The final concert will open with Ad Matrem, Henryk Gorecki’s sacred work for soprano, mixed chorus, and orchestra. Based on the text of the 13th century hymn, Stabat Mater Dolorosa, this piece is almost a symphonic poem. Lux Aeterna, by Morten Lauridsen, is a choral work fashioned on texts from several different Latin sources, including the Requiem mass, with each movement containing a reference to light and all it connotes. The concert and festival will come to a fitting end with Rite of Spring, Stravinsky’s evocation of the Slavic folk spirit, with its violent sacrificial dance and extraordinary elemental power.
