Commissioned by the Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge, for the first ever BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong broadcast from the college, this introit or short motet was written to commemorate the occasion of Candlemas. Echoing the text, rich in light imagery, the recurring motif, first heard at the opening of the piece, unfolds from a single pitch into glowing harmonic colours.

After a luminous climax where the texture reaches its widest span, with a soaring soprano solo, the piece ends by return...