Lamentations and Requiem

In their forthcoming concert on Thursday 22 March, London Concord Singers, conductor Jessica Norton, combine two powerful, but lesser known, 20th century works with major works from an earlier period. Ildebrando Pizzetti's Requiem and Alberto Ginastera's Lamentations of Jeremiah will be performed alongside Gregorio Allegri's Miserere and a selection of Carlo Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsories on Thursday 22 March 2018 at the church of St Bartholomew the Less in West Smithfield.

Dating from 1922, the Requiem mass by the Italian composer Ildebrando Pizzetti, best known for his operatic treatment of T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, is steeped in the tradition of Gregorian chant, weaving traditional chants together with more 20th century harmonies. Written in 1946 by Alberto Ginastera, Lamentations of Jeremiah is full of strong rhythms and striking harmonies and can be seen as Ginastera's response, in exile in the USA, to the political problems in his native Argentina.

London Concord Singers will be performing Gregorio Allegri's Miserere in the performing edition by Ben Byram-Wigfield which was originally created for The Sixteen. This starts with Allegri's original unadorned music, moves through the version preserved in the Vatican in the 19th century and ends with the popular version, complete with the top C.

Full details from the London Concord Singers website, the concert is being repeated on Saturday 24 March 2018 in the chapel of Queen's College, Cambridge, further details from the website