Skip to Content

Events

Subscribe to: RSS or iCal

A Spanish Nativity

Monday, 21 December, 2020 at 1:00 pm

A Spanish Nativity

Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall website

For its latest Christmas programme, Stile Antico turns to the sensuous musical world of Renaissance Spain, drawing together an irresistible mix of sumptuous polyphony and infectiously joyful folk dances. A superbly rich and luminous mass by Alonso Lobo, based on a motet by Guerrero and intended for performance at Toledo Cathedral, forms the programme’s centrepiece. Interspersed between its movements are an exuberant ‘ensalada’ by Mateo Flecha, inviting us to be present at the nativity through the use of traditional dance rhythms, beautiful Christmas miniatures by Tomás Luis de Victoria, and classic villancicos – Spain’s answer to the traditional carol. And just as in Spain the feast of the Epiphany forms the climax of the Christmas season, so this enthralling selection is capped by a magnificent motet by Morales retelling the story of Herod and the Three Kings.

Mateo Flecha el ViejoRiu riu chiu
Francisco GuerreroBeata Dei Genetrix
Pedro RimonteDe la piel de sus ovejas
Alonso Lobo: ‘Kyrie’ from Missa Beata Dei Genetrix
Guerrero: Nino Dios d’amor
Lobo: ‘Gloria’ from Missa Beata Dei Genetrix
Flecha: El Jubilate
Victoria: O Magnum mysterium
Lobo: ‘Sanctus & Benedictus’ from Missa Beata Dei Genetrix
Guerrero: A Un Niño llorando
Lobo: ‘Agnus Dei’ from Missa Beata Dei Genetrix
Cristóbal de MoralesCum natus esset

Share