Songs for a Summer Evening
We mark the Centenary of the death one of the great figures of English music, Sir Hubert Parry, in a programme which features some of his part songs and motets. Our performances on 7 July in Kew and 14 July in Oakley complement Parry’s works with other great choral favourites composed from the mid-19th century to the present day. These include the setting of words by John Bunyan, Valiant-for-truth, by Parry’s pupil Vaughan Williams, the enduringly popular madrigal Lay a Garland by Robert Pearsall and three of John Rutter’s delightful Birthday Madrigals.
The programme also contains three pieces commissioned by the JCS. Judith Bingham’s Distant Thunder, a subtle re-working of Parry’s My soul there is a country, was commissioned for a Gala concert in 2010. More recently Alexander Campkin’s Dazzling Darkness was premiered in 2014 and Toby Young’s suite of pieces with a strong element of dance, Dancing Star, was co-commissioned with two other choirs and first performed in 2016. In all these pieces it is clear that the English choral tradition is alive and very well – do come and hear us!
Further details about venues and tickets here