Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Hymn to St Cecilia, Op.27b

The Sixteen's Choral Pilrimage dissolves the boundaries between old and new, sacred and profane with striking performances of music by Cornysh and Britten. 

Andrew Litton and the BBCSO and the BBC Singers create order out of chaos at the Barbican Hall in a challenging programme including Charles Ives monumental 4th Symphony.

22 November, St Cecilia’s day, lends itself perfectly to music by two of Britain’s greatest composers. Henry Purcell and Benjamin Britten both wrote pieces to celebrate Cecilia as patron saint of music, and Britten was inspired and enriched by Purcell’s music.

From the altar of their customary home in Edinburgh’s 1691 Canongate Kirk, Calton Consort presented an a cappella concert enigmatically entitled “Translated Daughters”. The enigma dissolved upon hearing W.H. Auden’s text for Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia. It features the arresting couplet: “Translated Daughter, come down and startle / Composing mortals with immortal fire.