Tickets are selling fast for Axminster & District Choral Society's UK premiere of St Matthew Passion by C.P.E. Bach, dated 1789.

The Axminster choral group will be the first in the UK to perform the rediscovered setting of this music, 234 years after it was written.

The unique event will be held in the Minster Church on Saturday, April 1 at 7.30pm and tickets are selling fast.

In addition to the concert itself. there will be a pre-concert talk about the work and its rediscovery, open to all ticket holders at 6.30pm.

The work was lost after its performances for Easter 1789, and only rediscovered in 1999, so this UK premiere will be the first modern performance in Europe.

In writing this dramatic Passion setting, C.P.E. Bach drew on his father's St Matthew Passion, rearranging some of the choruses for four, instead of eight–part, choir. He also included several of his father's wonderful chorale harmonisations.

While he wrote much of the material, there is more of J.S. Bach in this work than there is of his son.

The second half of the concert showcases several of C.P.E. Bach's delightful shorter works, giving the audience a taste of a composer who deserves to be better known.

The choir will be joined by professional soloists and orchestra and is delighted to welcome two exciting young singers, Alex Bower-Brown (baritone) and Robert Folkes (tenor), as well as its regular soprano soloist Harriet Mountford, in her first post-Covid appearance with the choir.

Tickets cost £12 and £15 and are available from Archway Bookshop in Trinity Square, Axminster, by calling 01404 41907, or online at www.axminsterchoral.co.uk.