This concert was live-streamed as part of the Wigmore Hall Spring Series. The video is no longer online but other concerts are available to watch in full here: Wigmore Hall Concert Video Library

At the centre of this programme is a hole, a near-vacancy, a new work from the young, award-winning composer Jack Sheen. Hollow propranolol séance stretches out panels of softly teeming sound, each one attempting to conjure – however fleetingly or ambiguously – some kind of presence out of the fragile whirring that we hear in our empty rooms.

Weaving together this eclectic programme are Sheen’s own arrangements of three works by the towering interdisciplinary figure – and someone commonly recognised as the earliest known composer – Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179). Since her childhood Hildegard experienced prophetic visions which she spent her life exploring as a mystic, scientist, composer, herbalist, and linguist. She was formally canonised in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.

Hildegard’s music forms the building blocks for three new pieces that reflect and refract the other works that surround them: Oliver Knussen’s ephemeral yet tight-knit miniatures, Sheen’s heart-rate slowing hum, and Jürg Frey’s gently levitating Circular Music No. 2.