Danesborough Chorus Summer Concert

As a tribute to the Coronation of King Charles III on 6 May, we open the programme for our summer concert with Purcell’s Coronation anthem My Heart is Inditing. The programme will also include Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Finzi’s Dies Natalis. The choir will be accompanied by Alina Orchestra conducted by Ian Smith, with soloists Mark le Brocq (tenor) and Benjamin Bevan (baritone).
Henry Purcell’s My Heart is Inditing was composed for the Coronation of King James II in Westminster Abbey in 1685. Handel later used it as the model for his better known anthems written for the Coronation of George II in 1727 which have since become standard for later Coronations.
Dies Natalis is a solo cantata by the 20th-century English composer Gerald Finzi. It features exquisite settings of four texts by Thomas Traherne, a 17th-century English metaphysical poet, priest and theologian, and was first performed at the Three Choirs Festival in 1946 conducted by Finzi himself.
Giacomo Puccini’s Messa di Gloria is a Mass for orchestra and chorus, with tenor and bass soloists. Puccini wrote the Mass as his graduation exercise from the Instituto Musicale Pacini; he was intending to become a church musician. It had its first performance in 1880 but, after hearing Verdi’s Aida, his interests took him away from writing sacred music. The success of his operas meant that the Mass was forgotten and not performed again for more than 70 years, until it was rediscovered in 1951. Since then, it has rapidly secured an important place in the modern choral repertoire.
You are invited to bring refreshments to enjoy in the church grounds during the long interval.