Performed by the Merbecke Choir, a programme of beautiful music for Lent from Gesualdo and Tallis to Dove and Poulenc.

In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum.” Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. These words — spoken by Christ in His final breath — echo down the centuries as both an act of surrender and a song of trust. They are part of the Church’s night prayer at Compline, where our lives and souls are entrusted to God for safekeeping.

This programme traces the depth and resonance of that utterance as well as other texts Drop, drop, slow tears and Salvator Mundi that occupy the liminal space between suffering and peace. From the intense, chromatic devotion of Carlo Gesualdo to the luminous polyphony of Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, and John Sheppard, the Renaissance voice of faith speaks with both penitence and radiance. In the twentieth century, composers such as Jonathan Dove, Francis Poulenc, William Walton, and Kenneth Leighton renew these ancient texts with striking harmonic colour and emotional immediacy.

Spanning five centuries, this concert invites us into that sacred threshold — where anguish yields to trust, and the final word becomes an offering placed, simply and wholly, into God’s hands.

Find out more about the Merbecke Choir here.