Join Hesperos as we launch the Kensington Festival of Music and Arts on Friday 9th October. We open with Tuttarana by American composer Reena Esmail, a joyful and rhythmic version of the Hindustani tarana. Following this are Gustav Holst's Six Choral Folksongs and Hubert Parry's Songs of Farewell, alongside pieces by Caroline Shaw, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Rutter and Clara Schumann.

Holst wrote the Folksongs in 1916 shortly after completing The Planets, inspired by his association with the Essex village of Thaxted, and they include his famous setting of 'I love my love' (Abroad as I was walking). The Songs of Farewell were written around the same time, 1916-1918, as an outlet from the difficulties of the First World War. The texts are by British poets including Henry Vaughan, Thomas Campion and John Donne, increasing in number of voices and complexity through the set, ending with a two choir setting of Psalm 39.

The concert is free to attend, with a retiring collection.

Programme

Tuttarana - Reena Esmail (b. 1983)

The Water is Wide - John Rutter (b. 1945)

Six Choral Folksongs - Gustav Holst (1874-1934)

and the swallow - Caroline Shaw (b. 1982)

Valiant for Truth - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

~ Interval ~

Songs of Farewell - C.H.H. Parry (1848-1918)

Abendfeier in Venedig - Clara Schumann (1819-1896)