Duruflé Requiem – SCO Chorus – Summer Tour 2026 – Programme note

19-20 June 2026

Duruflé Requiem

Kindly supported by Eriadne & George Mackintosh and Claire & Anthony Tait

Friday 19 June, 7.30pm Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh

Saturday 20 June, 7.30pm Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews

The St Andrews concert is in association with

PHILIP GLASS Three Songs for mixed a capella choir

TAVENER Thrinos

JAMES MACMILLAN Miserere

Interval of 20 minutes

DURUFLÉ Requiem

SCO Chorus

Gregory Batsleer conductor

Bethany Horak-Hallett mezzo soprano

Paul Grant baritone

Philip Higham cello

Michael Bawtree organ

SCO Chorus with Gregory Batsleer

4 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh EH7 5AB

+44 (0)131 557 6800 | info@sco.org.uk | sco.org.uk

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is a charity registered in Scotland No. SC015039. Company registration No. SC075079.

THANK YOU

Principal Conductor's Circle

Our Principal Conductor’s Circle are a special part of our musical family. Their commitment and generosity benefit us all – musicians, audiences and creative learning participants alike.

Annual Fund

James and Patricia Cook

Visiting Artists Fund

Harry and Carol Nimmo

Anne and Matthew Richards

International Touring Fund

Gavin and Kate Gemmell

Learning and Participation Fund

Jo and Alison Elliot

Sabine and Brian Thomson

CHAIR SPONSORS

Productions Fund

Geoff and Mary Ball

Bill and Celia Carman

Anne, Tom and Natalie Usher

Scottish Touring Fund

Eriadne and George Mackintosh

Claire and Anthony Tait

New Music Fund

Ken Barker and Martha Vail Barker

Colin and Sue Buchan

David Caldwell

Nick and Kate Thomas

The Donald and Louise MacDonald Principal Conductor's Chair Maxim Emelyanychev

Chorus Director Gregory Batsleer

Anne McFarlane

Principal Viola Max Mandel

Ken Barker and Martha Vail Barker

Sub-Principal Viola Francesca Gilbert

Christine Lessels

Viola Steve King

Sir Ewan and Lady Brown

Principal Cello Philip Higham

Nick and Kate Thomas

Sub-Principal Cello Su-a Lee

Ronald and Stella Bowie

Cello Donald Gillan

Professor Sue Lightman

Cello Eric de Wit

Jasmine Macquaker Charitable Fund

Principal Double Bass Jamie Kenny

Erik Lars Hansen and Vanessa C L Chang

Principal Flute André Cebrián

Claire and Mark Urquhart

Sub-Principal Flute Marta Gómez

Judith and David Halkerston

Principal Oboe

The Hedley Gordon Wright Charitable Trust

Sub-Principal Oboe Katherine Bryer

Ulrike and Mark Wilson

Principal Clarinet Maximiliano Martín

Stuart and Alison Paul

Principal Bassoon Cerys Ambrose-Evans

Claire and Anthony Tait

Sub-Principal Bassoon Alison Green

George Rubienski

Principal Horn Kenneth Henderson

Caroline Hahn and Richard Neville-Towle

Timpani / Percussion Louise Lewis Goodwin

Silvia and Andrew Brown

Funding Partners

“The SCO Chorus proved that it is in a class of its own”

THE HERALD

HM The King Patron

Donald MacDonald CBE

Life President

Joanna Baker CBE Chair

Gavin Reid LVO FRSE Chief Executive

Maxim Emelyanychev

Principal Conductor

Andrew Manze

Principal Guest Conductor

Joseph Swensen

Conductor Emeritus

Gregory Batsleer

Chorus Director

Jay Capperauld

Associate Composer

Your Chorus Tonight

Information correct at the time of going to print

SOPRANO

Alison Williams

Anna Morris*

Annike Petin

Elizabeth McColl

Emily Gifford

Emily Kemp*

Emma Aitken

Joanne Dunwell

TENOR

Ben Evans*

Colin French

Keith Main

Magnus Bushby*

Matthew Andrews

Michael Scanlon

Paul Vaughan

Theodore Hill

Gregory Batsleer

Chorus Director

Stuart Hope

Associate Chorusmaster

Emma Morwood

Voice Coach

Susan White

Chorus Manager

* Young Singers' Programme

Bold = soloist

Morven Chisholm

Nancy Burns

Naomi Black

Nicola Henderson

ALTO

Anne Gallacher

Anne Grindley

Claire Goodenough

Elaine McAdam

Fiona Haldane

Gill Cloke

Hilde McKenna

Jennie Gardner

Linda Ruxton

Melissa Humphreys

Olivia Smith*

Rachel Kemp

Sarah Campbell

BASS

David Paterson

Douglas Nicholson

Fraser Riddell

Gavin Easton

Hugh Hillyard-Parker

Kenneth Murray

Peter Silver

Richard Murphy

Robin Hiley

Roderick Wylie

Sandy Matheson

Stephen Todd

What You Are About To Hear

PHILIP GLASS (b. 1937)

Three Songs for mixed a capella choir (1984, rev. 1986)

I. There are some men

II. Quand les hommes vivront d'amour

III. Pierre de Soleil

TAVENER (1944-2013)

Thrinos (1990)

JAMES MACMILLAN (b. 1959)

Miserere (2009)

DURUFLÉ (1902-1986)

Requiem, Op. 9 (1947, rev. 1961)

Introit (Requiem aeternam)

Kyrie eleison

Offertory (Domine Jesu Christe)

Sanctus and Benedictus

Pie Jesu

Agnus Dei

Communion (Lux aeterna)

Libera me

In paradisum

Life and death, war and peace, judgement and mercy. It’s probably no coincidence that composers down the ages have used the collected human voices that comprise a choir to explore some of our profoundest, most spiritual questions. The voice is, after all, our simplest, most authentic and least mediated musical instrument. Bringing several together can inevitably represent the warmth of community or the urgency of shared need and supplication – and in some cases, both at once.

The four pieces in tonight’s concert don’t shy away from some of our most fundamental human questions. But they address those issues in music of contemplation, understanding and often striking beauty.

Baltimore-born, long-time New Yorkbased Philip Glass is considered one of the founding fathers of minimalism, the hugely influential musical style that often takes music back to its most fundamental ingredients, drawing meaning and power from repetition, gradual change and sometimes almost hypnotic development. That said, the Three Songs that Glass wrote in 1984 are hardly examples of his purest, austerest musical style: instead, there’s a lot of variety and change within their richly conceived music.

The Three Songs were commissioned by the Québec 1534-1984 Festival, celebrating 450 years since French explorer Jacques Cartier first landed in what we now call Canada. Accordingly, Glass chose texts by three American writers, but omitted entirely his own nation, instead selecting verse by Leonard Cohen and Raymond Lévesque (both born in Québec, though Cohen was anglophone

and Lévesque francophone), and by Mexican writer Octavio Paz.

‘There are some men’ by Cohen – known equally as a poet, songwriter and singer – is a quiet tribute to an unnamed friend. Like Cohen, Lévesque was a singer-songwriter as well as a poet, and his ‘Quand les hommes vivront d’amour’ already exists in song form, though Glass’s setting of the text is entirely his own. Lévesque wrote the words while living in Paris in the 1950s, and its longing for peace is a response to the Algerian War of Independence. ‘Pierre de soleil’ is considered one of the greatest creations by Nobel laureate Paz, its structure as well as its words inspired by the circularity of time as embodied in the ancient Aztec calendar.

There’s a certain amount of repetition embedded within Glass’s three brief settings, but his Three Songs sit a long way from musical minimalism in its

There’s a certain amount of repetition embedded within Glass’s three brief settings, but his Three Songs sit a long way from musical minimalism in its strictest sense

strictest sense. Instead, more evident are Glass’s musical responses to the texts themselves, in terms of varied choral textures and harmonic richness. After the gentle melancholy of ‘There are some men’, ‘Quand les hommes vivront d’amour’ shows greater urgency in its insistent rhythms, though the subtly shifting harmonies of ‘Pierre de soleil’ map out a sophisticated emotional territory.

American minimalism made a profound impact on the music of British composer John Tavener, though he took a characteristically spiritual approach to its ideas in his deeply felt, sometimes even ritualistic music that often peers deeply into questions of faith and belief. He was a fascinating, deeply idiosyncractic figure in recent British music (he died in 2013, after gaining huge popularity in the final decades of his life). He was a close friend of the now King Charles III, and a

profoundly spiritual figure immersed in the rites of the Eastern Orthodox Church and other mystical faiths, while also maintaining a passion for classic cars –he reputedly owned a vintage Rolls Royce, a Jaguar and a Bentley during his lifetime.

Tavener wrote Thrinos in 1990 for British cellist Steven Isserlis, a long-time collaborator and close colleague. It’s a slow-moving song of lament for cello alone, drawing on Orthodox chants often heard at funerals or burial services. Tavener’s Thrinos manages to be austere yet also emotionally rich, revealing music of such simplicity that even a move from one note to another can feel like a change of emotion. It concludes, appropriately, in the darkest part of the cello’s range.

Sir James MacMillan is Scotland’s most

Tavener’s Thrinos manages to be austere yet also emotionally rich, revealing music of such simplicity that even a move from one note to another can feel like a change of emotion.

internationally prominent composer, with a huge output of operas, orchestral music and chamber works that often combine hard-edged energy with contemplative spirituality to profoundly dramatic effect. Music for voices, too, has long played a central role in his output: he has written for choirs of all levels, and one of his most recent pieces – the oratorio Angels Unawares – made history as the first piece to be premiered in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.

MacMillan wrote his Miserere in 2009 for the Flanders Festival in Antwerp. Its text, taken from Psalm 51, is a prayer for forgiveness, mercy and understanding that’s been set by many composers down the centuries – most famously, perhaps, by Gregorio Allegri in the 1630s. Indeed, MacMillan explicitly references Allegri’s setting in his own version, as he explains in his own description of the piece:

‘It is through-composed but structured in a series of interlocking sections, and bound together by a number of recurring motifs. I have nodded towards Allegri’s masterful setting by referencing the psalm chant found in his setting. However, my version of the chant is harmonised, once in a relatively traditional manner, and then later, ethereally and with floating drones. The opening melody, based upon a minor mode, eventually recurs at the very end in its major, with a sense of resignation and hope.’

From comradeship, commemoration and contrition, for tonight’s final piece we turn to the biggest question of them all: mortality. Though the setting of the Requiem Mass that Maurice Duruflé finished composing in 1947 considers the inevitability of death not with terror or resistance, but with quiet acceptance, and a deeply consoling sense of compassion.

MacMillan wrote his Miserere in 2009 for the Flanders Festival in Antwerp. Its text, taken from Psalm

51,

is

a prayer for forgiveness, mercy and understanding that’s been set by many composers down the centuries

Duruflé came from a long and illustrious line of French organist/composers. He studied as a young man with arch-mystic Charles Tournemire, then later with the somewhat more pragmatic Louis Vierne, observing: ‘To the same extent that Tournemire made one feel one was sitting upon a volcano about to erupt, Vierne gave one a sense of complete ease. He was always the same from one day to the next.’ He assisted Vierne in his role as organist at Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral, and held the position of organist at the city’s Saint-Étienne-du-Mont Church from 1929 until 1975.

In terms of his compositions, however, Duruflé was a notorious perfectionist, unable to stop himself tampering with and making final edits to music even after it had been published, and destroying many pieces before they even got to that stage. As a result, he has a mere 14 published

opus numbers to his name – among which today’s Requiem is by far his best-known and most loved work.

Given its contemplative, serenely peaceful tone, the Requiem’s origins are perhaps a little unexpected. It was commissioned at the height of the Second World War by the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime, one of several pieces that the puppet government requested from prominent figures in French music to emphasise its own legitimacy. Duruflé originally agreed to produce a symphonic poem, though he later got the authorities to agree to a setting of the Requiem Mass instead. He was still working on the Requiem when the Vichy regime fell in 1944, and it wouldn’t receive its premiere until three years later.

It’s often compared with – and, on CD recordings, often directly paired with – the more famous Requiem setting by

Given its contemplative, serenely peaceful tone, the Requiem’s origins are perhaps a little unexpected.

Gabriel Fauré. It’s understandable: the two pieces are similarly serene, luminous and introspective, and both focus on peace and mercy rather than divine judgement or dread of what might come after death. Duruflé himself, however, got more than a little annoyed by the comparison, later explicitly stating: ‘I do not think I was influenced by Fauré, contrary to the opinion of certain music critics who, anyway, have never given any explanation for their point of view. I have simply tried to surround myself with the style suitable to the Gregorian chants as well as the rhythmic interpretation of the Benedictines of Solesmes.’

Ancient Gregorian plainchant is indeed central to Duruflé’s setting of the Mass text, and he uses numerous traditional chant themes across the work, often subtly adapting or expanding them within his luminous, gently perfumed musical world.

Ancient Gregorian plainchant is indeed central to Duruflé’s setting of the Mass text, and he uses numerous traditional chant themes across the work, often subtly adapting or expanding them within his luminous, gently perfumed musical world. As a result, vocal lines often feel as if they float free of rhythmic restrictions, instead unfolding gracefully in their own time and according to their own rules.

As a result, vocal lines often feel as if they float free of rhythmic restrictions, instead unfolding gracefully in their own time and according to their own rules.

Several versions of the Requiem exist, using organ or orchestra (or both). Tonight we’ll hear Duruflé’s version for mezzosoprano and baritone soloists, choir, organ and solo cello, which is structured across nine movements. The choral tenors and basses introduce the main, chant-like theme against a gently rippling accompaniment in the opening ‘Requiem aeternam’, before the choir’s sopranos and altos add harmonic richness. The ‘Kyrie eleison’ runs straight on from the opening movement, its similarly chant-like lines rising gently through the choral voices.

After a somewhat sombre organ introduction, the ‘Domine Jesu Christe’ begins quietly with the choral altos before

building to an imposing, even desperate plea for mercy from the full chorus, later joined by the solo baritone in a more hushed ‘Hostias’ section. Rippling accompaniment figures return for the light-filled, quietly celebratory ‘Sanctus’ and very brief ‘Benedictus’, while the poised serenity of the ‘Pie Jesu’ comes courtesy of a duet between the solo mezzo and solo cello. The ‘Agnus Dei’ moves more fluidly than earlier movements, and the ‘Lux aeterna’ is gently luminous, full of ever-changing rhythms that allow its chant-like melody to flow naturally. The ‘Libera me’ is the Requiem’s most dramatic and unsettled movement, building to an impassioned climax as the text considers the Day of Judgement, though Duruflé contrasts it with a feeling of otherworldly delicacy in the quietly radiant vision of heaven, ‘In paradisum’.

© David Kettle

Libretto

PHILIP GLASS (b. 1937)

Three Songs for mixed a capella choir (1984, rev. 1986)

I. There are some men

There are some men who should have mountains to bear their names to time.

Grave markers are not high enough or green, and sons go far away to lose the fist their father's hand will always seem.

I had a friend: he lived and died in mighty silence and in dignity, left no book, son or lover to mourn.

Nor is this a mourning song but only a naming of this mountain on which I walk, fragrant, dark and softly white under the pale of mist. I name this mountain after him.

Text: Leonard Cohen

II. Quand les hommes vivront d’amour

Quand les hommes vivront d'amour

Il n'y aura plus de misère

Et commenceront les beaux jours

Mais nous, nous serons morts, mon frère.

Quand les hommes vivront d'amour

Ce sera la paix sur la terre

Les soldats seront troubadours

Mais nous, nous serons morts, mon frère.

When men live in brotherly love

There will be no more misery

And the good days will begin

But as for us, we shall be long gone, my brother.

When men live in brotherly love

There will be peace on Earth Soldiers will be troubadours

But as for us, we shall be long gone, my brother.

Dans la grande chaîne de la vie

Où il fallait que nous passions

Où il fallait que nous soyons

Nous aurons eu la mauvaise partie.

Mais quand les hommes vivront d'amour

Qu'il n'y aura plus de misère

Peut-être songeront-ils un jour

À nous qui serons morts, mon frère.

Nous qui aurons aux mauvais jours

Dans la haine et puis dans la guerre

Cherché la paix, cherché l'amour

Qu'ils connaîtront alors, mon frère.

Dans la grande chaîne de la vie

Pour qu'il y ait un meilleur temps

Il faut toujours quelques perdants

Sagesse ici-bas, c'est le prix.

Text: Raymond Lévesque

La vie, quand fut-elle vraiment notre ?

Quand sommes-nous vraiment ce que nous sommes ? En vérité, seuls, nous ne sommes pas, nous ne sommes jamais sinon vertige et vide, jamais la vie n'est nôtre, elle est aux autres, la vie n'est à personne, nous sommes tous la vie, pain de soleil pour les autres, tous les autres que nous sommes, sortir de moi, me chercher parmi les autres, les autres qui ne sont pas si je n'existe pas, les autres qui nous donnent existence, Il n'y a pas de moi, toujours nous sommes nous autres, la vie est autres, toujours là-bas plus loin, hors de toi, de moi, toujours horizon.

Text: Octavio Paz (translated by Benjamin Peret)

Through the course of this life

Which we had to experience

In which we had to play a part

We were dealt a bad hand.

But when men live in brotherly love

And there is no more misery

Perhaps they will think one day

Of us who are no longer, my brother.

We in bad times

In hatred and then in war

Looked for peace, looked for love

Which they will know, my brother.

Through the course of this life

To have a better time

There always have to be some losers

That's the price you payfor wisdom.

When was life really ours?

When are we really what we are?

In truth, as individuals we do not exist, we never exist except as dizziness and emptiness, life is never ours, it belongs to others, life doesn't belong to any one individual, we are all life, we nurture one another, all the others whom we are, let me come out of myself, look for me amongst the others, the others who are not if I don't exist, the others who give me existence, There is no me, it is always us, life is others, always over there, further away, beyond you, beyond me, always on the horizon.

JAMES MACMILLAN (b. 1959)

Miserere (2009)

Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam.

Et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquitatem meam.

Amplius lava me ab iniquitate mea: et a peccato meo munda me.

Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco: et peccatum meum contra me est semper.

Tibi soli peccavi, et malum coram te feci: ut justificeris in sermonibus tuis, et vincas cum judicaris.

Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum: et in peccatis concepit me mater mea.

Ecce enim veritatem dilexisti: incerta et occulta sapientiae tuae manifestasti mihi.

Asperges me hyssopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.

Auditui meo dabis gaudium et laetitiam: et exsultabunt ossa humiliata.

Averte faciem tuam a peccatis meis: et omnes iniquitates meas dele.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy.

And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity.

Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me.

To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee: that thou mayst be justified in thy words, and mayst overcome when thou art judged.

For behold I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me.

For behold thou hast loved truth: the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me.

Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.

To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness: and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.

Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Cor mundum crea in me, Deus: et spiritum rectum innova in visceribus meis.

Ne projicias me a facie tua: et spiritum sanctum tuum ne auferas a me.

Redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui: et spiritu principali confirma me.

Docebo iniquos vias tuas: et impii ad te convertentur.

Libera me de sanguinibus, Deus, Deus salutis meae: et exsultabit lingua mea justitiam tuam.

Domine, labia mea aperies: et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam.

Quoniam si voluisses sacrificium, dedissem utique: holocaustis non delectaberis.

Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus: cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies.

Benigne fac, Domine, in bona voluntate tua Sion: ut aedificentur muri Ierusalem.

Tunc acceptabis sacrificium iustitiae, oblationes et holocausta: tunc imponent super altare tuum vitulos.

Psalm 51 (50): 3-21

Douay-Rheims translation

Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels.

Cast me not away from thy face; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and strengthen me with a perfect spirit.

I will teach the unjust thy ways: and the wicked shall be converted to thee.

Deliver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall extol thy justice.

O Lord, thou wilt open my lips: and my mouth shall declare thy praise.

For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it: with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted.

A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Deal favourably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion; that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up.

Then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations and whole burnt offerings: then shall they lay calves upon thy altar.

DURUFLÉ (1902-1986)

Requiem, Op. 9 (1947, rev. 1961)

Introit

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem; exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Kyrie

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

Introit

Eternal rest grant them, O Lord, and let eternal light shine upon them. A hymn to you is fitting, O God in Zion, and a vow made to you in Jerusalem; hear my prayer, all flesh comes to you. Eternal rest grant them, O Lord, and let eternal light shine upon them.

Kyrie

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us.

Domine Jesu Christe

Domine Jesu Christe, rex gloriae, libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum de poenis inferni et de profundo lacu. Libera eas de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum.

Sed signifer sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam, quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus. Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus.

Tu suscipe pro animabus illis, quarum hodie memoriam facimus, fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus.

Sanctus

Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth, pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis! Benedictus, qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis!

Pie Jesu

Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem sempiternam.

Agnus Dei

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem sempiternam.

Domine Jesu Christe

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, free the souls of all the faithful departed from the punishments of hell and from the deep abyss. Deliver them from the lion’s mouth so that Tartarus does not swallow them, and that they do not fall into darkness.

But holy Michael, describes them as being in the holy light, which long ago to Abraham and his offspring you promised. Offerings and prayers to you, Lord, praise we offer. Hear them for the sake of those souls which today we remember, grant, Lord, that they may pass from death to life, which long ago to Abraham and his offspring you promised.

Sanctus

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory, Hosannah in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosannah in the highest.

Pie Jesu

Gracious Lord Jesus, grant them eternal rest.

Agnus Dei

Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant them eternal rest.

Lux aeterna

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine, cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Libera me

Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna, in die illa tremenda, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra, dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem.

Tremens factus sum ego et timeo dum discussio venerit atque ventura ira, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra. Dies illa, dies irae, calamitatis et miseriae, dies magna et amara valde. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

In Paradisum

In Paradisum deducant Angeli, in tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem.

Chorus Angelorum te suscipit et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem.

© Pamela Dellal

Lux aeterna

May eternal light shine on them, Lord, with your saints forever, because you are gracious. Eternal rest grant them, O Lord, and let eternal light shine upon them.

Libera me

Deliver me, Lord, from eternal death on that tremendous day when the heavens and the earth are disturbed, when you will come to judge the world through fire. I am forced to tremble and I fear, when the distruction comes and the impending wrath, when the heavens and the earth are disturbed. That day, the day of wrath, of calamity, of misery, day immense and most bitter. Eternal rest grant them, O Lord, and let eternal light shine upon them.

In Paradisum

Into Paradise may the angels lead you, may the martyrs welcome you in your coming and guide you into the holy city Jerusalem.

A chorus of angels will greet you, and with Lazarus, once a beggar, may you have eternal rest.

Gregory Batsleer

Gregory Batsleer is acknowledged as one of the leading choral conductors of his generation, winning widespread recognition for his creativity and vision. Since taking on the role of SCO Chorus Director in 2009, he has led the development of the Chorus, overseeing vocal coaching, the SCO Young Singers’ Programme and the emergence of regular a capella concerts. As well as preparing the Chorus for regular performances with the Orchestra, he has directed their successful appearances at Edinburgh Jazz, East Neuk, Glasgow Cathedral and St Andrews Voices Festivals, at Greyfriars Kirk at Christmas and Easter, and on the SCO Summer Tour.

In 2021 Gregory took up the position of Festival Director for the London Handel Festival. He leads the programming and development of the Festival, fulfilling its mission to bring Handel’s music to the widest possible audiences.

As guest conductor, Gregory has worked with many of the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles. Recent highlights include performances with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, RSNO, Hallé Orchestra, Black Dyke Band, National Youth Choir of Great Britain, Orchestra of Opera North, Manchester Camerata, SCO and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

From 2012 to 2017, he was Artistic Director of the National Portrait Gallery’s Choir in Residence programme, the first ever in-house music programme of any gallery or museum in the world. He has been Artistic Director of Huddersfield Choral Society since 2017 and was Chorus Director with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra from 2015 - 2021. Gregory has curated and devised performances for the Southbank Centre, Wilderness Festival and Latitude and collaborated with leading cultural figures across a variety of different art forms. He is the co-founder and conductor of Festival Voices, a versatile ensemble dedicated to cross-art collaboration.

Gregory sits on the board of Manchester Camerata as a non-executive director. His outstanding work as a choral director was recognised with the 2015 Arts Foundation’s first-ever Fellowship in Choral Conducting. His contract with the SCO Chorus was recently extended until summer 2028.

Gregory’s Chair is kindly supported by Anne McFarlane

Bethany Horak-Hallett

British mezzo-soprano Bethany Horak-Hallett is recognised as a compelling interpreter of Handel, Mozart and their contemporaries across opera and concert platforms. She recently made her Royal Swedish Opera début as Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), a role she has also sung for Garsington Opera, where she appeared as Dorabella (Così fan tutte). Her engagements in Handel include Virtue (The Choice of Hercules) for the London Handel Festival and Tirinto (Imeneo) for Cambridge Handel Opera Company. She made her English National Opera début in Mozart’s Women: A Musical Journey and created the role of Yolanda in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s The Railway Children at Glyndebourne.

Her versatility spans repertoire from Lady Psyche (Princess Ida) with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment to Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) for IF Opera, alongside contemporary works including Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel, conducted by the composer, at Opéra de Paris.

In concert, she has performed Bach, Handel and Haydn with leading ensembles including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music and Dunedin Consort, and made her BBC Proms début with the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

A graduate of Leeds University and Trinity Laban Conservatoire, she is a Samling Artist and prizewinner at the 2021 International Handel Singing Competition.

For full biography please visit sco.org.uk

Baritone Paul Grant

British baritone Paul Grant is a recent graduate of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the programme’s second British singer. During his time in the Accademia, he performed as Grégorio Roméo et Juliette, Ein Kappadozier Salome, and Dandini for their children’s performances of La Cenerentola. He has since returned to La Scala for performances of Guillaume Tell, Ariadne auf Naxos, Adès The Tempest, and as Figaro Il barbiere di Siviglia

Recent performance highlights include celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Georg Solti Accademia at the Hungarian State Opera, Duruflé Requiem at the Edinburgh International Festival, Brahms Ein deutches Requiem with the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, a recital for Teatro La Fenice, as well as appearances at Bolzano Festival and Lausitz Festival.

Operatic performances include Figaro Il barbiere di Siviglia at Opera Holland Park, Il Conte d’Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro at ROH Muscat, Claudio Béatrice et Bénédict with Irish National Opera, Smirnov in Walton’s The Bear at the Lerici Music Festival and Teatro dell’Opera Giocosa, and, with Royal Academy Opera, Robert in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, and Minsk Man in Jonathan Dove’s Flight

Grant was born in Edinburgh and studied with Glenville Hargreaves and Jonathan Papp at the Royal Academy of Music where he was a member of the Academy Song Circle and was a soloist for the RAM/Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata Series. He was a Britten Pears Young Artist, a Samling Artist and is an alumnus of the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto. He won the 2018 Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award and in the 2018/19 season was an Alvarez Young Artist at Garsington Opera.

For full biography please visit sco.org.uk

Philip Higham

Born in Edinburgh, Philip studied with Ruth Beauchamp at St Mary's Music School and subsequently at the RNCM with Emma Ferrand and Ralph Kirshbaum. He also enjoyed mentoring from Steven Isserlis. In 2008 he became the first UK cellist to win 1st Prize in the Bach Leipzig competition, and followed it with major prizes in 2009 Lutoslawski Competition, and the 2010 Grand Prix Emmanuel Feuermann in Berlin. He was selected for representation by Young Classical Artist Trust between 2009 and 2014.

He has appeared as soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra (broadcast by BBC Radio 3), the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Brighton Festival and Lichfield Festival, and further afield in Germany, Istanbul and Washington DC. In 2014 he performed the complete Bach Suites in Tokyo at the Musashino Cultural Foundation, and again at Wigmore Hall in 2017.

Philip has been described as ‘possessing that rare combination of refined technique with subtle and expressive musicianship… all the qualities of a world-class artist’ (The Strad), and has been praised for his ‘expansive but tender playing’ (Gramophone). His debut recording of the Britten Solo Suites (Delphian, 2013) was named instrumental disc of the month in both Gramophone and BBC Music magazines. He has also released the complete Bach Suites, to critical acclaim.

Philip was appointed Principal Cello of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 2016. He plays a fine Milanese cello by Carlo Giuseppe Testore, made in 1697, and is grateful for continued support from Harriet's Trust.

Philip's Chair is kindly supported by The Thomas Family.

For full biography please visit sco.org.uk

Organ Michael Bawtree

A musician with a wide-ranging international career, British conductor and organist Michael Bawtree regularly conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and has directed the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Red Note Ensemble, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, Orchestra North East and many performances for Scottish Ballet across the British Isles. For seven years he was Assistant Music Director of the Lyrique-en-Mer summer opera festival in Brittany, returning there last summer to lead performances of Menotti’s The Telephone. He joined the music staff at Glyndebourne for their 2018 production of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, and has worked as guest chorus master for the BBC Singers, Danish National Opera and St Endellion Festival.

Since 2005, Michael Bawtree has been Chorus Director of the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union and Music Director of Glasgow Chamber Choir. He conducted a specially-formed ensemble at His Majesty King Charles III’s “Scottish Coronation” in Edinburgh in July 2023, repeating the same concert for His Majesty at Balmoral Castle this summer. A keen advocate of contemporary music, Bawtree has conducted world premieres of works by Judith Bingham, Paul Mealor, Cecilia McDowall, Richard Peat and Rory Boyle.

An avid traveller, Bawtree has been lucky to visit all corners of the globe whilst making music: he spent the summer of 2014 living in Mumbai, directing a choral project with 250 children from all walks of life; last autumn, he headed to an island in northwest Greenland to lead a fortnight of workshops and performances with young musicians from across Scandinavia; in February 2024, he returned to Mumbai to perform Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony with the Symphony Orchestra of India; and last year, he returned to Australia to lead a youth choir project in Brisbane.

As organist and continuo player, he performs regularly with all the Scottish orchestras and the London Symphony, Swedish Radio, Bergen Philharmonic and BBC Symphony orchestras. Organ recital invitations have taken Bawtree to all the major British cathedrals, Notre-Dame de Paris, Washington National Cathedral, Auckland Town Hall and to Bermuda, New England, California and across Scandinavia. Bawtree studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge University, and at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he is now Lecturer in Conducting.

SCO Chorus

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus, under the direction of Gregory Batsleer since 2009, has built a reputation as one of Scotland’s most vibrant and versatile choirs. Widely regarded as one of the finest orchestral choruses in the UK, it celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2026.

Members enjoy the unique opportunity of performing with one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras, working with international conductors including Maxim Emelyanychev, Andrew Manze, Riccardo Minasi, Richard Egarr, Václav Luks and Sir James MacMillan.

The Chorus appears regularly with the Orchestra in Scotland’s major cities. Recent concerts have covered a wide range of music including Bach Mass in B minor and Christmas Oratorio, Berlioz L’Enfance du Christ, Brahms Requiem, Haydn Creation, MacMillan Seven Last Words, Poulenc Gloria, a rare performance of Vaughan Williams Flos Campi and premiere performances of works by Anna Clyne, Sir James MacMillan and SCO Associate Composer Jay Capperauld..

The SCO Chorus also performs a capella, both digital and live, in music ranging from Thomas Tallis to newly-composed work. Its annual Christmas concerts have established themselves as a Season highlight; the Chorus also enjoys appearing on the SCO’s Summer Tour.

Other notable out-of-Season appearances have included critically-acclaimed performances with the SCO at the BBC Proms in Handel’s Jephtha in 2019 and in Mendelssohn's Elijah in 2023, and at the 2023, 2024 and 2025 Edinburgh International Festivals in semi-staged performances of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Così fan tutte and La Clemenza di Tito

The SCO Chorus Young Singers' Programme was established in 2015 to nurture and develop aspiring young singers. It is designed for young people with a high level of choral experience and ambitions to further their singing with a world-class ensemble.

Further information at sco.org.uk

The SCO Chorus Young Singers' Programme is kindly supported by the Baird Educational Trust.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) is one of Scotland’s five National Performing Companies and has been a galvanizing force in Scotland’s music scene since its inception in 1974. The SCO believes that access to world-class music is not a luxury but something that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in, helping individuals and communities everywhere to thrive. Funded by the Scottish Government, City of Edinburgh Council and a community of philanthropic supporters, the SCO has an international reputation for exceptional, idiomatic performances: from mainstream classical music to newly commissioned works, each year its wide-ranging programme of work is presented across the length and breadth of Scotland, overseas and increasingly online.

Equally at home on and off the concert stage, each one of the SCO’s highly talented and creative musicians and staff is passionate about transforming and enhancing lives through the power of music. The SCO’s Creative Learning programme engages people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse range of projects, concerts, participatory workshops and resources. The SCO’s current five-year Residency in Edinburgh’s Craigmillar builds on the area’s extraordinary history of Community Arts, connecting the local community with a national cultural resource.

An exciting new chapter for the SCO began in September 2019 with the arrival of dynamic young conductor Maxim Emelyanychev as the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor. His tenure has recently been extended until at least 2031. The SCO and Emelyanychev released their first album together (Linn Records) in 2019 to widespread critical acclaim. Their second recording together, of Mendelssohn symphonies, was released in 2023, with Schubert Symphonies Nos 5 and 8 following in 2024.

The SCO also has long-standing associations with many eminent guest conductors and directors including Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Manze, Pekka Kuusisto, François Leleux, Nicola Benedetti, Isabelle van Keulen, Anthony Marwood, Richard Egarr, Mark Wigglesworth, Lorenza Borrani and Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen.

The Orchestra’s current Associate Composer is Jay Capperauld. The SCO enjoys close relationships with numerous leading composers and has commissioned around 200 new works, including pieces by Sir James MacMillan, Anna Clyne, Sally Beamish, Martin Suckling, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Karin Rehnqvist, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Nico Muhly and the late Peter Maxwell Davies.

Support the Summer Tour

This summer, we are bringing world-class music to 26 towns and cities across Scotland, stretching from Fraserburgh in the northeast to Kirkcudbright in the southwest! The programmes take in everything from firm favourites to a host of lesser-known gems, with several SCO Principals among the soloists.

Your donation will help deepen our connections with local communities, showcase our exceptional musicians, and bring world-class performances to audiences who rarely have the opportunity to experience live orchestral music in their area. For more information on how you can become a regular donor, please get in touch with Hannah on 0131 478 8364 or hannah.wilkinson@sco.org.uk.

The SCO is a charity registered in Scotland No SC015039.

Photo: Christopher Bowen