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The Ö÷²¥´óÐã Singers perform a programme of works exploring – in music and text – the tragedy of war, the imminence of death and the encounter of new love. The first half is built around three movements of Hubert Parry’s Songs of Farewell, written at the end of the composer’s life and reflecting his failing health and sadness at the continued destruction of the First World War. These haunting pieces, along with choral works by Finzi and Delius, are paired with the works of contemporary composers Mohammed Fairouz and former Ö÷²¥´óÐã Singer Judith Bingham, whose work The Drowned Lovers is designed to merge seamlessly into Stanford’s heavenly The Blue Bird.

The second half features the work of Dubai-based composer Joanna Marsh alongside the choral works of one of the greatest British composers of the 20th century, Michael Tippett, before concluding with the lighter side of that great musical chameleon Richard Rodney Bennett.