Award-winning composer Alison Willis was commissioned by choir member Adrienne Morgan to write a choral piece celebrating life, love, togetherness and hope. Subtitled Affirmation, the work emphasises the sustaining power of friends and family when living with breast cancer.
The Five Mystical Songs for baritone and chorus by Vaughan Williams, first performed in 1911, are set to poems by the visionary seventeenth-century poet and Anglican priest George Herbert. The soloist takes the lead in the first four songs, while the final movement is a hymn of praise for the choir alone, with the refrain ‘Let all the world in every corner sing: my God and King.’
The Mass in G minor has been described as one of the most beautiful and effective masses of the twentieth century. Composed in 1921 for use in Westminster Cathedral, this deeply felt interpretation of the words of the Latin liturgy for unaccompanied double choir and soloists is in the choral tradition of the English late Renaissance composers Byrd and Tallis, whose music had recently been rediscovered.
London Concert Choir has been a significant part of the London music scene since 1960, displaying remarkable musical versatility and expressiveness under the leadership of Mark Forkgen, who recently celebrated 20 years as its Music Director.
A retiring collection will be held in aid of Breast Cancer Now, the UK’s largest breast cancer charity.