BBC SO 2014-15 Season Brett Dean: The Annunciation

Respighi’s intimate evocations of Botticelli’s art, including the central ‘Adoration of the Magi’, preface Brett Dean’s festive Christmas cantata, The Annunciation, inspired by and commissioned for the 800th birthday of Bach’s own Thomanerchor (St Thomas’s Choir) in Leipzig, where it was premiered. The Annunciation depicts the journey of the three kings from darkness into light, in a four-part work for chamber orchestra and choir. 'Dean succeeds in achieving something that cannot be valued too highly: integrity.' RBB Kulturradio

In the second half Josep Pons presents Strauss’s effervescent theatre suite for Molière’s satire Le bourgeois gentilhomme, a showcase for the orchestra’s stylish versatility.

BBC Singers at Six
6pm, St Giles' Cripplegate
As a prelude to tonight’s premiere performance of Brett Dean’s “Annunciation”, Peter Phillips conducts the BBC Singers in a programme of English and Spanish Renaissance polyphony inspired by the Blessed Virgin Mary.