Santa Lucia, an arrangement of the popular Neopolitan song for solo violin and small orchestra, was written as a request to spotlight a young player at a family concert given by the Gallery Orchestra in Lower Hutt. Pruden, along with Graham Lilly, was a co-conductor of the Gallery Orchestra, Pruden rehearsing the junior orchestra on Saturday mornings. The soloist was seven-year-old Tristan Lupi, a member of the Gallery Orchestra taught by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra violinist Franco Domaneschi. Larry took care to write for him a part that was simple yet expressive, and the choice of an Italian tune may well have been a passing tribute to the boy's teacher. The performance took place on Sunday afternoon, 3 August 1980; Lupi remembers the experience as "a thrill, with also a sense of trepidation".

If Evening Music and Summer Nocturnes reflect Pruden's brand of romantic impressionism, then Santa Lucia reminds us of the composer's ever-crisp sense of line. He was, as Lilburn said, a musician with a consistently personal vocabulary.