What's On / Proms by Day

Ancient meets modern, as Messiaen's Mass for Pentecost, for solo organ - here performed by Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey, James O'Donnell - is interspersed with music from the 16th century.

The Missa Veni Sancte Spiritus by the Franco-Flemish Pierre de Manchicourt - a composer at last receiving the attention he deserves - offers a change of pace and texture. Andrew Carwood, a much-lauded specialist in the music of the Renaissance, leads the BBC Singers through this haunting music.

The young Music Director of English National Opera, Edward Gardner, gives the premieres of two British works: Stuart MacRae's nature-inspired Gaudete and Michael Berkeley's revisiting of his Slow Dawn, which he describes as depicting 'the gradual appearance of the sun (in the form of the tuba) as it climbs into the sky. Shafts of light and playful reflections accompany the increasing warmth of day.'

The sun theme first arises in Sibelius's evocative Night Ride and Sunrise, a typically brooding tone-poem. Elgar's affectionate sketches of his 'friends pictured within' have caught the imaginations of thousands over the past 100 years.