Hundreds attend 'thought-provoking and meaningful' Armistice concert

Audience hears oratorio performed by the Zemel Choir and Royal Free Music Society, accompanied by members of the Wallace Ensemble

An audience of more than 200 applauded a “thought-provoking and meaningful” Armistice concert on Sunday, to commemorate the end of the First World War 100 years ago.

The oratorio was performed by the Zemel Choir and the Royal Free Music Society, accompanied by members of the Wallace Ensemble. It was conducted by Benjamin Wolf, the musical director of all three North London groups.

A lecturer at Regent’s University, London, Wolf’s main focus is typically Jewish music, but in the Armistice concert he used songs and poems from the war, and included one movement combining religious funeral texts – from the Book of Common Prayer and from Psalm 144, sung in Hebrew.

He said he did this in part because the performance was held on AJEX Day, when hundreds lined Horse Guards’ Parade in central London to pay tribute to Jewish men and women who died fighting for the crown.