Howells' Hymnus Paradisi

The BBC Singers and Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin are joined by musicians from the BBC Concert Orchestra and organist Iain Farrington for an emotive programme of music to touch the very heavens. The concert opens with delicate flight of angels in works by Sir James MacMillan and Dame Judith Weir, and Caroline Shaw’s haunting To the Hands, which brings the sacred sounds of Gregorian chant to a piece about Jesus’ crucified hands. The first half closes with Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara’s choral masterpiece Die erste Elegie (The First Elegy) which sets text by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Presented by Martin Handley, live from Milton Court, London.

Sir James MacMillan: Who Are These Angels?
Caroline Shaw: To the Hands
Dame Judith Weir: My Guardian Angel
Rautavaara: Die erste Elegie

Interval

Howells arr. Iain Farrington: Hymnus Paradisi

The second half features Herbert Howells’ powerful and intimate letter to grief, his soul-stirring Hymnus Paradisi, performed here in an arrangement by Iain Farrington. The piece was written between 1936-1938 as a response to the death of his 9-year-old son Michael and premiered at the Three Choirs Festival in 1950 Four of the movements are settings of Latin and English texts drawn from the Book of Common Prayer and are immemorial reflections upon the transient griefs and indestructible hopes of mankind. The sixth and last movement is a gradual oncoming of 'the true light' and 'radiance' that will issue in the 'unfailing splendour' of those who have 'endured in the heat of the conflict'. It is as if personal grief, itself spent, is merged and lost in a general pervasive light and warmth of consolation.

Sofi Jeannin (conductor)
Emma Tring (soprano)
Ben Durrant (tenor)
BBC Singers
Musicians of the BBC Concert Orchestra

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