2021 Concert Series:
ARCADIA
(et in arcadia ego)
ARCADIA I - Dawn Light
Sunday
March 21st
8pm
LIVE STREAM
Janáček's Idyll
Suite for String Orchestra,
Britten's Simple Symphony,
John F. Larchet's
The Dirge of Ossian
MacAnanty's Reel
Mozart's Divertimento in Bb.
ARCADIA II - Solstice
Saturday
July 10th 2021
8pm
LIVE RECORDING
Sam Perkin – Visualization (2021)
World Première
Commissioned by Luminosa Music
Grüner-Hegge - Elegaic Melody
Geddes's A Rose for Margaret
Warlock's Capriol Suite
Corelli's Concerto Grosso Op.6 No. 3 in C Minor.
ARCADIA III - Dusk
T.B.C.
Autumn 2021
8pm
LIVE at GALWAY CATHEDRAL
Delius's Late Swallows
Dvořák's Serenade for Strings
Linda Buckley's Fall Approaches
Arensky's Variation on a Theme of Tchaikovsky
ARCADIA
(et in arcadia ego)
A study of light and shadows;
of life and death;
of time and tide...
with concerts approximately at the spring equinox, summer solstice and autumn equinox
MARCH
JULY
SEPTEMBER
2021
GALWAY CATHEDRAL
"Et In Arcadia Ego" is the sub title of our new concert series. The programme has been curated around the idea of mortality, the celebration of life, light and darkness and the shadows that fall between; this concept having taken on a new, visceral and immediate meaning. In a post-covid world, the joy of life even with its inherent shadows, becomes all the more important.
Nicolas Poussin 1594-1665
Et in Arcadia Ego1640
This painting can be found at the Louvre Museum
Arcadia II — Solstice
What is ARCADIA?
Arcadia is a vision of pastoral bliss, a rural utopia.
‘Et in Arcadia ego’ is the title of a seventeenth-century pastoral painting by Nicolas Poussin in which several shepherds are gathered around a tomb. Literally translated as ‘And in Arcadia, there am I’, but more generally accepted to mean ‘And in Arcadia, there am I, Death’, the term has subsequently been adopted by many writers, composers and philosophers. The meaning of the phrase is ambiguous, but one interpretation is certainly the bitter-sweet admission that death and mortality are present even in the most idyllic state: it is part of what makes us human
[and reminds us to live our best lives]
This relationship between idyll and death is a theme of Luminosa’s 2020 series of concerts.
In our second concert, Solstice*, the focus is on works that celebrate life, now that we are at the zenith of the year, in terms of light and also serendipitously, in terms of our return to life after lockdowns. We are delighted to be premiering a new work commissioned by Luminosa Music from Sam Perkin - Visualisation (2021) This work was written specifically for the Luminosa String Orchestra in Galway Cathedral. We have dedicated a webpage to this new commission here:
We will also perform Corelli's Concerto Grosso Op 6. No. 3 in C Minor,
John Maxwell Geddes, A Rose for Margaret
Warlock's Capriol Suite
Grüner-Hegge's Elegaic Melody.
Full programme notes here
*We have endeavoured to produce this concert as close to the Solstice as was practically possible
‘Et in Arcadia ego …’
