Three Choirs Festival

This concert explores the idea of pilgrimage, inspired by a walk from Gloucester to Santiago de Compostela in the spring and summer of 2024. The walk was punctuated by the wildflowers on the wayside, the extraordinary range of cathedrals, churches & chapels and the histories of the three countries visited. The underlying and constant experience on the walk was that of “creation” in its many guises, whether in nature or man-made.

The concert opens with a movement from Haydn’s Creation, is punctuated by Britten’s Flower Songs and a verse of Stamford’s Psalm 150, sounded in the churches visited to bring their acoustics to life. The programme follows music from England, France & Spain and culminates with Psalm 150 with organ accompaniment. For a postscript, Eleanor Kercher has composed “Before the End of Light”, based on the Gregorian chant of Compline sung by the monks at Prinknash Abbey, heard there at the outset of the long journey to Santiago de Compostela.

St Mary’s Priory has been selected as the venue as its 8th century saxon design and theaccompanying acoustic gives a link to the acoustics of Romanesque churches on the way across England, France and Spain. There is a also a link to pilgrimage; The British Pilrimage Trust writes “ A 14-mile pilgrimage walk between Tewkesbury Abbey and Gloucester Cathedral along the river Severn leads past the door of these Saxon wonders. For some reason, the tiny village of Deerhurst has two. Not only that, one of them contains a treasury of early Christian art and artifacts, and still operates as a parish church. The other is a simple, unused (Oddas’s) chapel in the care of English Heritage.” Nearby Odda’s Chapel merits a visit, as does the River Severn, a short walk from St Mary’s.

Programme

Britten Flower Songs

England
Haydn The Heavens are Telling
Elgar Torrents in Summer
Purcell This fairest Isle

France
Saint Saens Les Fleurs et les Arbres
Poulenc Dialogue of the Carmelites (Final Movement)
Passereau Il est bel et bon

Spain
Guerrero Ave Virgo Sanctissima
Guerrero Orra Mari Domingi (Basque folk song)
Viro Adios Rios, Adios Fontes – (Galician folk song)

Link
Stamford Psalm 150

Close
Eleanor Kercher Before the End of Light premiere