Prom 73: Before the Ending of the Day

Live at BBC Proms: Tallis Scholars, director Peter Phillips. Allegri Miserere, Browne O Maria salvatoris, Pärt Nunc Dimittis, works by von Bingen, Gallus, Padilla and Tallis.

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London
Presented by Verity Sharp

Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo virtutum – In principio omnes
Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla: Deus in adiutorium
Jacobus Gallus: Pater noster
Gregorio Allegri: Miserere
Thomas Tallis: Te lucis ante terminum (I)
Arvo Pärt: Nunc dimittis
John Browne: O Maria salvatoris

Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips (director)

Before the fanfares and celebrations of the Last Night of the Proms comes a late-night moment of contemplation led by Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars. Recreating the Christian office of Compline, the final service of the church day, they weave together a sung meditation spanning over 1,000 years of sacred music. The delicate tracery of Renaissance polyphony by Padilla and Gallus gives way to the 21st-century ‘Spiritual’ Minimalism of Arvo Pärt, and at the centre of it all sits Allegri’s exquisite Miserere.