Bach's St Matthew Passion

Ex Cathedra Choir & Baroque Orchestra bring St Matthew Passion to Beacon Hall on Thursday 25 March 2027. It's a big one: Bach's massive double-choir oratorio, sung in German with English surtitles, and it's part of the Bristol Beacon's 2026/27 Orchestral Season. Jeffrey Skidmore conducts, with Sebastian Hill taking the role of the Evangelist.

If you're not familiar with the piece, it first sounded through St Thomas' Church in Leipzig on Good Friday 1727. Nearly 300 years later it still holds up, and it's a long stretch of music that runs through the whole range of human emotion — stirring choruses, heartfelt arias, and richly coloured orchestral writing. It's sung in German, but there are English surtitles to follow along with, and the whole thing runs three hours and ten minutes, including one 30-minute interval.

It sits within the Beacon's 2026/27 Orchestral Season, which names the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra as Orchestra in Residence with Principal Conductor Mark Wigglesworth and brings 19 concerts to the city. Beacon Hall itself re-opened in 2023 after extensive refurbishment and has built a reputation as one of the country's finest concert halls, with world-class acoustics and the Britton Organ.

Doors open at 18:00 and the music starts at 18:30. Tickets run from £10 to £58 across five price bands, with Premium at £58 and Band D at £16, and a £10 ticket for under-26s.