Nardus Williams interview

The Bach Choir: You’ve performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, from Glyndebourne to major concert halls across Europe—what have been the defining moments in your journey so far?

Nardus Williams: What I love most about singing is the opportunity to explore amazing music. With each performance, what I tend to get most excited about is the repertoire rather than the occasion. As such, I try to take each performance on its own merits and don’t think of specific performances as necessarily ‘defining’.

TBC: Your repertoire spans opera and concert work—what is it about Bach’s music that continues to draw you in?

NW: There is so much about him that can draw one in. As a singer, he wrote a huge amount of incredible vocal repertoire. On a wider level, his compositions across all genres contain an exceptional density and richness that reward continual re-examination. Additionally, there is an undoubted religiosity and profound spirituality to his writing.

TBC: You’re joining The Bach Choir for Bach’s Mass in B minor—a work that means so much to us historically. We were formed to sing the UK premiere of it in 1876. Is this piece meaningful to you?

NW: It’s an honour to perform alongside a group with such a long and rich connection to a particular work. Furthermore, one of the beauties of performing a large-scale work like the B minor Mass is the sense of a collective undertaking and experience. But when singing this work with The Bach Choir, this sense of communal music-making doesn’t just exist in the moment, but in some ways also stretches back to encompass previous performances in the collective memory of the choir, adding an even greater frisson of depth.

TBC: The soprano part in the Mass is both technically demanding and deeply expressive. How do you approach it?

NW: In a word—slowly!

The soprano part is written in a distinctly instrumental manner. Indeed, in the Laudamus te, the soprano is engaged in an incredible dialogue with the solo violin part, such that it would not be out of place in one of Bach’s ‘multiple instrument’ concertos. This less vocal approach is obviously laden with difficulties, but it is precisely this uniqueness that makes it such a joy to sing.

TBC: You’ve sung a wide range of Baroque and Classical repertoire—how does Bach compare to composers like Mozart or Handel in the way you connect with the music?

NW: I think the way in which I connect with Bach’s music is not too dissimilar to the way in which I connect to Michelangelo. With both, there is a remarkable and overt sense of technical accomplishment in their art, and yet this seems not to hinder, and even enhances, the intensely spiritual intent in what they create.

TBC: Do you have a favourite Bach piece, whether instrumental or choral?

NW: Aside from the more obvious choices, such as the B minor Mass and the Passions, I’ll go with a selection of three cantatas: Ich habe genug, Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, and Actus tragicus.

TBC: What’s coming up for you over the rest of the year?

NW: I’m very fortunate to be singing lots of amazing repertoire over the next few months. I’m currently in the middle of a run of Le nozze di Figaro as La Contessa in Oslo. I’m also very excited to have performances of a number of works by Handel coming up: Alexander’s Feast and Saul in the UK. I will then be off to China to sing the role of Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare.