English Choral Masterpieces | City of Bristol Choir

On the day of the Royal Wedding, a feast of exuberant and stirring English music performed by a 90-strong choir and full orchestra.

Two choral gems by Vaughan Williams take centre stage: his youthful setting of inspirational and uplifting words by Walt Whitman in Toward The Unknown Region and his rarely-performed work Benedicite. This spirited and energetic hymn in praise of creation sets brilliant choral fanfares against exquisitely reflective passages for solo soprano, sung by Esther Mallett, from Backwell near Bristol and now a postgraduate student at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Virtuoso violinist Julia Hwang joins the orchestra for a performance of the nation’s favourite orchestral work The Lark Ascending, an evocative rhapsody of soaring violin melodies that seem to float through the air. Julia was featured in a BBC Four documentary about the piece which received its world premiere here in Bristol in 1920. Her performance in 2012 was specifically chosen by the BBC to represent this timeless classic of the great British composer, and the documentary has been re-broadcast on many occasions due to popular demand.

Holst’s Hymn of Jesus that completes the programme is an intensely moving and powerful piece which develops the mysticism and spatial effects of the composer’s most famous work The Planets.