Gustav Holst was a composer who saw further than other artists: a creative spirit grounded in the heartland of British music, whose vision reached out to embrace English folksong, Hindu poetry and the outer limits of the cosmos itself. In his 150th anniversary year, St. Martin-in-the-Fields favourites the Carice Singers present an evening of Holst’s masterly choral music, including the Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, and in tribute to Holst’s lifelong commitment to new music, they interweave it with recent works inspired by the same sense of the limitless, including a brand new piece by Electra Perivolaris, specially composed for tonight.

Programme

Holst – The Evening watch
Grace-Evangeline Mason – Stars above, Earth below
Holst – Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda Group
Holst – Venus from The Planets (arr. solo harp)
Holst – Sing me the men
Urmas Sisask – Benedictio
Holst – Two Eastern Pictures
Electra Perivolaris – Weaving stars (World premiere)
Holst – This have I done for my true love
Charles Villiers Stanford – God and the Universe

Performers

Carice Singers
Olivia Jageurs harp
George Parris conductor