Shadowy Dark, Dawning to Light
30th Anniversary Concert
Thursday 7 November 2024, 19:30 - 21:30
St Botolph's Church [ map ]
Bishopsgate
London EC2M 3TL
Orlando Chamber Choir
Lucy Goddard, director
Orlando Chamber Choir marks its 30th anniversary by journeying from darkness into light! In the darkness we find shadowy settings of Timor et Tremor by Orlando di Lasso and Giovanni Gabrieli, asking for God's help in times of darkness, and motets from Gesualdo's vividly chromatic and dissonant Tenebrae Responsories. The Christian liturgy of Tenebrae, marking Jesus' suffering and death for humanity before the symbolic rebirth of spring, is revisited by James Weeks from a secular standpoint in his Orlando Tenebrae, written for the choir in 2011. Juxtaposing Tenebrae texts with modern poetry of oppression, this is a stark exposition of these universal themes for our own age.
But the darkness doesn't last forever; dawn breaks and waves of warm light bathe the earth. We move on, first to sacred expressions of divine light with works by Gesualdo and Andrea Gabrieli. Lastly, we look at darkness and light in romantic love, including madrigals by all aforementioned composers and also by the great Claudio Monteverdi, ending our birthday concert in a blaze of brilliant sunshine.
