James O’Donnell, Organist of Westminster Abbey will open this special concert with the BBC Singers performing motets by two master musical architects, Bach and Bruckner. Bach’s five-part motet ‘Jesu, meine Freude’ is one of his most perfectly symmetrical structures, while in Bruckner’s fine motets we hear echoes of Palestrina sung during his chorister days in St Florian. In the second half, Leif Segerstam presents Bruckner’s cathedral-like masterpiece.
Please note there has been a change to the original billing for this concert. Leif Segerstam replaces Semyon Bychkov as the conductor in Bruckner's Symphony No. 8.
BBC Singers at Six
6pm, St Giles' Cripplegate
As a prelude to their performance of J S Bach’s great motet Jesu, meine Freude in tonight’s BBC SO concert, James O’Donnell and the BBC Singers explore the musical world of the city where that motet was composed.