Solomon's Knot (GB)

About

Solomon's Knot is a British ensemble from Cambridge that treats early music as living, breathing performance rather than museum piece. The group works without a conductor, and every singer and instrumentalist performs entirely from memory. That combination gives their concerts an immediacy that feels closer to chamber theatre than to a conventional classical recital. When the project calls for it, they collaborate with directors, visual artists, composers and choreographers, actively seeking out outside perspectives to push their work in new directions. Their repertoire includes the motets of Bach, choral works for multiple voices set to religious texts that were already considered old fashioned in Bach's own lifetime yet turned out to be some of his most concentrated and emotionally intense writing. Bach wrote relatively few motets, but each one is a finely crafted statement. They were typically performed at funeral services or other solemn occasions, and their emotional weight is considerable, though always contained rather than showy. It was Mendelssohn who brought this repertoire back to wider attention in the nineteenth century, and it has been a cornerstone of serious choral performance ever since.