Category: Previous Concert

Poulenc Gloria, Janáček Glagolitic Mass

Francis Poulenc – Gloria
Leoš Janáček – Glagolitic Mass


Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, so-named as it uses a ninth century text written in Old Church Slavonic, is also known as the Slavonic Mass. Rather than a traditional sacred piece, Janáček is thought to have conceived his mass as a celebration of Slavic culture and the pan-Slavic movement that he supported.

The Glagolitic Mass was first performed in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in April 1926. It is a highly original work for choir, organ and orchestra that expresses dramatic energy and tenderness in equal measure, and is recognised today as one of most significant contributions to choral music in the twentieth century.

Poulenc’s Gloria is a joyful rendering of the Gloria text from the Catholic Mass, and one of Poulenc’s most celebrated works. Scored for soprano, choir and large orchestra, it was composed in 1959 and first performed in 1961 in Boston to critical acclaim. Poulenc was known for composing music of sharp contrasts and his Gloria, which is jocund as well as solemn, is no exception.

Always Moving On is a brand new work for choir and orchestra, written by newcomer Christopher Ashley. An eight-minute orchestral march of aspiration and healing, it provides a modern twist to the familiar and popular format pioneered by Elgar and Walton in the early 20th century. The piece gives expression to the timeless virtues of hope, joy, patience and tolerance, offering respite from uncertainty and gloom.

Family Carols

Family Carols

Highgate Choral Society’s annual family carols concert has become an unmissable event, with plenty of variety and audience participation, plus your first taste of mince pies and mulled wine of the season! Early booking is advised as this is always a sell-out.

Beethoven Missa Solemnis

Beethoven – Missa Solemnis
Ina Boyle – Soldiers at Peace

Beethoven’s great Missa Solemnis is thought to have been intended for the occasion of the installation of his friend and patron Archduke Rudolph as Archbishop of Olmütz in 1820. But from the first, Beethoven saw it as an expression of his own deep spiritual convictions and as an enduring testament to the ardour of his faith.

First performed in St. Petersburg on 24 April 1824, the Missa Solemnis is regarded as a supreme achievement in choral music. Beethoven famously inscribed on the first page of the score: “From the heart – may it return – to the heart.”

Ina Boyle’s Soldiers at Peace is a short, rarely performed setting for choir and orchestra of a war sonnet by Herbert Asquith, second son of the British Prime Minister. Written during the First World War, it was performed in 1920 and enthusiastically received. Ina Boyle was Ireland’s most significant women composer before the 1950s, whose early talent was recognised by teachers including Vaughan Williams.

Haydn – St Nicholas Mass, Britten – Saint Nicolas

Joseph Haydn – St Nicholas Mass
Benjamin Britten – Saint Nicolas

Although we associate the person we have come to know as Santa Claus with the celebration of Christmas, Britten‘s St Nicolas was commissioned to celebrate the centenary of Lancing College, Sussex and was given its first official performance there in July 1948. However, there had been an unofficial première six weeks earlier as part of the opening concert for the first ever Aldeburgh Festival. Both were conducted by the composer, with the role of Nicolas sung by Britten’s partner, Peter Pears, a former pupil at the College.

More than two centuries earlier Joseph Haydn composed his St Nicholas Mass to celebrate the nameday, 6th December, of his employer, Prince Nicolaus Esterházy. The Mass follows the usual format of Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei and while it is comparatively short it shares all the trademarks of joy, vivacity and tunefulness as the masses he wrote in his old age.

Bernstein – Chichester Psalms

Leonard Bernstein – Chichester Psalms

2018 marks the centenary of the birth of composer, conductor, author, music lecturer and pianist Leonard Bernstein, whose most famous scores include West Side Story, On the Town, Candide and On the Waterfront.

Commissioned from Bernstein by the Dean of Chichester Cathedral for the 1965 Southern Cathedrals Festival, the Chichester Psalms received its UK premiere on 31st July 1965 and has gone on to become a highly popular staple of choral societies to this day. Consisting of three short movements, the Chichester Psalms is sung in Hebrew.

Our programme of 20th- and 21st-century compositions is completed with choral works by Janáček, Morten Lauridsen and Vaughan Williams.

Handel – Israel in Egypt

George Frideric Handel – Israel in Egypt

“The horse and his rider hath He thrown in to the sea.” These are the final words of Israel in Egypt, which sets to music passages from the Old Testament Book of Exodus and Psalms. The libretto is believed to have been prepared by Charles Jennens, who was also to compile the biblical texts for Messiah a few years later.

Frogs, pestilence, flies, lice, locusts, hailstones, fire, darkness and the parting of the Red Sea all feature in this extraordinarily dramatic oratorio, composed by Handel in one month.

HCS musical director Ron Corp shares his thoughts on Handel’s work in this video.

Mozart Mass in C, Szymanowski Stabat Mater

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Mass in C Minor K427
Karol Szymanowski – Stabat Mater

Free pre-concert talk by Ronald Corp at 6.20pm.

Works written for two very different occasions form the opening concert in Highgate Choral Society’s 2017-2018 season. Following the recovery from illness of his fiancée, Constanze Weber, Mozart promised to write a mass of thanksgiving. Although it was never completed the Mass in C minor was premièred, in its incomplete state, with Constanze as one of the soprano soloists, in Salzburg on 26th October 1783 and harks back to the Baroque world of Handel and Bach.

Originally commissioned by the Polish-born art collector Bronislaw Krystall to write a requiem commemorating his wife’s death, Karol Szymanowski decided to change the contract and instead composed what is considered to be his greatest masterpiece. The inspiration for his Stabat Mater was the tragic death of his niece, Alinka and the subsequent suffering of his pregnant sister, who was soon to lose another child. Completed in 1926, Stabat Mater is of fundamental importance in the history of Polish music after Chopin.