Summer Concert 2014

 

Following their joint concert featuring Alexander L’Estrange’s Zimbe! in June 2012 in the Parish Church, and having joined forces with them in Liverpool for a concert in the Anglican Cathedral, the Royal Free Singers were glad to welcome the G:Force Gospel Choir back to Windsor for a third joint venture. The audience enjoyed a cocktail of music for a summer evening featuring songs in a variety of styles and traditions including gospel (of course), jazz, folk, end of the pier show and musical theatre, featuring the suite from Les Miserables.

G:Force, the Formby Arts College Gospel Choir, includes teachers, students, friends, family & colleagues making a truly inter-generational choir! Its repertoire covered many contemporary and classic gospel songs, including student-composed originals and new commissions.

Spanish Tour - Choir Picture

Another great RFS tour!

At the vineyard

Lunch is served

Final concert in Toledo

Bach: St John Passion

The Royal Free Singers Spring Concert: April 12th, 2014

The earlier of Bach’s two surviving settings of the Gospel Passion narrative, the St John Passion is perhaps less well-known than the larger scale St Matthew Passion but it is in many ways the more audacious and original.  The first performance was on Good Friday, 7 April 1724, in Saint Nicholas Church, Leipzig.  After the Magnificat (first performed the preceding Christmas) it was his first large scale work since being appointed Cantor for the Leipzig churches in 1723.

The work consists of the Gospel text (narrated in recitative by a tenor representing the Evangelist, with other solo voices taking the parts of Christ, Pilate, Peter and the High Priest’s servants, and the choir those of the priests, disciples, soldiers and the crowd), ten reflective arias and a set of eleven reflective Lutheran Chorales, the whole being framed by two large scale choruses.

The Royal Free Singers were joined by professional soloists and accompanied by a professional orchestra - a truly memorable performance.

Autumn Concert 2013

The Glory of Venice 

To round off their 40^th anniversary year, the Royal Free Singers gave a concert of 15^th and 16th century music from Italy, featuring works by the Venetian masters Giovanni Gabrieli (O Magnum Mysterium and In Ecclesiis), Claudio Monteverdi (Beatus Vir), Tomaso Albinoni (Magnificat) and Antonio Vivaldi (Gloria), works which would undoubtedly have been performed in San Marco, making full use of its sonorous acoustic, and from Rome the celebrated Miserere by Gregorio Allegri.  

40 Years - Our Greatest Hits concert!

 

The Royal Free Singers  40th Anniversary!  It all began in 1973 when Ben Gunner suggested to a small group of parents, at what was then the Royal Free School in Windsor, that they should form a choir.  It has grown over the years, with Ben still leading the choir, into the group you will see today, well known as a first class local choir performing a wide range of works to delight audiences. At this concert, the singers performed a selection of their 'Greatest Hits', from the very first thing they sang in 1973, 'All through the Night', followed by musical treats from Mozart, Bach, Fauré and many more.