In the 2025/2026 season, the NFM Choir will celebrate its twentieth anniversary. It is currently one of the leading choirs in Poland and Europe. It is lauded for its versatile repertoire, precision and extraordinary attention to sound quality. The poetic title of the concert – Love of Love – comes from a piece by William Harris written to the words of Robert Bridges, with which the NFM Choir will open the anniversary season. The singers will be introduced into the third decade of their musicmaking by their artistic director Lionel Sow. Together, they will also present works by other British composers: Benjamin Britten, Mary Chandler, and Gustav Holst. 

William Harris was born in London in 1883, so he belonged to the same generation as Karol Szymanowski and Igor Stravinsky. He was a valued organist, choirmaster and teacher who taught organ and harmony classes at the Royal College of Music for three decades. Although he remains a forgotten figure today, he enjoyed great recognition and acclaim during his lifetime. He composed for the Three Choirs Festival and the BBC Proms, among others. He also performed as a conductor at the coronations of two monarchs: George VI in 1937 and Elizabeth II in 1953. He had been responsible for the early musical education of the future queen. The core of his work is choral pieces. The NFM Choir will present his Love of Love and Light of Light, which will be performed at the beginning of the concert, and O Joyful Light (Evening Hymn) which will crown the programme. Mary Chandler was a valued composer, pianist, oboist and teacher active in the 20th century. Her colleagues and students called her “Miss Music”. A reminder of this figure’s work will be the composition Hymn on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity – a setting of the text by John Milton for female voices. 

Although Gustav Holst’s most famous work is undoubtedly The Planets, his oeuvre is much broader and includes numerous choral compositions. The artist was fascinated by the culture of India, which was expressed, among other things, in the settings of texts from the Rigveda – a collection of over a thousand hymns of praise. Holst, who knew Sanskrit, translated them into English, and in this version they will be presented during the concert. There will also be a work by Benjamin Britten: The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard for male voices and piano. This is a dramatic piece composed in 1943 to the words of an anonymous English song from the 17th century, also known as Matty Groves. It tells the story of a young man who begins an affair with Lady Barnard, which is divulged by a page revealing the secret to Lord Barnard. The enraged husband catches the lovers in flagrante delicto and murders them in cold blood.