Critic’s Choice
Easter is past, but the Houston Chamber Choir will echo its message by performing David Lang’s the little match girl passion.
Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s tragic tale of a girl who is poor but hopeful, Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning work transforms the saga by hearkening back to the structure of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Lang weaves reflections on the heroine’s suffering into his score, much as Bach reflects on Jesus’ agonies in the Passion, suggesting a parallel between Jesus’ sorrows and hers.
Artistic director Robert Simpson and the choir will inject a lighter note via A Medieval Bestiary by Canada’s R. Murray Shafer and Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine by Eric Whitacre. Works by Edward Elgar and Pablo Casals round out the program
The performance is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Houston’s South Main Baptist Church. houstonchamberchoir.org
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