Jonathan Harvey travelled to Berlin in March 2008 for his second major premiere in the Philharmonie in less than a year.
Following the success of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s German premiere of Madonna of Winter and Spring last year, the Berlin Radio Choir co-commissioned a new work, together with the Fundación Patronata Semana de Musica Religiosa de Cuenca in Spain.
Messages, for chorus and orchestra, lasts 25 minutes and sets a text consists entirely of names of angels.
The premiere took place on 29 and 30 March, with Reinbert de Leeuw conducting the Radio Choir and the Berliner Philharmoniker. More details here. The Spanish premiere takes place in Cuenca in 2009.