Beethoven 7 & MacMillan’s Veni, Veni, Emmanuel

Ahead of the wild ride of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, encounter the exuberance of percussionist Vivi Vassileva in tonight’s Philharmonia Orchestra concert. Vassileva is the soloist in James MacMillan’s percussion concerto, the centrepiece of a concert that balances grief and joy, reflection and action, the spiritual and the physical. In Veni, Veni, Emmanuel , built around a 15th-century plainchant, MacMillan explores the Advent message of ‘liberation from fear, anguish and oppression’ in music full of joyful physicality, even showmanship.