Carmelite order – the singer of godly love St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila – the Spanish mystic, Carmelite order reformist and a teacher of Catholic and Christian meditation.
Their contemplations and works keep their relevance through the centuries, they are still touching and comforting, and inspirational… The programme showcases this with the deeply meditative Mass for the Dead or Missa pro defunctis, written by the most celebrated Spanish composer of his time Victoria, being played back to back with recent compositions. The young Latvian talent Matīss Čudars has dressed the heavenly rhymes of St. Teresa in a mantle of music, and the Ukrainian-born composer currently living in Estonia Galina Gigoryeva references in her work The Dark Night of the Soul the writings of St. John of the Cross on the journey of the Soul to God. The texts of this Spanish mystic are also the base for Jonathan Harvey’s transcendental sequence Sobre un éxtasis de alta contemplación that is yet another proof that the music of this outstanding British composer is full of light and beauty, and can address themes of the eternal and the otherworldly with ease.
PROGRAMME
Tomás Luis de Victoria – excerpt from Missa pro defunctis
Jonathan Harvey – Sobre un éxtasis de alta contemplación with texts by St. John of the Cross
Galina Grigoryeva - The Dark Night Of The Soul with texts by St. John of the Cross
Matīss Čudars – excerpts from the cycle Mīlestības vēstules Dievam (Love Letters to God) with texts by St. Teresa of Avila
PARTICIPANTS
Latvian Radio Choir
Conductor Kaspars Putniņš
Matīss Čudars, guitar
Ivars Artunjans, percussion
