The Proms 2010

Thankfully the days when you had to go to the concert hall to hear Latin sacred music are drawing to a close. However, for some major works, this is the only chance that those seriously studying the sacred treasury will get to hear them live. We offer the following notes for those who might be considering some 'promming' over the Summer as to what might be of interest.

1. Liturgical Music; Ths year's  major offering must be Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 (Prom 75: Monteverdi Choir/ Elliot Gardiner). The performers include two London Catholic Choirs, the Schola Cantorum of The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School and the London Oratory Junior Choir.  The only other major liturgical work is a performance of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater (Prom 64: Early Opera Company/ Curnyn, Watts and Stephany). Smaller works include Gesualdo's Tristis est anima mea sitting slightly strangely in a programme at Cadogan Hall (PSM 3). 'Song of Songs' (PCM 6: Stilo Antico) at Cadogan Hall promises a programme including music by Ceballos, Clemens non Papa, Gombert, Guerrero, Lassus, Palestrina, Praetorius, Victoria and Vivanco interspersed with chant. Details are yet to be released but presumably the biblical texts will be featured. Two excerpts from the earlier Taverner are included under Section 3 below.

2. Devotional Music
Whilst using the text of the Good Friday Passion Gospel, I doubt Arvo Pärt's Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem, presented this year  as the St. John Passion (Prom 43; Endymion/ BBC Singers/ Hill) was ever actually meant for liturgical use but rather for a sacred concert in Passiontide.

3. Latin text music.
Stravinsky's Threni (Prom 25: BBC Singers/ London Sinfonietta/ Atherton) is a setting of texts from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, Ligeti's Lux Aeterna (Prom 35: Danish National Vocal Ensemble/ Dausgaard) takes the text from the Requiem Mass. Finally, Cadogan Hall plays host to another 'interesting' programme (PSM 5: Arditti Quartet/ Endymion/ BBC Singers/ David Hill) containing Taverner's Dum transisset and a fragment of the Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas. These excerpts are surrounded by musical 'reflections' by Brian Fernyhough (Dum transisset I-IV), Jonathan Harvey's Dum transisset sabbatum and Gabriel Jackson's In Nomine Domini.

The link to the Prom's Guide is here.