Details
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
Broughton Street
Edinburgh
EH1 3JR
Scotland
Programme
Ralph Vaughan Williams – Mass in G minor
Kenneth Leighton – Mass for Double Choir, Op.44
Performers
Simon Leach – organ
Iain McLarty – Conductor
Scottish Chamber Choir
Programme Note
Music is a means of“stretching out to the ultimate realities through the medium of beauty.”
Vaughan Williams
The Scottish Chamber Choir, directed by Iain McLarty, opens its 2019/2020 Season with a concert of luminous music from two great British composers: Ralph Vaughan Williams and Kenneth Leighton.
Written for double choir, Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor (1921) and Leighton’s Mass Op 44 (1964) combine the lyricism of early English music with 20th century chromaticism and rhythmic intensity. The result is a timeless, reflective choral idiom, creating a sense of human fragility and of searching for consolation in a troubled world.
Organ preludes on hymn tunes by the two composers, played by Simon Leach, organist of St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, are interspersed between the movements of the choral works.