Zelenka Lamentations

Concert in the dark – Good Friday at Trinitatis

Concerto Copenhagen and Lars Ulrik Mortensen present an Easter concert with music that puts words and feelings to the indescribable and incomprehensible: human suffering and hardship caused by war, violence, and destruction.

When we are faced with war, hardship, death, suffering, and destruction, it can be difficult to find words to express the feelings of grief, powerlessness, and despair we experience. One of the oldest texts that manages to put these feelings into words is found in the Lamentations of the Old Testament, written over 2,500 years ago. The Lamentations describe the despair, distress, and suffering of the people after the devastating wars of Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon, which caused the downfall of the Kingdom of Judah in 587 BCE. Judea, known from the Bible, is the ancient name of the region that still suffers from war, violence, and destruction today.

In the Roman Catholic liturgy, excerpts from the Lamentations are included as readings in the Tenebrae, the Matins prayer, the evening prayer on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Saturday. Tenebrae – Latin for darkness – refers to the fact that the listening takes place in darkness, when the lights in the church are extinguished one by one. These excerpts from the Lamentations form the basis for musical settings by many composers, including the Czech Jan Dismas Zelenka. He was associated with the court chapel in Dresden and composed music based on the Lamentations for Easter in 1722. Zelenka is referred to by many as Bach's Catholic counterpart, as he, like Bach, is a master at expressing human emotions through music. His six Lamentationes pro hebdomada sancta – six lamentations for Holy Week – are no exception: Zelenka's music for the Lamentations' texts puts feelings and words to what many of us experience as indescribable and incomprehensible: human suffering and hardship caused by war, violence, and destruction.

Concerto Copenhagen, conducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen, will perform Zelenka's 6 Lamentationes pro hebdomada sancta on Good Friday, March 29, at 7:30 p.m. in Trinitatis Church. During the concert, the church lights will gradually be turned off, and we will allow ourselves to be enveloped by darkness.