<img src='' title='Event Category: Passiontide, Holy Week and Easter Festival' alt='' id='templ_icon_' width='' height='' /> Event Category: Passiontide, Holy Week and Easter Festival

Passions run high as Ensemble l’Encyclopédie and soprano Sandrine Piau perform Pergolesi’s stunning Stabat Mater.

“A dazzling blend of wit and spontaneity from truly exceptional musicians” – that was how one critic hailed the playing of Ensemble L’Encyclopédie, before declaring them “utterly irresistible.” This exuberant new Franco-Swiss ensemble takes its inspiration from the Encylopedists: 18^th century philosopher-artists driven by a mission to explore. Today, under its energising founder-director Florent Albrecht it does just that, playing the wonderfully dramatic music of Johann Adolph Hasse before joining the great Sandrine Piau and Stéphanie d’Oustrac in Pergolesi’s famous – and heart-rending – Stabat Mater. Prepare to be thrilled, and prepare to be moved: the  age of enlightenment brought to passionate, vibrant life.

In Holy Week, Tenebrae creates its own retelling of an eternal story – singing music from five centuries, including the world premiere of Owain Park’s stunning new Canticles for a Passion.

For believers, the Passion stands at the centre of time itself – a drama of fear, suffering, sacrifice and hope whose significance extends through all ages. So Owain Park’s Canticles for a Passion is the latest chapter in a timeless story; inspired by the composer’s own experience of singing as a member of Tenebrae, and shaped to the expressive power and ravishing sound of this extraordinary chamber choir. Tonight, he interleaves it with Poulenc’s impassioned Lenten Motets, while reflections by composers as varied as William Byrd and Max Richter create their own musical path to the Cross, both sacred and profane.

The Tallis Scholars perform Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories. The musical soul of Passiontide, sounding more urgent than ever across five centuries.

Few renaissance composers felt their religious faith more passionately than Tomás Luis de Victoria. As the Christian year sinks to its darkest moment, his Tenebrae Responsories follow the spiritual drama in music of haunting power, and few living performers understand the path to their heart better than Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars – for more than half a century, some of the world’s pre-eminent performers of early vocal music. Now, on Maundy Thursday, they perform Victoria’s sequence alongside works by Gesualdo, Palestrina and Tallis: four renaissance masters, united in faith and sorrow. Come and hear what they have to say to each other.

This Easter, experience the power, the drama and the undimmed glory of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in one of London’s great churches – performed by Masaaki Suzuki and the Monteverdi Choir.

“My heart swims in tears…” Bach’s St Matthew Passion is more than one of the greatest of all sacred works. It’s a profound human drama; a heartbreaking musical exploration of eternal hopes and sorrows. As director of the Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki has built a worldwide reputation in baroque sacred music. Now he shares all his insight and devotion with another legendary name in Bach performance, the Monteverdi Choir: a one-off meeting of musical hearts and minds, united in their devotion to a masterwork that transcends any one performance. Still, this one should be rather special…