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banchetto musicale

Friday, 15 September, 7 pm
Palace of the Grand Dukes, Katedros a. 4, Vilnius

Lamentations of Jeremiah
17th-century lutheran music in Northern Germany, Prussia, Lithuania Minor and Livonia

Director Alina Rotaru – organ (Germany / Lithuania)

Manja Stephan – soprano (Germany)
Mikus Abaroniņš – countertenor (Latvia)
Charles Daniels – tenor (United Kingdom)
Nerijus Masevičius – bass

Brevis Consort (Italy, Canada, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania)


At a time when Europe was shattered by long and frequent plague epidemics, German sacred music of the 17th century reached a level of expressivity unimaginable before, and seldom out-matched later. It is the result of the post-elizabethan Melancholia and the new intellectual approach caused by religious reformations – the sober, disillusioned, yet deeply sympathetic contemplation of the “Weltschmerz”. Matthias Weckmann’s Lament “Wie liegt die Stadt so wüste” (“How deserted lies the city”) was composed in 1663, the year during which Hamburg, Weckmann’s beloved city, was decimated by the plague. Apart from Matthias Weckmann, this program gathers other outstanding Thuringian-born composers of the 17th century, who lived and worked in the lands of Prussia and northern Germany: amongst them are the Lutheran composers Heinrich Albert, who lived in Königsberg, and Johann Valentin Meder, who was active in the whole Baltic region: Gdansk, Königsberg, Riga and Tallinn. Proclaiming the words of the Lamentation of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, music creators of the 17th century conveyed the anguish of their time in a highly sensitive and expressive manner.


Concert is co-organized with “Euroradio”
Concert is sponsored by Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec



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