Days Are Where We Live

Saturday, 18 March 2023, 7:30pm
St Michael at the North Gate, Oxford
Photograph of a sand-filled egg timer on a table

What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:  
Where can we live but days?

For this concert we take our inspiration from the opening lines of Philip Larkin’s 1964 poem ‘Days’. Our programme leads us on a musical journey through the day, beginning with Toivo Kuula’s ode to the dawn, At Sunrise, and ending with Stephen Paulus’ luscious benediction, The day is done. In between we’ll explore the days where we live through a sequence of music celebrating the best of creative idleness: eating and drinking, roaming, laughing and loving.
 
A highlight of the program is Brahms Op. 92, a quartet of partsongs featuring the beguiling and romantic O schöne Nacht! (O beautiful night!) and Abendlied (Evensong). We will also feature Hymne au Soleil (Hymn to the Sun) and Soir sur la Plaine (Evening on the Plain) by French composer Lili Boulanger, the first woman to win the Prix de Rome (which she did at the age of nineteen). Zoë Martlew's Karakia sets a traditional Maori prayer, and along with James Whitbourn's The Twenty-Eight Times, represents contemporary choral writing, with both having been published in the last ten years. We’ll round out our songs of the day with pieces by Kodaly, John Rutter and more.
 
Join the City of Oxford Choir and the incomparable Anna Markland on piano for this thoughtful musical exploration of what days are for…