A Spotless Rose - London Concord Singers

For their Christmas concert London Concord Singers will be presenting A Spotless Rose a programme of music themed around the rose. In the medieval period the idea of the spotless rose was used as a metaphor for the Virgin Mary, so our programme starts with Marian motets by Lassus, Victoria, Palestrina and Liszt. Praetorius's Er is in Ros entsprungen will be presented in versions by 3 different composers. Contemporary composers Richard Rodney Bennett, Robert Hugill and Cecilia McDowall all set medieval texts which resonate with our theme, and Herbert Howells carol A Spotless Rose gives us our title. We conclude with Morten Lauridsen's popular Chansons des Rosesa sequence of five settings of Rilke all on the theme of Roses.