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Hildegard’s secretaries prepare to preserve the story of her life. With Donald Macleod.

As Christians around the world prepare for Easter, Donald Macleod explores the life and music of two nuns who were also composers. Though Hildegard of Bingen and Isabella Leonarda lived five centuries apart, their stories and music are connected by their shared faith and their shared vocations. Both lived cloistered lives, shut away in convents and cut off from the everyday concerns of the societies in which they lived. Yet, they also enjoyed a profoundly rich and human connection with the world and with their God, revealed in the music and poetry they created and sent into the world.

In the final programme Donald Macleod recounts the final chapter in Hildegard’s story. Plus, he brings together both of this week’s guest experts, Fiona Maddocks and Candace Smith, to discover common themes in the stories of these two holy women and to examine why their music continues to speak to us today.

Hildegard O Ecclesia (instrumental version)
Ensemble Galilei

Leonarda: Ave suavis dilectio, Op 6 No 5
Maria Cristina Kiehr, soprano
Concerto Soave
Jean-Marc Aymes, harpsichord/organ and direction;

Hildegard: O rubor sanguinis
Catherine Sergent, soprano

Hildegard: Instrumentalstück
Sequentia, directed by Barbara Thornton

Hildegard: Favus distillans Ursula virgo
Discantus, directed by Brigitte Lesne

Leonarda: Sonata, Op 16 No 4
Cappella Strumentale del Duomo di Novara

Hildegard: O Ecclesia
Grace Davidson, soprano

Leonora: O dulce sonare, Op.7
Cappella Artemisia, directed by Candace Smith