Christchurch Cathedral: Dorothee Jansen and pianist, Francis Grier, dedicate Schubert's Litanei (Litany for the Feast of All Souls) to those who died in the Christchurch earthquake in February 2011, in which the city's gothic cathedral was damaged. Dorothee has sung on many occasions in Christchurch Cathedral, or ChristChurch Cathedral or Christ Church Cathedral. All of the above spellings are in use but the one spelling that is not in use is the correct one, which is Christ's Church Cathedral. Christ's Church (thus, in the official documents from 1881) is the rather pedantic translation of Aedes Christi (Christ Church, Oxford), after which the city of Christchurch is named. The concept of Aedes Christi in New Zealand was dreamt of by the settlement's founders also as a twin 'foundation', like its Oxford counterpart, made up of Christ's Church (Cathedral) and Christ's College, the public school, situated about half a mile from the cathedral. This New Zealand 'twin foundation' was central to the vision of the founding association of Christchurch, the Canterbury Association.
Dorothee Jansen and Francis Grier (composer and former Tutor in Music and Organist at Christ Church, Oxford) perform this beautiful early song of Schubert, the 11th song in the Therese Grob Songbook programme, written in 1816, when Schubert was nineteen. This song, being a Litany for the feast of All Souls, has an appropriate connection to Christ's Church Cathedral. Christchurch's beautiful gothic cathedral was consecrated on the feast of All Souls, in November 1881. Therefore let this song be humbly dedicated also to this gorgeous place. May all its souls throughout the generations find peace in Schubert's eloquence.
The slide show that accompanies this recording is comprised of photos of the Irises in the "Edward Stafford" Gardens at Lansdown Homestead, on the edge of the city of Christchurch. The photos were taken just a couple of weeks after the 4th September 2010 earthquake (magnitude 7.1) which rocked province and city and caused major damage to the Gardens. Nature boomed beautifully in the destruction, a powerful metaphor for rebirth.
