Choral Showcase Presents Spiritual Songs

Sunday, February 12 at 9 p.m.

“My highlight of the month is the February 12 show, ‘Spiritual Songs,’ which will include music composed by, or inspired by, two Christian mystics,” says Choral Showcase host Bill Bukowski. First, from the 12th century: St. Hildegard of Bingen (left, receiving divine inspiration), an abbess, polymath, and composer, whose powerful visions were recorded in a series of pieces she called Symphoniae, or “Spiritual Songs,” which are some of the oldest surviving musical texts in Western music — making her one of history’s first composers. The other great mystic, from the 16th century, is St. Teresa of Avila. Her meditations on human and divine love are woven into a 2013 cantata by Robert Kyr called The Cloud of Unknowing. Also included in the program are performances by Sequentia; and Craig Hella Johnson conducts the ensemble Conspirare. Choral Showcase airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on WETA Classical.