Born in England, Mark Tatlow has lived in Sweden for over 20 years. He is writing a doctoral thesis at HSM about performing eighteenth-century vocal music in the midst of today’s existential crises. He was formerly Professor of Musical Studies at SKH in Stockholm and Artistic Director at Drottningholm.

British-Iraqi soprano Emily Pahlawan sings with the Nederlands Kamerkoor NXT programme. In 2021 she won a Develop Your Creative Practice grant from the Arts Council England, and before that she studied physical theatre at Institut Moveo in Barcelona, and social anthropology at Cambridge University.

[concert introduction 11.30 | parish home] 

About the concert 

This program features George Friedrich Händel’s solo cantata “Ah! Che pur tropp è vero” in the center. A cantata from 1709 that here together with ensemble Lipparella and singer Emily Pahlawan is put into new perspectives, surrounded and perforated by music from 1948 to today. The concert is part of conductor and harpsichordist Mark Tatlow’s exploration of the possibilities of baroque opera to tell something to today’s people. This is how Mark himself writes, poetically, about today’s concert based on Handel’s more than 300-year-old cantata: 

“I don’t know why they parted –
but it was planned. 
One day she left, 
and he was left – 
alone. A prisoner of Love,
preventing his love becoming 
a prisoner of war… maybe. 
He swears he will remain faithful. 

The natural world echoes
his lonely lament;
he wanders aimlessly. 
His steps lead him to the ruined walls, 
whose stones, once warmed by the sun, 
now drenched with his tears, 
witnessed his passion. 
He will be faithful, 
although she is gone. 

His grief escapes, unleashing anger. 
He cries out: life is unjust… 
but he knows he is destined to live. 

There is only one way: 
through love seek hope in faith.” 

Program 

George Friedrich Händel – Ah! Che per troppo è vero HWV77 [1709]

John Cage – Dream [1948]

Joseph Matthias Hauer – Zwölftonspiel 26.8 [1948]

György Ligeti – Hyllning för hilding Rosenbergs födelsedag [1982]

Peter Ablinger – Ohne titel 1-10 [2005]

Kent Olofsson – Prelude to silence [2016]