GUILDFORD
CORPORATION
CONCERTS
DIRECTOR OF MUSIC
VERNON HANDLEY
GUILDFORD PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Leader: WILLIAM ARMON
JOAQUIN ACHUCARRO
Pianoforte
WILLIAM ARMON
Violin
HENRY MESSENT
Flute
ANTHONY WALKER
Flute
KATHLEEN DUNN DAVIES
Harpsichord
ELIZABETH CASTLE
Contralto
RAY FRANCE
Tenor
VIRGINIA MISKIN
Soprano
PuiLuarmonic CHoOIR
Proteus CHOIR
VERNON HANDLEY
Conductor
THE
SIXTH
CONCERT
I[N
THE ENTERPRISING SERIES
SATURDAY,
st MAY
. -
-«
1905
CIVIC HALL
Programme
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JOAQUIN ACHUCARRO
Joaquin Achucarro was born in Bilbao in 1932.
After studying at the Madrid
Conservatoire, where he won a first prize, he went to Italy to attend the summer
course at the Accademia Chigiani in Siena, obtaining the Premio dell Accademia, given to the best pupil.
In 1951 he won the Goutant-Biron prize in
the Marguerite Long Competition, Paris, and also the Viotti Prize in the
International Competition at Vercelli, Italy.
In 1959 he won the International
Piano Competition arranged by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society and
gave his first Wigmore Hall recital in the autumn of that year.
As a result
of winning the Liverpool competition he has appeared many times with the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and was presented at the Festival
Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra in February 1960. Since that date
he has appeared with great success with the Scottish National Orchestra, and
with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, under Silvestri, besides giving
many recitals for the BBC.
He has paid several visits to South America and his recordings for the
Spanish branch of RCA Victor have enjoyed wide popularity.
WILLIAM ARMON
William Armon was born in Tooting and won a special talent scholarship to
the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied under Rowsby Woof.
While
there he won two prizes for violin playing, the Waley prize and the Arthur
Catterall prize.
He was soon playing in the London Symphony Orchestra,
served as sub-principal in that orchestra to Thomas Mathews, often led the
orchestra and played under most of the famous conductors in the world.
He
was appointed Leader of the B.B.C. Concert Orchestra in 1956 and continued
there until 1962.
As well as for his work as Leader of the B.B.C. Concert
Orchestra, he has a big and still growing reputation as soloist, having played
concerti with many of the major orchestras in the country and given recitals
for the B.B.C.
He is married and has two children, one of whom is already a keen violinist
HENRY MESSENT
Henry Messent was born in 1925 and went to the Royal Academy of Music
after the war, where he was a pupil of Gareth Morris.
While at the Academy
he won three prizes for flute playing, including the coveted John Solomon
prize.
When he left the Academy in 1948 he had a short tour with the B.B.C.
in Scotland and then played flute in the Covent Garden Orchestra for three
years.
Next followed six years with the London Philharmonic Orchestra,
where, as well as playing flute, he held the piccolo position.
He is now a
free-lance player and plays with all the main London Orchestras.
He is married, has one daughter, and lives at Muswell Hill.
ANTHONY WALKER
Anthony Walker was born in 1937 and went to the Royal Academy of Music
in 1956 to study under Gareth Morris.
He comes from a musical family, being
the third generation of flautists, and actually the fifth generation of musicians.
On leaving the Academy he joined the Covent Garden Orchestra as principal
flute, and he has also played with the B.B.C. Symphony, the London Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Ozchestras.
He is a member of the Joachim
Chamber Ensemble and of the Sinfonia of London Orchestra, specialising in
film music.
Last year he played at Glyndebourne.
He is married, has a baby daughter, and lives in Stanmore.
5
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PHILHARMONIC CHOIR
The Philharmonic Choir is the smallest of the three choirs under the conductorship of the Musical Director, Mr. Vernon Handley.
It rehearses on
Tuesday evenings at 5.30 p.m. in the Methodist Hall, North Street, Guildford,
and undertakes a wide variety of unaccompanied music for small choral forces.
In their work ranging from religious motets to Grand Opera, the choir is
served by their versatile accompanist, Miss Ethel Crane, to whom Mr. Handley
would like to express his thanks.
PROTEUS CHOIR
The Proteus Choir was formed to provide a chorus where under twenty-one’s
could gain experience in choral training.
It is open to all people under
twenty-one and is not confined to schools.
Rehearsal programmes are specially
devised so that members who are at University have a chance of singing in
the choir’s concerts because they receive an ample number of rehearsals before
the University terms begin, and at the end of those terms. The name ‘‘Proteus’,
chosen by the chorus itself, is taken from classical mythology.
Proteus was a
Sea God who was able to change himself into many forms.
The chorus feels
that as its membership will be constantly changing, and as the intention is to
do a great variety of works, this is an appropriate name.
Mr. Handley wishes to record his thanks to Miss Mary Rivers, Miss Maureen
Hall and Mr. Kenneth Lank for the help that they have given in training the
Choir.
PROGRAMME
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major
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.
Bach
WILLIAM ARMON (Violin)
HENRY MESSENT
(Flute)
ANTHONY WALKER (Flute)
KATHLEEN DUNN DAVIES (Continuo)
Allegro
Andante
Presto
Of the concertos that Bach wrote for the Margrave of Brandenburg’s splendid
orchestra the third and fifth have become deservedly popular, but the lesser
known numbers each have something outstanding to recommend them.
The
instrumental interest of the second is paramount in that concerto and the sixth
has the peculiarity of “violas and basses only”’.
The fourth is an exquisitely
balanced triple concerto which includes the main features of the other Brandenburgs.
The solo writing adds to the rich instrumental effect which is
sonorous and contrapuntal by turns.
At times intricate solo polyphony is
interrupted or set off by great statements for the full group.
This is true of
each movement but particularly effective in the spacious well developed first
movement.
The andante by comparison with the no-nonsense outer movements is very gentle and full of decorative coloratura for the soloists.
The Rio Grande
-
:
:
,
Constant Lambert
JOAQUIN ACHUCARRO (Pianoforte)
ELIZABETH CASTLE (Contralto)
Of the many “shocking” pieces of music written in the twenties and early
thirties, few had enough musical substance to last.
Constant Lambert’s Rio
Grande is a brilliantly witty work that has not faded.
Its impact is still as
forceful as it was in 1930. Lambert sets Sacheverell Sitwell’s poem to rhythmic
and vital music, and the chorus are directed in a note by the composer “‘to aim
at a rather more theatrical and pungent style of singing than is usual with
most choral societies’’.
His forces, too, are unusual: piano, mixed chorus,
strings, two trumpets, two cornets, three trombones, tuba, timpani and fourteen
percussion instruments played by four players.
No woodwind!
FEach soloist
or group are as important as one another.
or a choral work in the accepted sense.
By the Rio Grande
They dance no sarabande
On level banks like lawns above the
glassy, lolling tide;
Nor sing they forlorn madrigals
Whose sad note stirs the sleeping
gales
Till they wake among the trees and
shake the boughs,
And fright the nightingales;
But they dance in the city, down the
public squares,
On the marble pavers with each
colour laid in shares,
At the open church doors loud with
light within,
At the bell’s huge tolling,
By the river music, gurgling, thin
Through the soft Brazilian air.
The Comendador and Alguacil are
there
On horseback hid with feathers, loud
and shrill
Blowing orders on their trumpets like
a bird’s sharp bill
Through boughs, like a bitter wind,
calling
They
shine
like
steady
starlight
while those other sparks are
falling
In burnished armour, with their
plumes of fire,
The work is not a piano concerto
Tireless while all others tire.
The noisy streets are empty and
hushed is the town
To where, in the square, they dance
and the band is playing;
Such a space of silence through the
town to the river
That the waters murmur loud
Above the band and crowd together;
And the strains of the sarabande,
More lively than a madrigal,
Go hand in hand
Like the river and its waterfall
As the great Rio Grande rolls down
to the sea
Loud is the marimba’s note
Above these half-salt waves,
And louder still the tympanom,
The plectrum, and the kettle-drum,
Sullen and menacing
Do these brazen voices ring.
They ride outside,
Above the salt-sea’s tide,
Till the ships at anchor there
Hear this enchantment
Of the soft Brazilian air,
By those Southern winds wafted,
Slow and gentle,
Their fierceness tempered
By the air that flows between.
SACHEVERELL SITWELL
INTERVAL
v
Theme and Variations (The Four Temperaments)
for Piano and Strings
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Hindemith
JOAQUIN ACHUCARRO (Pianoforte)
(A) Thema
(B) Melancholisch
(D) Phlegmatisch
(C) Sanguinisch
(E) Cholerisch
In this work, dating from 1940, Hindemith combines the concerto form with
character variation. The obvious way to use the idea of the four temperaments
would have been to give a soulful personal portrait of each in musical effects.
One can imagine Richard Strauss using such an approach.
Hindemith's is
more subtle.
His theme is in three sections: lyrical, figuratively concerted
and pastoral.
The four temperaments ‘‘react’” to this material.
The melancholy temperament turns the pastoral material into a funeral march, the
sanguine views all three sections in the same light-hearted waltz-like way, etc.
The order of temperaments allows ‘‘choleric’” to depart farthest from the
theme and yet sum up in a maestoso coda.
All this, and brilliant interplay
in the concerto manner between soloists and strings, make the work rich in
artistry and variety.
Two Psalms
X
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;
,
VIRGINIA MISKIN
E
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5
Holst
(Soprano)
RAY FRANCE (Tenor)
No composer is more versatile in his music than Holst. An incredible integrity
compelled him never to “‘cash in”" on the success of any of his works.
From
the good humour of the Suites for military band to the desolation of Egdon
Heath, from the economical Terzetto to the huge orchestra of the Planets, his
range was unlimited.
Always there was economy, intensity to the point of
saturation and honesty. Even in these two modest Psalms, for chorus, strings,
brass and timpani, the results are gained with the utmost economy of harmony
and colour and yet few more ambitious works attain the intense and radiant
ecstasy of the end of the second Psalm.
PSALM LXXXVI
To
my
Save
humble supplication,
give ear and acceptation;
Lord,
Thy servant, that hath none
Help nor hope but Thee alone.
Send, O send relieving gladness
To my soul opprest with sadness,
Which, from clog of earth set free,
Winged with zeal, flies up to Thee.
Bow down Thine ear, O Lord, hear
me;
For | am poor and needy
To my humble supplication,
give ear and acceptation;
Lord,
Preserve my soul for I am holy
O thou my God, save Thy servant
that trusteth in Thee
Save Thy servant that hath none
Help nor hope but Thee alone
Be merciful unto me O Lord; for I
cry unto Thee daily
Rejoice the soul of Thy servant for
unto Thee O Lord do I lift up
my soul.
Send O send relieving gladness
To my soul opprest with sadness
Which, from clog of earth set free,
Winged with zeal, flies up to Thee.
I will praise Thee O Lord my God
with all my heart and | will
glorify Thy name for evermore
To Thee, rich in mercies’ treasure,
And in goodness without measure,
Never failing help to those
Who on Thy sure help repose.
Heavenly Tutor, of Thy kindness,
Teach my dullness, guide my
blindness,
That my steps Thy paths may tread
Which to endless bliss do lead.
PSALM CXLVIII
(Paraphrase by Francis Ralph Gray)
Lord, Who hast made us for Thine
Seed-time and harvest shall be
ine.
own,
Hear as we sing before Thy throne.
Alleluia.
Accept Thy children’s rev’'rent praise
For all Thy wondrous works and
Alleluia.
Sweet flowers that perfume all the
air,
Than}( Him that He hath made you
air.
ways.
Alleluia.
Alleluia.
Burn, lamps of night, with constant
Waves rolling in on every shore,
Pause at His footfall and adore.
flame
Alleluia.
Alleluia.
Shine to the honour of His name
Ye torrents rushing from the hills,
Alleluia.
Bless Him Whose hand your founThou sun, whom all the lands obey,
tains fills.
Renew His praise from day to day.
Alleluia.
Earth,
ever through the power
Alleluia.
divine,
(Words reprinted by permission of Augener Ltd.)
SATURDAY, 26th JUNE, at 8 p.m.
IN GUILDFORD CATHEDRAL
Songs of Farewell
Parry
Music for Strings
Bliss
Mass in D minor (The Nelson)
Haydn
GUILDFORD PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
THELMA GODFREY
LAURA SARTI
WILFRED BROWN
RAYMOND MYERS
FESTIVAL CHOIR
PHILHARMONIC CHOIR
Conductor
VERNON HANDLEY
TICKETS 10/-, 7/6, 5/obtainable from the Public Library and the Cathedral (from the Verger)