Temple Music and Temple Song

The concerts in the wonderful locations of Temple Church and Middle Temple Hall, organised by Temple Music, promise a lovely season of events. Temple Song, under the artistic direction of Julius Drake, includes performances from Roderick Williams, Mark Padmore and Toby Spence, whilst there are also visits from the Holst Singers, Lucy Parham and the English Concert.

The season opens with Mass and Motets for an Easter Vigil from the Holst Singers, performing Frank Martin's masterpiece of unaccompanied choral writing his Mass for Double Choir plus music by Allegri, John Sanders and Messiaen (19 March 2015, Temple Church). Then there is a commemoration of another kind as on 21 April 2015, the Liberation of the Concentration Camps in 1945 is remembered with music by Verdi, Part, Bernstein plus music from the Jewish liturgy performed by The Temple Singers, the choristers from Temple Church Choir and the choir of the West London Synagogue, as well as film footage from the period (21 April 2015, Temple Church).

The next Temple Song event is on 29 April 2015 in Middle Temple Hall, when tenor Mark Padmore and baritone Roderick Williams perform Songs of the Sea with pianist Julius Drake and readings from Rory Kinnear. The programme will include music by  Brahms, Faure, Haydn and Schubert, with readings from Eliot, Hardy, Lear, Kipling and Tennyson. And on 8 June, tenor Toby Spencer joins the Doric Quartet and Julius Drake for a programme which includes Elgar's Piano Quintet and RVW's On Wenlock Edge.

Pianist Lucy Parham is joined by narrators Juliet Stevenson and Henry Goodman on 5 May 2015 in Middle Temple Hall, for Odyssey of Love: Liszt and his Women. Scripted by Lucy Parham the evening will mix words and music to illuminate the colourful life of the first piano virtuoso.

The English Concert, conducted by Roger Sayer, with soloists Grace Davidson, David Allsopp and Giles Underwood will be performing Mozart's Requiem, along with music by Schubert (21 May, Temple Church). Raphael Wallfisch performs all the Bach unaccompanied cello suites in Temple Church on 17 June 2015, and the Gentleman of St John's, made up of choral scholars from St John's College Cambridge, perform an evening of close harmony on 7 July.

Full information from the Temple Music website.