Thread after thread, colour after colour, layer after layer. This concert weaves a compelling musical fabric that offers contemplation and reflection in 14 parts, as many as the stations of Christ’s cross, but from a female perspective.
Membra Jesu Nostri by Buxtehude is a cycle of seven cantatas that sing of the body of the crucified Christ. The female composers Caroline Shaw and Anna Thorvaldsdottir have each written a contemporary response to the movements of the Membra Jesu Nostri – from a female perspective.
As a contemporary response to Buxtehude’s cycle of cantatas Membra Jesu Nostri, Caroline Shaw has written To the Hands in which she questions our role in the wounds of today’s society. Maybe there is blood on other hands than those of the crucified Jesus. In Ad Genua, the Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdóttir calls for greater tolerance, and Patricia Van Ness brings hope and trust in Cor meum est Templum Sacrum.
The Passion turned into a resilient story of suffering and empowerment.
programme
Dietrich Buxtehude
Membra Jesu Nostri, BuxWV 75 (selection)
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Stabat Mater Dolorosa, Grave
Caroline Shaw
To the Hands
Anna Thorvaldsdottir
Ad Genua
Patricia Van Ness
Cor meum est Templum Sacrum