Concerts & Recitals
at the Temple Church

A superb mix of much-loved choral anthems, the concert programme will include the following:

• I was glad – Parry
• My soul there is a country – Parry
• O God, thou art my God – Purcell
• Blessed city, heavenly Salem – Bairstow
• Abendlied – Rheinberger
• Worthy is the Lamb – Handel

This is an UNTICKETED event.

Choir of King's College London

Dr Joseph Fort director

In honour of Rachmaninoff’s 150th anniversary and to open our Holy Week Festival, one of England’s leading university choirs gives a candlelit performance of Rachmaninov’s 1915 All-Night Vigil, popularly know as the ‘Vespers’.

This masterpiece of 20th century sacred music draws on the soundworld of Orthodox worship - particularly the singing of chant and the ringing of bells. An atmospheric way to close the day in this oasis in the City of the London.

_{The performance lasts approximately 1 hour.}

For more information and booking please click here.

Richard Pinel organ

Grace Davidson soprano

This great organ symphony depicting the life of Christ began life in 1921 as an improvisation on the Grand Court Organ inside the John Wanamaker Department Store in Philadelphia! Dupré's improvisation was based on four melodies suggested by audience members including the Easter chants Stabat mater dolorosa and Adoro te devote.

In today’s performance – the first lunchtime concert in our Holy Week Festival – organist Richard Pinel is joined by soprano Grace Davidson, who sings the chants on which this mesmerizing work is based.

_{The performance lasts approximately 40 minutes}

For more information and booking please click here.

Temple Singers

Thomas Allery director

A rich, reflective programme of searingly beautiful European sacred music for Passiontide, from one of London's leading professional church choirs - including masterpieces of the Renaissance, Baroque and twentieth century:

Lotti: Crucifixus in 8 parts
Caldara: Crucifixus in 16 parts
Byrd: Ne irascaris, Domine
Tallis: Miserere nostri
Byrd: Miserere mei
Poulenc: Quatre motets pour un temps de penitence
Purcell: Hear my prayer, O Lord
Purcell: Remember not, Lord, our offences
Lassus: Timor et tremor
Bruckner: Christus factus est

For more information and booking please click here.

The performance lasts approximately 55 minutes (enabling members of Middle Temple to attend 'Music Nights' afterwards if they wish).

Beethoven: String Quartet in B flat major, Op 130

Beethoven’s late period saw a troubled, unwell, deaf man who knew his life was running out writing music of extraordinary intensity, innovation, and profundity. After his vast ninth symphony, premiered in 1824, Beethoven turned almost solely to string quartets in his last years. These late quartets were roundly dismissed by the audience of the day: composer Louis Spohr called them “indecipherable, uncorrected horrors”. And yet this music has had a deep effect on generations since, and is today held to be some of the great art of all time.

The pinnacle of Opus 130 is an utterly beautiful Cavatina which “touches on the richness of the human capacity for love as well as the loneliness of isolation” (Mark Steinberg). The quartet culminates in the Große Fuge, an immense double fugue regarded as one of Beethoven’s greatest achievements.

To perform this epic work especially for our Holy Week Festival, we have brought together four exceptional chamber musicians:

Jamie Campbell, Violin I
Alessandro Ruisi, Violin II
Jane Atkins, Viola
Nathaniel Boyd, Cello

Their residency at the festival concludes on Good Friday, with an afternoon performance of Haydn's 'Seven Last Words of Christ'.

For more information and booking please clikc here.

_{The performance lasts approximately 50 minutes.}

Bach: Partita in D minor for solo violin

Liza Ferschtman violin

In this late-night concert, celebrated Dutch violinist Liza Ferschtman performs Bach’s profound Partita for Violin No. 2, in the stunning setting of Temple Church. The vulnerability and intimacy of the solo violin sonority contrasts with the architectural nature of the music: like this beautiful building, the partita taps into something higher.

The summit of the work is its final movement, the epic Chaconne, which features 64 variations on a short ground bass.  It is widely held to be one of the greatest pieces of music ever written.

For more information and booking please click here.

_{This candlelit performance lasts approximately 30 minutes.}

Haydn: The Seven Last Words of Christ, Op 51

A string quartet like no other, Seven Last Words is a sequence of meditations on the seven sentences uttered by Christ from the cross, framed by an intense introduction and an explosive coda. It began life as a commission from a Jesuit priest for an orchestral work to be performed in the Good Friday service at an underground church in the city of Cádiz. That commission led Haydn into some of the most reflective and deeply emotional music he ever wrote, and his version for string quartet has a heightened sense of intimacy and reverence. 

To perform this timeless work especially for our Holy Week Festival, we have assembled a hand-picked team of elite chamber musicians:

Jamie Campbell, Violin I
Alessandro Ruisi, Violin II
Jane Atkins, Viola
Nathaniel Boyd, Cello

They begin their residency earlier in the week with a performance of Beethoven's Opus 130- at 1pm on Wednesday 5th April 2023.

For more information and booking please click here.

_{The performance lasts approximately 70 minutes.}