Performance 2: Via Crucis - The Passion Story in Motets

In Via Crucis, Lutesong Consort invites us to walk the path of Christ’s final week on earth through twelve Renaissance motets, sung one-to-a-part in the ensemble’s signature transparent, text-driven style. The programme unfolds as a musical pilgrimage, each work dwelling on a moment along His journey. Framed at one end by the raising of Lazarus and at the other by the Resurrection of Christ, we follow the entry into Jerusalem, the cleansing of the temple, the shadowed stillness of the Mount of Olives, the intimacy of the Last Supper, the betrayal by Judas, the vigil in the Garden of Gethsemane, the desolation of the Cross, and the silence of the tomb. In this sequence, the music does more than recount events; it opens a space for reflection, drawing us inward to encounter the Passion story in a deeper, spiritual sense. With works by Christopher Tye, Orlando di Lasso, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Hermann Schein, Andreas Hammerschmidt, Carlo Gesualdo, Claudio Monteverdi and Johann Sebastian Bach, Via Crucis reveals the Passion in luminous polyphony — austere yet radiant, intimate and profoundly human.

Performed by Lynelle Kenned and Elsabé Richter (sopranos), Lente Louw (alto), Van Wyk Venter and Willem Bester (tenors), Keaton Manwaring (bass), with Uwe Grosser (theorbo) and Kevin Kraak (organ).