Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 8 pm
First Church in Cambridge, Congregational
The latest installment in our series of music from the Peterhouse partbooks, copied c. 1540 for Canterbury Cathedral, this concert features the North American premiere of a radiant mass by Nicholas Ludford, presented in a program reflecting the works possible original context, a festal mass in honor of the patron saint of Ludford’s parish church, St Margaret’s, Westminster. The program includes plainchant from England’s Sarum rite for a mass on St Margaret’s feast day of July 20, and concludes with a dramatic antiphon by Hugh Aston (recorded on our latest CD).
“…the American ensemble Blue Heron [has] a fine sense of the idiom of this distinctive music, and their performances are rich, muscular and expressive…the singing and interpretations are impeccable.”
D. James Ross, Early Music Review (UK)
Free pre-concert talk at 7:15 by James Simpson (Harvard University) — sponsored by the Cambridge Society for Early Music
Talk-back afterwards: stay and ask questions of Scott Metcalfe and Blue Heron singers.
» View/Download Concert Program
Peterhouse partbooks
Listen to an introduction to music from the Peterhouse partbooks in a podcast from WGBH’s Classical Connections, featuring interviews with Scott Metcalfe and Nick Sandon.
visit WGBH: podcast >
