The Bach Players
About the Bach Players
The Bach Players is a collective of like-minded musicians who are drawn together by their passion for the music of J.S. Bach: our enduring inspiration and the apotheosis of the Baroque. We play on original instruments and all vocal music is sung in its original language. We play without a conductor, and with forces that are as small as possible (mostly single strings and single voices). A genuine spirit of enquiry and reassessment pervades all aspects of our performance.
Founded in 1996, we established a series of programmes of Bach cantatas in St John’s Wood Parish Church in London. There we began to introduce some of these lesser-known works to a wider audience. As a result of this we have been invited to play all over Britain and have built up a faithful following. In 1999 we were invited to perform the St John Passion for the opening of the Berliner Bachtage. We have recently started to make programmes in which Bach is linked to other composers.
In 2007 we launched a new series from St John’s Downshire Hill, in Hampstead. This is a recently restored church of 1818–23; we feel that it is an ideal venue for both Bach cantatas and chamber music. Plans for 2008 include our first CD recording, for release later this year. Details of the concerts are in the diary.
Their concerts always strike me as a gathering of friends, on which the audience eavesdrops, an atmosphere that produces consistent outstandingly musical performances.
Andrew Benson-Wilson, Early Music Review, February 2008
Regular members of The Bach Players
Rachel Elliott, Angharad Gruffydd Jones, soprano
Sally Bruce-Payne, alto
James Gilchrist, Nicholas Mulroy, tenor
Peter Harvey, Roderick Williams, bass
Marion Moonen, flute
James Eastaway, Catherine Latham, oboe
Nicolette Moonen, Rodolfo Richter, Anne Schumann, violin/viola, Rachel Stott, viola
Alison McGillivray, cello/gamba
Elizabeth Bradley, double bass
Silas Standage, Nicholas Parle, harpsichord/organ