Tenebrae: A Celestial Gift

Nigel Short conductor

This programme includes music from Orlando de Lassus, Plainchant, Joanna Marsh, Rachmaninov, Holst and more (full programme below)

Renowned for its twin watchwords of passion and precision, the award-winning chamber choir Tenebrae, which celebrates its 25th anniversary later this year, surveys five centuries of sacred choral music in Latin, English and Russian, ranging in mood from hushed awe and quiet contemplation to sere ne rapture and ecstatic joy. Highlights include Allegri’s celebrated Miserere – once the exclusive preserve of the Sistine Chapel until the teenage Mozart transcribed the score by ear and broke the papal embargo – and Sir James MacMillan’s beautiful setting of the same penitential text. Alongside other recent works from some of today’s most exciting young British and American composers, including Joanna Marsh’s Tenebrae commission In Winter’s House, are such beloved modern classics as Holst’s majestic Nunc dimittis, Rachmaninov’s upwardly soaring Cherubic Hymn and the late John Tavener’s austerely radiant, Orthodox-infused Funeral Ikos.