On Tuesday August 9 many of us rushed to the coach after we finished the Evensong service, and rode to Worcester for another concert -- this one featuring the renowned choral group The Sixteen. The program, entitled "Illumination and Contemplation: choral music from East and West", presented works from the Russian Orthodox tradition by Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Chesnokov, and Kalinnikov, interspersed with choral works by John Tavener, Arvo P"art, Anton Bruckner, James MacMillan, and Gustav Holst. We were all amazed at their beautifully blended sound and the way they managed to sing such complex harmonies, exquisitely well in tune. People particularly remarked afterwards on John Tavener's work, "Song for Athene", which was composed in memory of a young Greek woman who was killed in a traffic accident in London. The work gained fame when it was sung at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. MacMillan's "A Child's Prayer", written in memory of the victims of the Dunblane tragedy in 1996, featured two soulful solo soprano lines "rising above a sequence of darkly lamenting chords, only to be transformed by the hypnotic repetition of the word 'joy'". (Festival Programme, p. 96.)
A Swan swims in the Severn River, near Worcester Cathedral
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