Summer's Last Will and Testament is a choral masque or cantata by Constant Lambert, written between 1932 and 1935, and premiered in 1936. It is scored for chorus and orchestra, with a baritone solo also featured in the last of its seven movements.[1] It is based on the play of the same name by Thomas Nashe, written around 1592. Lambert considered the work his magnum opus,[2] and it is his largest work in any genre.[3] However, it attracted little attention at its 1936 premiere and had only one or two other performances in Lambert's lifetime[3] (he died in 1951).
In 1949, Lambert said to Sir Frederick Ashton: "I like Summer's Last Will and Testament the best of all my work".[4] Malcolm Arnold called it "one of the undiscovered treasures of the English choral repertoire".[5]
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