Royal Free Music Society Midsummer Concert - Puccini: Messa di Gloria & summer songs

Join the Royal Free Music Society for a midsummer celebration of choral music. As well as Puccini’s vibrant Messa di Gloria, we’ll be singing a delightful mix of unaccompanied late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century pieces.

Messa di Gloria was a student work by eighteen-year-old Giacomo Puccini, written as his graduation thesis from the Institute Musicale of Lucca, in Italy. The musician, who went on to become one of the world’s most popular opera composers, came from a long line of sacred music specialists. This lyrical work combines both traditional sacred elements (such as the Cum Sancto Spiritu fugue) and flavours of Romantic opera (like the grand solo moments). It is very much in the tradition of works like Mozart's Requiem or C-minor Mass.

We will also be performing a selection of late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century English choral music, as well as pastoral and folksongs from the same period. The lyrical unaccompanied pieces by Hubert Parry and Charles Stanford are amongst the most famous works in the English choral tradition.

To complete our summer theme, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ arrangement of traditional English Folk Songs and Edward Elgar’s part songs reflect their affection for the British landscape and a disappearing pastoral way of life. Antonin Dvorák’s engaging Songs of Nature introduce us to a similar sentiment from the Czech perspective.