Irish Youth Choir

Irish Youth Choir 2019 Presents, Heart Strings.

Few works amalgamate a style, an era and a composer more succinctly than Handel's Dixit Dominus. Written in Rome when he was only 22 years old, surrounded by the finest singers and instrumentalists in the world, Handel's precocious mastery of counterpoint combined with a powerful grasp of musical gesture make this piece one of the standout works of his lifetime. The text, taken from Psalm 110, portrays Christ as the all-powerful; reigning over all nations. Often times aggressive and confrontational, it can make uncomfortable reading, but it allowed Handel to unleash the full measure of his dramatic powers.

To contrast, we present two pieces which both serve as tributes to loved-ones. The first, a perfectly crafted miniature for choir and string quartet entitled Elegischer Gesang. Setting text by poet and dramatist Ignaz Franz Castelli, this serves as an exquisite dedication to the wife of Beethoven's long-time friend and landlord Johann von Pasqualati. In his dedication, Latvian modern choral master Ēriks Ešenvalds turns to the text of the Requiem Mass to commemorate the life of this mother. His setting of In Paradisum is accompanied by solo viola and cello, whose fluttering tremolandos depict the angelic journey to paradise against the backdrop of the composer's signature homophonic choral magnificence.