About Stanford: Stabat Mater
Performers
Rebecca Hardwick soprano
Marta Fontanals-Simmons mezzo-soprano
Nicky Spence tenor
Themba Mvula baritone
Three Choirs Festival Chorus
Worcester Cathedral Choristers
Philharmonia Orchestra
Samuel Hudson conductor
Programme
Grace-Evangeline Mason The Imagined Forest 14'
G Holst The Hymn of Jesus 22'
Stanford Stabat Mater 45'
Step into a magical world in Grace-Evangeline Mason’s The Imagined Forest, an enchanting musical picture of a wild woodland filled with colour, light and beauty. The mystical tones continue in Holst’s glorious The Hymn of Jesus, a call to join the joyful divine dance and a unique response to the suffering of the First World War. The concert’s second half features some of Charles Villiers Stanford’s finest and most compelling music in the Stabat Mater. A vivid musical depiction of the Passion and the sorrows of Mary, the intensity and drama of the opening subsides into ethereal beauty at the close, telling of the hope of redemption and life in paradise.
Supported by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
