Balthasar-Neumann-Chor | Lionel Sow

Tuesday 27 October 2026, at 8.30 pm, at the Church of Santa Cristina della Fondazza, the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor will perform under the baton of Lionel Sow.

At the dawn of music and at its very heart lies the voice, the breath that gives form to thought and transforms it into expression. The Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, founded in 1991 by Thomas Hengelbrock, explores five centuries of vocal music with its unmistakable warm and pure sound, weaving together Renaissance polyphony and contemporary musical reflection. The angelic energy of Harvey’s soundscapes engages in dialogue with plain Gregorian chant and Praetorius’s *Missodia Sionia*; the polyphonic purity of Palestrina’s *Missa sine nomine*, which so fascinated Bach, intertwines with Monteverdi’s sacred ‘madrigalisms’ and Coluccino’s fragmented style, from which we shall hear the world premiere of the ethereal *Senza smuovere la brezza*.  

Programme:

Songs for peace and light

• Osvaldo Coluccino In detachment
• Osvaldo Coluccino "Senza smuovere la brezza"
  (world premiere)
• Jonathan Harvey The Angels
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Sicut cervus
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Missa sine nomine: Kyrie
  Arr. Johann Sebastian Bach
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Missa sine nomine: Gloria
  Arr. Johann Sebastian Bach
• Claudio Monteverdi Cantate Domino
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Missa sine nomine: Credo
  Arr. Johann Sebastian Bach
• Gregorian chant/Michael Praetorius Praefatio (from Missodia Sionia LX)
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Missa sine nomine: Sanctus & Benedictus
  Arr. Johann Sebastian Bach
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Missa sine nomine: Agnus Dei I & Agnus Dei II
  Arr. Johann Sebastian Bach
• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Sitivit anima mea
• Jonathan Harvey I love the Lord