Allegri: Miserere

Allegri: Miserere

Allegri Miserere 1. John Tavener (b. 1944) [6.11] Song for Athene 2. John Ireland (1879-1962) [4.05] Ex ore innocentium 3. John Tavener [3.51] The Lamb 4. Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) [4.39] Hymn to the Cherubim 5. Count Alexander Sheremetiev (1859-1931) [3.42] Now ye heavenly powers 6. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) [10.59] Hymn to St Cecilia 7. Pawel Lukaszewski (b. 1968) [3.57] Ave Maria 8. Antonio Lotti (1667-1740) [3.39] 8-part Crucifixus 9. Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) [11.59] Miserere 10. Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) [3.08] Esti Dal 11. Trad. arr. Nigel Short [4.34] The Dying Soldier 12. Gustav Holst (1874-1934) [4.53] Psalm 148, Lord who has made us for Thine own 13. William Henry Harris (1883-1973) [5.23] Faire is the Heaven Total time [71.03] TENEBRAE DIRECTED BY NIGEL SHORT www.signumrecords.com www.tenebrae-choir.com A Tenebrae: Allegri Miserere The fusion of a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet Alleluia. with Eastern Orthodox chant in the opening May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. moments of John Tavener’s Song for Athene sets Alleluia. the tone for a divergent and diverting aggregate of Remember me, O Lord, when you come creeds, songs, and prayers performed by Tenebrae into your kingdom. under the direction of Nigel Short. Songs of Alleluia. innocence and experience, war, remembrance and Give rest, O Lord, to your handmaid hope mingle with Orthodox hymns, Roman who has fallen asleep. Catholic motets and Anglican anthems. From the Alleluia. secretive Vatican of the Seventeenth Century to The Choir of Saints have found the present-day Poland, by way of the American Civil well-spring of life and door of paradise. War, there are plenty of crosscurrents, Alleluia. concurrences and reflections with which to Life: a shadow and a dream. conjure in this programme. Alleluia. Weeping at the grave creates the song: 1. John Tavener (born 1944) composed Song for Alleluia. Athene in 1993 to commemorate the tragic death Alleluia. of actress Athene Hariades. The opening ‘Alleluia’ Come, enjoy rewards and crowns reflects Tavener’s devotion to the Eastern Orthodox I have prepared for you. faith and his fascination with its musical traditions while the quotation from the final scene Baritone solo: Andrew Rupp of Hamlet, ‘flights of angels sing thee to thy rest’, brings Hariades’ profession to the foreground. 2. From untimely death to young life and the The combined effect is of extreme simplicity and distinctly English strains of John Ireland’s Ex ore emotional purity. The work now serves as a duplex innocentium - ‘from the mouths of the innocent’. memorial having been performed as the Despite sympathies for pagan mysticism, recessional Hymn at the funeral of Diana, Princess socialism and humanism, Ireland (1879-1962) of Wales in 1997. - 3 - never flinched from his devotion to English church And I will love thee more and more, music. The text of this little Passiontide motet (by Until I see thee as thou art. Bishop W.W. How) reflects on Christ’s suffering through the eyes of a single innocent - how Jesus Poem by Bishop W.W. How Christ chose a ‘poor and humble lot’ and died ‘to save a child like me’. The pathos of the music is 3. Tavener’s carol, The Lamb was written for the heightened at the child’s imagining of the composer’s young nephew in 1982. The poem, by crucifixion, the simple song breaking into two William Blake, begins by asking questions of the emotionally heightened streams before re-grouping lamb (‘Little lamb, who made thee?’) before for a reposeful close. answering them in the second stanza. Blake entwines the gentleness of creation with the idea It is a thing most wonderful, of God coming into the world as both innocent Almost too wonderful to be, child and meek, sacrificial lamb. These complex That God’s own Son should come from heaven, and competing images are softened by Tavener’s And die to save a child like me. treatment of the text - by turns haunting, And yet I know that it is true: enchanting and mesmerising. He chose a poor and humble lot, And wept, and toiled and mourned and died, Little Lamb, who made thee? For love of those who loved him not. Dost thou know who made thee? I sometimes think about the Cross, Gave thee life, and bid thee feed, And shut my eyes, By the stream and o’er the mead; And try to see the cruel nails and crown of thorns, Gave thee clothing of delight, And Jesus crucified for me. Softest clothing, woolly, bright; But even could I see him die, Gave thee such a tender voice, I should but see a little part Making all the vales rejoice? Of that great love, which, like a fire, Little Lamb, who made thee? Is always burning in his heart. Dost thou know who made thee? And yet I want to love thee, Lord; O light the flame within my heart, - 4 - Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee, Holy, Holy, Holy, Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee. Ever blessed Lord God Almighty: He is called by thy name, Holy, Holy, Holy, For He calls Himself a Lamb. God in three persons, blessed, blessed Trinity He is meek, and He is mild; Saints and Martyrs bless and praise Thee, He became a little child. Hearts and voices swell one hymn I a child, and thou a lamb, Holy, Holy, Holy We are called by His name. Lord, Heaven and earth are full of Thy great glory, Little Lamb, God bless thee! Holy blessed Trinity Amen Poem by William Blake Glory be to Thee, Glory to Thee in the highest, Hosannah, Hosannah, Hosannah 4. Rachmaninov’s setting of the Divine Liturgy of In the highest to Father and Son and Holy Spirit St John Chrysostom remains, for many, the most Glory to Thee in the highest, in the highest, musically satisfying setting of this particular Cherubim and Seraphim Russian Orthodox service. Although Rachmaninov Angels and Archangels praise and worship (1873-1943) never stipulated whether it was Thee singing intended for performance in church or concert Alleluia. hall, it works well in both contexts due to its formal clarity and the spiritual splendour of the 5. Count Alexander Sheremetiev (1859-1931) choral writing. The Hymn to the Cherubim calls was a Russian nobleman and philanthropist who, for us to lay aside the cares of this life and receive following the lead of his father, founded his own the ‘King of All’. The sublime, undulating opening orchestra and choir in order to further the cause of soon gives way to hushed tones before building music in Russia. His vast inherited wealth gave into a grand climax, glorifying the Holy Trinity. The him access to the finest musicians around and hymn ends gently, like Tavener’s Hymn to Athene, enabled him to mount concerts at prices low with long-spun Alleluias. enough for the general public to afford. His few surviving compositions include a setting of Now ye heavenly powers from the Liturgy of the - 5 - Pre-sanctified Gifts. Calling the Orthodox faithful I to communion, this quietly powerful piece bids In a garden shady this holy lady them to partake in everlasting life. With reverent cadence and subtle psalm, Like a black swan as death came on Now ye Powers of Heaven do serve invisibly with us; Poured forth her song in perfect calm: Lo, the King of Glory enters. And by ocean’s margin this innocent virgin Lo, the mystical sacrifice is upborne, fulfilled. Constructed an organ to enlarge her prayer, Let us draw near in faith and love And notes tremendous from her great engine And become communicants of life eternal. Thundered out on the Roman air. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Blonde Aphrodite rose up excited, Moved to delight by the melody, Arranged and edited by Vladimir Morosan White as an orchid she rode quite naked In an oyster shell on top of the sea; 6. In complete contrast to the lush, low, close At sounds so entrancing the angels dancing harmonies of the Orthodox tradition, Benjamin Came out of their trance into time again, Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia is full of light, space And around the wicked in Hell’s abysses and grace - fitting qualities to celebrate the The huge flame flickered and eased their pain. patron saint of music on whose feast day the Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions composer was born. Completed on his voyage To all musicians, appear and inspire: home from the United States in 1942, the hymn Translated Daughter, come down and startle was his final collaboration with poet W. H. Auden. Composing mortals with immortal fire. The piece consists of three poems, dedicated to Britten and follows the English tradition of II celebratory odes by invoking the muse, in this I cannot grow; case to ‘appear in visions / To all musicians’, and I have no shadow by describing instruments with vocal soloists in To run away from, the final section. I only play. I cannot err; There is no creature - 6 - Whom I belong to, So small beside their large confusing words, Whom I could wrong. So gay against the greater silences I am defeat Of dreadful things you did: O hang the head, When it knows it Impetuous child with the tremendous brain, Can now do nothing O weep, child, weep, O weep away the stain, By suffering. Lost innocence who wished your lover dead, All you lived through, Weep for the lives your wishes never led.

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