Concert Reviews

St Matthew Passion 3 Spires 05.04.2025.pdf

Not an official review but some comments about our performance of The Dream Of Gerontius on November 16th!

From a couple of orchestra members:

What an amazing concert tonight. I felt I had to write to you straight away to say that The Dream of Gerontius was both magnificent and moving. James did a wonderful job keeping everyone together and always with a smile on his face. It was such a privilege to be part of it.... Please do pass on my congratulations to James. He should be incredibly proud of what he achieved tonight.

Just wanted to say a huge thank you to you for organising such a fantastic (and huge) band last night. I thought that James did a wonderful job of steering the ship- the chamber choir was amazing- the choir had really stepped up a notch from our last concert- and the whole experience was a joy!

And from one of our Patrons:

Thank you all at Three Spires for last evening’s extraordinary performance of the Dream of Gerontius. Something certainly took flight in the Cathedral last evening – it wasn’t flawless technically, I would be lying if I said that it was – but it had a commitment and sheer raw emotion which I have experienced on few previous performances of this great work and it has been my privilege to hear many over the last fifty years. I confess that the tears were streaming down my face as the Angel’s Farewell was so beautifully sung by Frances Gregory. An old friend of mine, sadly no longer with us, once said to me about any performance of a choral masterpiece such as Gerontius, “Unless your audience is being carried out on stretchers at the end, you’ve failed.” Light hearted, perhaps, but with truth in it. I can honestly say that I needed a stretcher at the end of last evening’s performance. It moved me like few other performances have done. Thank you to all concerned. Magnificent.