The events of Lent and Holy Week have inspired composers over the centuries to write some of their most profound music.

Here, two great settings of the poem Stabat Mater, which describes Jesus’ mother standing at the foot of the Cross on the first Good Friday, are coupled with Tallis’ dramatic interpretation of sombre words from the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

Two motets, with apposite texts by Brahms and Poulenc’s sequence of four penitential motets complete the programme.