Preview: Consort of Twelve – Concerti Spiritosi

18 May, St. John’s Chapel, Chichester

Chichester’s period-instrument ensemble, the Consort of Twelve, begins its 2025 season on Sunday 18 May at 3.00pm in St John’s Chapel, Chichester.

The Consort is delighted to welcome back the internationally-acclaimed violinist Julia Bishop to direct. Julia has chosen to feature different types of concerto, and the programme includes one of Vivaldi’s best-known, the Concerto alla rustica, which is for string orchestra.

The word “concerto” usually suggests a soloist, and Julia will perform Torelli’s elegant and intricate Violin Concerto in D minor.

At its core, the Consort of Twelve consists of a string group with harpsichord, but for this concert a bassoonist and two oboists have been invited to play concertos with the ensemble.

Fergus Butt will play Vivaldi’s virtuosic Bassoon Concerto in E minor, one of the composer’s most popular works of this kind for the instrument. Oboists Andrés Villalobos Lépiz and Hannah Blumsohn will play Albinoni’s Concerto for Two Oboes in F.

The concert will end with yet another style of concerto, Corelli’s Concerto Grosso in D. Written for string orchestra, but with solo parts for two violins and cello, it is considered one of the best examples of a concerto grosso, and inspired Handel to write his own. For this final work the wind instruments will join with the string ensemble.

Lynden Cranham