Pietà - Cadogan Hall - London

 The Bournemouth Symphony Chorus is proud to announce the London première of Pietà, a new work commissioned from the composer Richard Blackford, which will take place at the Cadogan Hall, London, on  Saturday 19th October, 2019. This is the third major work composed for the Chorus, following the critically successful Voices of Exile (2001) and Not in Our Time (2011). Pietà has been jointly commissioned by the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and St Alban’s Choral Society.

Pietà is a setting of the Stabat Mater, with additional poems by the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. It is for mezzo and baritone soloists, SATB chorus, children’s chorus, strings and solo saxophone.  The performance will be given by the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Youth Chorus, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, internationally renowned soloists and the brilliant young saxophonist Amy Dickson. The conductor will be Gavin Carr, to whom the work is dedicated.  

 The St Alban’s Choral Society will perform it in the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, Hertfordshire on Saturday 25 April 2020 with Orchestra Nova under Georg Vass to celebrate the Chorus’s 75^th anniversary. 

The work will be recorded for Nimbus shortly after the first performance.