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Afterlife: Visions of the Beyond

BBC Proms 2026

Live at the BBC Proms: The BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales & Ryan Bancroft, with Mari Eriksmoen, Paula Murrihy, James Way and Szymon Mechliński, perform Szymanowski.

Live at the BBC Proms: The BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales & Ryan Bancroft, with Mari Eriksmoen, Paula Murrihy, James Way and Szymon Mechliński, perform Szymanowski.

Presented by Alexandra Humphreys, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Lili Boulanger: Vieille prière bouddhique
Szymanowski: Stabat mater

c.8.10pm
Interval: Alexandra's guest is Peter Stanford - the author of books including Heaven: A Traveller’s Guide to the Undiscovered Country; The Devil: A Biography; Angels: A History and earlier this summer he published Gaudí: God's Architect about the Spanish designer of the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona who died a hundred years ago in June 1926

c.8.20pm
Messiaen: L’Ascension – four symphonic meditations
Strauss: Death and Transfiguration

Mari Eriksmoen (soprano)
Paula Murrihy (mezzo-soprano)
James Way (tenor)
Szymon Mechliński (baritone)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
BBC National Chorus of Wales
London Philharmonic Choir
Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

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.

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2 hours, 30 minutes

Last on

Yesterday 19:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Lili Boulanger

    Vieille Priere Bouddhique

    Performer: James Way. Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Ryan Bancroft. Choir: BBC National Chorus of Wales.

  • Karol Szymanowski

    Stabat Mater Op.53

    Performer: Mari Eriksmoen. Performer: Paula Murrihy. Performer: James Way. Performer: Simon Mechlinski. Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Ryan Bancroft. Choir: BBC National Chorus of Wales.

  • Hildegard von Bingen

    O gloriosissimi lux vivens angeli

    Ensemble: Dous Mal.
    • Hildegard von Bingen: The Dendermonde Codex.
    • VRT Muziek.
    • 106.

  • Edward Elgar

    Enigma Variations. Nimrod: Lux Aeterna

    Music Arranger: John Cameron.
    • Nimrod.
    • Orchid Classics.
    • 101.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    String Quartet No 15 in A Minor Op. 132: III

    Ensemble: Dover Quartet.
    • Beethoven Complete String Quartets.
    • Cedille Records.
    • 1603.

  • Olivier Messiaen

    L' Ascension 4 Meditations Symphoniques

    Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Ryan Bancroft.

  • Richard Strauss

    Tod Und Verklarung Op.24

    Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Ryan Bancroft.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Trio in E flat major K.498 'Kegelstatt' (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Martin Frost. Performer: Antoine Tamestit. Performer: Leif Ove Andsnes.
    • BIS.

  • Christian Sinding

    The Rustle of Spring (6 Pieces Op.32)

    Performer: Christian Ihle Hadland.
    • Sinding, C.: Violin and Piano Music.
    • Naxos.
    • 1.

Broadcast

  • Yesterday 19:30
    BBC Radio 3

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