May 2017
On this tour, the MCO reconvenes with Artistic Partner Teodor Currentzis and his MusicAeterna Choir for further performances, in Hamburg and Saint-Denis, of two programmes performed on the Coro I tour earlier this year.
In the MCO’s second appearance this season at the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg’s newly inaugurated concert hall, Berio’s Coro is complemented by two lesser-known 20th century masterpieces by Iannis Xenakis and Claude Vivier. In Saint-Denis, where the MCO gives its first of three residency concerts at the Festival de Saint-Denis, Coro is set against a selection of Bach motets.
Coro is a piece that not only brings out the chamber music aspect of the MCO’s music making; it also breaks down the conventional idea of orchestra and choir as separate entities. Throughout Coro, different combinations of musicians and singers are featured as small groups. Furthermore, singers and musicians of the orchestra are distributed across the stage in an arrangement specifically set out by Berio in his score.
