All concerts are in the Big Schoolroom at Sydney Grammar School, unless otherwise noted. Please ring 9332 5895 for tickets. If no admission price is given, the concert is free, and no tickets are required. When three prices are given, the third price is for an unlimited family ticket.

2007 Festival Overview

When we began our biennial Bach Festivals in 2001, one of the goals was to perform all of Bach’s major choral works. In our first three festivals, we essayed his St John Passion, Magnificat, B Minor Mass and Christmas Oratorio. This year, we accomplish our goal with the work that is often considered to be the apex of Bach’s entire output, the monumental St Matthew Passion. We have built this year’s Festival around that work, acknowledging the debt that all musicians owe Felix Mendelssohn, whose seminal performance of the work in 1829 was one of the major catalysts in the emerging Bach renaissance.

Concert I
18 May - 6.30pm

Opening Lecture - Theodore Piekos
Preludes & Fugues - Amanda Miller & Christopher Berensen

Mendelssohn enjoyed immense popularity during his lifetime, but musicians and musicologists in the following century and half have often dismissed the composer as facile and superficial—the prototype for the sentimental Victorian. Theodore Piekos, senior member of the SGS Music Department, will examine Mendelssohn afresh through the composer’s music and his connection to the music of J.S. Bach. The lecture, held in the Edmund Barton Room, will feature performances of three pairs of Bach preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier on harpsichord by Christopher Berensen and two pairs of Mendelssohn Preludes and Fugues on piano by Amanda Miller.

Concert II
19 May - 6.30pm
Tickets - $10/5/25

Nova Camerata Sydney

A prolific and advanced composer at a young age, Mendelssohn was often compared with another great child prodigy, Mozart. Mendelssohn wrote thirteen “sinfonias”, or string symphonies between the age of 12 and 14, works that explored the compositional designs of Mozart and Bach. The Nova Camerata Sydney, a community youth orchestra under the direction of Martin Smith, will perform Sinfonia XI in F Major, as well as Bach’s Concerto for 3 Violins and String Orchestra, BWV 1064 originally composed for three harpsichords. Also dating Mendelssohn’s teenage years is his Violin Concerto in D Minor, which will be performed by Quyen Le.

Concert III
20 May - 4.00pm
Tickets - $10/5/25

Old Sydneians’ String Orchestra

Regarded as one of the first modern conductors, Mendelssohn led the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1835 until his death in 1847. Australian flutist Sally Walker spent several years playing in that orchestra, and she returns to Big School, joined by harpsichordist Christopher Berensen, the Old Sydneians’ String Orchestra and their founding conductor Carolyn Watson, for a performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and B Minor Overture. Mendelssohn’s nod to the Baroque concerto grosso, his Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra, will be performed by Old Sydneians Jye Hong and James Herrington.

Concert IV
24 May - 6.30pm
Tickets - $10/5/25

Violin Recital - Charles Castleman

Chairman of the String Department at the Eastman School of Music, Charles Castleman is one of America’s finest violinists and string pedagogues. He has performed with many of the world’s major orchestras, and was a medallist in the Queen Elisabeth and Tchaikovsky competitions. He will be joined by SGS soloists and the Alastair Mackerras Chamber Orchestra in performances Bach’s Double Violin Concerto and Concerto for Violin and Oboe. As a soloist, Mr Castleman will perform the Bach Chaconne and Ysaÿe’s third Solo Sonata.

Concert V
27 May - 4.00pm
Tickets - $20/10

BACH 2010
Bach Cantatas 50, 69 and 79

The seventeenth concert in our ongoing project to perform all of Bach’s choral cantatas features three particularly festive cantatas. BWV 50, Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft, a fragment from a St Michael’s Day cantata, is one of the Bach choral works that Mendelssohn himself conducted in concert. Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, BWV 69, was composed for the installation of the Leipzig Town Council, and BWV 79, Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild, is one of Bach’s Reformation cantatas.

Concert VI
31 May - 6.30pm
Tickets - $10/5/25

SGS Orchestral Concert

Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony has been a favourite of audiences and players alike since its London premiere in 1833. The School Orchestra, under the direction of Rita Fin, will perform the finale of this sunny work. A number of smaller ensembles from within the orchestra will also perform, including a movement from Mendelssohn’s youthful Octet for Strings. The concert will also feature performances by Grammar pupils on the Mander Organ.

Concert VII
1 June - 6.30pm

Organ Recital - Paul Jacobs

Following a memorable performance in the 2005 Bach Festival, Paul Jacobs makes a return to the Mander Organ for a second time. The Head of the Organ Department at Juilliard, Mr Jacobs has garnered a great deal of critical acclaim for making the organ accessible to a wide audience by dint of his great virtuosity and brilliant musicianship. In addition to other works on this concert, Paul Jacobs will play Mendelssohn’s Sonata No. 1 in F Minor and Bach’s Schmucke dich, O liebe Seele BWV 654, Mendelssohn's favourite Bach work.

Concert VIII
3 June - 11.00am
Tickets $10/5/25

Bach Cello Suites

The cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire, the six unaccompanied suites pushed the boundaries of cello technique in the 1720s, and continue to be both musically and technically challenging. A host of student and professional cellists, assembled by concert director Rita Fin, will perform all six of Bach’s cello suites in this marathon concert. In the morning session, Grammar boys will play movements from the first three suites. Following a lunch break, the concert will resume at 2.00pm with performances by a star-studded cast of professional cellists, including members of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. Guest Artist Daniel Yeadon will close the concert with the sixth suite played in its original form on a five-string Baroque cello.

Concert IX
6 & 7 June - 6.30pm
Tickets $10/5/25

SGS Choral Concerts

Inspired by the choral writing of Bach and Handel, Mendelssohn turned his hand to a wide range of choral compositions, including cantata-like chorale settings, motets, psalms and oratorios. His best-known oratorio, Elijah, was premiered in Birmingham in 1846. SGS choirs will sing excerpts from the oratorio, in a new arrangement for male voices by Old Sydneian Christopher May, under the direction of guest conductor Robin Carter.

Concert XIII
19 & 21 June - 6.30pm
Tickets - $20/10

Sydneian Bach Choir & Orchestra
St Matthew Passion

Famously “rediscovered” by Mendelssohn in 1829, Bach’s St Matthew Passion has long been regarded as one of the greatest masterworks in all of western art. It is scored for two choirs, two orchestras and a battery of soloists. The Sydneian Bach Choir and Orchestra, SGS Schola Cantorum Trebles and Nova Camerata Sydney will present the entire work both evenings. They will be joined by Gregory Massingham, evangelist; David Mackay, Jesus; and Theodore Piekos, Pontius Pilate; Jodie McGuren and Elizabeth Scott, sopranos; Jennifer Duck-Chong and Eliza Newton mezzo-sopranos; Nathan Gilkes and Rabin Bhandari tenors; and Timothy Collins, bass-baritone, under the direction of Christopher Shepard.

If prices are given, please ring
9332 5895 to purchase tickets.
All other concerts are free.

2005 © Sydneian Bach Choir