Chapelle du Roi - Tenebrae

Alistair Dixon and Chapelle du Roi are back at St. John's Smith Square on 16 April for their annual Holy Week concert, Tenebrae. 

The original Tenebrae service was held at sunset with the candles extinguished one by one, and the service seems to have inspired Renaissance composers to write some of their greatest music either for the Tenebrae Responds, or for settings of the readings themselves taken from the Lamentations of Jeremiah. 

Chapelle du Roi will perform Tallis's Lamentations of Jeremiah, Victoria's Tenebrae Responds and motets by Victoria, Guerrero, Tallis and Byrd, plus a set of motets by the Spanish 16th century composer Bernardino de Ribera which are receiving their first London performance after their discovery by the scholar Bruno Turner. De Ribera was Maestro di Capilla in Avila when Victoria and Sebastian de Vivanco were choirboys.

If you are interested in exploring De Ribera's music further then Rupert Damerell and the Zenobia Consort are performing his music at their International Singing Week at the Real Monasterio de Santo Tomas in Avila, Spain from 27 July to  1 August 2014 (see website for further info, opens as PDF)