About A Song on the End of the World
April Fredrick soprano
Clare Presland mezzo-soprano
Marcus Farnsworth baritone
Three Choirs Festival Chorus
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Adrian Partington conductor
Randall Svane Quantum Flight 5' UK premiere
Bax Tintagel 15'
Holst Ode to Death 13'
Francis Pott A Song on the End of the World 70'
A concert of stirring music and emotion. Full of powerful imagery, Francis Pott’s 1999 Three Choirs Festival commission, A Song on the End of the World, tells of the horrors of violence and war in thrilling music and poignant poetry, setting texts from the Requiem Mass alongside poets such as William Blake, Czeslaw Milosz and Charles Causley. Holst’s Ode to Death is a haunting memorial to his friends killed in the First World War. Considered by many to be his most beautiful choral work, the piece is full of mystery and moments of pure tranquillity. Alongside these is Bax’s Tintagel, a dramatic work which brings the force and beauty of nature to life in its depiction of the Cornish cliffs, and the UK premiere of Randall Svane’s colourful orchestral whirl, Quantum Flight.
