Star of The Last Night of the Proms and the world’s great stages, Dame Sarah Connolly’s Festival appearances are always eagerly anticipated. With the celebrated pianist Julius Drake, she sings Hector Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été (‘Summer nights’), a cycle of six songs that are one of the masterpieces of this firebrand composer. Also featured are songs by Ivor Gurney’s contemporaries Herbert Howells and John Ireland.

Emerging Artists Charles Cunliffe and Gus Tredwell open the evening with George Butterworth’s famous settings of A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad, which resonate strongly with our earlier focus on Ivor Gurney.