Nell'orto del Getsemani
Vox Musica

Vox Musica Vocal & Instrumental Ensemble

Michael Berman, director

J. Kuhnau (1660-1722)

Tristis Anima Mea

D. Buxtehude (1637-1707)

Membra Jesu Nostri n. 1 –Ad Pedes

A. Bertali (1605-1669)

Sonata a 6 in mi minore

D. Buxtehude

Membra Jesu Nostri n. 7 – Ad Faciem

30’ | Ticket with admission offered by Oficina OCM and Gruppo Tea

PLEASE NOTE: Tickets can only be reserved at the Trame Sonore Festival Box Office

A title that says it all. The Garden of Gethsemane is a place of extreme importance in the Christian tradition: it is the garden where Christ withdrew to pray on the night before his Passion, shortly before the betrayal by Judas. The London ensemble Vox Musica, conducted by Michael Berman, presents to the Trame Sonore audience an extraordinary concert that, through Baroque ornamentation and sonorities, leads the listener on a profound and deeply moving spiritual journey.

The program opens with Kuhnau’s famous motet Tristis est anima mea, which paints the atmosphere of anguish and contemplation of Gethsemane. It continues with two cantatas from Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri cycle, a symbolic meditation on the body of Christ, from its earthly dimension (Ad pedes) to the revelation of the human face (Ad faciem).

At the heart of the program lies Antonio Bertali’s Sonata à 6 in E minor: here the ensemble’s voices give way to a purely instrumental moment, in which strings and basso continuo transform into a profound lament, traversed nonetheless by contrapuntal and harmonic passages—a foretaste, perhaps, of Christ’s heavenly redemption and resurrection.

Text by Desirée Blundi