PREVIEW:TRANSFORMERS @BREMF Consort of Voices

WITH its theme of Metamorphosis, the Festival will present twenty seven events across Brighton & Hove this autumn, exploring transformation in many intriguing ways.

Deborah Roberts, Artistic Director, says: “The idea of things undergoing transforming change has long fascinated the human race. Our 2019 Festival explores the 2,000-year-old stories in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, as well as musical and social transformation over the centuries. We end the Festival with a re-creation of the medieval Feast of Fools, which reversed all the social hierarchy for a few days and allowed a ‘letting off of steam’ for people living under the control of a feudal system. Our own times are certainly troubled, with society at war with itself, the threat of runaway climate change, and a political system with which many are disillusioned. Our message is musical, and all about bringing people together positively. What better reminder that many of these themes have resonated throughout history?”

Headline events include the  BREMF Consort of Voices TRANSFORMERS performance where great renaissance masterpieces  are miraculously reworked  with Deborah Roberts director Composers frequently reworked their own music into later compositions, but this programme looks at some substantial transformations and expansions of earlier works by later composers. Includes music by Josquin, Rore, Senfl and Gombert; with movements from Monteverdi’s 1610 Mass In illo tempore, based on Gombert’s motet.

 Taking place at St Martins church and finishing with a recent version of Tallis’s 40-part motet, Spem in alium arranged for 11 voices by Mick Swithinbank this looks at being a superb evening my musical discovery

For more info or to book tickets see the BREMF website