Eternal Light

Composed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII in the 1630s for the exclusive use of the Papal Choir in the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week, Allegri’s Miserere has captivated audiences and composers for centuries.

Erin Helyard explains, “The famous Miserere with the high Cs—or what some now call the “English” Miserere—is in fact a beautiful error. In the 19th century a music journalist misread a description of Mendelssohn’s, who heard some astonishingly high notes during a performance, and shoe-horned the ornament into the wrong section. But what a beautiful mistake!

I wanted to go back in time to the earliest sources of Allegri’s Miserere — before those amazing high Cs. I hit upon the idea of commissioning award-winning 17th-century ornamentation expert, Australian tenor Jacob Lawrence, to do what was previously thought impossible: put down in notes a version of Miserere that resembles what we know about the ornamented performance practice of Rome in the 1630s. I also wanted to present the version of the Miserere we all know and love too, as a kind of finale that tethers our historical journey with the present.”

At the heart of Eternal Light is Biber’s Requiem in F. The setting of the requiem is varied, dramatic and expressive; it combines emotion with a radiant vision of eternity. The program will also feature two instrumental works of Biber’s teacher, Schmelzer.

Conducted by Erin Helyard, Eternal Light contemplates the mystery of eternity in the brilliant acoustic of City Recital Hall with Australia’s award-winning chorus, Cantillation and the exceptional players of the Orchestra of the Antipodes.