Many of the ‘songs’ we are hearing at this year’s festival naturally incline towards the secular, but tonight’s concert is about the sacred. Couperin’s 'Leçons de ténèbres' are an exquisitely emotional depiction of that most human of sounds: the cry of mourning. Couperin stated that, while he wrote the Leçons for two sopranos, “all other types of voices may sing them”.

"As a lower voice (!) I have long hoped to perform them, and I can’t think of a better team with whom to sharen this intensely personal and devotional work." - Helen Charlston