Four days after Remembrance Sunday and the day after Armistice Day, St Mary Magdalene Church will be illuminated by 200 candles for a concert created especially for Remembrance week.

In this extraordinary setting, Breathe Music presents a programme that journeys from the devastation of war towards stillness, hope and human connection.

At its heart is Shostakovich’s intensely personal Eighth String Quartet. Written near Dresden in 1960 and dedicated “to the memory of the victims of fascism and war”, it is filled with the composer’s musical signature and echoes of his own life and work.

From the final silence of Shostakovich, selected movements from Bach’s Goldberg Variations emerge in Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s beautiful arrangement for string trio—offering a moment of clarity, reflection and calm.

Following the interval, Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is heard on unaccompanied violin before the full quartet returns for Borodin’s glorious Second String Quartet. Written as a gift of love to his wife, its warmth, lyricism and much-loved…