Ensemble Resonanz / RIAS Kammerchor Berlin / Justin Doyle

• Concerts

England’s musical tradition is like a parchment on which voices have been superimposed over the centuries – from the Renaissance to the present day, from Thomas Tallis to Edward Elgar and Joanna Marsh. The RIAS Chamber Choir from Berlin and the Ensemble Resonanz make these layers resound and address the questions of farewell and transience as part of the International Music Festival »Ende«. An evening of requiem-like depth, in which the past resonates and the present pauses.

In his »Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis«, Vaughan Williams draws on the depths of 16th century English choral music and transforms a song from a distant time into a floating, spherical web of sound that fills the room with an almost meditative expanse. Hubert Parry’s »Songs of Farewell« are characterised by a different kind of reverberation – they carry the melancholy of a farewell. The haunting choral songs interweave psalms with English poetry and condense into a poignant dialogue about transience, grief and consolation. In contrast, Edward Elgar’s »Introduction and Allegro« bursts forth with wild energy, a »veritable devil’s fugue with all kinds of jokes and counterpoints«. Joanna Marsh’s new work »The Knot« tells of the invisible bond that connects people even across separations – indissolubly linked.

PERFORMERS

Ensemble Resonanz chamber orchestra

RIAS Kammerchor Berlin choir

Justin Doyle conductor

PROGRAM

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Hubert Parry
Auswahl ausSongs of Farewell

My soul, there is a country

I know my soul hath power to know all things

Never weather-beaten sail

Lord, let me know mine end

Edward Elgar
Introduction und Allegro für Streichorchester op. 47

Joanna Marsh (Text: Amanda Wilking)
The Knot