News
Sing Joyfully - Saturday 1 July
Dear Tudor Consort supporter,
I warmly invite you to our next concert, marking the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd, arguably the greatest English composer of all time.
William Byrd composed during the reign of Elizabeth I, when even refusal to attend Anglican services was enough to bring individuals to the notice of the authorities. Indeed, both Juliana (his wife) and then Byrd himself were on recusancy lists. Byrd was also involved in sending money to Catholics abroad, which led to restrictions on his movement, and his house being placed on a search list. And he was involved with prominent Catholics, including Father Henry Garnett, later executed for his complicity in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot.
Byrd's involvement with Catholicism, with the very real risks that this created, did not limit his immense output of choral, consort, and keyboard music. For this concert, The Tudor Consort presents a grand programme of his music for the church, both for the newly-established Anglican service and for the Catholic Mass. The featured works are his justly-famous Mass for Four Voices and Ave verum corpus, smaller scale and more intimate works to be sung in secret Catholic worship, and the ‘Great’ Service, a monumental collection of music in English for the Anglican rite.
We are delighted to be joined by cornetti, sackbuts and chamber organ for this opulent music, last heard under the direction of Simon Ravens in 2006 when we celebrated our 20th anniversary!
I warmly invite you to join us for this concert celebrating one of the great geniuses of this or any age.
Best regards,
Michael Stewart
Music Director, The Tudor Consort
Online bookings at events.humanitix.com/sing-joyfully
Tuesday 27 June, 2023
St Matthew Passion - 25 March 2023
Dear friends of The Tudor Consort,
We are excited to announce that New Zealand’s premier early music choir The Tudor Consort is presenting J S Bach’s monumental oratorio St Matthew Passion on Saturday 25 March 2023.
Tickets available now via Humanitix.
The Tudor Consort will be accompanied by the Chiesa Ensemble and directed from the harpsichord by Music Director Michael Stewart.
This historically-informed performance will draw soloists from the choir in the manner in which the work was intended to be heard, alongside tenor Lachlan Craig as the Evangelist.
Join us for this powerful setting detailing the last days of Christ’s life, retold by solo voices, double orchestra and double chorus. Book today to hear this sacred choral work brimming with drama, performed by the region’s finest singers.
You will see we are using a new ticketing method for this concert. Should you have any issues using Humanitix to purchase your ticket, please email tickets@tudor-consort.org.nz and we will be happy to assist you with your purchase. We hope that this new ticketing platform will offer a smoother user experience for our audience, and thank you for coming along with us on this change.
We are offering the opportunity to pre-purchase programmes when you buy your tickets. Programmes will also be for sale for $5 each at the concert.
We thank you for your ongoing support of The Tudor Consort through what has been such a difficult time for Aotearoa and the arts. We look forward to sharing the beauty of Bach’s famous passion oratorio with you in March next year.
Ngā mihi nui,
The Tudor Consort
Monday 28 November, 2022
Missa Papae Marcelli
The Tudor Consort is excited to present Palestrina’s legendary Mass for the first time since 2001.
In the mid-16th century, the Roman Catholic Church convened the Council of Trent, to consider and respond to issues of the Protestant Reformation. One of the issues discussed was the ‘lasciviousness and impurity’ of Mass settings based on popular secular melodies, and the difficulty of understanding the text clearly amidst such highly intricate polyphony. In reaction to the Council, Palestrina composed the Mass; the simple and declamatory style (known as imitative polyphony) of the Missa Papae Marcelli is a direct response to the latter injunction, which has led to the legend that Palestrina ‘saved polyphony’ from being banned by the Council.
The mass is named after the short-lived Pope Marcellus II, who clocked in at a mere 22 days as Pope, making him the 6th shortest reigning Pontiff.
This is Palestrina’s most famous mass, and has been studied for centuries as a prime example of Renaissance polyphony, with its vocal interplay. The legend of this Mass has even inspired an opera - Hans Pfitzner’s Palestrina (1917).
This performance will take the form of a liturgical reconstruction, a practice developed by our founding director Simon Ravens. Rather than performing the Mass movements one after the other, they will be set within the original framework of Gregorian chant, in this case the Propers for the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Wednesday 10 August, 2022
