You can barely move for Messiahs at this time of year. Harrogate Choral Society and Ripon Choral Society stage versions of Handel’s oratorio tonight (December 13) and on Friday it’s the turn of St Peter’s Church in the centre of Harrogate.

What is Messiah’s enduring appeal? The English text and the Hallelujah Chorus help. 

But John Longstaff, director of music at St Peter’s, says it runs deeper. He says “consciously or sub-consciously, it speaks to the inner spiritual self that most of us have, even if we choose to ignore it” and the fact that the text only refers once to Jesus appeals to people whose faith is tenuous.

This is the fifth time Mr Longstaff has put on Messiah. Last year’s performance at St Peter’s was well received, and he was given “gentle pressure” to repeat it in 2025. “What happens on Friday will determine whether it becomes an annual event,” he says.

St Peter’s, which seats 250 people, puts on some of the finest music in the area. 

At Easter it staged Bach’s St Matthew Passion. For Messiah, Mr Longstaff has assembled the choirs of St Peter’s and St Wilfrid’s churches, along with Harrogate Voices, which includes members of the chamber choir Vocalis, members of Harrogate Handel Players, St Wilfrid’s director of music Anthony Gray on organ and acclaimed soloists. Mr Longstaff will conduct and play harpsichord.

The Harrogate district has some exceptional church music. Dr Ronny Krippner has transformed Ripon Cathedral’s choir and Harrogate has the likes of Paul Dutton, choirmaster at St Mark’s, as well as Mr Longstaff and Mr Gray at St Peter’s and St Wilfrid’s.

Church music, however, is more mission than money spinner. Mr Longstaff says Messiah will do well to cover its costs and he’s lucky to have the support of vicar Alan Garrow, who recognises the wider benefits of music at a church that is perhaps better known for its work supporting the homeless, young people and Amnesty International UK.

Mr Longstaff says:

Weekly choral evensong

Mr Longstaff, who was organ scholar at Girton College in Cambridge, arrived as St Peter’s as an organist in 2003 and succeeded his brother Oliver as director of music in 2012.

At St Peter’s, he oversees the only church choir in Harrogate that performs weekly choral evensong. St Wilfrid’s in Harrogate and St John’s in Knaresborough do it monthly. Having a ready-made, good quality choir is handy when staging concerts such as Messiah.

Besides putting on events, Mr Longstaff oversees choir rehearsals on Thursdays and plays the organ on Sundays.

For the rest of the week, he focuses on other musical projects. “When I’m not at St Peter’s I’m at home typing out music for other people to play,” he says. “Right now I’m doing a lot of ballet music. Most famous ballets were written for large orchestra and people can’t afford them anymore so I write them for small orchestras.”

Mr Longstaff, who lives in Knaresborough, has held full-time posts as rehearsal pianist and ballet conductor at the Opera House in Kiel, Germany, and with Northern Ballet Theatre. He was musical director of Sheffield Symphony Orchestra from 1993 to 2011 and is a freelance arranger and copyist. He still conducts Sheffield Symphony Orchestra’s annual New Year Concert, which will take place on January 10.

He says a lot of his current musical arrangements are for companies in the United States. 

His immediate focus is Friday. He says modestly he hopes people leave thinking it was a “decent performance” and want to return to the church. What would he say to anyone thinking of giving it a go?

“It’s a great piece performed with energy, enthusiasm and flair and we want to share our music making with as wide an audience as possible.”

Tickets are available for Friday’s performance here.