A quiet celebration of New Year's Eve   PURCELL et al.

That civilisation may not sink,
Its great battle lost,
Quiet the dog, tether the pony
To a distant post.
Our master Caesar is in the tent
Where the maps are spread,
His eyes fixed upon nothing,
A hand under his head.
Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
His mind moves upon silence.
(W.B. Yeats)

More and more people feel the desire to celebrate the turn of the year quietly. This year we will do so with the Belgium-based Hathor Consort conducted by Romina Lischka. The Austrian violist plays on many musical levels: from the Renaissance and Baroque to contemporary music and the classical North Indian dhrupad tradition. Following her involvement in George Benjamin’s opera Written on Skin, Lischka has more closely explored the links between early and modern music and has devised a new programme for New Year’s Eve with us. Among other things, the evening will have a focus on music by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell and George Benjamin’s Upon Silence.

Michaela Riener – mezzo-soprano
Marnix De Cat – Countertenor
Hathor Consort
Joshua Cheatham, Elisabeth Rumsey – tenor viol
Nick Milne, Irene Klein – bass viol
Conductor Romina Lischka – descant viol