GCF: Event 3 / Bach and Blood

Every breath resonates and each string sings in this performance bringing together the pioneering chamber collective Scottish Ensemble and singers from the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCOS).

Voices from across the centuries are united in music shaped by ritual, reflection and transcendence. J.S Bach's Chaconne – famously described as “the greatest structure for solo violin that exists” – is illuminated by accompanying ghost chorales, while Arvo Pärt's Greater Antiphons unfolds in shimmering stillness, luminescent in the spiritual atmosphere of the city's historic cathedral.

The performance culminates in David Fennessy's Blood. This new work draws on the music of 12th-century poet and mystic Hildegard von Bingen, weaving her melodies through haunting textures as consonants dissolve and vowels stretch into a primal stream of sound. Experience a captivating new sonic landscape, where ancient chants and resonant strings become a single living sound—visceral, immediate and radiant with energy.