Our first concert of 2015 received great acclaim from both audience members and reviewers from Limelight and classikON as we performed a diverse program of music ranging from early-Renaissance master Johannes Ockeghem to modern music, including James MacMillan, Estonian Veljo Tormis plus two world premieres by Australian composers.

Continuing our 2015 concert season and fresh from an overseas tour to Italy, Slovenia and Austria, our next performance sees the choir perform for the first time at the Mosman Art Gallery at 7pm on Saturday 29 August.

Bel a cappella will be presenting music by Johannes Brahms with his German Requiem and Liebeslieder Waltzes. The Requiem, based on the Lutheran Bible, is a powerful and profound composition that has been seen as a personal statement of the composer’s religious convictions, as well as an audience favourite. The Waltzes celebrate a predominantly Schubertian heritage and are quintessential Brahms – full of charm.

Between these two contrasting compositions will be a performance of Abendfeir in Vendig by Clara Schumann. This motet is part of a collection of three choral pieces composed in 1848 on poems by Emanuel Geibel (18-15-1884).

The concert features soloists Celeste Lazarenko (soprano) and Alex Knight (baritone) who will be joined by pianists Jo Allan and Michael Curtain to perform Brahms’ own arrangement of the Requiem and the Waltzes for four-hand piano and choir.

Tickets are available on Bel a cappella’s website (www.belacappella.org.au) or by phone on 02 8064 1729. Tickets are: $45 for adults; $35 for concessions. A discount of $5 per ticket is available for groups of 10 or more, if pre-booked through the website.

“The singers of Sydney-based choir Bel a cappella are sterling representatives of the great tradition of amateur music making in this country and their 2015 season opener demonstrated outstanding ambition and commitment to composers old and new, international and home-grown.”

Clive Paget – Limelight Magazine

• Further information www.belacappella.org.au
• President: Margaret Grove 0414 773 714
• president@bel.org.au

• A German Requiem