250 Consort
The 250 Consort first came together while putting on a staged version of Messiah in Bath, celebrating the 250th anniversary of an early performance of Messiah in the city by William Herschel. Working for three days with conductor Sarah Latto and theatrical director Thomas Guthrie, the group worked closely with dramatic intention, exploring how Handel’s focus on text informed his writing for instruments and voices.
Messiah 250 in rehearsal, February 2022
THE TEAM
If God Be For Us
Pastoral Symphony (Pifa)
Hallelujah, March 2022
***Newsflash!***
Here is a lovely review of director Thomas Guthrie's work, which includes words on Messiah 250! Thank you to Dorota Kozińska for this gorgeous and thoughtful write up.
"joy, uncertainty, awe, despair and ecstasy were marked with a different shade on the face and in the gestures of each musician, including the instrumentalists"
"The understanding between Latto, who holds the whole thing together, and the director to make every gesture of the conductor both musically legible and significant in the story, to make it at one time resemble maternal tenderness, at another a grimace of derision, at yet another pure ecstasy"
The Essay
Hear Thomas Guthrie's Radio 3 Essay on 'The Well-Tempered Clavier' on BBC Sounds, in which he talks about the Messiah 250 Project.
The Essay celebrates 300 years since the publication of the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier by JS Bach, his landmark collection of Preludes and Fugues in every available key.
In this edition, opera director and performer Thomas Guthrie reflects on the liberating influence of classical theories of rhetoric on early music, and on what it means to be well-tempered…
OUR NEXT PROJECT
GROUNDED
Our newest programme is called ‘Grounded’, which explores the basso continuo and its development across Europe in the 17th century. The programme features music for continuo, strings and voices and includes music by Caccini, Monteverdi, Henri de Bailly and Pellegrini.
Watch this space for more details...