BBC Singers: Britten and Poulenc

The BBC Singers and principal guest conductor Owain Park present a feast of wonderful choral music. Benjamin Britten’s A.M.D.G. (an abbreviation of the Latin for “To the greater glory of God”) is an entrancing setting of mystical and uplifting poems by Gerald Manley Hopkins. The full set of songs was not performed until 1984, after Britten’s death, and published five years after that. It is a work of great challenge and drama which certainly rewards both singers and listeners.

Schoenberg’s extraordinary Friede auf Erden sits between harmonic worlds, and between Romantic and Expressionist tendencies. It begins with Christmas and expands into a choral evocation of peace on earth. It is an extraordinary piece which deserves widespread listening.

Poulenc’s Figure humaine has been described as “a spectacular choral hymn to freedom”. It dates from the Second World War and is a masterful setting of Paul Eluard’s anti-war poetry. It looks to a day of liberation – not just the end of the war he was so woefully amidst, but also a greater day of worldly peace and freedom to come.

Daniel Kidane’s piece was written during the Covid lockdown on the theme of people who could no longer see each other, between whom barriers had arisen. It is a stirring setting of Simon Armitage which reminds us of that recent time when, though confined to a single space, so many could not help but sing and make music.

Thea Musgrave’s richly harmonic Rorate Coeli sets two interleaved poems of the famous Scottish poet William Dunbar. One speaks of the Nativity, the other the Resurrection. Then the miniature gem that is Palestrina’s Regina Caeli looks ahead to the Ascension with joyful interplay between two groups of four voices.