MUNIGIPAL ORCHESTRA
Leader: TATE GILDER
Guildford Corporation Concerts
DIRecTOR oF Music: VERNON HANDLEY
SATURDAY, 17th NOVEMBER, 1962, at 7 p.m.
CIVIC HALL
RAE WOODLAND
Soprano
JEAN ALLISTER
Alto
EDWARD BYLES
Tenor
JOHN SHIRLEY-QUIRK
CONDUCTOR
PROGRAMME
-
Bass
VERNON HANDLEY
-
-
SIXPENCE
PROGRAMME
Overture ‘‘Ruy Blas’’
;
:
:
Mendelssohn
Mendelssohn finished this Overture and a chorus for Victor Hugo's
‘Ruy Blas’ in 1839. He had some plans for an Opera on the story, but
this came to nothing. The Overture is a sparkling straightforward piece
with a beautiful slow and slightly melancholy tune in the middle for
clarinet and bassoon.
Although difficult to play, its gayer sections carry
an orchestra along and the last section is forceful and triumphant. There
is a story that Mendelssohn orchestrated the work in under two days.
Toward the Unknown Region
.
Vaughan Williams
This work on words of Walt Whitman was composed in 1907 and thus
precedes the Sea Symphony by three years.
It is one of the earliest
works to have won recognition for Vaughan Williams and the writing
for Chorus is rich and shows the influence of Parry and, at times, Elgar.
The moment in the work which shows us the later Vaughan Williams
comes with the setting for sopranos and altos of ‘‘All waits undreamed
of in that region’’. At the words “in that region’ the quiet clash of two
sections is a glance forward to Mass in G minor and Five Tudor Portraits.
Darest thou now O soul,
Walk out with me toward the unknown region,
Where neither ground is for the feet nor any path to follow?
No map there, nor guide,
Nor voice sounding, nor touch of human hand,
Nor face with blooming flesh, nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land.
I know it not O soul,
Nor dost thou, all is a blank before us,
All waits undreamed of in that region, that inaccessible land.
Till when the ties loosen,
All but the ties eternal, time and space,
Nor darkness, gravitation, sense, nor any bounds bounding us.
Then we burst forth, we float,
In time and space O soul, prepared for them,
Equal, equipt at last, (O joy, O fruit of all!) them to fulfil O soul.
Country Song
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.
3
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:
Holst
Written a year before the Vaughan Williams work, this and its companion piece, Marching Song, were dedicated to that composer. Holst’s
neglect is a shameful thing.
One of the truly original composers, he is
known even in this country by a mere handful of works, yet his output
contains some of the most profound and original music of the twentieth
century.
In this piece, he is in a lighter mood, but some of the beautiful
scoring shows us the composer of later works like The Planets and The
Hymn of Jesus.
It is not without tremendous economy that Holst could
employ when required, in that it starts with an unaccompanied tune on
the clarinet.
The second subject is tossed from clarinet to oboe to
piccolo to strings with deftness.
When the entire orchestra sings the
first tune it is difficult to believe that Holst is not employing any heavy
brass.
INTERVAL
Symphony No. 9 in D minor (Choral)
.
Beethoven
Allegro, ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
Molto vivace
Adagio molto e cantabile
Choral finale in variation form
Although the effect of the last movement with its soloists and the chorus
tends to overshadow the rest of this symphony, undoubtedly the scherzo
and the adagio (the second and third movements) contain as fine, if
not better, writing than the last.
The prevailing mood of joy in the
finale is conveyed by the simple method of using variations and, though
each of these makes its effect clearly, the whole movement is a long one,
at least for the chorus, who have a great deal of music in a much higher
register.
Many people
complain
of
this,
saying that Beethoven
could
have scored the whole movement lower but, in fact, the sustaining of
the mood of this movement depends to a certain extent on its pitch, as
the variations themselves do not develop the basic theme very much.
O friends, no more these sounds continue,
Let us raise a song of sympathy, of gladness,
O joy, let us praise thee!
Praise to Joy, the God descended
Daughter of Elysium,
Ray of mirth and rapture blended,
Goddess, to thy shrine we come.
By thy magic is united
What stern Custom parted wide,
All mankind are brothers plighted
Where thy gentle wings abide.
Ye to whom the boon is measur’d
Friend to be of faithful friend,
Who a wife has won and treasur'd
To our strain your voices lend,
Yea, if any hold in keeping
Only one {xeart all his own,
Let him join us, or else weeping,
Steal from out our midst, unknown.
Draughts of joy, from cup o’er-flowing,
Bounteous Nature freely gives
Grace to just and unjust shewing,
Blessing ev'rything that lives.
Wine she gave to us, and kisses,
Loyal friend on life’s steep road,
E’en the worm can feel life's blisses,
And the Seraph dwells with God.
Glad as the suns His will sent plying
Through the vast abyss of space,
Brothers run your joyous race,
Hero-like to conquest flying,
On to conquest flying.
O ye millions, | embrace ye!
Here’s a joyful kiss for all!
Brothers, o’er yon starry sphere
Sure there dwells a loving Father.
Pl
O ye millions kneel before Him,
World, dost feel thy Maker near?
Seek Him o’er yon starry sphere.
O’er the stars enthron’d, adore Him!
Praise to Joy, the God descended,
Daughter of Elysium.
Stanzas from Schiller's ODE TO Joy, except
for the first three lines, which are
Beethoven’'s own words.
English translation by Natalia Macfarren.
THURSDAY, 22nd NOVEMBER, at 8 p.m.
DANIEL WAYENBERG
Pianoforte
Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, Opus 31
Beethoven
Four Etudes
Chopin
Opus 10, Nos. 1,9, 7
Opus 25, No. 9
Nocturne in E Minor, Opus posthumous
Chopin
Scherzo No. 3 in C sharp Minor, Opus 39
Chopin
Sonata in B Minor
Liszt
SUNDAY, 2nd DECEMBER, at 3 p.m.
Overture, ‘Mastersingers’
Wagner
Pianoforte Concerto No. 4
Beethoven
Symphony No. 2 in D
Sibelius
FOU TS’ONG
Pianoforte
MUNICIPAL ORCHESTRA
Conductor
-
VERNON HANDLEY
SATURDAY, 8th DECEMBER, at 7 p.m.
MESSIAH
Soprano
-
Handel
Eileen Poulter
Alto
Maureen Lehane
Tenor
Adrian de Peyer
Bass
Raimund Herinex
FESTIVAL CHOIR
Conductor
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MUNICIPAL ORCHESTRA
VERNON HANDLEY