Festival of Bach and Mendelssohn to take place in Oxford

The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra has announced a Bach Mendelssohn Festival as part of its new season. Beginning this November with a performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor conducted by the ensemble’s chief conductor Marios Papadopoulos, the 2024-25 programme will focus on two giants of German music.

Much of the festival will take place over the weekend of 29 November to 1 December, with the Oxford Philharmonic Choir making its debut in a concert featuring Bach’s Magnificat, while bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel will be one of the star soloists in a performance of Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah. Other festival highlights include harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani directing the Brandenburg Concertos and Bach concerts from pianists Vikingur Ólafsson and Sir Andras Schiff.

‘It’s hard to know where we would be without Bach, and it’s hard to know where Bach would be without Mendelssohn. It was the latter composer who, among others, persuaded the world that Bach’s music could resonate outside its own time,’ says Papadopoulos. Felix Mendelssohn was one of the figures who popularised Bach in the 19^th century. ‘There is a potent message there for our own contemporary view of great music, and its ability to speak over chronological and cultural boundaries.’

Elsewhere, the pianist Martha Argerich joins the Oxford Philharmonic for two concerts rescheduled from last year; violinist Maxim Vengerov opens the season with a programme of Mozart in October; and John Rutter will conduct his fable Brother Heinrich’s Christmas in December and Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor in the spring.