Concert in the dark - Good Friday in Trinitatis
Concerto Copenhagen and Lars Ulrik Mortensen present an Easter concert with music that puts words and emotions to the indescribable and incomprehensible; human suffering and distress caused by war, violence and destruction.
When faced with war, hardship, death, suffering and destruction, it can be difficult to find words for 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 Old Testament Lamentations written over 2,500 years ago. Lamentations describes the despair, distress and suffering of the people after the devastating wars of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II, which caused the destruction of the kingdom of Judea 587 years before our era. Judea, known from the Bible, is the ancient name for the region that still suffers from warfare, violence and destruction today.
In the Roman Catholic liturgy, excerpts from Lamentations are included as readings in the Tenebrae, Matins, Evening Prayer on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Saturday. Tenebræ - Latin for darkness - refers to the listening taking place in the dark when the lights in the church are turned off one by one. These excerpts from 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 on 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 emotion through music. His six Lamentationes pro hebdomada sancta - six laments for Holy Week - are no exception: Zelenka's music for the Lamentations puts emotions and words to precisely what many of us experience as indescribable and incomprehensible; human suffering and distress caused by war, violence and destruction.
Concerto Copenhagen, conducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen, performs Zelenka's 6 Lamentationes pro hebdomada sancta on Good Friday, March 29 at 19.30 in Trinitatis Church. During the concert, the church lights will gradually be turned off and together we will be enveloped in darkness.