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More than 550 classical music lovers from across the region visited Worcester Cathedral on Saturday 9th December to hear Worcester Festival Choral Society's performance of Handel's Messiah, one of the world’s best-loved choral works.

Welcoming in the Christmas season in grand musical style, the concert featured the Meridian Sinfonia orchestra playing period-pitch instruments, and acclaimed young soloists Mary Walker (soprano), Tim Morgan (countertenor), Hugo Hymas (tenor) and Benjamin Beurklian-Carter (baritone).  Peter Nardone, Organist & Director of Music at Worcester Cathedral, conducted.

Ben Cooper, Chairman of Worcester Festival Choral Society, said: “Handel’s Messiah is always one of the most popular highlights in the concert calendar. Our 140 singers were in cracking form, and added to our superb soloists and Baroque-pitch orchestra, it was a real treat to both perform and listen to. We received some wonderful feedback from members of the audience!”

Handel’s Messiah is amongst the most popular pieces of choral music ever written, and includes familiar choruses such as For unto us a child is born, And he shall purify, and All we like sheep. The rousing Hallelujah chorus is the most famous however, for which audiences usually stand – a tradition thought to have begun when King George II rose to his feet at the debut London performance in 1743.

Established in 1861, Worcester Festival Choral Society’s singers are selected from across the County. The society stages three major concerts in Worcester Cathedral each year, performing some of the world’s ‘great choral works’ both old and new. A popular Come and Sing event each spring also gives non-members a chance to learn a choral classic in a day. Many WFCS members also sing in the world-renowned, annual Three Choirs Festival, which in 2018 takes place in Hereford.