Tenebrae; Nigel Short conductor

Tenebrae and Nigel Short span nine centuries of music with this programme of sacred and profane compositions from France or set to French texts. Their programme’s first half opens with Pérotin’s sensational polyphonic setting of Viderunt Omnes, first heard at Notre-Dame de Paris in 1198 during the Christmas season, and includes Poulenc’s sublime Mass in G. The second half’s secular delights include Lands Unseen, Josephine Stephenson’s setting of poems by four female writers uprooted from their home countries and cast into exile.