ensemble 1685

ensemble 1685 presents a meditative choral sequence for Lent. All performances are at 7.30pm and will last a little over an hour.

• Coventry, St Paul's Church, Foleshill, CV6 5AJ — Friday March 23rd
• Polesworth Abbey, B78 1DU — Saturday March 24th
• Birmingham, The Oratory, Hagley Road, B16 8UE — Saturday March 31st

There is no entrance charge (donations will be invited). Car parking is available at all the venues. We hope to see you in Coventry, Polesworth or Birmingham!

Richard Jeffcoat, Artistic Director of ensemble 1685, writes:

The penitential season of Lent has always inspired composers to startling invention when setting texts that urge us to atone and bewail our manifold wickednesses.

The enduring success of the Miserere by Allegri, written for the Sistine Chapel for performance on Ash Wednesday and jealously guarded for centuries, is one example of music that calls the faithful to repentance but also enriches the music-lover of different or no faith. The sources for Allegri's famous and controversial work are so corrupted that generations of musicians have engaged with this material, and tonight's meditation offers a new interpretation during the sequence.

ensemble 1685 will be presenting a selection of motets from several national schools from the early 16th-Century to the mid-17th-Century, and, although all of the texts will be performed in their original Latin, the meaning and context of each will be made clear in English.

This year's tour of Meditations for Lent is sure to be a moving contribution to your journey to Easter, if you're a Christian, or an insight into the way of faith during this glorious period of the art of music, whether or not you're a believer.