Cardoso Concert

We had a wonderful time performing our Cardoso & The Golden Age programme on Thursday 8th to an appreciative and attentive audience. Thank you to everyone who joined us. We will be sharing some photos and videos soon; in the meantime you can find out a bit more about the pieces we performed and their composers by reading the concert programme. 

The celebration of Cardoso's 450th anniversary continues tomorrow; Sunday 11th December 2016 is the 450th anniversary of Cardoso's baptism (and his likely birthday). Mass at 11.00am will feature his Missa Dominicarum Adventus and the motet Cum audisset Ioannes alongside the 8-part Alma Redemptoris Mater by Duarte Lobo.

 

Cardoso & The Golden Age: Programme

Our concert marking the 450th anniversary of the birth of the Carmelite composer Frei Manuel Cardoso is now just a week away. 

To whittle down a project of nearly 200 performed works taken from the 300 or so catalogued has been a challenging task! While focusing on Cardoso, the programme sees the other major composers active at the time of Cardoso represented. It features some well-known works, including Cardoso Sitivit anima mea and Rebelo Panis angelicus, but for the most part continues the work of our Cardoso450 project in promoting works which are unknown. Some of the works have been or will be presented liturgically at the Carmelite Priory, but a choice few are extra and can only be heard at our concert.

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Kyrie-Christe-Christe-Kyrie

The Masses of Cardoso and his Portuguese contemporaries follow an interesting pattern in their Kyries, providing two distinct polyphonic settings of the Christe. This Kyrie–Christe–Christe–Kyrie sequence is only exceptionally found in the Spanish and Roman etc. schools, but was standard on the Iberian Peninsula in the 16th and early 17th centuries. What is the significance of this and how does it affect our approach to performance?

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2016 Q4 music list published

Music for the Sunday 11.00am Mass until the end of the year is now available here. Our Cardoso450 project enters its second period of more intense activity during Advent and Christmastide, the 3rd Sunday of Advent coinciding with the 450th anniversary of Cardoso's baptism. Mass that day will be offered for the repose of his soul. With the predominance of Portuguese polyphony, the non-Cardoso flavours are kept deliberately strong, with music by Mozart, Reger and Langlais. The Romantic luxuriousness of Rheinberger's popular Cantus Missæ is balanced by the opulence of the 8-part motets by Palestrina and Philips. The highlight, though, is our performance on 15th October of Francisco Valls Missa Scala aretina for 11 voices and instrumental ensemble. This famous but infrequently performed work – a true Baroque masterpiece – provides a fittingly grand accompaniment for the Solemnity of St Teresa of Avila. The Choir will also be singing on 1st October for the feast of St Thèrése as we continue to celebrate important Carmelite saints as well as, through our Cardoso450 project, discover and explore important Carmelite music.