Latest news with #EasterPassion
Telegraph
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Gareth Malone's Messiah, review: hallelujah for this uplifting Easter choral celebration
I experienced a shiver of déjà vu while watching Gareth Malone's Messiah (BBC One). As the cherubic choirmaster set about coaching eight classical choral novices to sing at an Easter concert in Cardiff, I fought the niggling feeling that we'd all been here before. It turned out, of course, that we had. This wasn't another BBC repeat, but a sequel to Malone's Easter Passion from this time last year. The 2024 performance was Bach's St John Passion at the Millennium Centre's Hoddinott Hall. This time it was Handel's Messiah, four miles across the city at Llandaff Cathedral. Who says TV execs are running out of ideas? Then again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. This was even better than its predecessor – partly thanks to the crowd-pleasing potency of the music and the mediaeval Gothic splendour of the venue. Handel's Messiah is the nation's favourite choral work – a hit since 1750, when it was first staged as an Easter fundraiser at London's Foundling Hospital. Now, 275 years on, came another charity concert, this one in aid of Children In Need. Maestro Malone has loved the oratorio since boyhood, but this would be his first time conducting it. We began with him picking eight untrained singers from hundreds of applicants, before embarking on two months of intense tuition. Learning vast swathes of music meant a merciless rehearsal schedule. After 18 years on our TVs, Malone might be greying at the temples but he retains his boyish enthusiasm and happy knack for teasing out raw talent. As always, the human stories behind the voices packed a punch. Naomi was undergoing chemotherapy for incurable breast cancer but determined to make new memories while she could. Richard recently lost his wife to the same disease and was singing through his grief. Harry was half-deaf but his prosthetic ear had changed his life. It was all testament to the healing power of music. In between the baton-waving, Malone delved into the history of Messiah, meeting experts to explore its religious meaning and place in British culture. Musicologist Dr Hannah French gave him a tour of Handel's home in London's (and Monopoly's) Mayfair. Cardiff vicar Father Jarel Robinson-Brown showed him artworks depicting the life of Christ. Mezzo-soprano Rebecca Afonwy-Jones told him the powerful story of Handel's favourite singer, the scandalous Susannah Cibber. Malone knows his stuff but wears it lightly. He spreads the gospel of music by making it accessible. 'That's enough yakking, let's get cracking,' he told his charges. At the end of one gruelling session, he lightened the mood by performing a serviceable waltz. Strictly Come Dancing producers should take note and sign him up for the next series. The second episode, airing on Easter Sunday, sees a dramatic moment when one singer collapses – ironically, during Thou Shalt Break Them – and requires emergency medical attention. Then comes the main event: a glorious two-hour recital, alongside the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales. As a bonus gift from the Easter bunny, one of Malone's discoveries is offered the chance to perform an inspiring solo. Like last year, this was a welcome opportunity to put a choral concert at the heart of the Easter schedules. The BBC fulfilled its Reithian remit by showcasing high culture with a populist twist. Most of all, it was moving TV, full of humanity and love. Hallelujah indeed.
BBC News
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Gareth Malone to bring Handel's Messiah to new singers with a spectacular Easter concert
275 years after a ground-breaking charity concert saw George Frideric Handel perform his Messiah for the benefit of London's foundlings, Gareth Malone is set to stage his own performance of the nation's favourite choral piece in the magnificent surroundings of Cardiff's Llandaff Cathedral as a fundraiser for BBC Children in Need. The programme has been commissioned by BBC Religion and BBC Cymru Wales following on from a successful earlier series, Gareth Malone's Easter Passion, broadcast in 2024. The programmes will see Gareth trim hundreds of applicants down to just eight singers who have never sung in a classical choir before, and then train them to perform a work that has dominated the British choral tradition for hundreds of years. Gareth's eight singers will reveal even the most inexperienced musicians can tackle Messiah as they bring enthusiasm and hard work to this once-in-a-lifetime challenge. Gareth's new recruits, might not have tried choral music before or even heard of Handel, but they will have just seven weeks from audition to performing Messiah alongside the acclaimed BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales. Also appearing will be a stellar professional cast of soprano Jessica Robinson, alto Rebecca Afonwy-Jones, baritone Roderick Williams OBE who sang at the King's Coronation, and tenor James Way. Gareth Malone said: 'Handel's Messiah was one of the very first concerts that I went to as a child with my parents, and it's a work that my Welsh grandmother sang in a choir. So I am shouting Hallelujah to the rafters at the prospect of sharing this magnificent work with eight complete newbie choral singers. I will relish going on this adventure with them, many of whom are overcoming personal challenges, building to the concert of a lifetime for both them and me.' Richard Farmbrough said: 'Messiah is often described as the world's most popular choral work, performed everywhere from the grandest of concert stages to the humblest of village halls. It also seems to have been continuously performed since the 1750 concert at the Foundling Hospital, and rightly so. With tunes as breathtaking as the Hallelujah Chorus this oratorio is part of our cultural shorthand. We are delighted to be making this series and there is no one better than Gareth Malone to bring Handel's genius to an even wider audience.' The series of two x 60 minute documentaries and 1 x 120 minute performance was commissioned by Christina Macaulay for BBC Cymru Wales and Daisy Scalchi, BBC Head of Religion. The documentaries will be directed by Dave Huw Jones; the performance is produced by Rhian Williams and directed by Rhodri Huw. Richard Farmbrough and Owen Rodd executive produce for Somersault Studio. The programmes will be broadcast across BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Cymru Wales at Easter. The project has been supported by the Welsh Government via Creative Wales. Watch Gareth Malone's Easter Passion on BBC iPlayer MER
