The concepts of love and loss will be explored The Tudor Consort’s next programme, which the choir will perform following their appearance at Sing Aotearoa, New Zealand’s national choral festival.
Love, Death and the Maiden will comprise a delectable assortment of choral music from the sacred and secular worlds, spanning the Renaissance through to the 20th Century.
“The turbulent emotions of love and crushing despair of losing that love are central to our existence as human beings”, says Music Director Michael Stewart. “This programme presents the responses of composers ancient and modern to these universal feelings.”
Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina’s mystical setting of the Stabat Mater, the 13th Century hymn depicting the suffering of Mary at the foot of the Cross, will feature alongside works by Orlando Lassus, Francisco Guerrero, Jean Mouton, Antoine Brumel, and Jacobus Clemens non Papa. Ralph Vaughan Williams’s ethereal The Lover’s Ghost and Gerald Finzi’s ebullient My spirit sang all day are sure to delight as well as a popular Beatles arrangement.
“It’s been exciting to see the different approaches from former Music Directors”, comments Stewart. “But I am particularly looking forward to ‘returning home’ to my choir and leading this beautiful programme. Truly, these are some of my favourite composers and I can’t think of a better way to end our subscription season”.