Proms Across the UK: Choirs on the Concourse

Live at the BBC Proms in Gateshead: BBC Singers and conductor Sofi Jeannin with soloist Jess Gillam.

Presented by Elizabeth Alker, live from The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, Gateshead.

Charles Wood: Hail, gladdening light
Hildegard von Bingen: Spiritus sanctus vivificans
Christian Forshaw: My soul, there is a country
Shruthi Rajasekar: Sat on the shore
Iain Farrington: Like as the waves
Caroline Shaw: and the swallow
Charles Villiers Stanford: The Blue Bird
Roderick Williams: Never weather-beaten sail (BBC Commission, World Premiere)
John Tavener: Mother of God, here I stand
Alec Roth: Night Prayer
Hubert Parry: Songs of Farewell – No. 6: Lord, let me know mine end

Jess Gillam (saxophone)
BBC Singers
Sofi Jeannin (conductor)

As part of a mini choral convention, the BBC Singers present a programme based around themes of Hubert Parry’s Songs of Farewell written during the First World War, opening with Wood's luminous Hail gladdening light. Saxophone and choir come together in the shining melodic structure of the chant of Hildegard of Bingen’s Spiritus sanctus vivificans. Works by Christian Forshaw and Roderick Williams, the BBC Singers’ Composer in Association, set texts from the Songs of Farewell, while pieces by Shruthi Rajasekar, Iain Farrington and Caroline Shaw transport us to the sea and the sky. Saxophone soars in Stanford’s exquisite The Blue Bird followed by moments of reflection and contemplation by Tavener and Alec Roth. The programme ends with Parry’s own setting of the final motet from his Songs of Farewell, Lord let me know mine end.