Baroque Splendour | Guildford Choral Society

The season opens with a concert combining two works by the great masters of the Baroque era, Handel and JS Bach, with the world première of a new setting of the Stabat Mater text by Ian Schofield, the Hampshire composer known for his attractive and accessible choral writing. Schofield’s work is scored for soprano solo, chorus and strings and brings a beguiling mixture of musical beauty and drama to the traditional Latin text. We welcome the brilliant prize-winning young violinist Alessandro Ruisi as soloist in Bach’s E major concerto and then Guildford Choral takes centre-stage for Handel’s choral showpiece Dixit Dominus, which reveals the technique and flair that the composer acquired during his studies in Italy before establishing residence in England.