MoM I - Vermilion Vespers (Encore)

Curt Cacioppo’s Cantata of the Angels (Vermilion Vespers) is a significant contribution to the limited repertoire of concert-length works for choir and organ. A modern vespers, the work was commissioned by the Gobbo family of Venice to celebrate the 80th birthday of their patriarch, Angelo, commissioning poetry by the Venetian poet Luigi Cerantola, whose images beautifully capture the vermilion twilight of a long-lived life. Like the sacred vespers service, Cacioppo’s work takes us on a journey from creation through hope and celebration in an eclectic musical language joining Renaissance rhythms and lush contemporary harmonies, featuring the virtuosity of organist Ken Lovett and the warm understanding of our singers.

Vermilion Vespers is complemented by Bruno Bettinelli’s contemplative motets on familiar sacred hymn texts appropriate to the meditative spirit of the hour of the setting sun.