Get your afternoon off to a glorious start with John Rutter’s “Gloria.” The “Gloria” will be the centerpiece of today’s Noontime Concert, featuring The Bach Choir of Bethlehem.

Rutter’s “Gloria,” commissioned in 1974, is perhaps the composer’s most ambitious piece to have found permanent favor with audiences during the Christmas season. But of course the “Gloria” can be enjoyed at any time; it was given its world premiere in May. The work is a festive setting of the second part of the Latin Order of Mass, marked by fanfares aplenty. In fact, there would be no “Gloria” without the ceremonial precedent of William Walton. It’s only appropriate, then, that the concert open with Walton’s uplifting “Coronation Te Deum,” written for the 1953 coronation of Elizabeth II.

In between will be more reflective music by American composer Morten Lauridsen – his 1980 cycle “Mid-Winter Songs,” after poetry of Robert Graves – and the choir’s namesake Johann Sebastian Bach – his Cantata 118 “O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht” (“O Jesus Christ, light of my life”).

The concert will be led by the ensemble’s long-time artistic director, Greg Funfgeld. The program was given twice – on March 17 at the State Theatre Center for the Arts in Easton, PA, and on March 18 at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.

The Bach Choir, which gave its first performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor all the way back in 1900, is America’s oldest Bach choir (established in 1898) and one of the crown jewels of the Lehigh Valley music scene. Its performances have attracted international acclaim.

The ensemble will celebrate its 111th Annual Bach Festival in Bethlehem, PA, over the next two weekends, beginning on Friday. For tickets and a complete schedule, visit http://www.bach.org.

Following today’s Noontime Concert, stick around for William Walton’s Symphony No. 1. Like the Graves poetry that forms the basis of Lauridsen’s “Mid-Winter Songs,” the genesis of Walton’s symphony was very much tied up with the complexities of its creator’s love-life.

The glory of music prevails. Join me this Tuesday from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.