The Splendor of Grace
The Metropolitan Chorale
The Metropolitan Chorale presents The Splendor of Grace, under the direction of Andrew Altenbach. The program will feature: J.S. Bach: Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 4; Benjamin Britten: Five Flower Songs, op. 47; David Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion.
This program brings together three works from different centuries that meditate on loss, compassion, and the possibility of transformation through suffering.
Bach’s Christ lag in Todes Banden (BWV 4) anchors the program with a Lutheran chorale cantata that confronts death directly, framing it as something ultimately overcome through faith and communal proclamation. Benjamin Britten’s Five Flower Songs, though lighter in texture and more intimate in scale, continue this reflection by pairing natural imagery with human emotion—beauty and fragility existing side by side, and joy never fully separated from transience.
David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion closes the program by reimagining a familiar story of suffering through the structural lens of the Passion. Like a classic Dickens novel, Lang gives a voice to a marginalized and impoverished character, who would otherwise be swallowed by the vastness of industrialization, and invites the audience into a compassionate contemplation of vulnerability, witness, and shared humanity.
Across all three works, listeners will encounter recurring themes of mortality, innocence, and redemption, shaped by each composer’s response to their cultural and spiritual moment. Together, the pieces trace a powerful arc from communal belief, to personal reflection, to empathetic witness, revealing how music across centuries continues to grapple with the same fundamental human questions.
Tickets are available at: https://metropolitanchorale.org/tickets
The Metropolitan Chorale is pleased to participate in the Card to Culture Program by extending discounts to EBT card holders, WIC card holders and ConnectorCare Health Plan Insurance Card holders.
EBT Card holders, WIC card holders, and ConnectorCare Health Plan Insurance Card holders receive FREE tickets to our performances. This program is a collaboration between the Mass Cultural Council and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services’ Department of Transitional Assistance.
This program brings together three works from different centuries that meditate on loss, compassion, and the possibility of transformation through suffering.
Bach’s Christ lag in Todes Banden (BWV 4) anchors the program with a Lutheran chorale cantata that confronts death directly, framing it as something ultimately overcome through faith and communal proclamation. Benjamin Britten’s Five Flower Songs, though lighter in texture and more intimate in scale, continue this reflection by pairing natural imagery with human emotion—beauty and fragility existing side by side, and joy never fully separated from transience.
David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion closes the program by reimagining a familiar story of suffering through the structural lens of the Passion. Like a classic Dickens novel, Lang gives a voice to a marginalized and impoverished character, who would otherwise be swallowed by the vastness of industrialization, and invites the audience into a compassionate contemplation of vulnerability, witness, and shared humanity.
Across all three works, listeners will encounter recurring themes of mortality, innocence, and redemption, shaped by each composer’s response to their cultural and spiritual moment. Together, the pieces trace a powerful arc from communal belief, to personal reflection, to empathetic witness, revealing how music across centuries continues to grapple with the same fundamental human questions.
Tickets are available at: https://metropolitanchorale.org/tickets
The Metropolitan Chorale is pleased to participate in the Card to Culture Program by extending discounts to EBT card holders, WIC card holders and ConnectorCare Health Plan Insurance Card holders.
EBT Card holders, WIC card holders, and ConnectorCare Health Plan Insurance Card holders receive FREE tickets to our performances. This program is a collaboration between the Mass Cultural Council and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services’ Department of Transitional Assistance.
For more information visit
https://metropolitanchorale.org/, 7:30 pm
All Saints Parish
1773 Beacon Street
Brookline , MA 02446
United States
Type:
Chorus