Howells Hymnus Paradisi

7:30pm, Sat, 29 Jun 2024

  • Event Details
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  • Type of event: Performance
    Start time: 7:30pm
    Venue: Bristol Beacon
    Trenchard Street
    Bristol
    BS1 5AR
    Description: Howells Hymnus Paradisi
    Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music
    Finzi: Dies Natalis
    Howells: Hymnus Paradisi

    Bristol Choral Society
    Hannover Oratorienchor

    Bristol Ensemble

    Conductor: Hilary Campbell

    Soprano: Nina Bennet
    Tenor: Nick Pritchard
    Organ: Simon Hogan

    A summer treat focusing on love, music and nature: Vaughan-Williams, Finzi and Howells are the  trio of well loved British composers who feature in this concert by Bristol Choral Society.

    Ralph Vaughan-Williams celebrated the 150th year of his birth in 2022, and Bristol has been ringing with his music ever since. This concert showcases his Serenade to Music, first performed in 1938 to honour Sir Henry Wood on the occasion of his jubilee. Shakespeare’s words provide the lyrics for this piece, and the moon will ‘shine bright in such a night as this’ inside the Bristol Beacon.

    Composed in the same year, Howells’ ‘Hymnus Paradisi’ was inspired by the death of his own son. Deeply felt and uplifting, this piece has been an inspiration to composers since its first performance at the Three Choirs Festival in 1950.

    Finally, wonder and awe are also central to Gerald Finzi’s ‘Dies Natalis’, celebrating the miracle of birth and life, a cantata for tenor solist and strings.

    All three of these composers are part of a proud British tradition of collaboration and support, in which established names still reach out, both to each other and to newcomers. Come and be inspired!

    We are delighted to be joined by members of the Hannover Oratorienchor for this concert as part of an exchange visit. Bristol is twinned with Hannover and members of BCS had a great experience visiting in 2022 and singing Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem (German Requiem) with the choir. We are looking forward to their return visit and showing them Bristol and sharing our music making again.