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Feast of music for Lent and Easter

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A feast of musical pieces dating back to the 1500s through to present day compositions will fill St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral during Lent and Easter celebrations this year.

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One of the highlights of the music program over the coming weeks will be a special concert by the Adelaide Baroque Orchestra with countertenor Max Riebl on the Palm Sunday weekend.

To be held on the evening of Friday April 3, the concert will feature a string quartet version of Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ, followed by Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater.

This will be one of three concerts by the orchestra over the weekend, with the other performances at St Aloysius’ Church at Sevenhill on the Saturday evening and the afternoon of Palm Sunday.

Director of Cathedral Music, Timothy Davey said worshippers at St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral would experience a wide range of music during the liturgies of Lent and the Easter season.

“Some of the offerings will include compositions from the mid to late 16th century through to contemporary works written as recently as 2007,” he said.

Highlights on Holy Thursday will include Durufle’s Ubi Caritas (written in 1960), Gjeilo’s Ubi Caritas (2007); Flor Peeters’ Ave Verum (1980) and Shepherd’s A New Commandment (1988).

On Good Friday worshippers will hear Allegri’s Miserere (1630s), Stainer’s God So Loved the World (1887), Lantz’s Here Lies God’s Son (2005) and Liszt’s Ave Verum (1870s).

Victoria’s O Quam Gloriosum (1583) and Palestrina’s Sicut Cervus (1594) will be performed at the Easter Vigil, with the latter also being heard on Easter Day.

Mr Davey said the Cathedral Choir continued to employ a variety of Mass and Psalm settings.

“During Lent we will include the Roman Missal Ordinary, while the Mass of the Holy Angels by Gerard Chiusano and the Mass of St Francis by Dr Paul Taylor remain standard for Masses in Ordinary Time,” he said.

“Each weekend at the four Cathedral Masses different musical Psalm settings are used, including those composed by the late Brother Colin Smith, Tony Alonso, Joseph Gelineau SJ, Patricia Smith, Royce Nicols and Richard Rice, as well as Jeff Ostrowski’s settings from the Watershed collection.”

The beautiful sounds of the Casavant Frères pipe organ will also be heard as part of the Adelaide Fringe, with two free lunchtime concerts to be held in the Cathedral during March.

The concerts are open to all members of the public and run from 1pm to 1.30pm on March 4 and 11.

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