Sunday 11 am services designated A Choral Feast present the opportunity to experience great sacred choral repertoire, often heard in concert halls, within their original context of a worship service. These services are held about once each month and celebrate a specific theme, composer, or present a major choral work, often with instrumentalists joining St. Bartholomew's Choir. Our magnificent Aeolian-Skinner organ is always a featured part of our musical offerings, including approximately ten minutes of solo organ music before the service, as well as a featured work to conclude worship.
Many of the great composers of the western musical canon have written music for use in worship, including major works such as Masses and Cantatas. Over the years, St. Bartholomew's has distinguished itself as a musical destination by including hundreds of such works, often with chamber orchestra, as a part of regular communal worship. Through A Choral Feast, St. Bart’s endeavors to present these great masterworks as they were originally intended by their creators: offered not in concert, but as a vehicle for worship, in gratitude to God.
Upcoming
Sunday October 1 – Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb
Hear Benjamin Britten’s festival Cantata Rejoice in the Lamb on Sunday, October 1 at 11 am. A Choral Feast. Britten was introduced to the poetry of this work by W. H. Auden, which presents a joyful and idiosyncratic celebration of God in creation. The work has been praised for having “about it a freshness unlike anything in [church] music” and for being “as unlike conventional church music as it could possibly be.”
Sunday, October 29 – Commemoration of All Faithful Departed
A special thank you to the supporters of St. Bart’s Sacred Music campaign whose generosity makes possible the additional rehearsals and resources needed for these services throughout the year.
Past A Choral Feast Sundays
In the past, Choral Feasts have celebrated Americana for the Fourth of July, music of LGBTQ composers for Pride Weekend, and themes of heroism and service for Memorial Day. They sometimes mark red-letter days in the cycle of the church year, such as the Last Sunday after the Epiphany or All Saints’ Day. Recently featured composers have included Felix Mendelssohn, Johann Sebastian Bach, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Tomas Luis da Victoria, among others.July 30, 2023
Josef Gabriel Rheinberger's Cantus Missae, op. 109
June 25, 2023
Music for Pride Sunday
Music of Caroline Shaw, Calvin Hampton, David Hurd, David McK. Williams, and David Conte's Missa Brevis, commissioned by St. Bartholomew's Church in 2013.
May 7, 2023
Music of George Frideric Handel with orchestra
Music of George Frideric Handel with orchestra
Coronation Anthem No. 2, “Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened”
Excerpts from Coronation Anthem No. 3, “The King Shall Rejoice”
Spiritoso from the Organ Concerto in B-flat Major, HWV 308
Andante from the Organ Concerto in A Major, HWV 296a
Organ music by Walton
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April 23, 2023
Schubert's Mass in G with chamber orchestra.
Organ music by Bach and Gade
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February 12, 2023
Imogen Holst’s Mass in A Minor
Organ music by female composers: Florence Price and Jeanne Demessieux
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October 30, 2022
Fauré’s Requiem with orchestra
All Souls Organ music by Vierne
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October 2, 2022
Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb
The Feast of St. Francis Organ music by Handel and John Cook
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March 27, 2022
Vaughan Williams’s Mass in G Minor
and Love bade me welcome from Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs
Organ music by Bridge and Stanford
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February 14, 2022
Modern Masters
Featuring the Missa Brevis of Jonathan Dove
Additional works by Barrie Cabena, Janet Yieh, Pärt, David Conte, Calvin Fuller
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November 7, 2020
Duruflé’s Requiem
All Saints’ Day Organ music by Duruflé
October 10, 2020
Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai with orchestra
Organ music by Bach
January 26, 2020
Music of Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger, and Hildegard von Bingen
Organ music by Beach and Henri Mulet
November 17, 2019
Schubert’s Mass in C Major with orchestra
Organ music by Vierne
September 8, 2019
Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli
Organ music by Vivaldi
August 4, 2019
Bach’s Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied
Organ music by Bach
July 7, 2019
A Modified 1662 Liturgy for the Day
Featuring works of Batten, Alice Parker, David Conte, and Loosemore
Organ music by Locklair
June 30, 2019
Pride on Park
Pride Weekend Featuring works of Trafka, Hurd, Bernstein, and Copland
Organ music by John Corigliano and Ethel Smyth
May 26, 2019
Morning Prayer & Holy Eucharist
Memorial Day weekend Te Deum in B-flat - Charles Villiers Stanford
Jubilate Deo - William Walton
My soul there is a country (Songs of Farewell) - Charles Hubert Hastings Parry
King of Glory, King of Peace - Gerald Near
Organ music by Franck and Alain
May 12, 2019
Mozart’s Missa Brevis in B-flat with orchestra
Organ music by Eugène Gigout
March 3, 2019
Morning Prayer & Holy Eucharist
Featuring the Te Deum in G of Ralph Vaughan Williams
Antiphon (Five Mystical Songs) - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Surge, Illuminare - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Organ music by Vierne and Bach
February 3, 2019
Love Never Ends: music inspired by the love of God & neighbor
Missa “Vidi Speciosam” - Tomás Luis de Victoria
A Song of Divine Love - Grayston Ives
I beheld her - Healey Willan
Organ music by Bach
January 20, 2019
Mendelssohn’s Die Deutsche Liturgie
Organ music by Mendelssohn