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| Ajax and Cassandra by Solomon J. Solomon, 1886. |
The composer Ben Rowarth is a figure whose music I have enjoyed over the last few years with works for the Marian Consort, Helen Charlston, and the Fieri Consort crossing my path. On 3 July 2025, Patrick Allies and his ensemble Siglo de Oro will be premiering a major new work by Rowarth at Wigmore Hall.
The Fall is a dramatic secular oratorio that tells the story of the Fall of Troy from the perspective of Cassandra, who predicted the city’s ruin but was ignored. The Fall uses a new text by writer and film director Sophia Carr-Gomm and is written for choir, violin and electronics, with Siglo de Oro being joined by violinist Amy Tress.
The performers have completed the evening with a fascinating programme of works around this including Jonathan Harvey’s Stabat Mater, written in 2004 for Royaumont Abbey in France and reworking Palestrina’s Stabat Mater for choir and electronics, Palestrina’s Lamentations for Maundy Thursday, Hildegard of Bingen’s O spectabiles viri and a movement from Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin BWV1004.
Full details of the concert from Wigmore Hall’s website.
