Handel's Messiah

Handel’s Messiah will be presented by CBS Music in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, 373 Manchester St., on Sunday, December 1, 2024, at 1.30 pm.

Soloists will be Courtney Hickmott, Thomas Woodfield, 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 $30 and $25, with Eftpos available.

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 Mozart’s Coronation Mass. His best-known Mass had become celebrated at imperial coronations by the 1790’s. There is majesty in the music, as at the solemn opening of the Kyrie and the bold Sanctus, but also the lilt of Austrian folk music in the Gloria and Benedictus, ravishing elegance in the soprano Agnus Dei solo, and even martial clamour at the end of the Dona Nobis Pacem

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, 30 November. Concerts for Orchestra and Chorale, featuring delightful Monteverdi motets and Bach cantatas, are planned for 16 February, 30 March, and 21 June. On 21 September, the annual Haydn concert will include his last great Harmoniemesse, and the Mozart Requiem will honour All Souls Day, 2 November.. The CBS musical year will conclude with a performance of Haydn’s St Nicholas Mass 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.