Our next concert
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Opus 48 | Before the Dawn
Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil, with Ukrainian music of prayer, night and blessing
Opus 48 opens its season with Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil — fifteen movements of some of the richest, most atmospheric and most demanding unaccompanied choral music ever written.
Composed in 1915, the Vigil takes its shape from the ancient offices of evening and morning prayer. Rachmaninoff draws on centuries-old chant and liturgical tradition, but the musical world he creates is unmistakably his own: deep sonorities, long-breathed melodic lines, moments of almost complete stillness and, at other points, an extraordinary fullness of sound. Our concert, Before the Dawn, comes directly from that world. This is music for the hours of night: for watching, reflection, praise and the gradual movement towards morning. Alongside the Vigil, Opus 48 performs music from the Ukrainian sacred and folk traditions. Artemy Vedel’s May Our Mouths Be Filled sits alongside the traditional blessing Mnohaya Lita. A different kind of night appears in Misiats na nebi (The Moon in the Sky) a lyrical Ukrainian folk song in which moonlight, stars and a song heard across the water provide the setting for a much more intimate human story. The works come from related traditions of worship and song, but from distinct histories and musical worlds. Heard together, they reveal very different ways of setting prayer, blessing and the imagery of night, with Rachmaninoff’s remarkable score at the centre of the evening. |
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More concerts this season
🎄 Christmas Concert — A Christmas Wolcum
Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols and carols for choir and organ Saturday 12th December 2026, 7.00pm — University Church of St Mary the Virgin For Christmas, two classics of the English choral repertoire: Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, performed in its version for mixed choir and harp, and Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols with baritone solo. We’ll surround them with more Christmas music for choir and organ - and, of course, a few well-chosen carols for everyone in the church to sing! |
🎶 Spring Concert — Beethoven Missa Solemnis
Beethoven’s monumental Mass for soloists, choir and orchestra Saturday 20th March 2027, 7.30pm — Sheldonian Theatre In March, we take on one of the great challenges of the choral repertoire. Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis calls for huge choral and orchestral forces, moving from immense fugues and blazing declarations to moments of peace. Opus 48 joins forces with The Musical and Amicable Society and an incredible line up of soloists for an exhilarating performance under David Crown: Beethoven at his most ambitious, dramatic and demanding. |
✨ Summer Concert — I Was Glad
Great church anthems, old and new, for choir and organ Saturday 3rd July 2027, 7.30pm — University Church of St Mary the Virgin We finish the season with a celebration of the church anthem, from music written centuries ago to some of the finest choral writing of our own time. I Was Glad will bring together much-loved favourite anthems with less familiar pieces that we think deserve to be heard more often - music for unaccompanied voices and for choir and organ. |
Our previous concerts & events
Our venues
Opus 48 is committed to performing top-class concerts both in and outside of our home city of Oxford. Here are some venues where you can come and hear us.
