Pizzetti (1880-1968) was an Italian composer known as part of the "Generation of 1880", along with Ottorino Respighi, Gian Francesco Malipiero, and Alfredo Casella. The group were by repute the first major Italian composers for some years whose primary contributions were not in opera. He taught at the Florence Conservatory (director from 1917 to 1923), directed the Milan Conservatory from 1923, and was Respighi's successor at the National Academy of St Cecilia in Rome from 1936 to 1958. His Messa di Requiem was composed in 1922, following a sad period in his life when his wife had recently died, and his tenure in Florence had ended. He remarked that in his emotional state, he was "overwhelmed by the tremendous immensity of the text". The work draws on 16th century polyphony with Gregorian chant woven into late romantic choral textures. The Da Capo choir presented this rarely performed work as a reflection for All Soul's, interspersed with readings from the Psalms, John Donne, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Kimberley Blaeser. A lovely piece, beautifully presented in the atmospheric surroundings of the St Mary's Warwick chancel.