John Rutter’s Visions is an unusual—and highly effective—work combining elements of a violin concerto (at times redolent of Vaughan Williams’s Lark Ascending) with ethereal boys’ voices into an expression of unabashed utopian optimism.

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“Visions” was the result of a most unusual invitation: to write a piece combining solo violin, string ensemble (to which I added a harp), and the boy choristers of the Temple Church choir. The occasion was a concert at the Temple Church in London forming part of the 2016 Menuhin Competition, at which two past winners of that renowned violin competition were to perform.

My assigned soloist was the dazzling 19-year-old Canadian violinist Kerson Leong. Having immediately decided to accept, my thoughts soon turned to the historic associations of the Temple Church with the Knights Templar—the church takes its name from the Temple at Jerusalem, and the round shape of its most ancient part is a deliberate echo of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

‘Jerusalem’ is of course more than the name of a middle-eastern city: it stands as a symbol both of God’s people and of a utopian ideal of heavenly peace and seraphic bliss in store for redeemed humanity.

King’s College Choir Cambridge
Britten Sinfonia
Hannah Perowne, Violin
Daniel Hyde, Conductor