Tenebrae visits Ely Cathedral for a spectacular concert as part of the Aldeburgh Festival, performing music written for great spaces and sacred rituals: the 20th-century John Tavener, whose work looks back through the ages to draw its inspiration from chant and devotion, and the Renaissance figurehead Tallis, whose famous 40-part motet Spem in Alium (“Hope in any other”) is of impressive scale and beauty. Unsuk Chin’s companion piece draws on fragments of its melody and harmony – a method also used by Roderick Williams, whose colourful Ave Verum Corpus Re-imagined is based on a work of Tallis’ contemporary William Byrd. The programme is completed by gloriously colourful and dramatic works by composers Sir James MacMillan, Eric Whitacre, and Judith Weir.

Programme:

Gibbons, arr. Forshaw: Drop, drop slow tears | Tavener: Song for Athene | Byrd: Ave verum corpus | Roderick Williams: Ave verum corpus Re-imagined | Tavener: Hymn to the Mother of God | Judith Weir: A Wreath | Tavener: Mother and Child

Interval

Tavener: Funeral Ikos | Eric Whitacre: When David Heard | Unsuk Chin: Nulla est finis – a prelude to ‘Spem in alium’ (first UK performance) | Tallis: Spem in alium | James MacMillan: The Gallant Weaver | Eric Whitacre: Her Sacred Spirit Soars