Performer: David Ogden

The refurbished Beacon stages a world premiere of a large choral work which imbues complete empathy for one migrant and his story.

This was, by no doubt, the largest ensemble on stage at Colston Hall this season with five choirs and an orchestra that took over the stage. 

The Exultate choir played alongside His Majesties Sagbutts for an evening of music from St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, some of which hadn't been heard for over 400 years.

Choral concerts often have programmes that read like compilation CDs. I don’t mean this negatively: there are countless reasons why a greater number of contrasting pieces is required – timbral, textual, temporal, contextual, historical, and so on.

Contemporary religious music can seem to exist in a different world to the rest of contemporary music, and rarely since Messiaen was in his prime has there been much evidence of it as a really progressive wing of composition.