Tenebrae presents a dramatic programme charting a journey through the seasons from darkness to light, centring around the winter and summer solstices. The coldest winter is captured in Maxwell Davies’ O Magnum Mysterium and Poulenc’s chilling Un soir de neige, set alongside a Tenebrae commission for male voices from acclaimed British composer Joanna Marsh. Ešenvalds’ ethereal Stars sets a new tone before Holst’s Hymns from the Rig Veda hail the coming of spring. The programme culminates with John Rutter’s heartfelt Hymn to the Creator of Light.

Journeys of discovery, intensity and character deliver an incremental power which draws as much on tranquillity as any display of sheer vocal panache – which they also happen to have in spades. – BBC Radio 3

Programme

Richard Rodney Bennett – The Seasons Of His Mercies
Bob Chilcott – Before The Ice
Joanna Marsh – In Winter’s House
Interlude for harp
Peter Maxwell Davies – O Magnum Mysterium
Francis Poulenc – Un soir de neige

INTERVAL

Ēriks Ešenvalds – Stars
Interlude for harp
Gustav Holst – Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda
Edward Elgar – O Wild West Wind
Healey Willan – Rise Up My Love
James MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn
Jonathan Harvey – Song of June
John Rutter – Hymn to the Creator of Light

Artist(s)

Nigel Short, Tenebrae