Siglo de Oro; Patrick Allies _director; Amy Tress _violin

Siglo de Oro, while raised on and sustained by an expansive diet of early sacred music, is also a dedicated champion of contemporary choral repertoire. This programme for choir, violin and electronics (with Joe Bates running the electronics) spans nine centuries of music history, stretching from the mystical stillness of Abbess Hildegard’s 12th-century antiphon O spectabiles viri to the first performance of Ben Rowarth’s The Fall for voices, electronics and violin.

Ben Rowarth's new oratorio sets the dramatic story of the Trojan War, as told in a brand new libretto by writer and film-director Sophia Carr Gomm. The music pushes the boundaries of contemporary choral writing, mixing on-stage choir and solo violin with off-stage electronics: pre-recorded strings, vocals, and natural sounds that weave together to bring this famous Greek myth to life in vivid musical colour.