Another church and another event where it's not really the done thing to take photos during performance. These people are leaving St Andrew in Holborn. The occasion was The City of London Festival's last (I think) concert in their Free Winter Concerts series. This is a large church, but it was full. Those who arrived just before the concert began had to stand at the back of one of the upper galleries, next to me. The City of London Sinfonia (comprising six violinists, two violists, two cellists and a bassist) played pieces by Purcell, Holst, Lennox Berkeley and Bach. For the latter two they were joined by contralto Hilary Summers. The Bach piece was a cantata. Joseph Cullen, the event's entertaining and droll director, told the audience that over the CLS's three winter concerts he'd been highlighting some of the more unusual Bach cantatas, works often not heard in the City. He went on to say that this particular one (Cantata BWV 54...what does BWV stand for?) had a particularly powerful message regarding the nasty things that can befall a sinful person, and anyone unmoved by the piece would have to see the performers afterwards. I fretted that I might miss my train, but fortunately for me the cantata was sung in German.
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