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Giovanni Paolo Colonna (1637-1695): Lamentations of Jeremiah.

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The Midtown Concerts holy week tradition continues with a special one-time performance at Immanuel Lutheran Church featuring ARTEK.

Many composers of the 17th-century wrote beautiful music for the Tenebrae services in Holy Week, in which the biblical Lamentations of Jeremiah, representing suffering during the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in 586 with little hope of deliverance, aresung as an extreme expression of communal repentance. In England, polyphonic choral Lamentations are considered some of the finest masterpieces of the Renaissance. In Italy, many 17th-century composers (including Rosenmüller, who worked in Italy and whoseLamentations have been performed by ARTEK on Midtown Concerts in the past) wrote solo laments that displayed the virtuosic abilities of the singers. Today's program is a selection of laments by Giovanni Paolo Colonna, who was one of the most important composersof the second half of the 17th-century in Italy. He was the son of an organ builder and was trained both as an organ builder and as a musician. At the age of 22, he was appointed to San Petronio in Bologna, one of the largest churches in Italy, with an amazingacoustic, impressive music program, and two historic 16th-century organs that still survive to this day. In fact, Colonna turned down an offer to move to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in 1694. He wrote operas, oratorios, cantatas and many church music settings.Colonna's music, like that of his other compatriots in Bologna, has been unjustly neglected and has only rarely been performed in modern times.

ARTEK
Andrew Fuchs, tenor
Peter Becker, bass-baritone
Daniel Swenberg, theorbo
Gwendolyn Toth, organ

Program:
Seconda lamentatione del Mercordi Sera
    Mr. Becker
Prima Lamentatione del Venerdi Sera
   Mr. Fuchs
Terza Lamentatione del Venerdi Sera
   Mr. Becker

Audiences love ARTEK concerts for their exciting, dramatic performances of baroque music, with compelling musical settings of beautiful poetry and infectious dance rhythms that infuse the performances with vitality and spirit. ARTEK features some of America's finest singers.

 

1:15 - 2:00 pm
All concerts are free; no tickets or reservations are necessary.

Immanuel Lutheran Church
122 E 88th St

Midtown Concerts sponsors lunchtime performances of music of the 18th century and earlier. Ensembles are chosen by a panel of early music specialists from the metropolitan area.

Time: Thursdays, 1:15–2:00 pm
All concerts are free; no tickets or reservations are necessary.

Concerts are in person at St. Malachy's Church, 239 West 49th Street, Manhattan, AND live streamed.