Take a contemplative walk with APOLLO5 in The Evening Primrose — a programme that welcomes the return of spring whilst reflecting on Christ’s Passion through music for Lent. The title work, drawn from Benjamin Britten’s Five Flower Songs, sets the tone for renewal before giving way to the spirited “Ballad of Green Broom”. These Britten miniatures sit alongside pensive sacred offerings from Maurice Duruflé and Bob Chilcott.

Two contrasting madrigals by William Byrd and Thomas Tomkins demonstrate the breadth and variety of the form, whilst Tomkins’s mournful “When David Heard” shows the composer’s ability to move easily between sacred and secular realms. A trio of Scottish folk songs adds dramatic storytelling, and lighter touches are introduced with an ode to joy by Gerald Finzi, and the jazz-inflected elegance of Maschwitz and Strachey’s “These Foolish Things” — one of their “Mayfair songs,” written, legend has it, over coffee and vodka in a London flat.

Let APOLLO5 guide you into the lengthening days — contemplating sacrifice and faith, whilst celebrating the blossoming reawakening of the natural world.

Performers
APOLLO5