On 28 March Daniel Pioro and the Marian Consort premiere Tom Coult’s O Ecclesia at Wigmore Hall, ahead of a further performance, alongside other new works, at the Aldeburgh Festival on 10 June. The 8-minute piece is a reworking for violin and choir of a work previously seen in versions for violin and strings and for violin and organ - the latter appeared on Pioro’s debut album Saint Boy.
O Ecclesia is based on a chant by Hildegard von Bingen. This material is presented in full, though very freely adapted – stretched, compressed, and multiplied to fit its new clothing. The violinist intones Hildegard’s melody, while the voices provide soft halos of sound to surround its lyrical line.
On 10 June Pioro performs O Ecclesia again at the Aldeburgh Festival, alongside the premiere of O Euchari – another 8-minute realisation of music by Hildegard von Bingen that forms a pair with O Ecclesia – and Hymns of Kassiana, created from chants by Byzantine composer Kassia.
In O Euchari two voices at a time duet on the chant, while the violinist comments, as if in slow motion - these three lines are then joined by a solemn chorale in the remaining voices. Hymns of Kassiana¸8 minutes in length, is based on two chants. In O Vasilevs tis doxis Christos, a tenor voice intones the hymns, surrounded by eerie harmonies and metronomic ticking. The second part, Hymn of Kassiana, is broader and more vaulting.
As part of his ongoing composer-in-association role with the BBC Philharmonic, Coult created several reworkings and elaborations of Baroque and Renaissance repertoire. In April 2023 the orchestra premiered After Lassus with soprano Anna Dennis - a 15½ -minute work that takes six duets from Lassus’ Novae aliquot (1577) and refashions them “like plasticine – reshaping, stretching and compressing them”. For Daniel Pioro he previously created a version of Vivaldi’s La Follia – performed recently by Pioro and Manchester Camerata – Tartini’s Sonata No.2 in D minor, and Biber’s The Agony in the Garden from his Mystery Sonatas.
Pioro’s recording of Coult’s violin concerto Pleasure Garden, which he premiered in 2021, will feature on an orchestral portrait disc from NMC released later this year.