Handel's Messiah presented by CBS Music

Handel’s Messiah will be presented by CBS Music in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Manchester St., on Sunday, December 10, 2023, at 1.30 pm.

Soloists will be Helen Charlton, Margot Button, Wally Enright, Ken Joblin, and Chris Whelan. The Cathedral Orchestra will be led by Natalia M. Lomeiko, with continuo Janet Cubey and Grant Bartley. Don Whelan will direct. Admission is by programme donation of $25 and $20, available at the door.

This annual performance has continued to attract a substantial audience. Messiah proved a popular choice on the group’s first four European tours, and its concerts throughout the Americas. While awaiting a future cathedral building. the spacious and resonant Catholic Pro-Cathedral, Manchester St, is proving an excellent concert venue and temporary home for the regular cathedral music programme. The adjacent CBS Music Centre provides a substantial second auditorium, with very good acoustics and dedicated lighting, used for rehearsals and chamber music concerts.

At this year’s Christmas Midnight Mass, the CBS Choir and Orchestra will perform Dvořák’s lovely Mass in D Major within its original liturgical context. He wrote it for the dedication in 1887 of a new chapel designed by an architect for a country castle which he owned, and summed it up as a work of "faith, hope and love to Almighty God". We bought the choral music after travelling through the Czech countryside during our 1990 European tour, and in 1994 sang it at High Mass on Christmas Day in Prague Cathedral. The preceding vigil, beginning at 10.30 pm, will contain the usual congregational carols.

Next year, CBS Music continues its popular Lunch Plus Wednesday At One recital series, the Bach St John Passion at 8 pm on Good Friday, and another Christmas Messiah at 1.30 pm on Sunday, 15 December. Concerts for Orchestra and Chorale, featuring popular Bach cantatas, are planned for 11 February, 17 March, and 3 November, a Bach B Minor Mass on 9 June, and a Haydn concert on 15 September. The CBS musical year will conclude with a performance of Bruckner’s Mass in D Minor at next year’s Christmas Midnight Mass.

New members are welcome to join the cathedral choir, which rehearses on Wednesday evenings at 7.30 pm in the CBS Music Centre. Sight reading ability is expected. Those interested should contact the musical director, Don Whelan, ph. 358 5873.