Gloucester Choral Society, led by Assistant Musical Director Jonathan Hope, present an evening of music by composers with strong associations to Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and the Three choirs Festival. The location of Tewkesbury Abbey therefore provides a most beautiful geographical centre point for this concert.

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Edward Elgar (1837 – 1954) was born in Broadheath, near Worcester, and is widely regarded as one of Britain’s great composers. The Te Deum and Benedictus (op 34) was composed for liturgical services and commissioned for the Three Choirs Festival of 1897 in Hereford. It’s classic Elgar choral music which is thrilling and uplifting with huge dynamic range, soaring vocal lines and interesting inner parts for the organ. The combined length is approximately 20 minutes and provides a perfect opener for our evening.

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Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) moved to Painswick in Gloucestershire, when he was about 21 years of age, at a time when he started composing in earnest. He also worked closely with, and was influenced by, other composers from the region such as Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. Lo The Full Final Sacrifice (op 26) is a festival anthem for SATB choir and organ. Finzi assembled the text as excerpts from two poems by Richard Crashaw. Commissioned and composed in 1946, Finzi orchestrated it for performance at the Three Choirs Festival of 1947. It’s a piece of great beauty and completes our first half.

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Ian Venables (b. 1955) is a contemporary British composer who has lived in Worcester since 1986, drawing inspiration from the landscapes of the region, and is noted for his contributions to English Art Song. He is a Vice-President of the Gloucestershire Music Society and Chairman of The Ivor Gurney Society.

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Requiem (Op. 48) for S.A.T.B and organ, (2020) premiered and was recorded at Gloucester Cathedral by the Cathedral Choir under the direction of Adrian Partington. On that occasion, Jonathan Hope was the organist. For this concert Jonathan takes up the baton as Musical Director and Carleton Etherington is at the organ.

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This is a substantial setting of the Latin Requiem Mass and is approximately 40 minutes long.

“I for one, would be happy to approach Eternity listening to the beautiful ‘Lux æterna’ from Venables’s Requiem” (John France, MusicWeb International)

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