Night Choir
Sage One, Sage Gateshead
Saturday 22nd July 2023, 10.15pm
Kristina Arakelyan’s new commission Whin Lands premieres at the BBC Proms from Sage Gateshead this Saturday, July 22nd. Kristina’s piece for three choirs is inspired by some of my poetry from Two Countries. It’s in three movements: ‘Nightfall’, ‘Round the Dancing Flames’ and ‘Daybreak’. These form the beginning, middle and end of the hour-long concert, which includes a very diverse range of choral pieces. The first two movements of Kristina’s piece set words from ‘This Far and No Further’ about Hadrian’s Wall, and ‘Daybreak’ sets words from ‘The Refuge Box’ about Holy Island sand-flats.
This series of BBC Proms concerts broadcast from Sage Gateshead will be the first ever weekend-long Proms festival rooted in the North-East, away from London and the Royal Albert Hall. Armenia-born Kristina Arakelyan is based in London and is described by BBC Music magazine as ‘a rising star’. She has worked previously with Northern Sinfonia. I was thrilled when she contacted me, asking to set some of my words for her new commission, and I very much hope that this will lead us to further collaboration.
Whin Lands evokes night-time across North-Eastern landscapes linked geologically by the Whin Sill, the dramatic igneous rock that outcrops at Hadrian’s Wall and Holy Island. ‘Nightfall’, which begins the concert, and ‘Round the Dancing Flames’ in the middle, include distinctive local pronunciation of place names such as ‘Cuddy’s Craig’ and ‘Hoosesteeds’ – a truly Northumbrian sound for the three choirs. For anyone new to my work, the Northumbrian language is a particular interest of mine and I’m honoured to be President of the Northumbrian Language Society.
At the end of the concert, as day breaks on the sand-flats stretching towards Holy Island where the Whin Sill meets the sea, the power of those three choirs singing together promises to sound truly transcendental.
You can read more about the choirs and some of the individual singers in David Whetstone’s essay for Cultured. North East HERE.
The concert, conducted by Tim Burke and Grace Rossiter, is called Night Choir and takes place at 10.15pm in Sage One on Saturday 22nd July. It will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and available afterwards on BBC Sounds. More information HERE.
‘This Far and No Further’ was originally written as a radio-poem for BBC Radio 4, and ‘The Refuge Box’ for ‘Between the Ears’ on BBC Radio 3. The full text of both works is published in Two Countries (Bloodaxe Books, 2014).
(Photo Michael Hanselmann, Creative Commons).
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