Two monumental 40-part masterpieces spanning the Italian and English Renaissance: the Coro Clairière of the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge – one of the world’s most renowned choral ensembles – join forces with the Ensemble Concerto Scirocco for a project that brings together Striggio’s Missa sopra “Ecco sì beato giorno” and Tallis’s Spem in alium, in a choral experience of extraordinary breadth and power.

The Coro Clairière of the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana, founded and conducted by Brunella Clerici, and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, have launched a project born of the coming together of two choral ensembles of the highest calibre. The programme brings together two masterpieces of Renaissance polyphony, both conceived for forty voices: Alessandro Striggio’s Missa sopra “Ecco sì beato giorno” and Thomas Tallis’s Spem in alium.
Composed for the Medici court around 1565, Striggio’s Mass unfolds an extraordinary structure that reaches, at its climax, sixty independent voices, making it one of the most expansive musical compositions in the entire Renaissance repertoire. The alternation between choral density and solo simplicity constructs a broad and articulated architecture, monumental yet also intimate.
This is complemented by Spem in alium, organised into eight choruses, in which the vocal lines emerge progressively until they converge in a single, imposing climax.
Alongside the choirs, Giulia Genini’s Ensemble Concerto Scirocco participates with a line-up of thirteen musicians, further enriching the timbral richness of the performance.