Twilight is a moment loved by poets, especially the Romantic poets. Inspired by their work, composers such as Hans Koessler, Max Reger, and Hubert Parry sought to faithfully convey the various states of mind corresponding to this time of day. The NFM Choir, led by Detlef Bratschke, will take you on a magical journey along these dreamlike paths. In the Parry work, pianist Michał Rot will accompany the singers.

The works of Hans Koessler and Max Reger are connected not only by the time of their creation – the early 1890s – and their inspiration from the music of Johannes Brahms. The Bavarian artists were relatives. Together with the elder Koessler, a long-time lecturer in composition in Budapest (his students included Béla Bartók), we will delve into the depths of Germanic Romanticism in the fullest sense of the word. In Koessler’s Drei ernste Chöre, we encounter the mystery of the night and a tale of lost love. The younger Reger’s Drei Chöre touch upon a similar range of emotions and moods. It is a meditation on divine love, nature, dreams, and sleep. Suffice it to say that we will move through a liminal space where eyelids are half-closed, but ears are alert.

Sir Hubert Parry composed the choral Songs of Farewell in the last two years of his life, during World War I. The Victorian composer undoubtedly sensed the end of the world as he knew it, and that prodded him to create a personal piece influenced by his deep, yet highly individualised, religiosity. The sound of the meditative motets invites reflection on ultimate things. Hubert Parry used texts by the metaphysical poets John Donne and Henry Vaughan, among others, and concluded the cycle with Psalm 39, an ancient meditation on the fragility of human life.