Photo, Chris Christodoulou

Sunday, September 7, 2025

Royal Albert Hall, London

“Bliss’s cantata The Beatitudes was commissioned to mark the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1962. As the building of the cathedral was an act of reconciliation for the destruction of the old cathedral during the bombing of the city in the Second World War, the choice of the Beatitudes as a theme for the work was highly appropriate. Significantly it is dedicated to a representative of the post-war generation, the composer’s first grandchild, Susan, born in 1955. The première was fraught with difficulties. Because of scheduling relating to the opening services and rehearsals for other events, principally the first performance of Britten’s War Requiem, it proved impossible to give The Beatitudes in the cathedral as planned. Instead it was performed, most unsuitably, in the cramped and acoustically poor conditions of the Belgrade Theatre on the evening of 25 May, following the consecration of the cathedral that day. The soloists were Jennifer Vyvyan and Richard Lewis with the Coventry Cathedral Festival Choir and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer. Christopher Hassall suggested the idea of the Beatitudes as the subject of the work and collaborated over the choice of texts which would act as interludes and commentaries on them…” (from publisher’s note).

Arresting from the off, Bliss’s Beatitudes makes a big impression through its sincerity and seriousness, sustained by an impassioned response to the texts, and harmonically recognisably as Blissian, also timeless in being free of fads, yet not without drama, beauty and succour (reminding at times of Hindemith’s Whitmanesque When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d), with these performers dedicated to their task, inspired by Sakari Oramo, both solo singers vibrantly projecting their demanding, somewhat Baroque, parts, there was much that was revealing.

Very much a BBC Symphony piece – the premiere, Andrew Davis’s Chandos recording (link below), and now this inspired Proms performance – The Beatitudes could be said to be back in business.

The concert opened with (another Chandos composer) Ruth Gipps’s Death on the Pale Horse (1943) after William Blake’s illustration of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, music that is pastoral and open-hearted yet elegiac, ending uneasily. Following which, Lukas Sternath, a pianist of much promise, refreshed Grieg’s Concerto, to a lively and shapely accompaniment, with playing that drew attention solely to the music, technically impressive, poetic, heroics integrated without being safe. How wonderful was his encore, a very sensitive and spacious reading of Richard Strauss’s song, Morgen!, beautifully transcribed by Max Reger, lovingly played by Sternath.

Elizabeth Watts (soprano)
Laurence Kilsby (tenor)
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Chorus

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live/bbc_radio_three

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHSA%205191

Chandos releases Volume Two of Grażyna Bacewicz’s Orchestral Works, the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo, with Peter Donohoe.

Sakari Oramo launches his 13th season as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (2025-26).

Chandos releases Volume One of Grażyna Bacewicz’s Orchestral Works with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo.