Aurora Orchestra: In Paradisum

Aurora Orchestra welcomes the BBC Singers for a programme that lifts its eyes to the horizon and glimpses the divine from Earth. Each of the works featured in this collaborative concert takes comfort in the prospect of a world beyond, whether discerned in the beauty of nature, in the power of human imagination, or in paradise after death.

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Presented in Imogen Holst’s arrangement for chamber orchestra and voices, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb sets the extraordinary poetry of nineteenth-century asylum inmate Christopher Smart.

Mahler’s O garish world, long since thou hast lost me takes a contrasting perspective: a rejection of the world’s mundane tumult in favour of a personal ‘heaven’ of love and song. Meanwhile Kim Porter – herself a former BBC Singer – sets Harlem Renaissance poet Georgia Douglas Johnson’s ode to the self-expression and the pursuit of a free and fulfilled life.

At the heart of the programme is Fauré’s Requiem, written shortly after the death of the composer’s father in 1888, and is performed here in the original chamber orchestra version rediscovered by editor John Rutter in Paris’ Bibliothèque nationale after a century of neglect.

‘Aurora Orchestra, that extraordinary group of young musicians who’ve shaken up the orchestral world’ Ivan Hewitt, The Telegraph★★★

This event will last approximately 2 hours, including an interval.

Presented by Kings Place.

This is a 14+ event