3.00pm – c. 4.30pm, Cadogan Hall

Stevie Wishart and Sinfonye join Robert Hollingworth and the BBC singers for an innovative performance at the Proms 2011. with a programme of Hildegard, Britten, Birtwistle & and world premiere of Wishart's own piece, commissioned by the BBC Singers.

As well as Sinfonye's concept of applying new learning on period performance to the improvisatory freedom associated with traditional music, the concert also aims to explore material sung, inspired or composed by women. It not only pays tribute to the music of Hildegard of Bingen but ends with four new songs based on her texts.

'For Hildegard, it seems music was a way for mortals to experience something of heavenly or spiritual ecstasy, and it is perhaps this desire which we can most clearly empathise with today. Stevie Wishart

Programme

1. Hildegard of Bingen: Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum - selection (10 mins)
2. Britten: Sacred and Profane (14 mins)
3. Harrison Birtwistle: Narration: A Description of the Passing of a Year (10 mins)
4. Stevie Wishart: Out of This World (c25 mins) BBC Commission, World Premiere. With thanks to Alexandre Vanautgaerden of The Erasmus House / Erasmushuis / La Maison d’Érasme.