Events Calendar
Fauré Cantique de Jean Racine
Copland Appalachian Spring
Vaughan Williams An Oxford Elegy
Fauré Requiem
Royal Choral Society
London Mozart Players
conductor Richard Cooke
soprano Rebecca Ryland-Jones
bass/narrator Edward Price
As summer beckons there is warmth and contemplation in abundance with the Royal Choral Society’s programme of music by Fauré, Vaughan Williams and Copland.
Alongside Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine and his Requiem – surely one of the best loved in the choral repertoire (and performed in 2024 to mark the centenary of the composer’s death) – the choir will sing An Oxford Elegy, Vaughan Williams’ poignant tapestry of music interweaved with Matthew Arnold’s poetry, which touchingly evokes high Midsummer, musk carnations, gold-dusted snapdragon and ‘that sweet city with her dreaming spires’.
The Royal Choral Society will be accompanied by LMP who will perform Copland’s Appalachian Spring, featuring the beautiful Shaker melody ‘Simple Gifts’, providing an upbeat contrast and some introspective tranquillity to complement the choral music.
The Royal Choral Society, one of Britain’s largest symphonic choirs, recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. The choir has been performing choral masterpieces ever since its formation for the opening of the Royal Albert Hall in 1871, including the UK première of Verdi’s Requiem in 1875, conducted by Verdi himself.