Garden of the Soul
Saturday 20 November | 3pm and 7pm
The Independent Theatre, North Sydney
SYDNEY CHAMBER CHOIR
SAM ALLCHURCH
Conductor
JEM HARDING
Piano
ANTHEA COTTEE
Cello
CLEMENS NON PAPA
Ego flos campi
MONTEVERDI
Zefiro torna
VICTORIA
Vidi speciosam
BRITTEN
A Hymn to the Virgin
Hymn to St Cecilia
Rosa mystica
JOE TWIST
An Australian Song Cycle (World premiere)
At a time when lockdowns and isolation have given us pause to delve deep inside ourselves, and with the natural world increasingly threatened by the destruction of human activity, this program speaks to big questions about our relationships with each other and with our planet.
Gardens were a fertile source of metaphors for the composer of the renaissance. Tomás Luis de Victoria’s breezy Vidi speciosam and Clemens non Papa’s lush Ego flos campi offer a vision of a divinely ordered perfect landscape, setting the exquisite poetry of the Song of Songs. The return of spring in Monteverdi’s heart-wrenching Zefiro torna makes the loss of love all the more tragic.
Benjamin Britten’s music explores ideas of the soul and its creativity. His radical Hymn to St Cecilia is a paean to music as an expression of the soul, and a lament for the loss of childhood innocence. The sacred soul of the Virgin Mary is the subject of two smaller works: Rosa mystica and Hymn to the Virgin, written when the composer was only 17.
The centrepiece of the program is a new song cycle by Australian composer Joseph Twist which responds to the realities of dealing with climate change and caring for the natural world. Specially commissioned for Sydney Chamber Choir, this piece sets poetry by Australian writers past and present.
“If I were blindfolded amongst the choristers and we all started singing, I would know immediately it was Sydney Chamber Choir. There is a maturity of interpretation, a certain sensitivity of phrasing, a core sound that has evolved over the years and a strong sense of identity.”
Lindy Montgomery
Soprano
Explore more of 2021…
Saturday 13 March
Paul Stanhope: A New Requiem
Award-winning composer Paul Stanhope directs the world premiere of his Requiem, in a program exploring mortality, hope, ritual and commemoration.
Tuesday 4 May
Voyage of Musical Discovery
An exploration of how composers turn voices into instruments, and instruments into voices, through an all-Australian program of choral works and a chamber work by Swedish Romantic composer Franz Berwald. Presented by the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra.
Saturday 12 February
Solander
The world premiere performance of Kate Reid’s new song cycle exploring the life and work of the Swedish botanist who accompanied Joseph Banks in the documentation of Australia’s magnificent flora.