Corvus Consort (vocal ensemble) and Fenella Humphreys (violin)

Corvus Consort teams up with violinist Fenella Humphreys to present an exploration of artistic responses to the poetry of 17th-century metaphysical poet George Herbert.

The first half of the programme reveals how George Herbert’s words have inspired multiple generations of contemporary composers, through Herbert settings by Judith Weir, James MacMillan, Alec Roth and Nathan James Dearden, with readings of Herbert’s poetry nestled amongst the music. Solo violin interjections will connect some of the pieces, before violin and choir join forces in a new work by Alec Roth commissioned specially for this programme.

The second half illuminates Herbert’s influence not only on composers, but on other poets as well, through two intertwined works by Alec Roth. The six movements of Shared Ground set poems by Vikram Seth, each modelled on a particular poem by Herbert, and inspired by Seth’s experience of living in the same house where Herbert wrote much of his poetry nearly 400 years earlier.

Roth composed Shared Ground while staying in the very same house (house-sitting for Vikram Seth!), and the influence of George Herbert is strikingly tangible throughout both words and music. Roth’s trademark evocative harmony, imaginative word-setting and liquid vocal lines combine to create a sparkling work, alternately brimming with energy and floating in magical stillness. As well as Seth’s poems, Roth also sets the four-line inscription George Herbert had set into the wall of his house — the same text used by James MacMillan for his To My Successor which appears in the first half of the programme.

While staying at the house, Roth also composed Ponticelli (‘Little Bridges’), a charming partita for solo violin, where each movement is inspired by one of the five bridges in the grounds of the house. Roth intended the two works to be performed together with the movements interspersed, and that is how they are presented in this programme. When performed in this way, the six movements of Shared Ground are beautifully connected by the five bridges of Ponticelli.