We’re already in rehearsal for our next concert in October 2023.
We’ll be bringing you a concert featuring two contrasting works.
Fauré’s moving Requiem, while not on the massive scale of, say, Verdi’s setting of the texts of the Mass for the Dead, is a moving work with some glorious melodies. It was composed in the latter half of the 19th century by one of the giants of French composers, who was also the regular organist at the church of La Madeleine in Paris and also found time to lead the Paris Conservatoire.
The other work in our concert will be Beethoven’s Mass in C. The ‘elder statesman’ of Viennese composers, Joseph Haydn, now in retirement from the court of Prince Esterházy, had been commissioned by the Prince year after year to compose a setting of the Mass for the name-day of his wife, the Princess Maria. By 1806, however, Haydn’s health was in decline and he was no longer able to meet the Prince’s requirement for a new Mass. So it was that Beethoven was approached and agreed to provide a mass for 1807. The result is the Mass in C, a work worthy to succeed the older composer’s series. It is for choir, orchestra and a full complement of soloists.