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Lent Series

  • Lent Series

    Richard Baker – To Keep a True Lent

    by 5:4 March 5, 2012 • 20:07
    March 5, 2012 • 20:07

    My Lent series continues with a very short choral piece by Richard Baker, setting Robert Herrick’s well-known poem To Keep a True Lent. Herrick’s text draws heavily on the sentiments of Isaiah chapter 58 (words traditionally read at the start of Lent), drawing stark contrasts between superficial and genuine acts…

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  • Lent Series

    Julieta Szewach – Dikyrion

    by 5:4 February 28, 2012 • 16:06
    February 28, 2012 • 16:06

    The next piece in my ongoing Lent series is an unusual setting of the Lord’s Prayer by the Argentine composer Julieta Szewach, which was broadcast on Radio 3 in 2008. Dikyrion uses the Aramaic version of the text, in a setting for mezzo-soprano and tape. The work was one of…

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  • Lent SeriesPremières

    James MacMillan – Domine non secundum peccata nostra (World Première)

    by 5:4 February 22, 2012 • 18:35
    February 22, 2012 • 18:35

    Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and throughout the next seven weeks, among other things, i’ll be featuring a selection of pieces suitable to the season. To begin, a recording of the world première of James MacMillan‘s anthem Domine non secundum peccata nostra, given by the choir…

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  • Lent SeriesSeasonal

    Silent Song: James MacMillan – Cantos Sagrados

    by 5:4 March 22, 2008 • 13:25
    March 22, 2008 • 13:25

    If Good Friday is emotionally draining, Holy Saturday feels emotionally empty, numbed and spent. i never quite know what to do with myself on this awful day; everything, somehow, feels wrong, trivial or stupid. i imagine i’m not alone in this; perhaps it’s this feeling that explains the general liturgical…

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  • Lent SeriesSeasonal

    Stark and unanswerable: John Sanders – The Reproaches

    by 5:4 March 21, 2008 • 09:00
    March 21, 2008 • 09:00

    Each year, on this, its most solemn day, i used to travel to Gloucester Cathedral for the morning Liturgy. Their approach, while lacking a true sense of the abject, was fittingly sombre, particularly at the service’s central point, the Veneration of the Cross. The moment is crushing enough, filing to…

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  • Lent SeriesSeasonal

    Eye-watering, but not tears: Fernand Laloux – O salutaris hostia, Tantum ergo

    by 5:4 March 20, 2008 • 09:55
    March 20, 2008 • 09:55

    i’m an occasional listener to BBC Radio 3’s broadcasts of Choral Evensong. Only occasional because Evensong, it seems, has got itself stuck – or is deliberately kept – in a rut, where it has languished for at least 50 years (this suspicion was proved some time ago, when a 50-year…

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  • Lent SeriesSeasonal

    Dolour and death; the Way of the Cross, unadorned: Liszt – Via Crucis

    by 5:4 March 19, 2008 • 10:29
    March 19, 2008 • 10:29

    As i’ve said before, my love of the chorale began in my teenage years with Bach. This love grew after hearing Franz Liszt’s Holy Week cycle, Via Crucis, some years later. Not that chorales are a principal feature of the work; on the contrary, Liszt’s exploration of the Stations of…

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  • Lent SeriesSeasonal

    The balance of austerity and grief: Victoria – O vos omnes

    by 5:4 March 18, 2008 • 12:28
    March 18, 2008 • 12:28

    One of the greatest difficulties, i feel, with writing music for Holy Week, is the need to be objectively austere, while also expressing some sense of the highly-wrought feelings that pervade the week. i don’t mean in some ghastly “stiff upper lip” way; that would be dishonest and repressed. One…

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  • Lent SeriesSeasonal

    Hoping against hope: Thomas Adès – Gefriolsæ me

    by 5:4 March 17, 2008 • 14:27
    March 17, 2008 • 14:27

    It was at a concert in the spring of 1995 that i first encountered the music of Thomas Adès. The piece was Living Toys, and it was significant to my own development as a composer; i came away from the concert with a new vigour, determination and excitement about the…

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  • Lent SeriesSeasonal

    Passionate, gut-wrenching, but humble: Bach – St John Passion

    by 5:4 March 16, 2008 • 14:07
    March 16, 2008 • 14:07

    Two weeks ago, i was fortunate enough to be at the performance of J. S. Bach‘s St John Passion, given by Ex Cathedra in Birmingham Town Hall. i’ve loved this work since i was a teenager, when a friend lent me a recording of the arias and chorales. It was…

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5:4
  • About
  • Patrons
  • The Lists
    • Listening History
    • Complete List of Ratings
    • Compositions reviewed on 5:4
    • Composer Map
    • Albums and EPs reviewed on 5:4
    • Festivals reviewed on 5:4
    • Best Albums of the Years
    • The Proms premières – Poll results
  • The Dialogues
  • Mixtapes
    • Mixtapes
    • The Isolation Mixtapes
    • Mystery Mixtapes
    • Podcasts
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