A Concert of Lenten and Eastertide choral music| South London Singers

The South London Singers under our conductor Nicholas Wibberley would like to invite you to our concert consisting of a number of works appropriate to the season.

The main work sees the choir add a work from yet another composer to the lengthy repertoire performed over its 40 year existence, that of Louis Vierne. He composed his Messe solonnelle for first performance in 1901 and the concert will provide an opportunity to hear this less frequently heard setting of the short mass (no ‘Credo’ movement.) This is Vierne’s only choral composition (he is best known for his works for organ.) Perhaps surprisingly, therefore, he originally conceived it as accompanied by an orchestra but took the advice of contemporaries to make a more practical setting using two organs. At the first performance in Saint-Sulpice, Paris, Widor played the great organ of Cavaillé-Coll and the composer the smaller ‘choir organ’ also by Cavaillé-Coll. This meant the two organ contributions were from opposite ends of the church, an effect deliberately used by Vierne. Later, it was arranged for a single organ: the version used for this coming concert.

The work has been variously described as beautiful, varied, majestic and even awesome. It should certainly prove a challenging first concert outing, in the hands of Jack Stone, for the Beckenham Methodist Church’s newly overhauled and refurbished organ.