Mater dolorosa: The Seven Sorrows of Mary

Saturday 31st March 2012, 7.30pm

Holy Redeemer, Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QE

Director  David Allinson

Pre-concert talk, 6.15pm

Speaker    Dr Paula Nuttall

In May 2010 the Renaissance Singers gave a recital celebrating The Seven Joys of Mary. In this companion programme we explore the sorrows and torments endured by the Mother of God, through some of the most poignant and arresting music of the Renaissance. From the Prophecy of Simeon to the Crucifixion of Jesus and its aftermath, composers have responded to the drama and pathos of Mary’s life with sublime music.

This Lenten concert will include settings of the Nunc dimittis, Vox in Rama, the Crucifixus and the Stabat mater. Climax of the programme will be the Stabat mater by John Browne, from the Eton Choirbook.

Pre-Concert Talk

We are delighted to welcome to welcome Dr Paula Nuttall as our pre-concert speaker.  In her talk, 'The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin in late Medieval and Renaissance Art', she will examine the cult of the Virgin with particular emphasis on the Seven Sorrows, using imagery from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, north and south of the Alps. Through words and beautiful imagery she will unfold the context of the music we will sing in our programme.

Dr Nuttall is a specialist in Renaissance art, and an authority on artistic relations between Italy and Northern Europe. She is Director of the V&A Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Year Course, with which she has been closely involved since its inception in 1993. She is an experienced and popular lecturer: beyond the V&A, she teaches regularly for NADFAS, the Art Fund, the National Gallery, Christie’s Education and the Courtauld Institute. Her book From Flanders to Florence was published by Yale in 2004.

The lecture will be approximately 45 minutes in length and commence at 6.15pm

Programme

John Browne, Stabat mater

Lotti, Crucifixus

Josquin, Stabat mater

George Kirbye, Vox in Rama

G.P. daPalestrina, Nunc dimittis

T.L. de Victoria, Ave Maria

Ribera, Vox in Rama

O. Lassus, Fili quid fecisti nobis

Brumel, Sicut lilium inter spinas

M. Pipelare, Memorare mater Christi

Monteverdi, Stabat Virgo Maria

C. Gesualdo, O vos omnes

A. Gabrieli, Maria stabat ad monumentum

Tickets

£12    (£10 Concession)   Concert                            

£15    (£12 Concession)    Concert & talk          

£9     Friends of the Renaissance Singers (Concert & talk)        

The pre-concert talk is complimentary for Friends of the Renaissance Singers

Click here to book tickets