Three dates, three programmes, three venues – Tenebrae to perform across the city in some of London’s most beautiful buildings.
2nd Sep 2013, 7:30pm – ‘Tenebrae: England’s Finest’
Egyptian Room, Mansion House, Walbrook, London EC4N 8BH
Tenebrae, Sarah Connolly mezzo soprano, Nigel Short conductor
Tickets available from the Barbican Box Office
Tenebrae will perform a programme of ‘England’s Finest’ in the sumptuous surroundings of the Egyptian Room in London’s Mansion House, joined by the internationally-acclaimed British mezzo soprano, Sarah Connolly CBE. This programme takes the audience on a musical journey through the past 100 years and will give a crystal clear view of the wide ranging styles and skills of England’s finest composers.
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30th Jan 2014, 7:30pm – ‘Tenebrae: Russian Treasures’
St James Church, Spanish Place, 22 George St, London W1U 3QY
Tickets available from the Barbican Box Office
There is a wealth of choral music associated with the liturgy from the Eastern Orthodox Churches, dating back to the 16th Century and evolving more-or-less uninterrupted until the sudden decline in the Church’s fortunes which accompanied the Bolshevik Rebellion in 1917. This programme includes works from two of the greatest names in Russian music, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, but also some gems by far less well-known composers, such as Chesnokov, Golovanov and Kalinnikov, rarely sung outside Russia.
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13th Mar 2014, 7:30pm – ‘Tenebrae Consort: Chant by Candlelight & Tallis Lamentations’
St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, London, UK
Tickets available from the Barbican Box Office
A programme of music representing the daily duties of a singer in a Medieval English Cathedral from late afternoon until dusk. The hypnotic rhythm of antiphonal psalms, the familiarity of ancient hymn tunes, and processions accompanied plainsong, provide a chance to relax, reflect and hear the simple beauty of this timeless music. The programme ends with what is regarded by many as the most beautiful and contemplative of all the Church’s daily Offices – Compline. Thomas Tallis’s intensely moving Lamentations is some of the greatest polyphony of the age and gives us a stark contrast in its richness to the simplicity of the Gregorian chant heard on a daily basis by so many over the centuries.