Mozart’s Requiem and Allegri’s Miserere

Join The English Concert to hear the St Margaret's Choristers sing Mozart's Requiem in the magnificent setting of Westminster Abbey with a programme of music telling the remarkable story of Mozart's prodigious talent. Allegri’s Miserere mei (1638) was jealously reserved by the Vatican's Sistine Chapel for performance within its own walls during Holy Week. This was until the 14-year-old Mozart, in 1770, struck by the work’s beauty after hearing it on a visit to Rome, went back and wrote it out from memory – and the following year the work was published in London from his copy. At the other end of his short life, Mozart composed two masterpieces of sacred music – the miniature gem Ave verum corpus, a short but perfectly formed communion motet, and the monumental and dramatic Requiem, famously left unfinished at his untimely death but completed by his pupil Franz Süssmayr. Drawing together these strands, is the sublime music of Mozart's teacher Franz Joseph Haydn.

The St Margaret’s Choristers, comprising 24 girls aged 11-17 drawn from schools across London, were formed in 2023 and have quickly established themselves as an integral part of the music of Westminster Abbey and St Margaret’s Church. For their debut concert in Westminster Abbey, they are joined by their regular collaborators, the professional singers of the St Margaret’s Consort, and by the leading period instrument orchestra, the English Concert. The famous soaring lines of Allegri’s Miserere will showcase the “dulcet stratospherics” of acclaimed soprano Emma Walshe, with other soloists drawn from the St Margaret’s Consort.

Programme
Allegri Miserere mei
Mozart Ave verum corpus
Haydn Salve Regina in E
Mozart Requiem

Performers
The St Margaret’s Choristers and Consort of Westminster Abbey
The English Concert
Emma Walshe soprano
Greg Morris conductor