Fire and Eternal Light
19:30 Fri 18 Jun 2027 St Martin in the Fields
Programme
- Blest Pair of Sirens(12 mins)orch. Patrick Hawes
- Faire is the heaven(6 mins)
- Five Songs of Experience(25 mins)BBC commission, world premiere
- interval
- Requiem in D minor (compl. Süssmayr)(50 mins)
Performers
- BBC Singersensemble
- Patrick Hawesconductor
In celebration of William Blake
The BBC Singers mark the 200th anniversary of the passing of William Blake with an evocative programme inspired by the iconic poet and artist.
At the heart of this concert is the world premiere of a BBC commission, Five Songs of Experience by Patrick Hawes. This new work is programmed alongside Hubert Parry’s majestic anthem Blest Pair of Sirens, set to text by John Milton - a profound creative influence on Blake himself.
The evening also features William Harris’s sumptuous motet Faire is the Heaven, and a performance of Mozart’s Requiem. Born just a year apart, Mozart and Blake offered strikingly different, yet equally brilliant, artistic responses to the forces of the Enlightenment.
