The seventh Summer Music in City Churches returns to the City of London from 18 to 27 June, celebrating choral music in the City’s churches, with music in St Giles Cripplegate, St Mary Abchurch, St James Garlickhythe and St Botolph without Bishopsgate.
The festival begins with John Rutter conducting the City of London Choir and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) in Fauré’s Requiem (using the original chamber orchestration) at St Giles Cripplegate, and things come to a thrilling conclusion at St Giles with Verdi’s Requiem performed in Richard Blackford’s practical orchestration with Daniel Hyde conducting the City of London Choir. Another Requiem, that by Duruflé is presented by Freddie Cowley and Corvus Consort in a programme with music by Morten Lauridsen.
These two works help give the festival its theme, Eternal Light, and this is something picked up on in an eclectic programme, Beginning to See the Light from vocalist Eleanor Grant and guitarist Gus McQuade, the string quartet Brother Tree Sound pair quartets by Haydn and Mendelssohn for Sunrise and Sunset and pianist Viv Maclean presents Moonlighting, piano solos for a Summer night.
Tier3 Trio’s lunchtime concert features music by Mozart, Smetana and Lili Boulanger. Mark Bebbington is joined by members of the RPO for Schubert’s Trout Quintet, guitarist Jack Hancher’s programme The Memory Garden mixes Debussy and Ravel with Dani Howard and Laura Snowden, whilst Lucy Parham brings her programme, Reverie: the life and loves of Claude Debussy with actor Henry Goodman. Brass players from the RPO present an eclectic programme of music from Rachmaninov and Prokofiev to Walton and Morten Lauridsen.
Full details from the festival website.
