GUILDFORD
PHILHARMONIC
ORCHESTRA
LeapEr:
WILLIAM ARMON
Guildford Corporation Concerts
DirectOor oF Music:
VERNON HANDLEY
SATURDAY, 20th MARCH,
1965, at 7.45 p.m.
CIVIC HALL
ALAN PETERS
Violin
VANDA LONGDEN
Soprano
ELIZABETH BAINBRIDGE
Mezzo Soprano
EMLYN ELLIS
Tenor
JOHN RHYS EVANS
Bass
FESTIVAL CHOIR
Conductor
VERNON HANDLEY
PROGRAMME
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-
SIXPENCE
ALAN PETERS
Alan Peters was born in 1936.
He won the Dove Scholarship to the Royal
Academy of Music, and the Gowland Harrison Scholarship. He was a member
of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham and was in
the London Philharmonic Orchestra for seven years. One of his most important
contributions to English music so far is his founding of the Joachim Orchestra
in 1959, which gives concerts all over the south of England.
He founded the
Hounslow Concert Society and has recently started a virtuoso Chamber Group.
He is the proud possessor of two very fine violins, a Jean Baptiste Veillumne
of 1820 and a Nicholas Gagliano of 1740.
VANDA LONGDEN
Vanda Longden studied singing with Madame Sabine Meyen-Jessel.
George
Mitchell gave her a start in her professional career when he engaged her for
pantomime and a series of television shows.
She subsequently went to the
National School of Opera for a further period of study, and later joined Covent
Garden as a member of the extra chorus for a time.
For a while she played
the leading role in “Kismet” at Epsom, but is now continuing her singing
career. She is married and lives in Woking.
ELIZABETH BAINBRIDGE
Elizabeth Bainbridge was born in Lancashire and started singing at the age of
thirteen.
Later she moved to Norfolk and was awarded a scholarship to the
Guildhall School of Music, where she studied for five years with Norman
Walker.
In 1957 she joined the Glyndebourne chorus and has recently sung
the roles of Third Lady in ‘‘Die Zauberfléte” and Pallade in *“‘L’Incoronazione
di Poppea”.
She made her début with the Welsh National Opera Company
as Azucena in ‘Il Trovatore’’.
As well as a busy operatic career Elizabeth
Brainbridge has attracted the attention of press and public through her performances in concert and oratorio engagements.
EMLYN ELLIS
Emlyn Ellis, born in Holyhead, North Wales, began his singing studies at the
age of sixteen after a period of piano study, and started his career singing in a
chorus of a West End musical.
He later won a scholarship and studied opera
interpretation with Elizabeth Hongen at the Vienna Academy and took private
singing lessons with Professor Hans Karg.
After three years he returned to
England and began work immediately with the Welsh National Opera Company.
He has sung in opera and oratorio all over the country, including
appearances in Wales and Ireland, and given numerous recitals.
Among his
favourite operatic roles are Ferrando in Mozart’s ‘‘Cosi fan Tutte’’, and Alfredo
in Verdi's “La Traviata’.
JOHN RHYS EVANS
John Rhys Evans, younger brother of Geraint Evans, was born in Pontypridd.
On leaving school he received a grant from the Pontypridd Old Boys’ Memorial
Fund enabling him to study at the Royal Academy of Music.
He won a
scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and upon completing his studies
there, a grant from the Welsh Church Acts Fund enabled him to study in
Munich.
He sang in a number of provincial opera houses in Germany and
also appeared on television and in films.
When he returned to England he
found himself immediately in demand for Glyndebourne, the Dublin Grand
Opera and the Wexford Festival. He has also appeared with the New Opera
Company at Sadler’'s Wells and with Philopera at the St. Pancras Arts Festival, and is much in demand as a concert and oratorio singer.
The Musical Director wishes to acknowledge with thanks the help he has
received in training and running the Festival Choir from the assistant con-
ductor, Kenneth Lank, and accompanists Mary Rivers and Maureen Hall;
and
from Mrs. D. W. Wren and Mrs. D. Hutchings who have given much time to
a seating plan to accommodate the Choir.
PROGRAMME
Overture—‘‘ Cosi Fan Tutte”’
)
;
2
Mozart
Mozart’s Opera Buffa in two acts was performed for the first time in Vienna
in 1790. The full name is Cosi fan tutte ossia La Scala degli Amanti (*“Thus
do all, or The School for Lovers”). “All"” refers to women, the subject being
feminine infidelity; the two girls in the Opera whose love is put to the test
by their lovers
represent ‘‘all women.
The Overture gives a lively foretaste of the music to come. The themes
of the presto race ahead and are interrupted and gathered into the well-known
motif of the bass aria before the finale of the last act.
:
.
Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major
Mozart
Allegro
Andante cantabile
Andante grazioso - Allegro non troppo
This Concerto was completed in October 1775 and Mozart probably had before
him as a model Boccherini’s ten-year-old violin concerto in the same key. It
is more sensuous than its immediate predecessor, No. 3 in G, which was finished
only a month before. Although difficult to play, the virtuoso element occurs
mainly in the magnificent cadenza which concludes the first movement. It is
the placing of this cadenza, after the argument of the first movement, which is
a stroke of genius, and many people have written brilliant cadenzas for the
work.
The polonaise-like rhythm of the Andante gives the second movement a
character all its own with its solemn orchestral opening. The violin takes up
the first motif, and against contrasted and restrained sounds from the orchestra
unfolds the plaintive melody which is the core of the whole movement.
Two dances, a gavotte and a musette, alternate in the last movement, which
is in fact a Rondo. Mozart rings the changes on these two dances in such a
fresh way that one is never sure when the movement is going to turn towards
its close. The musette, which is a pastoral dance in triple time, was a favourite
dance in Strasbourg, and Mozart called the concerto the “‘Strasbourg”TM Concerto. The poise of this last movement is a vital thing for the soloist to catch
and the modest ending a very difficult one to bring off.
INTERVAL
Mass in C minor (K. 427)
:
.
.
.
Mozart
The Mass in C Minor and the Requiem are the most important of Mozart’s
religious works. The Mass is a very important landmark in Mozart’s development because when Mozart broke with the Archbishop of Salzburg and went
to Vienna, he became acquainted with the works of Bach and Handel for the
first time. The two great masters of Church music made a tremendous im-
pression on Mozart and he came to the writing of his religious works thereafter
with a new zeal and freshness. The first work after his study of Bach and
Handel was the C Minor Mass of 1782—1783, There was also a personal reason for the composition: his fiancée, Constanze Weber, was ill and he promised to write a Mass after her recovery. He wrote to his father, “As for the
Mass, it is quite correct that it has not flowed from my pen without previous
intention, | really promised it in my heart”. When he had married, in August
1782, he at once started the work. A number of Personal problems interrupted
the writing of the Mass and when Mozart arrived back in Salzburg in 1783, he
merely took with him the completed movements which were the Kyrie, Gloria,
Sanctus and Benedictus. The Credo was in pieces and the Agnus Dei not
begun. At the first performance Constanze sank the soprano solo part. How
Mozart filled in the parts lacking in the Mass, or even whether he did, is
unknown: editions have appeared in which one of his pupils and later editors
have put in sections from one or more of his other works. He never completed the remaining sections, but it is in the complete form that the work
is generally performed because it gives a true picture of the new Church
music style which Mozart took on after his study of the works of the Baroque
masters. The deep faith and the sublime and happy faith stand side by side
in the huge contrasts of this work. The strict seriousness of the Kyrie includes
a coloratura Christe eleison for soprano. The Gloria is all Handel; the
Laudamus te the very spirit of Italian Opera. And so on right through the
work, contrasts and styles blended by Mozart’s symphonic brilliance culminating in the sublime fugato for double chorus, Osanna.
I.
KYRIE
II.
GLORIA
III.
CREDO
Soprano and Chorus
1.
“Kyrie”
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Chorus
“Gloria”
Soprano
“Laudamus te”
Chorus
“Gratias’TM
Soprano Duet
“Domine’’
Chorus
“‘Qui tollisTM
Soprano, Mezzo Soprano and Tenor
“‘Quoniam’”
Chorus
“‘Jesu Christe—Cum sancto spiritu”
9. *““Credo”
10. “Et incarnatus est’
IV.
Chorus
Soprano
SANCTUS
Chorus
16. ‘“‘Sanctus” and ‘‘Osanna”
Quartet—Soprano, Mezzo Soprano,
17. “Benedictus”
Tenor and Bass
Thursday, 25th March, at 8 p.m.
GUILDFORD PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Conductor
VERNON HANDLEY
Programme includes works by
Albeniz, Hindemith, Robert Prince, Vaughan Williams
BELLAIRS BALLET
Choreographers
Vice Bellairs, Robert Harrold, Fiona McKean, Nan Wills