Two of Western Europe’s greatest choral composers Carlo Gesualdo and Francis Poulenc celebrate important anniversaries in 2013, and The King’s Singers have chosen to pay homage to them and their musical legacies in their programme, 2013: A Year of Anniversaries.

Four hundred years after his death in 1613, Carlo Gesualdo is regarded as one of, if not the most exciting choral visionaries of his time. Despite having limited influence as a composer during his own lifetime, his Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday are now universally recognized as masterful examples of his progressive harmonic writing. Francis Poulenc, who died only fifty years ago, is renowned for treating all manner of themes in his writing.

The group performed this programme in the historic setting of St. Mary’s Church, Haddington, on 18 September as part of the Lammermuir Festival. Reviewed by The Scotsman, the concet was described as “a unified, harmonious whole with flashes of pure individuality”.