![The Marian Consort, four on chairs and five standing, wear all black in a bright hall with wooden floors and white walls](https://brightonfestival.org/assets/img/blank.png)
The Marian Consort
Schütz Musikalische Exequien
David Fennessy Two pieces about Heinrich Schütz (1585 - 1672)
Interweaving old and new, contemplating ideas of mortality and immortality, the Marian Consort performs a typically imaginative programme that entwines the Baroque magnificence of Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien with specially commissioned work by David Fennessy.
Musikalische Exequien is an intensely human requiem composed in 1635 at the height of the Thirty Years’ War, one of the most destructive conflicts in history. Combining the austere ritual of ancient chant with all of the colour, urgency and pathos of 17th-century solo singing, it captures the nobility of faith and the human spirit in times of torment.
Interleaved between the movements are Fennessy’s new pieces contemplating and responding to the startling themes of Schütz’s extraordinary masterpiece.
‘Sublimely refined, spacious and impeccably tuned performances’ The Sunday Times
Instrument supplied by Andrew Wooderson