Guildford Corporation Concerts
Director of Music: J. CROSSLEY CLITHEROE
SATURDAY, 12th NOVEMBER, 1955, at 7.30 p.m.
TECHNICAL
COLLEGE,
FESTIVAL
GUILDFORD
CHOIR
GUILDFORD
MUNICIPAL ORCHESTRA
Leader: TATE GILDER
(Owing to illness Mr. Gilder is unable to play at this Concert
and the Leader is ALFRED CAVE)
ANTONINA CHILD (Soprano)
WREN HOSKINS (Tenor)
FIELDEN BUCKLEY (Baritone)
*
Conductor: CROSSLEY CLITHEROE
*
PROGRAMME
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PRICE SIXPENCE
PROGRAMME
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:
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Symphony No. 2 in B flat
Schubert
Largo—Allegro Vivace
Andante
Menuetto: allegro vivace
Presto vivace
Schubert’s Symphony No. 2 which he began in December 1814 and
finished in March 1815 shows how greatly he had developed as a composer since the completion of his first symphony. Although he had still
a long way to go before he reached the mastery of the ““Unfinished”
Symphony he clearly shows he is not now so much under the influence
of his great predecessors and contemporaries—Haydn, Mozart, and
Beethoven. It is a well proportioned work full of fresh melodic ideas.
Each of its four movements is based on charming melodies and if there
is not the profundity of his later works there is clearly evident the mastery
of the symphonist’s craft in the orchestral treatment of the basic
material.
A happy symphony indeed.
Serenade to Music
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i
Vaughan Williams
Composed for and dedicated to Sir Henry J. Wood on the
occasion of his Jubilee, in grateful recognition of his
services to music, this Serenade was performed for the
first time on October 5th, 1938.
“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: Soft stillness, and the night,
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
There’s not the smallest orb that thou behold’st,
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in we cannot hear it.
Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn:
With sweetest touches pierce your mistress’ ear,
And draw her home with music.
[ am never merry when | hear sweet music.
The reason is, your spirits are attentive:
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov’'d with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
;
And his affections dark as Erebus;
Let no such man be trusted.
Music! Hark!
It is the music of the house.
Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day,
Silence bestows that virtue on it,
How many things by season seasoned are
To their right phrase and true perfection!
Peace, ho! The moon sleeps with Endymion
And would not be awak’'d!
Soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.”
The Merchant of Venice, Act V, Scene 1.
INTERVAL
Overture—*‘‘The Magic Flute’’
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:
Mozart
This overture, which was written after the opera, opens with three solemn
chords that in the opera are associated with Sarastro, the high priest of
the Temple of Isis. The Allegro, which is in the form of a fugue, follows
with the first subject on the second violins. This is eventually succeeded
by the second subject, which is a charming dialogue between oboe and
flute accompanied by the first two bars of the first subject. The form
of this brilliantly conceived overture is interesting in that a fugue is
worked out within the structure of sonata form.
Pastoral
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:
Crossley Clitheroe
Thou still unravished bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
:
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy
?
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoyed,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high sorrowful and cloyed,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea-shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e’er return.
O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”’—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
KEATS.
Dedicated to Lawrence Powell in appreciation of his
great services to music in Guildford.
NEXT
ODEON THEATRE
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CONCERT
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4th DECEMBER, 2.30 p.m.
Guildford Municipal Orchestra
Conductor: J. CROSSLEY CLITHEROE
Soloist: MICHEL CHAUVETON
The Water Music
Violin Concerto
Symphony No. 4
MICHEL CHAUVETON.
Handel
Mendelsson
Beethoven
This young French violinist, who is only 24
years old, takes his art very seriously and has every right to serious
consideration.
J. D. Bohm, in the New York Herald Tribune, wrote: ““Mr. Michel
Chauveton is a skilled technician, his tone is silken in texture, and his
intonation is well nigh flawless. His musicianship is impeccable and he
gave careful consideration to stylistic matters.”
The New York Times said of him: ‘‘Michel Chauveton is a musician
of high attainment. He played with clarity of articulation that a flute
player might envy and, with impeccable intonation, his tone was polished
and clear.”
The London Press was equally enthusiastic. From The Times: “His
command of his instrument and his poise are remarkable, and it was a
pleasure to hear such exact intonation, pure tone and clear-cut phrasing.”
Mr.
And from the Daily Telegraph: *Gifted French Violinist.
Chauveton’s technique is solidly founded, and he commands a splendid
tone.
The world should gain a great violinist.”