Counterpoints to Lent

Counterpoints to Lent was Programme III of the Rudolf Kempe Society’s 2014 Songs of Apollo season of word and music in Stratford-upon-Avon. Devised by Cordula Kempe, it set music for string quartet beside poetry of four millennia, as a reflection on the season of Lent. It took place on Sunday 13 April 2014 at 7.30 pm at the Kempe Studio at The Muses, 58 Waterside, Stratford-upon-Avon. It was given in aid of the Rudolf Kempe Society International Young Artists Platform.

Performers

• Bergonzi Quartet – string quartet, led by Cordula Kempe
• Sonia Ritter – reader
• Malcolm Storry – reader

Programme

• Music by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich, played by the Bergonzi Quartet
• Poetry of four millennia, read by Sonia Ritter and Malcolm Storry

About the programme

Counterpoints to Lent became one of the Society’s recurring programmes: it returned in 2015, in memory of Jeffery Dench, and again for Good Friday 2020. As in all Songs of Apollo, the music and the readings were chosen to throw light on one another rather than to accompany each other.