Renaissance choral music for Holy Week 2004
various composers: Allegri, Tallis, Weelkes, Lotti
Friday 9 April 2004, 9pm
Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
Cnr Molesworth and Hill St
Wellington
Directed by Alastair Carey
The season of Lent, and the week leading up to Good Friday in particular, has inspired some of sacred music's finest composition. This meditation through music presents a selection of the Renaissance's most moving music for Lent by that period's finest composers, including the authentic Sistine Chapel reconstruction of Gregorio Allegri's famous Miserere mei, Deus, and Thomas Tallis's masterful Lamentations. As the sun sets and the light fades, the haunting beauty of the plainsong hymn Pange Lingua ("Sing, my tongue") returns between each polyphonic piece as a litany to the life of Christ.
Programme
Pange Lingua - Crux Fidelis - plainsong / John IV of Portugal 1604-1656
Crucifixus etiam pro nobis - Antonio Lotti 1667-1740
Sepulto Domino signatum est monumentum - Tomas Luis de Victoria 1548-1611
De parentis protoplasti - Crux Fidelis - plainsong / John IV of Portugal
Drop, drop, slow tears - Orlando Gibbons 1583-1625
Remember not, Lord, our offences - Henry Purcell 1659-1695
Hoc opus nostrae salutis - Crux Fidelis - plainsong / John IV of Portugal
Laboravi in gemitu meo - Thomas Weelkes 1576-1623
Quando venit ergo sacri - Crux Fidelis - plainsong / John IV of Portugal
Salvator Mundi - Herbert Howells 1892-1983
Lie Deep, my Love - David Griffiths 1950-
Ach, arme welt - Johannes Brahms 1833-1897
Lustra sex qui jam peracta - Crux Fidelis - plainsong / John IV of Portugal
De lamentatione Jeremiae Prophetae - Thomas Tallis 1505?-1585
Flecte ramos, arbor alta - Crux Fidelis - plainsong / John IV of Portugal
In monte Oliveti - Orlando di Lasso 1532?-1594
Sola digna tu fuisti - Crux Fidelis - plainsong / John IV of Portugal
Miserere mei, Deus - Gregorio Allegri 1582-1652
Sempiterna sit Beatae - Crux Fidelis - plainsong / John IV of Portugal
This concert was part of the 2004 Performance Series.
Review
"The exquisite beauty of the gloriously sung Miserere was enhanced by the second choir of four voices soaring from the balcony behind us"
Capital Times, 5 May 2004