Visionary

Available for 29 days

Hildegard’s life is changed for ever after she reveals a long-held secret. With Donald Macleod. As Christians around the world prepare for Easter, Donald Macleod explores the life and music of two nuns who were also composers. Though Hildegard of Bingen and Isabella Leonarda lived five centuries apart, their stories and music are connected by their shared faith and their shared vocations. Both lived cloistered lives, shut away in convents and cut off from the everyday concerns of the societies in which they lived. Yet, they also enjoyed a profoundly rich and human connection with the world and with their God, revealed in the music and poetry they created and sent into the world. Today, Donald Macleod focuses on Hildegard of Bingen’s story with Hildegard’s biographer, Fiona Maddocks. They examine how her seemingly unremarkable existence, within a provincial German monastery, was rapidly transformed after she confessed to receiving visions from God. Hildegard: Spiritus Sanctus Vivificans Anna Sandström, soprano Armonico Consort, directed by Christopher Monks Leonarda: Sonata, Op 16 No 8 Ensemble Giardino Di Delizie, directed by Ewa Anna Augustynowicz Hildegard: Columba Aspexit Grace Davidson, soprano Hildegard (ed Wishart): O frondens virga Emily Burn, voice Clemmie Franks, voice Emily Levy, voice Victoria Couper, voice Jocelyn West, voice Vivien Ellis, voice Stevie Wishart, director Hildegard: O frondens virga (instrumental) Augsburg Early Music Ensemble Leonarda: In Sanguine Gloria, Op 6 No 12 Guilhem Worms, bass-baritone Ensemble Il Caravaggio, directed by Camille Delaforge Hildegard: O quam mirabilis Hildegard: O virga ac diadema Margriet Tindemans, fiddle Sequentia, directed by Barbara Thornton