Aurora IV Photo: Catherine Cattanach 2018
'Salme 55' – Psalm 55 – is a sequence of verses set for four male voices a cappella. The work is an adaptation of a set of pieces composed for the concert work 'Notes for a Requiem' about the dramatic and tragic life of the Italian renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo.
Andrew Smith Photo: Katrine Kristiansen
The present sequence combines the short motets, each with its own material, with chanted sections to create a single, unified whole.
Psalm 55 will be familiar to many in Mendelssohn’s setting 'Hear my prayer'. Psalm 55 is a lament in which the psalmist prays to God for deliverance from the enemies that surround him, and the friend who has betrayed him – a situation similar to that in which Gesualdo seemed to have found himself. Nevertheless, the psalm closes with the psalmist’s confidence that God’s justice will prevail.
It's not the humble offering of a prayer uttered kneeling by the bed at night, but the anguished, desperate plea of a man in a crisis of life. (Andrew Smith)
Recorded 22 June 2019 in St Andrew's on The Terrace, Wellington by RNZ Concert
Sound engineer: Darryl Stack
