Two diverse but equally heralded works will be performed by St Albans Bach Choir in their concert in the cathedral this Saturday, March 12.

One is the unfinished Great Mass in C minor by Mozart which was written without a commission and with a soprano solo for the composer’s wife Constanze.

In its fugues it also shows the influence of Bach and Handel whose works Mozart was studying at the time.

By contrast the other work, Fauré’s much-loved Requiem, is contemplative and serene. The composer said it was, “dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest.”

He omitted the Dies Irae from the usual Latin Requiem text, replacing it with the soprano solo Pie Jesu.

Music director Andrew Lucas said: “I recall hearing Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor for the first time as a student and was immediately struck by its power and the beauty of the solo movements, moulded in the style of the great B minor Mass by Bach. It is a mystery that the Mass was never completed, and one is left wondering what a monumental work it would have been if it had, but the highlight movement written for Mozart’s young bride, Constanze, the Et incarnatus est, gives us a glimpse of this.

“Paired with it in our performance is Fauré’s sublime setting of the Requiem Mass, very different in musical style but whose calm and meditative beauty equally matches Mozart.”

The choir is joined by orchestra Sinfonia Verdi and a line-up of internationally-renowned soloists. Rowan Pierce, soprano, Martha McLorinan, mezzo-soprano, Jeremy Budd, tenor, and Jonathan Best, bass.

The concert begins at 7.30pm and tickets are available from here or the cathedral gift shop box office.