Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming

The baby Jesus is praised in William Hawley’s hymn Flos ut Rosa Floruit as well as in Jan Sandström’s beloved reworking of Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming. Many of the songs celebrate the Virgin Mary, such as Valentin Silvestrov’s Ave Maria and the two compositions for hymn Alma Redemptoris Mater by Palestrina and Damijan Močnik respectively. The programme is permeated by music by Armenian composer and priest Komitas Vardapet, and Armenia’s very own Zoltán Kodály, who spent a lot of time documenting folk songs, and laid the foundations for Armenian art music.