The Helsinki Chamber Choir’s concert features a brand new commissioned piece and contemporary music that engages in dialogue with Baroque classics. In his work The Little Match Girl Passion (2007), post-minimalist David Lang presents his interpretation of H.C. Andersen’s classic tale. The work also draws, however, from the form of the St Matthew Passion by Bach, and the tale is raised to a new level to compare a little girl’s anguish to the suffering of Jesus.
Icelandic Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s arrestingly beautiful Ad Genua for string quintet and mixed choir (2016) is one of seven works by contemporary composers written for the American choir The Crossing, in response to the seven cantatas of Dietrich Buxtehude’sMembra Jesu Nostri.
The concert also features a premiere performance: praiseworthy Icelandic-German Steingrimur Rohloff has composed a new choir piece based on the texts of Danish poet Peter Laugesen. In recent times, Rohloff has been particularly praised as a composer of stage music.