91Èȱ¬

Two musical explorations of identity frame this special late-night performance, both of them premiered last year by the 91Èȱ¬ Singers. With the added layering of live electronics, Joanna Marsh’s SEEN highlights marginalised voices, especially those of women in ancient Greek theatre, whose stories were mostly told by men. Soumik Datta’s Awaaz (‘voice’ in Urdu and Hindi) was written to mark the 75th anniversary of Indian independence and partition and draws together Western and South Asian music in its celebration of the voice as the root of belonging. In between comes one of the highlights of the 20th-century French choral repertoire, the Cantique des cantiques by Daniel-Lesur – a longtime friend of Olivier Messiaen – settings from the biblical Songs of Songs that richly reflect the texts’ atmosphere of allusion and moods of love, desire and rapture.

There will be no interval

Image: Soumik Datta © Sarah Jeynes