The first concert of our 2024/25 season pairs contrasting Mass settings by two very different composers - the 19th century late romantic Austrian Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) and the 20th century modernist Russian-French-American Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971).

 

Bruckner's expansive Mass in E minor (1866) was composed to mark the completion of the Votive Chapel of Linz’s New Cathedral and is scored for eight-part choir and an ensemble of fifteen wind instruments: oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets and trombones. The first performance, which used  sizable forces - three vocal ensembles and instrumentalists from one of Linz’s military bands, took place on the square outside the Cathedral. Years later, Bruckner recalled the day of the premiere as ‘the most magnificent of my entire life’. 

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Stravinsky's much more succinct setting was written between 1944 and 1948 and is also accompanied by wind intruments - two oboes, English horn, two bassoons, two trumpets, and three trombones. The choir is in four parts with significant contributions from soloists in the Gloria and Sanctus; Bruckner's mass is entirely choral apart from the brief intonations for the Gloria and the Credo.. 

 

Speaking of the Credo of his mass Stravinsky said:

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“One composes a march to facilitate marching men, so with my Credo I hope to provide an aid to the text. The Credo is the longest movement. There is much to believe."

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Our programme is completed with The heavens declare the glory of God, a setting of verses from Psalm 19 by our tenor colleague Peter Burton, and movements from Jonathan Dove's Figures in the Garden for wind octet.