Exeter Philharmonic Choir forecasts a glorious start to season

Exeter Philharmonic Choir (EPC) is set to launch its 2025/26 season with a landmark performance at Exeter Cathedral on Saturday 8 November, unveiling a new choral commission inspired by the science of weather and climate.

The centrepiece of the concert will be The Weather Book, a three-movement work by acclaimed British composer Cecilia McDowall, written for soprano, choir and chamber orchestra. The piece celebrates Exeter’s role as home to the UK’s Met Office and draws on the history of meteorology, including figures such as Anders Celsius, Robert FitzRoy and Eunice Newton Foote.

The project is the result of a unique collaboration between EPC and Sweden’s Gustaf Vasa Kammarkör. By coincidence, both choirs approached McDowall at the same time to commission a work. The Swedish ensemble premiered the opening movement, Celsius Rising, in Stockholm earlier this year. In November, Swedish soprano Agnes Auer will join EPC to give the world premiere of the complete composition, which includes two additional movements written specially for the Exeter choir.

Inspiration for the work came from poet and librettist Kate Wakeling, who collaborated with McDowall to explore weather-related themes across history. McDowall explained:
“Swedish scientist Anders Celsius was my first thought, although I had only been aware of his name in connection with his establishing the centigrade temperature scale. But my wonderful poet and librettist, Kate Wakeling, discovered so much more about this remarkable man whose scientific work spanned many other interests, including a detailed study of the Northern Lights. This led him to make a ground-breaking connection between the Aurora Borealis and changes in the magnetic field of the Earth.

“Kate also drew attention to Celsius’ belief in the need for ‘extensive scientific data, collected methodically and over long periods', a somewhat radical approach in his day. It was a fortuitous discovery that Exeter Philharmonic Choir is based in the home city of the UK’s Meteorological (‘Met’) Office, an institution which holds many important historical archives relating to weather and, in particular, to its founder, Captain Robert FitzRoy. He was captain of HMS Beagle, which took on board two famous men, evolutionist Charles Darwin and Francis Beaufort, creator of the Beaufort Wind Scale. With his naval background, FitzRoy understood the importance of gathering information about the weather at sea to prevent calamity wherever possible. Kate has drawn on FitzRoy’s own ‘Weather Book’ for the last movement of this work.

“She has also found an important source for the middle movement, called ‘History of Air’. In 1856, the American scientist and women's rights campaigner Eunice Newton Foote conducted a series of experiments that proved for the first time that altering the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere changes its temperature. This relationship between carbon dioxide and the earth’s climate is one of the key principles of modern meteorology and continues to shape our understanding of the greenhouse effect and climate science as a whole.”

Alongside The Weather Book, EPC will perform Poulenc's Gloria, Vaughan Williams’ Toward the Unknown Region, and Brahms' Tragic Overture and Alto Rhapsody. The Bristol Ensemble will provide orchestral accompaniment.

Howard Ionascu, Musical Director of EPC, said:
“This is very exciting for the choir as we prepare to rise to the challenge of the new composition. We look forward to Cecilia joining us at an ‘away day’ in early October at Buckfast Abbey to rehearse this concert and her newly commissioned piece. We’re also looking forward to welcoming solo soprano Agnes Auer, whose performance will weave a spellbinding thread that unifies all three movements and provides a vocal link between the two choirs. Continuing EPC’s proud tradition of supporting rising stars, Agnes will be joined by two other young soloists. Soprano Seohyun Go, a South Korean artist studying in London, will be the soloist in Poulenc’s Gloria, and mezzo-soprano Cecily Shaw from New Zealand will sing the title role in Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody.”

The concert will be preceded by a talk at the Devon and Exeter Institution, where McDowall will discuss her composition alongside Met Office Chief Executive Professor Penny Endersby, who was awarded a CBE in 2023 for services to meteorology, defence science and technology.

Professor Endersby said:
“I was really thrilled when I heard about this project and read the details. Of course, I’m familiar with Exeter Philharmonic Choir, I’ve been to some of their concerts, and I’m certainly familiar with Cecilia McDowall, but I was particularly struck by two elements; it being about our founder Robert FitzRoy and Eunice Foote, who’s a great heroine of mine. What with that and me being a singer as well, it really ticks a lot of boxes and so I was keen to support it in any way that I could.”

Historic weather-related documents, including pages from FitzRoy’s original Weather Book, will be loaned by the Met Office for display at the pre-concert event.

The concert begins at 7.30 pm, with the talk at 6.30 pm. Tickets for both events can be booked via Exeter Philharmonic Choir at tickets@exeterphilharmonic.org.uk