Bachtrack logo
What's on
Reviews
Articles
News
Video
Site
Young artists
Travel

Sir John Rutter’s Birthday Celebration

St Paul's CathedralLondon, Greater London, EC4M 8AD, United Kingdom
Dates/times in London time zone
Wednesday 05 November 202519:30

Join the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at St Paul's Cathedral for a concert celebrating one of the UK’s most accomplished living composers and icon of choral music, conducted by the man himself, Sir John Rutter.

Be one of the first to hear the world premiere of a new piece specially composed by Rutter for the occasion, before a performance of Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No.5. Only two years older than the evening’s conductor, it is a piece that manifests a vision of peace and tranquillity amid times of war; its heart-piercing Romanza will make you feel as though time itself has stopped.

The celebration’s centrepiece will be The Gift of Life, a work that the composer set out to write as a counterpoint to his earlier Requiem – a celebration of creation and life itself in all its majesty and manifold beauty. The six-movement piece, set to a blend of liturgical passages, poetry and original text, bursts with unabashed jubilation. Its central movement, the Hymn to the Creator of Light for double choir, is an intricate layering of voices and instruments that envelopes the listener in an array of radiant colours.

Generously supported by The 1916 Foundation in Montchanin, Delaware

Mobile version