Solstice of Light - The Elysian Singers of London

Event information

Peter Maxwell Davies, a native of Salford, first visited Orkney in 1970 and immediately recognised it to be his new spiritual home. It was on that first trip that he met the poet George Mackay Brown, with whom he was to create many of his most evocative works. His 'Solstice of Light' is a classic example, being nothing less than a narrative history of Orkney, and its 'successive waves of incomers' in the form of 45-minute cantata for tenor and choir, with a virtuosic organ part (played by Mark Brafield).

We are delighted to present this marvellous work in celebration of the 80th birthday of one of the world's pre-eminent composers (and now Master of the Queen's Music).

The concert also includes a sequence of shorter pieces by James MacMillan (undoubtedly Scotland's leading composer); and Percy Grainger, an Australian who was especially drawn to all things Scottish and Nordic, and whose 'A Merry Wedding', a wild evocation of a Faeroe Islands bridal dance for singers and instruments, neatly complements the Maxwell Davies work.

Programme:
Grainger: My love's in Germanie
James MacMillan: So Deep
Grainger: Ye Banks and Braes O' Bonnie Doon
James MacMillan: Lassie, wad ye loe me?
Grainger: Mo Nighean Dubh
James Macmillan: The Gallant Weaver
Grainger: The Merry Wedding
Peter Maxwell Davies: Solstice of Light