Siglo de Oro - Celebrating Palestrina & Pärt

Siglo de Oro: Celebrating Palestrina and Pärt

Sunday 06 April 2025 at 15:30

British Library Opus Remix Concert series welcomes Siglo de Oro, one of the leading British vocal ensembles of its generation, for an extraordinary concert honouring Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina on his quincentenary and Arvo Pärt on his upcoming 90th birthday. This programme bridges and explores centuries of sacred music from the Renaissance to the present day with works by Pärt, Palestrina, Victoria, and contemporary voices like Caroline Shaw and Kerensa Briggs. Siglo de Oro’s exceptional artistry celebrates shared themes of peace, devotion, and the search for the divine. Whether you are a lifelong admirer of Pärt or new to his genius, this concert promises to be an unforgettable celebration of spiritual and musical brilliance.

The concert opens with contemplative Plainsong – Emendemus in Melius and Palestrina’s poignant Lamentations for Maundy Thursday, setting the stage for Pärt’s luminous The Deer’s Cry. These are followed by Briggs’ ethereal Media vita and Pärt’s radiant Bogoroditse Djevo. Renaissance masterpieces such as Victoria’s O Vos Omnes and Palestrina’s serene Sicut Cervus highlight the enduring spiritual legacy echoed in Pärt’s Da Pacem and Shaw’s reflective and the swallow. The programme culminates with Pärt’s meditative Nunc Dimittis and Palestrina’s majestic Stabat Mater, drawing the concert to a transcendent close.

Siglo de Oro is recognised internationally for its golden tone, fresh interpretations, and innovative programming. Since its acclaimed debut at the Spitalfields Festival in 2014, the ensemble has performed all over the UK, Europe and North America, recorded five albums for Delphian Records, and broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3.

Siglo de Oro’s recordings with Delphian Records range from fifteenth-century music written for Milan Cathedral, to new pieces for choir and saxophone composed for the group. Amongst these albums was the world premiere recording of a late-Renaissance mass by Hieronymus Praetorius, released in 2018, which was BBC Music Magazine’s Choral and Song Album of the Month. Their most recent recording, The Mysterious Motet Book of 1539, reached number 9 in the UK specialist classical chart, and was one of Music Web International’s Recordings of the Year for 2022.

Siglo de Oro has long been committed to performing contemporary music. The ensemble has regularly commissioned new works, including pieces by Kerensa Briggs, Owain Park, Ben Rowarth and Marisse Cato. Siglo de Oro gave the first performance of Emily Hall’s hotel-based opera, Found and Lost, and has an ongoing association with the charity Multitude of Voyces, whose mission is to promote the work of underrepresented composers. 

In the 2024-25 season, the ensemble will take up a three-concert residency at Wigmore Hall, as well as giving concerts across the UK and in Canada, the USA and Finland.

This concert will be approximately 1 hour in duration, without an interval.