A summer evening of rousing and reflective music is promised with St Albans Choral Society’s performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria and other popular works in St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane, on Saturday, June 22, at 7.30pm.

The Gloria, marked by memorable melodies and essential optimism, is one of Vivaldi’s best-known works. It was composed in the early part of the 18th century for the female singers and musicians of the great Venetian charitable institution, Ospedale della Pietà. It remained relatively unknown until 1939, when it burst into the modern repertoire at a ‘Vivaldi Week’ in Siena.

The Choral Society, accompanied by Orchestra Nova under conductor George Vass, also performs Haydn’s uplifting Little Organ Mass and the moving Ave maris stella by leading British composer Cecilia McDowall, which regular audience members will recognize from the choir’s previous performance in 2011.

The soloists are Elenor Bowers-Jolley, soprano, Olivia Warburton, mezzo-soprano, and trumpeter Heidi Bennett, whose critically acclaimed playing was heard at the Society’s performance of Messiah in St Albans Cathedral last year.

True to form, Vass includes two lesser known works in the programme: Misericordias Domini, a contrapuntal masterpiece by Mozart, and the UK premiere of Soliloquies for Trumpet and Strings by Hertfordshire-based composer Peter Fribbins. The latter work, in three movements, explores “the more intimate and reflective qualities of the solo trumpet rather than its better-known declamatory character”, the composer says.

Tickets are £19 and £15 with concessions, and £1 for children, and are available from choir members, or online at www.ticketsource.co.uk/st-albans-choral-society