Afterlife: Visions of the Beyond
19:30 Thu 23 Jul 2026 Royal Albert Hall
Programme
- Vieille prière bouddhique(7 mins)
- Stabat mater(28 mins)
- interval
- L’Ascension – four symphonic meditations(27 mins)
- Death and Transfiguration(23 mins)
Performers
- Mari Eriksmoensoprano
- Paula Murrihymezzo-soprano
- James Waytenor
- Szymon Mechlińskibaritone
- Ryan Bancroftconductor
About This Event
Music pierces the veil between heaven and earth in a spiritually charged concert that opens in contemplation and ends in the blaze of ascension and transfiguration. Voices are raised in prayer in Lili Boulanger’s haunting Vieille prière bouddhique, intensified in the rapt, intimate intercessions of Szymanowski’s Stabat mater. Unearthly beauty is revealed in Messiaen’s L’Ascension, before a dying man is raised to heaven in Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration.
Ryan Bancroft © Benjamin Ealovega
