YORKSHIRE Bach Choir’s 7.30pm programme on Saturday at St Michael-le-Belfrey Church, High Petergate, York, focuses on the music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, the most important composer of sacred music in late 17th century France.

“We have performed his music on many occasions and we’re always struck by the immediacy, energy and beauty of his compositions,” says conductor Peter Seymour.

“Charpentier blended the elegance and charm of the French court fashions with the latest Italian styles, and our sequence of psalms and motets comprises some of his most expressive music, including Le Reniement de St Pierre with its famous final chorus matching that of Carissimi’s Jepthe.”

Tickets are available at £14, concessions £12, on 01904 658338, online at ncem.co.uk or on the door.

Looking ahead, Yorkshire Bach Choir will end its 32nd season on Saturday, June 25 with Bach’s Lutheran Mass in G, one of his four smaller-scale Latin masses, setting the words of the Kyrie and Gloria, alongside two great cantatas.

“Cantata 131 has a sombre intensity in its setting of Psalm 130 (Out Of The Deep), while the great Reformation Cantata (No. 80), Ein Feste Burg, is one of the most famous of Bach’s cantatas and is based on the great affirmative chorale, possibly composed by Luther himself,” says Peter.

“This is a very exciting programme to conclude the season. Yorkshire Bach Choir hasn’t performed the two cantatas before and the Lutheran Mass only once, so this completes a season of discovery for both choir and audience.”

Tickets for this 7.30pm concert in St Michael-le-Belfrey cost £20, concessions £18.

Earlier that week, on Wednesday, June 22, Peter will conduct the University of York Choir and Symphony Orchestra in a 7.30pm concert at York Minster.

Combining the forces of the university choir and orchestra will provide a rare opportunity to hear a live performance of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony (No. 9 in D minor) and its fourth movement setting of Schiller’s Ode To Joy (An die Freude).

Next month’s concert also will feature Mozart’s Mass in C minor, first performed in Salzburg in 1783.

“This work remained incomplete at Mozart’s death but nevertheless works wonderfully as a concert piece,” says Peter. “It shows the pomp and solemnity of Salzburg’s traditions at this time and yet looks forward to Haydn’s symphony-masses, as well as to Mozart’s operas, with some spectacular arias, a duet and trio.

Soloists will be sopranos Rachel Nicholls and Marina Theodoropoulou, alto Cara Curran, tenor Joshua Ellicott and bass Roderick Williams.

Tickets cost £5 (students) to £20 on 01904 322439 or online at YorkConcerts.co.uk. Anyone aged under 16 will have free admission, if accompanied.