What do you get as a 25th wedding anniversary gift for the couple who made Dartington Hall the cultural centre it has become, and eventually the home of an international summer school?
Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst were philanthropists and botanists (what better place to be than the gorgeous Dart Valley in south Devon?), influenced by the Indian philosopher Rabindranath Tagore.
Written in the style of older composers such as Elgar, Parry and Stanford, the Five Flower Songs for unaccompanied choir were performed in the gardens at Dartington Hall for the Elmhirsts, and the choir was conducted by Imogen Holst.
The Evening Primrose is the fourth of the set, and given the text by John Clare on slumber, is the slow movement of the set:
When once the sun sinks in the west,
And dewdrops pearl the evening’s breast;
Almost as pale as moonbeams are,
Or its companionable star,
The evening primrose opes anew
Its delicate blossoms to the dew;
And, hermit-like, shunning the light,
Wastes its fair bloom upon the night,
Who, blindfold to its fond caresses,
Knows not the beauty it possesses;
Thus it blooms on while night is by;
When day looks out with open eye,
Bashed at the gaze it cannot shun,
It faints and withers and is gone.
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