Gavin Higgins’ composition is inspired by aspects of the life of the artist, poet, illustrator, painter and engraver William Blake (1757-1827) – destined to become a seminal figure of British cultural life, although not in his lifetime.

An enigmatic man of deep complexities and radicalism, he championed beliefs thought to be completely alien to the restrictions of his time; a Christian who attacked organised religion, a mystic who would see ‘visions’ of Angels and a writer of some of the most powerful allegorical themes.

The composers evokes these in three linked sections: The first, ‘Angels on Peckham Rye’ a disturbing, fearfully dislocated and anxious vision of heavenly bodies he saw in a tree – their ‘bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars’.

The second section ‘Catherine’ is a lyrical evocation of his wife; tender, loving, unquestioningly loyal and supportive – a woman that was one half of one of the ‘most poignant relationships in literary history’.

The finale section ‘Albion Rose’ evokes Blake’s vision of England – a giant of a man, ‘stretching out naked but open to the world’, optimistic in its political awakening, inclusivity and positivity.