Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Perform The Australian Premiere of STABAT MATER and David Lang's Pulitzer Prize Winning THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL PASSION

On Saturday 14 October, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs present a very special 'double bill': two exquisite concerts featuring acclaimed works by two of the world's most celebrated living choral composers. These one-off performances will be quick to sell out. Book now for either one; or indulge in the exceptional pairing. 

Late afternoon sees the Australian premiere of Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan's Stabat Mater, performed by SPC's virtuoso Chamber Singers and the Sydney Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Brett Weymark.

With a career spanning almost four decades, MacMillan is recognised among the pre-eminent composers of his generation. In 2015 he was awarded a knighthood for his services to music, and his anthem Who Shall Separate Us? was performed at the 2022 funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II, in Westminster Abbey.

MacMillan's music combines raw emotional power and spiritual meditation, drawing on diverse influences – from his Catholic faith to his Celtic heritage and Far Eastern, Scandinavian, and Eastern European music.

His Stabat Mater is a deeply moving musical interpretation of a thirteenth-century litany describing Mary's suffering as she stands at the foot of the cross watching her son's final agony. This intense evocation of a mother's anguish resonates with immediacy; yet transcends sorrow to console listeners with soaring moments of extraordinary beauty.

This inspirational program, presented at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, 4.30pm to 6pm, also includes two of Arvo Pärt's renowned instrumental meditations – Festina lente and Fratres – and the premiere of new works from Australian composers Daniel Brinsmead and Andrew Anderson.

In the evening, SPC's young adult choir VOX presents one of the most profound musical works of the 21st century, David Lang's Pulitzer prize-winning oratorio, The Little Match Girl Passion.

One of America's most performed composers, David Lang is proudly "passionate, prolific, and complicated", his work embodying the restless spirit of invention; constantly reflected in the creation of new forms that resist categorisation.

In the words of The New Yorker, “With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize for The Little Match Girl Passion (one of the most original and moving scores of recent years), Lang, once a post-minimalist enfant terrible, has solidified his standing as an American master.”

A setting of Hans Christian Andersen's dark children's story about a young girl who dies alone on the street, viewed through the lens of Bach's St Matthew Passion, Lang's breathtaking composition is considered amongst the top classical music works written in the 21st Century. “Woven into a luminous, ever-moving tapestry, its vocal lines evoke a fragile world full of soaring hope and ominous shadows.” (The Classical Review)

David Lang said of it, “What drew me to The Little Match Girl is that the strength of the story lies not in its plot but in the fact that all its parts – the horror and the beauty – are constantly suffused with their opposites.”

“The girl's bitter present is locked together with the sweetness of her past memories; her poverty is always suffused with her hopefulness. There is no Bach in my piece and there is no Jesus – rather the suffering of the Little Match Girl has been substituted for Jesus's, elevating (I hope) her sorrow to a higher plane,” he concludes.

Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion, scored for chamber choir and four solo singers, will be complemented by music for choir and piano by two Australian composers. From Luke Byrne, two compositions based on Grimm's popular, classic fairy tales; and the premiere of Naomi Crellin's Thrice upon a time.

This brilliant program sees Associate Music Director Elizabeth Scott conduct VOX in Verbrugghen Hall at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 7.30pm to 8.40pm.

Tickets:

Stabat Mater, sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/concerts/2023season/macmillan/

The Little Match Girl Passion, sydneyphilharmonia.com.au/concerts/2023season/matchgirl/

Tickets cost $75 per concert (plus booking fee), or $140 for both (plus booking fee).

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