This week we have the sublime Stjepan Hauser performing Benedictus from The Armed Man with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and the Zvjezdice Choir. This was recorded at the Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb in October last year with Elisabeth Fuchs as conductor.
The Armed Man, subtitled ‘A Mass for Peace’ is by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins. It was commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum for the Millennium celebrations, to mark the museum’s move from London to Leeds, and it was dedicated to victims of the Kosovo crisis which was unfolding as it was being written.
Like Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem before it, the framework is provided by the Catholic Mass, which Jenkins combines with other sources, principally the 15th century folk song L’homme armé in the first and last movements. Guy Wilson, then master of the museum, selected the texts for the mass.
Stjepan Hauser, who was born in Croatia, also performs with Luka Šulić in the duo 2Cellos.
