St John Passion
2025-04-12 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, 6 The Close, Salisbury, SP1 2EF
As part of the Cathedral’s programme of worship for Passiontide, Salisbury Cathedral Choir performs J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion, a masterpiece of sacred music that vividly tells the story of Christ’s Passion. Featuring an exceptional lineup of soloists and Salisbury Cathedral Choir under the direction of David Halls, this performance promises to be a profound and moving experience.
The St. John Passion is celebrated for its dramatic intensity, emotional depth, and exquisite beauty. Bach’s work draws the listener into the narrative of Christ’s betrayal, trial, and crucifixion with unmatched artistry.
Evangelist: Ruairi Bowen
Christus: Timothy Dickinson
Soprano: Amy Carson
Alto: Anita Monserrat
Tenor: Magnus Walker
Bass and Pilatus: Jack Comerford
Choir: Salisbury Cathedral Choir
Conductor: David Halls

Florilegium with Rowan Pierce - Firth Hall, Sheffield
2025-05-01 19:30 - 21:15 | Firth Hall, Alfred Denny Building, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom
Exploring repertoire for soprano, solo flute and strings Florilegium present two titans of the Baroque in this programme of sacred and secular music in a number of European styles. Bach is represented by a French suite and a German cantata, whilst Handel offers an Italian concerto and an English pastoral ode.
Rowan Pierce was a Britten Pears young artist, a Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a Harewood Artist at English National Opera. Rowan made her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 2017 with the OAE and has returned twice since.

Florilegium with Rowan Pierce - Sherborne Abbey Festival
2025-05-02 19:30 - 21:15 | Sherborne Abbey, Sherborne, DT9 3LQ
Florilegium joins Sherborne Abbey Festival opening with Bach’s First Orchestral Suite – an immensely popular genre in the late 18th century, playing on the dance forms of the day. Handel follows: the charming pastoral air ‘Sweet Bird’ and the alternately stately and lively Third concerto grosso of his op.3 set. Finally, Bach’s sublime secular cantata Ich bin in mir vergnugt professes that the greatest riches are to be found not outside of ourselves but within.

Florilegium with Rowan Pierce - Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival
2025-05-23 19:30 - 21:15 | St Mary’s Church, HU17 8DL
Florilegium return to Beverley with soprano Rowan Pierce in a suitably celebratory programme of Handel and Bach, including Bach’s lively and elegant Orchestral Suite in C together with an expressive and serene secular cantata for solo soprano and chamber ensemble.
The two works by Handel include a famous aria from his opera L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato where the virtuosic parts for both solo flute and soprano present a homage to nature and its sweet imitation of bird calls. Whilst it is unlikely that Handel ever visited Beverley, John Courtney would certainly have known of his work as his music was deeply integrated into the cultural fabric of Georgian society.

Les accents de passion
2025-09-27 21:00 - 22:30 | St John’s Cathedral, Abbeyquarter North, Sligo, Ireland
Ashley Solomon, Flute/Director
Reiko Ichise, Viola da Gamba
Siobhan Armstrong, Harp

This programme explores the intimate, elegant sound-world of France and Italy in the 17th and early 18th centuries, with music by composers who were titans at the time, writing for flute and bass viol. The Italian, triple-row harp was also played in France, described by the French scientist Marin Mersenne in his 1636 work, Harmonie Universelle.
Michel de la Barre was the first (1702) to publish Pièces pours le Flûte traversière. The Sonate l’Inconnuë is the final ‘suite’ and is rounded off appropriately with a gloriously buoyant Chaconne.
Marin Marais was the central figure in the French school of bass-viol that flourished during the late 17th and early 18th century. He spent the greater part of his life in royal service in Paris, playing under the direction of Lully.
The founder of the French flute school, Jacques Hotteterre enjoyed the status of Flûte de la Chambre du Roy, and was the first to publish a treatise to help guide players around the complexities of the instrument.
Jacques Morel was a pupil of Marais. This short Chaconne, from c. 1709, employs the flute and bass viol as solo partners.
The Italian Luigi Rossi was a master composer of operas and cantatas. His music was extremely popular in France where he spent some time working for Cardinal Mazarin who commissioned him to write the opera Orfeo, premiered in Paris in 1647.
Arcangelo Corelli, often referred to as ‘the prince of musicians’, built an enviable contemporaneous reputation as a violin virtuoso and composer of dramatic and experimental music.
Jean-Baptiste Barrière was a virtuoso cellist and composer. After studying in Italy with the cellist Franciscello, he gave numerous performances in one of the earliest public concert series, the Parisian Concert Spirituel, having been accorded special privileges by Louis XV at Fontainebleau in 1733.

Handel's Messiah with Waynflete Singers
2025-12-06 19:30 - 21:30 | Winchester Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral, 9 The Cl, Winchester, SO23 9LS, United Kingdom
The Waynflete Singers together with Florilegium and conductor Andrew Lumsden return to the Cathedral for their ever-popular Christmas concert, with Handel’s Messiah set to bring festive joy to the nave of the Cathedral.
They are joined by baroque ensemble Florilegium and a superb line-up of soloists.
Please book early to secure the best seats.
Waynflete Singers
English Chamber Orchestra
Andrew Lumsden, conductor
Soloists:
Soprano: Harriet Eyley
Counter-: James Laing
Tenor: Benjamin Hulett
Bass: Felix Kemp

St Matthew Passion with The Bach Choir
2026-03-08 11:00 - 16:15 | Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
The Bach Choir’s annual performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Florilegium, sung in English, is a much-anticipated fixture in London’s musical calendar.
The St Matthew Passion features some of Bach’s most beautiful and poignant chorales, alongside rousing and striking choruses.
This is a work that The Bach Choir is renowned for performing annually to an exceptionally high standard.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of The Bach Choir, which was formed in 1876 to give the first UK performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor.

Performers
Florilegium
David Hill conductor
Toby Spence tenor, Evangelist
Simon Shibambu bass, Christ
Lucy Crowe soprano
Carolyn Dobbin mezzo-soprano
Benjamin Hulett tenor
Christopher Purves bass

Telemann Old and New
2026-03-16 19:30 - 21:30 | Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London, W1U 2BP
Florilegium’s fruitful immersion in the music of Georg Philipp Telemann has opened fresh perspectives on the work of a German Baroque composer who bridged the gap between past styles and new musical fashions and cultivated an eclectic ‘mixed taste’, nourished by ideas from France, Italy and elsewhere. Discover Telemann’s seductive blend of old and new in a programme complete with his dramatic cantata Ino, which Elizabeth Watts recently recorded with Florilegium.

Georg Philipp Telemann, Overture: Suite in F TWV55:F16
Georg Philipp Telemann, Concerto in E minor for flute, recorder and strings TWV52:e1

INTERVAL

Georg Philipp Telemann, Cantata: Ino TWV20:41
Georg Philipp Telemann, Conclusion in E minor TWV50:5

Bach Easter Oratorio and Ascension Oratorio
2026-05-09 19:30 - 21:30 | Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, 6 The Close, Salisbury, SP1 2EF
Florilegium joins Salisbury Cathedral Choir and conductor David Halls for a programme of Bach’s music for the Easter season, pairing two celebratory sacred works with one of his most familiar orchestral pieces.

Bach's Complete Brandenburg Concertos
2026-05-18 18:30 - 20:30 | St James Church, Church Street, Chipping Campden, GL55 6JG
The Brandenburg Concertos (BWV 1046–1051) by Johann Sebastian Bach are widely regarded as some of the greatest orchestral compositions of the Baroque era. Director, Ashley Solomon, presents the concertos in reverse order, so that the number of players increases with each work.
BACH JS: Brandenburg 6 BMW 1051
BACH JS: Brandenburg 5 BMW 1050
BACH JS: Brandenburg 4 BMW 1049
INTERVAL
BACH JS: Brandenburg 3 BMW 1048
BACH JS: Brandenburg 2 BMW 1047
BACH JS: Brandenburg 1 BMW 1046

Bach's Mass in B minor with The Bach Choir
2026-05-26 19:30 - 21:45 | Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
The Mass in B minor is a remarkable work which combines all of Bach’s monumental gifts as a composer.
It contains solos, duets, trios and incredible choruses in as many as eight parts, combining joy, sadness, melancholy but, above all, inspired melodic writing throughout.
The lightness and control that The Bach Choir possesses makes this ensemble the perfect match for one of Bach’s most heralded works.

Florilegium
David Hill conductor
Nardus Williams soprano
Helen Charlston mezzo-soprano
Sam Furness tenor
Neal Davies bass
The Bach Choir
