Date/Time
15/06/2019 (19:30)

Location
Bedford Corn Exchange

Conductor: Ian Smith

With Bedford Sinfonia

Soloists: Elizabeth Bottone (soprano), Ben Thapa (tenor) Andrew Slater (bass)

This concert featured the youthful work of two of the nineteenth century’s great operatic composers, George Bizet (1838-1875) and Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924).

Alexandre Cesar Leopold Bizet  grew up in a musical family and studied at the Paris Conservatoire from the age of nine.  He composed the Symphony in C in 1855, and the Te Deum in 1858 during a three year stay in Italy.  It shows strong influences of the Italan style of church music, and as a ‘motet’ it is a fine piece.

Giacomo Puccini was also the son of a musical family and studied at the Instituto Pacini in Lucca and the Milan Conservatory.  The Messa di Gloria is thought to be his graduation piece from the Instituto Pacini and may have been written when he was just eighteen, but it remained undiscovered until 1951.  Both in 1880 and in 1952 it was praised for its spontaneous melodies, excellent structure, balance and harmony.