Live from London Summer

Julian Bliss, Jack Liebeck, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Katya Apekisheva: Angel of the Apocalypse - Four of the UK’s most renowned solo and chamber musicians, Julian Bliss, Katya Apekisheva, Jack Liebeck and Sheku Kanneh-Mason unite to take you on an inspirational journey through Messiaen’s masterwork, Quartet for the End of Time. Written whilst Messiaen was incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp and dedicated to the Angel of the Apocalypse, the unusual combination of instruments represents the forces available to him for its premiere by his fellow musician prisoners in 1941. The VOCES8 Centre’s intimate setting provides a perfect backdrop for this hauntingly vivid piece which makes one ponder our existence “on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam” (Carl Sagan). Whilst Messiaen musics hope from despair inspired by text from the book of Revelation, so Vaughan Williams turns to poet George Meredith and our most beloved The Lark Ascending for his inspiration. Written in 1914 but set in its most well-known orchestral version after World War 1, this fresh arrangement of The Lark Ascending pairs VOCES8’s sublime voices with Jack Liebeck’s “beguiling silvery tone” (BBC Music Magazine) in a soaring slice of heaven.