rhapsodic Quintet

For more information and booking please click here.

Libby Burgess piano

Performance 6 of 6

The Well-Tempered Clavier is one of the glories of Western art, only rarely performed in its entirety. In 1722 JS Bach published a prelude and a fugue in each of the twelve major and twelve minor keys (Book 1), and twenty years later he repeated the process (Book 2). Each of ‘The 48’ lasts only a few minutes, but between them they explore a wealth of characters, styles, and moods, representing not only the diversity of musical language available to the composer at the time, but also exploring the whole gamut of human emotional experience.

Acclaimed pianist Libby Burgess is performing Bach's masterpiece 48 times; once in each of England's 48 counties. She is half way through her epic journey around the country, and we are thrilled to be hosting the City of London performances as part of our Holy Week Festival. During the festival, Libby will perform the entire collection across six concerts. Each concert will include a carefully crafted selection of preludes & fugues from Book 1 and Book 2 (the set lists will be published shortly).

Bach wrote his massive and magnificent collection "for the benefit and use of the musical youth eager to learn, as well as for the special pastime of those already skilful in this study". The project is fundraising for musical charities who provide much-needed help to those same categories of people today – musicians young and old. The nominated charities are: Help Musicians, Youth Music, Live Music Now and Future Talent. Between them they help hundreds of thousands of musicians every year, offering financial support, creating opportunities, addressing inequalities, and altogether safeguarding the future of the music world.

So far the project has raised over £30,000. The concerts are free, with a retiring collection in aid of the charities.

For more information and booking click here.

Sung by the Temple Church Choir

Organ prelude: Miserere (Byrd)
Introit: Drop, drop slow tears (Gibbons)
The Reproaches: (Sanders)
Anthem: Christus factus est (Anerio)
Organ voluntary: O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross BWV622 (Bach)

TEMPLE SOLOISTS

Jonathan Stone violin

Julian Bliss clarinet

Tim Lowe cello

James Cheung piano

Our Holy Week Festival ends with Olivier Messiaen’s profoundly spiritual Quartet for the End of Time. Written while he was a prisoner of war in German captivity, the piece was premiered outdoors by Messiaen and his fellow prisoners using the instruments they could lay their hands on, in freezing temperatures, to a rapt audience of hundreds of inmates. "Never was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension" the composer later wrote. The music seems to touch the far edges of human experience. It combines the exotic dance rhythms and birdsong which permeate so much of Messiaen's music, with astonishing depictions of radiant eternity, inspired by the Book of Revelation.

For more information and booking click here.

Sung by the Temple Singers

Introit: Quem quaeritis
Setting: Missa Bell’ Amfitrit’ altera (Lassus)
Gradual: Surrexit Christus hodie (Scheidt)
Anthem: Haec dies (Byrd)
Organ voluntary: Toccata in C BWV564 (Bach)

1662 Book of Common Prayer (Said)

Please access the Church via Tudor Street Entrance

Sung by the Temple Church Choir

Organ prelude: Prelude in G BWV541 (Bach)
Introit: This joyful Eastertide (Dutch traditional arr. Wood)
Setting: Schubert in G
Gradual: Easter Anthems
Anthem: Hallelujah Chorus (Handel), O sons and daughters, let us sing (Walford Davies)
Organ voluntary: Fugue in G BWV541 (Bach)

To include: Five Mystical Songs (Vaughan Williams)

Sung by Temple Singers

To include music by Byrd, Scheidt and Tomkins