Join Tenebrae at Saffron Hall for this programme of iconic choral works and music by some of today’s most exciting composers.

The centrepiece is Howell’s radiant Requiem, encircled by English choral music as diverse as Holst’s haunting motet, John Tavener’s ecstatic ringing refrains and Richard Rodney Bennett’s simple, heartfelt memorial to Linda McCartney. From the other side of the Atlantic come two of today’s most original and engaging compositional voices; singer and composer Caroline Shaw’s rapturous Psalm setting and Joel Thompson’s response to the twin turmoil of a global pandemic and the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in the US. An exquisite collation of musical farewells – ruminations on sleep, death and the promise of life to come.

Programme

Gustav Holst (1874-1934) – The Evening-Watch
Cecilia McDowall (b.1951) – Standing as I do before God
Francis Pott (b.1957) – The Souls of the Righteous
Caroline Shaw (b.1982) – and the swallow
Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012) – A Good-Night
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) – Rest
Joel Thompson (b.1988) – A Prayer for Deliverance

Interval

John Tavener (1944-2013) – Song for Athene
Ralph Vaughan Williams – Valiant for Truth
Robert Lucas Pearsall (1795-1856) – Lay a garland on her hearse
Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900) – The long day closes
Herbert Howells (1892-1983) – Requiem
William H Harris (1883-1973) – Bring us, O Lord God

Artist(s)

Nigel Short, Tenebrae