Hymn of the Forests

‘Always the scent of the moist forest – that was the incense’, declared Leoš Janáček. ‘I felt a cathedral grow before me in the vast expanse of the hills and the vault of the sky.’ For him, the whole of creation was a cause for celebration, and with its jubilant trumpets, thundering organ and raw, unbuttoned lust for life, there’s something primal about his Glagolitic Mass – a choral work unlike any other. Edward Gardner prepares the way with Bartók’s searing First Violin Concerto, performed by Alina Ibragimova, before assembling vast forces to end the season with a colossal shout of joy.