Preview: St Luke Passion

Chalmers Church, 69b, Morningside Road, Edinburgh EH10 4AZ. Saturday 16th November at 7.30pm

St Luke Passion, composed by Nigel Don

 I have sung several of Nigel Don’s songs over the past few years, and have found his compositions accessible, melodic and extremely interesting. He has recently composed a St Luke Passion, describing the trial, death and burial of Jesus, for an amateur choir and a small professional orchestra, and it will receive its first performance this coming Saturday, 16th November, in Chalmers Church, at 7.30pm. It lasts about 75 minutes and plays without an interval.

Written in the spirit of the great Bach Passions, Nigel wanted to write a piece for community performance, without grand soloists or a large orchestra.

The work is entirely in English, with a spoken narration by David Laing. It is book-ended by two sections of ‘Isaiah’ to give it Old Testament perspective, and is interspersed with songs, rather like the arias in the Bach works. Nigel Don will conduct and the orchestra is led by Robert Dick.

This promises to be an extremely interesting and innovative evening, and I would encourage our readers to come along. Tickets are £14 (£10 concession).