The London Symphony Chorus has previously sung and recorded Puccini’s Messa di Gloria conducted by Antonio Pappano on EMI Classics (2001), and it will be a considerable pleasure for us to return to this neglected piece, consisting as it does of the melodies that always characterise Puccini’s work.

It was originally written as a graduation exercise from the Istituto Musicale Pacini when Puccini was 18, and contains many elements of the drama that later became evident in the mature operas.  Indeed, he re-used some of the themes from this mass in other works, such as the Agnus Dei in his opera Manon Lescaut and the Kyrie in Edgar.

The first half of the evening’s concert will consist of Ponchielli’s Elegia and Verdi’s String Quartet (in the version for full strings).