Concert- Esterházy Chamber Choir

Ralph (pronounced ‘Rafe’) Vaughan Williams was one of the most influential English classical composers of the twentieth century, but he also dedicated much of his time to collecting and preserving local folk songs, recognising that this form of music was in danger of disappearing from memory in the modern age. Tonight the Esterhazy Choir recognise both sides of the composer’s work, performing the Mass in G Minor and his Three Folk Songs. They will also be performing madrigals by John Wilbye and Thomas Weekes and part songs by Pearsall, Sullivan and Delius.

The cornerstone of the concert will be the Mass in G Minor, written for a double choir and four soloists, and unusual for being the first ‘English-style’ Mass composed since the mid Sixteenth century. Written in 1921 and dedicated to Gustav Holst, it was first performed in a concert venue, though it was intended as a liturgical piece, and has been performed at Westminster Cathedral. It is curious that much of Vaughan Williams’ work was sacred: the composer was great friends with George Bernard Shaw (who he met as a student at Trinity College Cambridge) and was described by his second wife as “an atheist who later drifted into a cheerful agnosticism”. The Esterhazy Choir, directed by David Thomas, are a 24-piece choir based in Lewes, which was formed in 1993.