BRITTEN SINFONIA AND THE BACH CHOIR AT KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL

When beginning his famous Requiem, Maurice Duruflé was already working on a suite of organ works based on Gregorian plainchant. Shelving the project, he instead used the chants as the foundation for his new mass which, accordingly, quotes the Mass for the Dead extensively throughout. The 1961 version for chamber orchestra and organ is often described as the ideal version to hear this lyrical, contemplative and powerful work.

Christopher Wood’s Aberfan has been heard at the Last Night of the BBC Welsh Proms and is a moving tribute to the disaster of 1966.

Premiered at Festival Hall in October 2021, Richard Blackford’s Vision of a Garden reflects on the personal experiences of both patients and nursing staff in dealing with the Covid crisis, set to texts of two ‘ICU Diaries’ which contained messages of support written by the nurses who cared for Peter Johnstone in intensive care. The text is based on their words and tells the story of his delirium, crisis, and recovery from his time in Addenbrooke’s hospital.

We are delighted that singers from Addenbroke’s Hospital – where Britten Sinfonia musicians regularly perform for patients on wards and in waiting rooms – will join us and the Bach Choir to perform Thomas Tallis’s Hymn, immortalised as the theme for Vaughan William’s masterpiece for string orchestra Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.

General booking opens on Friday 12 May at 9am.