Three Choirs Festival: Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi

Programme

A little piece of heaven and one of the greatest English choral pieces ever composed.

Written as an outpouring of grief after the death of his nine-year-old son, the heartbreakingly beautiful Hymnus Paradisi gives a deeply personal voice to Howells’s pain.

Grief turns to wonder in Bliss’s dramatic Mary of Magdala as Mary finally recognises and kneels in joy before the risen Christ in the Easter Garden. An emotionally charged concert, the music in this concert is full of beauty.