Orlandus Lassus: Lamentations - Huelgas Ensemble conducted by Paul Van Nevel

The lamentations that were sung for centuries in the Catholic church during the Goede Week are verses from the Old Testament book of Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah. They were written in memory of a Jerusalem conquered by the Babylonians and a destroyed temple. The verses are divided into three readings each on Witte Donderdag, Goede Vrijdag, and Stille Zaterdag (3 x 3). It became a tradition to musically ‘stretch’ the Hebrew letter with which the verses are ‘numbered’, to start ‘jeremiading’ on this merely symbolic phoneme (e.g., the first letter aleph) as it were. The internationally recognized erudite Paul Van Nevel, born in Hasselt and meanwhile 81 springs young, brings with his Huelgas Ensemble (an almost annually returning guest at CCHA since 2003) four-part lamentations that were written for the Beierse Hof in Munich by one of the most famous ‘franco-flamands’: the Roland de Lâtre from Bergen, known in Italian as Orlando di Lasso. More performances in the series Fifths and fourths on Oct 23 and Dec 17, 26, and May 21, 27. artistic direction Paul Van Nevel / vocals Dorothea Jakob, Hannah Ely, Helen Cassano, Paul Bently-Angell, Daniel Thomson, Achim Schulz, Loïc Paulin, Tom Phillips, Tim Scott Whiteley & Andrés Soler Castaño / © Modestas Endriuska huelgasensemble.be