The forthcoming concert from the Harpenden Choral Society promises a “delightful selection of music with an English flavour”.
The event on March 24 at St John’s Church in Harpenden is conducted by John Andrews (poictured below), with soprano soloist Emily Vine, organist Benjamin Comeau and a small orchestra. Mendelssohn’s very well-known motet is set to a text by English librettist William Bartholomew and was first performed in London in 1845.
The soprano solo passage O for the wings of a dove became famous when Ernest Lough, a fifteen year old boy treble, made a gramophone recording in 1927 which subsequently sold over a million copies.
Charles Villiers Stanford was Irish by birth, and greatly influenced by Mendelssohn. As Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music he championed English music of the 16th century; his students included Vaughan Williams, Bridge, Holst and Howells. For Lo, I Raise Up, written in 1914, is his most dramatic anthem.
Gerald Finzi, drawing upon Stanford’s legacy and the new English musical renaissance, composed his anthem Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice in 1947. It displays his mature, refined style, highly sensitive to the rhythm of the poetry and elegiac in style.
John Rutter’s Requiem has become hugely popular both in the UK and North America since its first performance in 1985. A very personal work, it is imbued with melody and musical influences of English composers from Tallis to the present day.
Details: 01582 419379
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