One hundred years ago the guns fell silent on the world’s first truly global war. Through this concert Ealing Choral Society will honour those who lived and died during that tragic and remarkable time. Our choice of programme reflects not only on the terrible loss of life during the conflict, but also reaffirms a powerful and deep desire for peace.

The music begins with a Mass for the Dead written by Gabriel Fauré towards the end of the nineteenth century, of which the composer said “my Requiem is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest”.

In the second half of the concert you will hear Requiem da Camera which Gerald Finzi composed in memory of his teacher Ernest Farrar who died on the Somme. This is followed by two pieces by Edward Elgar: Lux Aeterna (Eternal Light) which you may recognise as Nimrod from Enigma Variations and is known as one of his most impassioned utterances, and the heartfelt orchestral adagio Sospiri (Sighs) which he composed in 1914 as the storms of war gathered.

The final item will be Hubert Parry’s stirring anthem I was Glad, which is a prayer for the peace and prosperity of Jerusalem.

The music will be interwoven with powerful poetry and prose most of which was written by those who lived through World War One and had to face the aftermath of overwhelming grief at the death and maiming of so many on both sides of the conflict. (Wilfred Owen was himself a victim in the final week of the war.)

At the end of the first half of the concert a wreath will be laid at the St Barnabas War Memorial, which was constructed in 1921, and renovated in 2014 with support from the Pitshanger Community Association.