We're over the moon to announce that Sony Classical will release our debut album Magnificat - Christmas in Leipzig on 15 November 2019.

Opening with Schelle’s sacred concerto Machet die Tore weit, followed by Kuhnau’s Magnificat which provided Bach with the blueprint for his 1723 version in Eb (including Christmas lauds), the album traces the connection between the three ‘Johanns’ who were consecutive cantors at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig through their festive music for the Advent and Christmas period. 

Our first CD was recorded live at Milton Court in London during our Christmas in Leipzig concert in December last year. A huge amount of work and support went into making it. Thank you to all who contributed to making this happen. We hope this makes for a perfect Christmas stocking filler...

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For our next performance we turn to Renaissance polyphony with a small vocal ensemble and organ.
Taking the ever-present emotions of 'fear' and 'hope' as common ground, we pair vocal music by Schütz, Schein and Kuhnau under the shadow of the Thirty Years War, with works by Byrd and Tallis, Catholics in a shifting religious and political landscape.

Thursday 7 Nov - London International Festival of Early Music
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From the launch to our debut BBC Proms one month ago, it has been a fantastic Prom season for Solomon's Knot! Here's a nice clip of our quirky mash-up with Jason Singh from that launch event back in April. 

Ahead of our Proms debut, we spoke to Jon Jacob of the Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast to discuss how Solomon's Knot prepares and rehearses ahead of performances. Jonny Sells (bass & artistic director), Inga Maria Klaucke (bassoon), James Toll (violin), Kate Symonds-Joy (alto), and Tom Herford (tenor)  joined in conversation.

Have a listen!

We've been working with director Tama Matheson for our dramatised Purcell performance at the Ryedale Festival and spoke to him about his ideas for this performance during rehearsals.

"Purcell's music seems to cry out for some manner of theatrical treatment​"

Read the Q&A with Tama

Ahead of our Prom debut on 14 August, we performed live at BBC Radio 3 In Tune in a special broadcast from the Imperial College Union building to celebrate the first night of the Proms. In view of our upcoming residency at the Ryedale Festival, we played some lovely tunes from the fantasy world of Purcell's Fairy Queen - Act V.

Listen back to the broadcast 

Looking ahead to December, we are delighted to announce our next concerts for the Christmas season. With some wonderfully emotive French music for Christmastide we turn to Marc-Antoine Charpentier with two expressive sacred dramas about the arrival of baby Jesus: In nativitatem Domini Canticum H.416 and the Pastorale sur la naissance de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ H.483.

This is a rare chance to hear us perform music from 17th-century France. Catch us at the York Early Music Christmas Festival on Saturday 7 December where we'll be making our debut, or at St John's Smith Square on Monday 9 December.

From 23 to 27 July we will be ensemble-in-residence at the 2019 Ryedale Summer Festival. Visiting  Scarborough and York we present three different concert programmes: Bach Cantatas for the Feast of St Michael and the Magnificat, our JS & JC Bach Motet programme and A Purcell Pageant in a dramatised concert performance with director Tama Matheson.

Grab your tickets soon if you fancy joining us on this Yorkshire summer retreat!

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This is what the Leipziger Volkszeitung writes of our performance of the 1725 version of the St John Passion at the Bachfest Leipzig, adding it "would also have delighted Johann Sebastian Bach”.

From Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, Wisconsin to Japan, Israel and New Zealand - more than 14k people were able to follow the live-stream of our performance on Facebook, thanks to our wonderful hosts of the Bachfest Leipzig.

We're truly overwhelmed by the terrific response. Recht herzlich vielen Dank!

Jonathan Rees will be performing excerpts of J.S. Bach's Cello Suites in between motets as part of our concert at St. George's Bristol next week, on Friday 7 June. We caught up with the baroque cellist during his preparations:

"I'll be trying to create the impression of a texture as rich as the choral texture of the motets, even though this is impossible!"

​Read the Q&A with Jon