“Petite Messe Solennelle” translates as “Little Solemn Mass” in French. However, the title is ironic as the work is “neither small or particularly solemn” as Napoleon the Third remarked; it’s a large-scale, joyful and somewhat whimsical musical composition by Gioachino Rossini. Rossini himself acknowledged the irony, calling it a “poor little mass” and jokingly referred to it as “the last of my mortal sins of old age”, a humorous nod to his return to sacred music after a long career in opera. Indeed, in the score he included a plea to God, “Dear God, here it is finished…I was born for comic opera, as you well know! Be merciful then and admit me to paradise”.

It was composed by Rossini in 1863, thirty four years after writing his last opera, in Passy, in Paris, where he spent the last decade of his life. It was first performed on the 14th of March 1864.

The mass was probably commissioned by Count Alexis Pillet-Will for his wife Louise, to whom it is dedicated.

The concert will be performed by the Forres Chorale, the Buckie Choral Union, members of the Lantern singers and Holy Trinity Choir (Elgin), and other individual artists.

Conducted by Brian Smith, who also conducted last year’s huge success with Haydn’s “Creation”, the soloists this year are:

Kathryn Arnould - Soprano 

Barbara Scott - Contralto

 Iain Milne - Tenor 

Andrew McIntosh - Bass

TICKETS

Tickets, at £20, will go on sale at 10am on Monday 25th August and can be obtained from david@pluscardenabbey.org