Eternal Song

Glasgow Cathedral 20/09/26

Rose Stachniewska (soprano), Dylan Perez (piano), Alasdair Roberts (guitar, hurdy-gurdy).

The imaginative programme for 'Eternal Song', the concluding musical offering at this year’s Glasgow Cathedral Festival, set up an extended conversation across nine centuries of music pitched towards the transcendent in different ways. Messiaen, Bach, Schubert, Josephine Foster and Hildegard von Bingen were the interlocutors in this sonic exploration.

Performed beautifully by highly accomplished soprano Rose Stachniewska and pianist Dylan Perez, aided by Alasdair Roberts on guitar and hurdy-gurdy, the recital investigated how human devotional and sacred instinct mutates over time, moving from medieval monophony via Lutheran rigour and Romantic angst into 20th-century impressionism and deep mysticism right through to contemporary folk-inflected song.

Opening with Hildegard von Bingen’s O Vis Aeternitatis, Stachniewska established a stark thematic anchor. Stripped of harmonic backing, the vocal line structured over a hurdy-gurdy drone relied entirely on acoustic resonance to fill the cathedral volume. Perez’s immediate follow-up, J.S. Bach’s Prelude No. 12 in F minor (BWV 857), introduced structured counterpoint, framing the transition from early spiritual chant to the mathematical order of the High Baroque.

The inclusion of American singer-songwriter Josephine Foster’s ‘I Was Glad’, alongside her later pieces ‘Eternity’ and ‘Magenta’, constituted the late afternoon’s most distinct programming choice. Interspersing Foster’s idiosyncratic idioms among Schubert lieder (Litanei, Die junge Nonne, and the famous Ave Maria), Bach’s structure and Debussy’s longing evocation created a fascinating juxtaposition.

Where Schubert resolved spiritual agony through tight classical form and soaring melodic arcs, Foster’s writing leans into raw, elemental repetition. Stachniewska handled these shifts in vocal style wonderfully, steering clear of operatic weight during to preserve their folk stylings. It worked beautifully because it felt natural rather than forced.

Perez’s solo moments acted as pillars (alongside the structural one he was positioned behind) rather than mere interludes. Debussy’s La cathédrale engloutie fitted the setting perfectly. The piano's open fifths and low pedal tones mimicked chimes and submerged architecture, utilising natural reverb to sustain harmony. His execution of Bach’s Prelude in E-flat major (BWV 852) also provided a palette cleanser between the dense harmonic colours of Messiaen’s Action de grâces and the emotional directness of Foster’s middle set, where Roberts delicately picked acoustic guitar and harmony vocals on ‘Eternity’ was further underlined in ‘Magenta’ by floating piano chords.

Which brings us to the beating heart of this compelling recital. If anyone could claim to have written the music of heaven on earth (which he never would, of course), it is Olivier Messiaen. In her introduction to the programme, Rose Stachniewska observed that his Catholic devotion issued not in tailored piety but an extraordinary sense of adventure and boldness, incorporating bird song, Hindu rhythmic subtlety and the beauty and multiple shapes of the natural world.

Messiaen’s vocal works spotlighted here – Action de grâces, L’escalier redit, gestes du soleil, Amour oiseau d’étoile, and Résurrection – formed the programme’s most demanding territory. These pieces require absolute precision in pitch and rhythm from both musicians. Perez navigated Messiaen’s bird-call motifs and complex modes of limited transposition with clarity, while Stachniewska addressed the wide dynamic leaps without sacrificing vocal focus. Superb performances that matched musical conviction and precision with true feeling.

Concluding appropriately enough with the startlingly passionate Résurrection, the recital resolved the progression from Hildegard’s unadorned line to Messiaen’s harmonic complexity, illustrating how the search for spiritual expression has adapted its musical vocabulary over time while keeping its core impulse intact. Stachniewska and Perez presented this trajectory with love and care. Altogether, a truly memorable recital.

More on the Glasgow Cathedral Festival here: www.gcfestival.com