Requiem in Blue

Harvey Brough 

VOX HOLLOWAY

Sinfonia Smith Square, Westminster 

Saturday July 19 2025

Written in 1998 in memory of his brother Lester, Requiem in Blue is perhaps the best known and most performed of Harvey Brough’s choral oeuvre. Like all his compositions, the Requiem mixes together different and unusual genres for a choral piece. Although based firmly in the tradition of the Latin classical Mass, it mixes together adult and childrens voices with plainsong, folk song, early music influences and jazz improvisation, to dazzling effect.

It has been performed over 100 times all over the UK and in Europe, including venues such as the Barbican, St Johns Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, Union Chapel, (London) – Ely Cathedral, Portsmouth Cathedral, Bath Abbey, Great St Mary’s, Cambridge and The Usher Hall, Edinburgh. And by many schools, including Christ’s Hospital, Dulwich College, Uppingham, Oundle, Clifton College, City of London School.

Many outstanding musicians have performed in the piece and in the CD recording, including Liane Carroll, Jacqui Dankworth, Natacha Atlas, Gerard Presencer, Mike Outram, Alec Dankworth, Julian Siegel, Winston Clifford, Andy Hamill, Tom Arthurs and James Maddren.

The Pie Jesu and the final movement, Lux Aeterna feature words from Spoonface Steinberg by Lee Hall (writer of Billy Elliot) – like all of Requiem in Blue, this last movement, although rooted in a Christian tradition is a powerful plea for universal redemption.

Vox Holloway will perform with Harvey’s band of musicians and soloists Charles Daniels and Maurice Wren, conducted by the composer. 

Remarkably, the soloists in Requiem in Blue are Kate Brook and Emily Dankworth, both of whom performed as youngsters in the work’s premiere in Eye Church, Suffolk.

Other pieces in the programme are Valete in Pace (Brough), commissioned for the 60th anniversary of DDay, and Five Mystical Songs (Vaughan Williams).