Anon arr Richard Allain: Coventry Carol
David Lancaster: Crucifixion (world premiere)
Giaches de Wert: Grazie ch’a pochi il ciel largo destina
Giaches de Wert: Solo e pensoso i più deserti campi
Gavin Bryars: Là ver l’aurora (world premiere)
David Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion
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The programme plays on the different meanings of the word ‘Passion’: i.e. suffering and/or love. We are thrilled to be premiering a new work by Gavin Bryars for his 80th year, commissioned by Late Music especially for this concert. His piece is the latest of his madrigals on sonnets by Petrarch: so we are including two more Petrarch settings by the Renaissance Flemish composer Giaches de Wert. The text of David Lancaster’s new piece (also a commission) is taken from a medieval Mystery Play: so we are similarly pairing it with the famous Coventry Carol (also based on a Mystery Play). The largest work is David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning ’The Little Match Girl Passion’, based on a tragic story by Hans Christian Andersen, but with a structure strongly influenced by the Bach Passions.