Concert: Wigmore Hall – Britten Birthday Centenary

Date: Friday 14 December 2012, 7.30 pm    Venue: Wigmore Hall, London {venue link »}

Andrew Carwood and The Cardinall’s Musick, fresh from the success of their Wigmore Hall Byrd Series, travel forward in time to reach Britten’s choral works in a programme which includes the Hymn to St Cecilia, which received its first concert performance at Wigmore Hall in 1942.  The programme also includes Five Flower Songs, The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard with pianist Alisdair Hogarth, Choral Dances from Gloriana, Advance Democracy, The Sycamore Tree, Hymn to the Virgin and the virtuosic Sacred and Profane, eight settings of medieval English lyrics, dating from the penultimate year of Britten’s life. Despite ill health, the composer invested vital energy and élan in what proved to be one of his finest choral scores.  This concert is part of the Wigmore Hall’s Britten Birthday Centenary series ‘Before Life and After’.