Holst Singers- Illuminations – Sacred Music of Europe – 7pm
Illuminations – Sacred Music of Europe opens our 2026 concert series with a pilgrimage of sacred choral music across northern Europe. Beginning in Finland with the stillness of Einojuhani Rautavaara, the programme visits the choral traditions of the Baltic states and Western Europe, exploring music shaped by prayer, ritual, and light.
Along the way, we encounter the distinctive voices of composers including Veljo Tormis, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Paweł Łukaszewski, and Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, before reaching France with the expressive intensity of Francis Poulenc. Our journey concludes at home in Britain with a radiant finale by Gustav Holst.
Conducted by our Musical Director, Stephen Layton MBE, this first concert sets the tone for Illuminations: a celebration of sacred sound as a shared European tradition, moving from winter stillness towards springtime renewal.
Upcoming Events
SSCS – Messa di Gloria – Giacomo Puccini – 6pm
SSCS is delighted to invite you to our Summer Concert 2026 on Sunday 5 July at 6pm, directed by Oliver Lallemant. The programme is Giacomo Puccini's Messa di Gloria and tickets are available here or on the door. You can download the flyer here. SSCS is always looking for even more members to be a part of our wonderfully fun and engaging choir. There's no audition; we welcome everyone. Email Olly for details admin@sloanesquarechoralsociety.com
Canticum – Gloria in Excelsis – 7.30pm
Canticum’s joyful summer concert focuses on Austrian sacred music of the 18th and 19th centuries, accompanied by two violins, cello, bass and chamber organ.
A work of the composer’s maturity, Haydn’s Little Organ Mass is remarkably succinct, while Mozart’s Missa Brevis in F is more festive and an astonishing achievement for an 18 year-old in its handling of motifs and counterpoint.
Canticum will also perform Mozart’s deeply moving Ave verum corpus, composed less than six monthsbefore his death.
Interspersed with these Classical masterpieces are five of Bruckner’s Motets. These beautiful a cappella choruses, composed over nearly a quarter of a century, hark back to Gregorian chant and Palestrina, the liturgical prince of the Counter-Reformation.
Crouch End Festival Chorus – Reimagined: Monteverdi to MacMillan – 7.30pm
Reimagined: Monteverdi to MacMillan
A captivating evening of sacred and reimagined choral works, blending Renaissance masters with modern voices. Featuring Crouch End Festival Chorus and the Ferio Saxophone Quartet.
David Temple MBE, Music Director of Crouch End Festival Chorus says
When I first heard the Ferio Saxophone Quartet perform last summer, I immediately got in touch and asked if they would like to work with CEFC and me. What is extraordinary is the amazing variety of musical colours produced by this excellent quartet.
This palette of colours works brilliantly for early music, as they could easily pass for cornetts and sackbuts - hence our collaboration performing works by Monteverdi and Schütz.
They are equally at home with contemporary works by James MacMillan, Roderick Williams and Sarah Rimkus. Our concert will be a delicious mixture of ‘reimagined’ works from Monteverdi to MacMillan.