The World Was Once All Miracle-MIF by Various, Od (2017/2017), Dirigent Michael Francis, The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, United Kingdom

Event Information A song cycle by Raymond Yiu Performed by the BBC Philharmonic Anthony Burgess in words and music World premiere To mark 100 years since the birth of Harpurhey’s most famous son, MIF presents a special concert celebrating his words and music. Anthony Burgess may be best known as the writer of A Clockwork Orange, but he was also a prolific composer, writing more than 250 works in a multitude of styles. For MIF17, acclaimed composer Raymond Yiu has set text from six Burgess poems into The World Was Once All Miracle, a major symphonic song cycle given its world premiere tonight by brilliant baritone Roderick Williams and the BBC Philharmonic. The concert also features the first European performance of Burgess’s own Symphony in C, along with a work by a composer whose music has influenced Yiu, Burgess and every other symphonist of the last two centuries: Beethoven’s Symphony No.8.