Sacred Music In The Minster

The University of York’s acclaimed Symphony Orchestra performs three main concerts each academic year, their programme always culminating in grand manner with the University Choir. Their season comes to a triumphant conclusion next week, in the hallowed surroundings of York Minster, with sacred music by two Italian composers best known for their sublime operas. Here we find them writing, at opposite ends of their careers, two pieces, now rarely performed, that glorify the creator.

Giacomo Puccini’s mass, Messa di Gloria, was conceived as a graduation exercise by the aspiring young composer in his early twenties and full of zest for life. Giuseppe Verdi’s Quattro Pezzi Sacri (‘Four Sacred Pieces’) were written separately during the last contemplative decade of his long life and brought together in 1898 to create a cycle.

This is an imaginative juxtaposition, to say the least, and one which promises a feast of beautiful music.

The University of York Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Peter Seymour, is the university’s largest instrumental ensemble, and the choir is a chorus of more than 250 voices drawn from students, staff and members of the local public. They are joined by two fine soloists who have appeared in many of the world’s great opera houses.

Matthew Brook, bass, now considered one of the finest singers of his generation, gained distinction in 2007 with a Gramophone Award-winning recording of Handel’s Messiah with the Dunedin Consort. He has been greatly in demand ever since.

British-Australian tenor, Adrian Dwyer, has a repertoire embracing works from the classical era to the present day. He recently won huge acclaim with Welsh National Opera, as Anatole, in David Pountney’s much-praised production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace.

Professor Seymour, director of Yorkshire Baroque Soloists and of the Yorkshire Bach Choir, needs little introduction. He has worked and recorded in most European countries and records regularly both as conductor and keyboard player for WDR-Köln and the BBC.

Sadly, this brings down the curtain on this year’s York Festival of Ideas, whose theme in 2019 has been ‘A World of Wonder’. Certainly this concert is a wonderful way to remind us of what this exciting, vibrant and richly diverse city has to offer.

The University Choir of York & University of York Symphony Orchestra perform Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri at York Minster, on Wednesday, 19th June 2019, at 7.30pm.