The incredible resurgence in choir music and operatic performance with Rosalía’s new hit Berghain has done more than explode across global airwaves. It has reawakened a collective appreciation for the human voice, making classical music ‘cool’.

That renewed energy found its perfect echo at St Bartholomew’s Hospital this week, in London, where the stunning Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists performed in the newly reopened Great Hall of the North Wing, a space that feels as though it has been waiting centuries for music to return. The performance was simply perfection.

After nearly two years of painstaking restoration, the North Wing has reopened to the public, revealing William Hogarth’s monumental murals for the first time in almost 300 years. The £9.5 million project, powered by Barts Heritage with a £5.3 million National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, has revived one of London’s most extraordinary Baroque interiors. Built in the 1730s for architect James Gibbs’ redesign of the charitable hospital, the Wing houses Hogarth’s The Pool of Bethesda and The Good Samaritan, as well as Jean Baptiste St Michell’s gilded ceiling, his only work in England. Visitors can enjoy these restored paintings unfurling around a grand staircase and chandelier.

Specialists restored every inch of mural and plasterwork; outside, teams renewed the roof, stone, railings, and over 160 sash windows. “The newly revived North Wing is a jewel of the Barts community and a lasting legacy of our 900th anniversary,” said Professor Charles Knight, Chief Executive of St Bartholomew’s.

Into this reawakened architecture, the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists delivered a fantastic performance. For over six decades, the Monteverdi Choir, founded in 1964 by John Eliot Gardiner, has been one of the world’s most influential ensembles, celebrated for its precision, drama, and historically informed performances. Named Best Choir at the 2024 Opera Awards, it continues to expand its repertoire and recordings, from Tavener’s The Veil of the Temple at the Edinburgh International Festival to acclaimed releases of Bruckner, Gesualdo, and Charpentier.

Under new Choir Director Jonathan Sells, 2026 promises Bach’s St John Passion, Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas staged beneath the Cutty Sark, and a European tour of Bach’s Mass in B Minor. The Choir’s prestige was reaffirmed in 2023 when it performed at the Coronation of HM The King (Patron of the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras), prompting The Telegraph to declare: “If the Monteverdi Choir isn’t singing when I get to the gates of Heaven, I want my money back.”

Founded in 1978 by John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists are a leading period-instrument ensemble celebrated for their warm, incisive sound from Monteverdi to Mozart. They have performed at La Scala, the Concertgebouw, and the Sydney Opera House. Recent highlights include the 2024 European tour of Bach and Charpentier, recorded for MCO’s Soli Deo Gloria, and their 2025 appearance at the Edinburgh International Festival. Their legacy includes the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, early Mozart recordings, and landmark operatic collaborations with the Monteverdi Choir.

On Wednesday this week, Bach’s Der Geist hilft and Singet dem Herrn, written almost exactly when the Hospital building was new, felt startlingly at home, the polyphony ringing against walls that once absorbed similar sounds. Purcell’s Hear my prayer unfurled with a quiet, urgent intimacy, as the opening piece, while Handel’s Dixit Dominus blazed beneath Hogarth’s theatrical canvases, an almost fated reunion, given Handel and Hogarth’s historic friendship. Simply beautiful!

Special mention must go to countertenor Reginald Mobley, the Grammy-nominated American singer celebrated for his expressive interpretations of Baroque, classical, and contemporary repertoire. A fierce advocate for diversity in classical music, Mobley became the first Programming Consultant for the Handel & Haydn Society, serves as Visiting Artist for Apollo’s Fire, and leads AHRC‑funded research reviving works by underrepresented composers. He performs widely with ensembles including the Monteverdi Choir & English Baroque Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and Seraphic Fire, and his 2023 solo album Because, with pianist Baptiste Trotignon, featuring American spirituals, earned Opus Klassik and Edison Klassiek awards as well as a Grammy nomination. He performed at the 2023 coronation of King Charles III and the BBC Proms, cementing his presence as one of the most vital voices in today’s classical music scene.

The performance this week echoed the ensemble’s ambition to activate historic spaces, turning art and architecture into a resonant artistic ‘component’ rather than a backdrop. They delivered a powerful show, staged in front of the remarkable portrait of Henry VIII. And in this moment, when Rosalía’s operatic bravado dominates contemporary soundscapes and her brilliant choral composition spreads virally, the return of classical voices to the Great Hall felt on point. The building is open. The murals breathe again with wonderful music and impressive singing.

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Images: The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists give their first performance in the newly restored Great Hall of the North Wing of St Bartholomew’s Hospital on Wednesday 12 November, 2025 marking both a milestone in London’s cultural calendar and the welcome reopening of one of the city’s most magnificent historic interiors Photo Mark Allan.