A varied programme of choral music including Stanford’s ‘Songs of the Fleet’ and Te Deum, Mozart’s Missa Brevis in F major and other shorter items, performed by the South London Singers.
What better way to mark the end of the public exam period and the conclusion of our season than a concert of slightly lighter, melody-filled music? Included as a main work is one of Mozart’s many missa breves: the Missa Brevis in F major, K192., which was completed in Salzburg in 1774. It is a compact but complete mass setting and is full of joyful musical ideas including the "Do-Re-Fa-Mi” motif in the Credo movement which appears also in the finale of the ‘Jupiter’ Symphony. Appropriately, in the centenary year of the composer’s death, the second main item is Stanford’s Songs of the Fleet. The composer is much more well known for his church settings, but this is more than worth a listen. The poems of Henry Newbolt set in this suite of five songs cover matters to do with ships, sailors and naval engagements but hold deeper meanings about life more generally. This is a tuneful and varied suite of choral songs displaying Stanford’s abilities as a composer and was premiered to great acclaim in 1910 at the Leeds Festival.
The last of the songs: ‘Fare Well’ became popular on its own during the more modern warfare of 1914-18 which followed all too soon the suite’s composition. To provide an example of Stanford’s church music, we will also perform his uplifting ‘Te Deum’ from his Service in B flat major composed in 1879. A reviewer, Robert Hugill, wrote: "The service is a major milestone in the development of Anglican church music, representing the harnessing of Brahmsian symphonic technique to the needs of the Anglican liturgy. Other shorter items will add further variety to the musical fare to be conducted by Nicholas Wibberley and accompanied by Jack Stone.
For more information and to book tickets visit the South London Singers webpage.
Event organiser: South London Singers