There’s nothing quite like the sound of epic choral works performed by a powerful ensemble – whenever a choir’s involved, the intensity seems to be amplified tenfold!
Ahead of our 150th season, we’ve looked back at some of the incredible works which we’ve performed over the years and picked six of our favourite choral epics. They’re listed in no particular order – they’re works which are enormous in their scale, their message and their impact on the choral repertoire. Be sure to let us know if you agree with them – you can find all of our social media pages linked at the bottom of this page!
St Matthew Passion
We may be biased on this one, as we’ve been performing this work annually for 95 years now – but Bach’s St Matthew Passion, written in 1727, is a work of enormous scale which carries a hugely emotional message. The piece follows the story of the last days of Christ, and features some incredibly memorable melodies, moving scenes and arresting orchestral work. And if you don’t think it’s as epic as the other works in this list, make sure you see it live and experience the power of the crowd’s shout of ‘Barrabas’ during Part II.
Here’s a clip of us singing this work with Florilegium live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in rehearsal…
Carmina Burana
Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana was written in 1936 – and it’s one of the most recognisable pieces of choral music ever written. O Fortuna, the most famous movement from the work, has soundtracked TV shows like the X Factor, games like World Of Warcraft and a famous ad campaign for Old Spice amongst many other things. The piece requires a huge vocal ensemble – annual performances of this piece in the Royal Albert Hall that we’ve taken part in have often combined 4 or 5 different choirs to create the wall of sound that Orff was looking for when he composed the work. You can hear a snippet from one of our rehearsals below, and you can listen to a special episode of our podcast, Change Your Tune, which was written all about Carmina Burana here.
Mahler’s Eighth Symphony
You’d imagine a work of such huge scale would take a long time to compose, but for Mahler that wasn’t the case. He wrote the work in just 2 months – he said that rather than writing the work himself, he was simply dictating music that a higher power was sending to him. This piece is often nicknamed the ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ due to the enormous ensemble that’s required to perform it – it requires a 120 piece orchestra, two choirs (each with a minimum of 32 members) and eight (yes, eight) vocal soloists.
Like all of these choral epics, it’s a work which really should be experienced live – we’re looking forward to singing it on Thursday 9 October at the iconic venue of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Tickets are available here.
Handel’s Messiah
Handel’s Messiah astoundingly beats Mahler’s 8th Symphony in terms of the sheer speed of composition – Handel completed the work in an astonishing 24 days! The piece is mostly known for its Hallelujah Chorus, which features the word ‘Hallelujah’ approximately 48 times. The chances are you can hear it in your head just reading that sentence! Like many composers, Handel felt like he was in a trance when he wrote this work – just after he finished composing the work, he was quoted saying “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne, with His company of Angels.”
Recently on our podcast, Change Your Tune, David Hill discussed the ubiquity of Handel’s Messiah with comedian and choral singer Lloyd Griffith. You can listen to the full episode here.
Verdi’s Requiem
The Dies Irae from Verdi’s Requiem is unmistakable – the huge orchestra rises and falls like a stormy sea while the choir sings of the ‘day of wrath’ (the translation of ‘dies irae’). Verdi wasn’t quoted as saying this, but it seems very likely that he had a complicated relationship with death – in his Requiem he chooses to focus on the terror of meeting the ‘day of wrath’ rather than the angles which some other composers took with their settings of the Requiem Mass – Fauré’s and Duruflé’s works, for example, were much calmer than Verdi’s, which some people call his ‘sacred opera’.One composer who was hugely influenced by the Dies Irae is Harry Gregson-Williams, a film composer who has written the scores for Gladiator II,The Martian, Kingdom of Heaven and many more. In this exclusive interview with our Musical Director, David Hill, Gregson-Williams discusses how this piece inspired him so much.
Belshazzar’s Feast
Belshazzar’s Feast was composed by William Walton in 1931 – it was initially commissioned by the BBC as a ‘small choral work’. When the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham heard about it, he gave Walton some advice – “Why don’t you throw in two brass bands as well? After all, nobody will hear it again.” Thankfully, Beecham was wrong about how often the piece would be performed – this work is one of the most performed pieces in the repertoire, and for very good reason. It uses those two brass bands, an enormous orchestra with four percussionists, an eight-part choir and a baritone soloist to create a truly enormous and very exciting sound. You can hear our Musical Director David Hill’s guide to the piece in the video below.
We regularly perform many of these iconic works with some of the world’s best orchestras, so make sure you check to see when we’re next singing them here.