25/07/2009

Prom 8: 800th Anniversary of Cambridge University: 25-26 July

Cambridge University is one of the oldest in the world: this year it celebrates its 800th anniversary and festivities include this fabulous concert at the 2009 BBC Proms. The rich red interior of the RAH will be decked out instead in Cambridge colours, the distinctive light-blue, or at least many in the audience will be. Music, especially choral music, has been at the heart of Cambridge since its foundation and composers past and present are represented in a glorious musical programme performed by the choirs of no fewer than 16 Cambridge Colleges. We’ll hear Cambridge Alumnus Simon Keenlyside take the solo role in the Five Mystical Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams, with words by 17th century poet George Herbert, who also went to Cambridge; and Andrew Davies - another Cambridge graduate - conducts the BBC SO. Music too by Charles Villiers Stanford and by living composer Jonathan Harvey.

World Service broadcast programme
Vaughan Williams: Five Mystical Songs
Stanford: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in A major
Harvey: Come, Holy Ghost*

Performers
Simon Keenlyside baritone
Choirs of King's and St John's colleges
Choirs of Clare, Gonville and Caius, and Trinity colleges
Choirs from combined Cambridge colleges
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Andrew Davis conductor
Andrew Nethsingha* conductor