Our Summer concert for 2026 celebrates the greats of Baroque music with a programme pairing Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas with Vivaldi’s Gloria.
The concert – which takes place at St Gabriel’s Church in Pimlico – will involve 100-plus singers from several of our programmes: Pimlico Chorus, Children’s Choir, Foundation Scholars and Young Leaders. Accompanying us will be a professional 10-piece Baroque orchestra. The performance will mark the end of PMF's 10th Year celebrations, rounding off this milestone year with a jubilant finale.. And we’re inviting you to come and celebrate with us!
Book your ticket via the widget at the top of the page, and read more about what to expect from the performance below.
About the pieces
Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, one of the earliest and most enduring English operas, is particularly pertinent to PMF as he lived on Pimlico’s Marsham Street at the time of writing the work. Although this music is often performed by adults, its original purpose was for it to be sung by school-age children, having been written originally for Josias Priest's Boarding School for Girls in Chelsea. The tale behind the opera is one that will engage the whole family, from children to grandparents; it involves a rocky love story between two monarchs, intercepted by a plot from an evil sorceress and her coven of witches to instigate the downfall of Dido and her kingdom. Will the evil forces succeed or fail? And what impact will this have on the blossoming relationship between Dido and the Trojan prince, Aeneas? You’ll have to come to the concert to find out..!
Vivaldi’s Gloria provides a spritely and upbeat counterpart to the intense and dramatic opener of Dido & Aeneas; it was composed whilst Vivaldi was working at the Ospedale della Pietà, a convent, orphanage and music school in Venice. So, similarly to Purcell, Vivaldi would have likely been writing for young voices; despite this, the complexity of the composition has been widely celebrated, comprising various celebrated distinctive melodies and rhythms within the twelve cantata-like sections. Needless to say, Vivaldi’s works garnered him an impressive reputation throughout Europe.
