James MacMillan’s affecting memorial to the dead of World War I was commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra and 14-18 NOW: WW1 Centenary Art Commissions.

This new work, commissioned to commemorate 100 years since the Armistice of 1918, remembers the human cost of war.  Setting words by Charles Sorley, a Scottish poet killed in action in 1915, it addresses rows of soldiers on their way to the front. ‘On, marching men, on / To the gates of death with song  / … Give your gladness to earth’s keeping  / So be glad, when you are sleeping’.

World premieres take place at The Cumnock Tryst festival (chamber version) on 6 October 2018 and LSO (orchestral version) with London Symphony Chorus on 4 November 2018.

The London concert will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Thursday 8 November at 7.30pm.

Further information & tickets available here: https://lso.co.uk/whats-on/icalrepeat.detail/2018/11/04/1269/-/james-macmillan-s-all-the-hills-and-vales-along.html

Conductor Gianandrea Noseda