The Petersham Consort, directed by Ben Driver, are delighted to return, after a two year break, to the beautiful Church of St Peter’s, Petersham to present a short concert of meditations for Lent and Passiontide on Sunday 2nd April 2022 at 6 pm. The Consort was formed in 2012 to specialise in singing one-to-a-part sacred and secular choral music. They perform a wide range of solo and chamber works, spanning five centuries, and are joined in this concert by a string trio and the church's beautiful classical organ.
The centrepiece is a celebration of the first Lutheran oratorio, Buxtehude's masterpiece Membra Jesu nostri, whose main text is from the Mediaeval hymn Salve mundi salutare, a meditation on the crucified Christ set for five voices, strings and organ. Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707), a Danish-German organist and composer of the Baroque period, wrote music in a wide variety of vocal and instrumental idioms, and his style strongly influenced many who followed him, including JS Bach. To accompany this wonderful work we offer you the Lamentations of Jeremiah by the Elizabethan composer Thomas Tallis (1505-1585), a pair of pieces also written for this sacred time of year, using texts from the lessons for Maundy Thursday in Holy Week. Set for unaccompanied male voices, they are his final and probably most highly respected compositions. Our performance will finish with Northern Lights, a mesmeric setting of the Pulchra Es poem from the Song of Solomon, which celebrates the beauty and power of God's gift of love. Written by the contemporary Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo (b 1978), its original inspiration was the ethereal phenomenon of the Aurora Borealis.
The proceeds of this concert will go to the Red Cross DEC Appeal for Ukraine.
You are invited to stay for refreshments in the Parish Room afterwards.
On Saturday 11 June the Consort will return to St Peter's Church, Petersham, to celebrate the Queen’s Birthday with a concert of our favourite solo songs ranging from Dowland and Purcell to Quilter and Vaughan Williams, interspersed with madrigals from across the continent. This concert opens Summer Saturdays, the St Peter's Church Music Festival 2022, celebrating the return of summer concerts to this beautiful church next to Petersham Meadows. Look for the festival's other concerts on 18 & 25 June and 2 July at Concert Diary, or write to events.stpeterspetersham@gmail.com. You can also find us at @PConsort on Twitter.
This concert was originally planned for 22 March 2020.
[thumbnail image: German Lamentation of Christ c.1580]