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Musical Director
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Guildford
Philharmonic Orchestra
Leader:
,
William Armon
Philharmonic Choir
WILLIAM ARMON - Violin
HENRY MESSENT - Flute
JAMES BROWN - Oboe
CLIFFORD HAINES - Trumpet
STEPHEN SHINGLES - Viola
Conductors:
KENNETH LANK
VERNON HANDLEY
William Arimon — Violin
William Armon, Leader of the Guildford
Philharmonic Orchestra since 1963, was born in
Tooting and won a special talent scholarship to the
Royal Academy of Music, where he studied under
Rowsby Woof. He was appointed Leader of the
B.B.C. Concert Orchestra in 1956, and continued
there until 1962. He has given numerous recitals for
the B.B.C. and has played concerti with many of
the major orchestras in the country. He has recently
been appointed Leader of the Philomusica and also
leads the Little Orchestra of London, with whom he
has recently recorded a Michael Haydn Violin
Concerto.
Henry Messent — Flute
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.
Henry Messent has held the position of principal
flute with the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra
since 1962.
James Brown — Oboe
James Brown studied at the Royal College of
Music and in Amsterdam. He was principal oboe for
the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from
1950-52, and for the Royal Netherlands Opera in
1954. On returning to London, he played with all
the major orchestras and is at present a member of
the London Mozart Players, Yehudi Menuhin’s
Bath Festival Chamber Orchestra and the English
Chamber Orchestra. He has extensive experience of
recording, especially in Chamber ensembles, and
has recorded a great deal of Bach and Mozart.
Clifford Haines — Trumpet
Clifford Haines began to study the cornet seriously
at the age of seven. During the war he was posted to
the Band of H.M. Welsh Guards and at the age
of seventeen was appointed solo cornet. While in the
army he was able to study the trumpet with the
famous musician and teacher, Ernest Hall, at the
Royal College
of Music. On leaving the service, he
joined Ted Heath’s Band, but realising that serious
music was his true metier, he left in 1948 to
concentrate on symphonic music. Since then he has
had a most successful and varied career, playing with
all the leading London orchestras. He has many
times appeared as a soloist for the B.B.C. and in
1967 performed Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E flat
with the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra.
Stephen Shingles — Viola
Stephen Shingles was born in Norwich in 1923,
where he was solo boy at the Cathedral under Dr.
Heathcote Statham. He won an open Associated
Board Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music,
where he studied with Rowsby Woof and Winifred
Copperwheat. For six years he was sub-principal with
the London Symphony Orchestra and for twelve
years a member of the Hirsch String Quartet. His
very full musical life includes being principal viola of
the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with
whom he has made many records, including
appearing as soloist in a duo for viola and organ by
Michael Haydn with Simon Preston, and more
recently with Alan Loveday in a recording of the
Sinfonia Concertante by Mozart, due to be released
soon. He is a Professor of the Royal Academy of
Music and a frequent broadcaster. Principal viola of
the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra since 1962,
Stephen Shingles inspires tremendous confidence in
his section, being unruffled in the face of any
technical difficulty and an enthusiastic and thorough
rehearser.
Kenneth Lank
Kenneth Lank was born in 1926 and educated at
the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. He acted as
assistant conductor to Mr. Crossley Clitheroe before
the latter’s death and has continued in this
position for Vernon Handley since 1962. He was
responsible for the chorus rehearsals for the concert
performance of “NabuccoTM in 1962, and as a
result of the success of his training methods, Vernon
Handley asked him to help train the newly formed
Proteus Choir, as well as the Philharmonic (formerly
Festival) Choir. He has conducted both these
choirs in concerts on many occasions. When Vernon
Handley was ill in 1967, Kenneth Lank undertook
the final preparation of Bach’s B minor Mass, and
his success on this occasion made it inevitable for
him to be given more opportunities to conduct in
the Corporation’s concerts. In 1968 he conducted the
Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra in performances
of Schubert’s Overture in E minor and Gordon
Jacob’s Trombone Concerto, with Christopher
Devenport as soloist.
Philharmonic Choir
The Philharmonic Choir (formerly Festival Choir) is
the larger of the two choirs under the conductorship
of the Musical Director. This year the Philharmonic
Choir is celebrating its 25th season, and the
conducting of tonight’s choral works is shared by
Vernon Handley and his assisiant conductor,
Kenneth Lank. The Philharmonic Choir has an
extremely wide repertoire and last year gave the first
performance in Great Britain of Martinu’'s “The
Epic of Gilgamesh.” The Director of Music
acknowledges with thanks the help he has received
in training the Philharmonic Choir from Mr. Lank,
and accompanists Miss Mary Rivers and Miss
Patricia Finch, and from Mrs. D. W. Wren, who has
given much time to a seating plan to accommodatc
the Choir.
PROGRAMME
BRANDENBURG CONCERTO NO. 2
IN F MAJOR
Bach
Allegro moderato
Andante
accompanied by strings alone, stating the beautiful
melody heard at the outset of the work.
(i) Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of heav'n’s joy.
Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse,
Wed your divine sounds, and mixed pow'’r
employ,
Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce.
And to our high-raised phantasy present
That undisturbed song of pure content,
Aye sung before the sapphire-coloured throne
To Him that sits thereon,
With saintly shout and solemn jubilee;
Where the bright Seraphim in burning row,
Their loud, uplifted angel-trumpets blow,
And the cherubic host in thousand quires,
Touch their immortal harps of golden wires,
With those just Spirits that wear victorious
palms.
Allegro assai
The six Brandenburg Concertos werc wriiten during
Bach’s six years as Kapellmeister at the Court of
Cothen and dedicated to Christian Ludwig Markgrat
of Brandenburg in 1921. The complete set shows
extraordinary resource in the instrumentation and no
two of them are scored for precisely the same
groups. Unlike the concerto as we know it today,
they employ, as a rule, several soloists rather than
one, and sometimes, as in No. 3 and No. 6, the
whole section of instruments will take a solo part.
In No. 2 there is no indication of the speed for
the opening movement, but the steady rhythm and
insistence of the shorter length notes means that the
tempo must be fixed by what is comfortable for
the soloists. The effect of instrumentation at various
pitches is wonderfully explored by Bach and one
Hymns devout and holy psalms
Singing everlastingly:
(i) That we on earth with undiscording voice
May rightly answer that melodious noise ;
As once we did, till disproportioned sin
Jarred against nature’s chime, and with harsh din
Broke the fair music that all creatures made
To their great Lord, whose love their motion
swayed
In perfect diapason, whilst they stood
In first obedience, and their state of good.
(iii) O may we soon again renew that song,
And keep in tune with Heav'n, till God ere long
To His celestial concert us unite,
To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of
light.
John Milton.
passage where the tune rises through several keys
gives an extraordinary impression of changing
INTERVAL
(During the interval refreshments 1/— will be served
colours. In the second movement, a flowing relief
from the first, the trumpet and most of the strings do
Concertgoers’ Society)
not play: there are two ’cello parts and the
accompanying harpsichord. The trio of flute, oboc
and solo violin over this accompaniment contributc
a thoughtful and ethereal counterpoint. When the
sad reflective movement ends, the trumpet urges the
whole group to take up a new mood. The oboe is
the first to follow him and then the solo violin.
The flute joins the other soloists and a marvellous
contrapuntal argument ensues. Then the whole
cnsemble sings it way happily through the finale.
BLEST PAIR OF SIRENS
(At a Solemn Music)
Conductor: Kenneth Lank
Parry
Parry’s setting of “Blest Pair of Sirens” for eight-part
chorus and orchestra was written for the Bach
Choir in 1887 and dedicated to C. V. Stanford.
Parry had been very impressed by Milton’s works
and in 1867 had set the opening of the ode, “At a
Solemn Music”, for men’s voices in four parts.
The work falls into three main sections. The
opzning section embraces the first sixteen lines of
the odz; the second section, beginning “That we on
earth,” continues to the end of Milton’s first
sentence, and the final section, which unites the two
previous sections,
opens with
sopranos,
in the Surrey Room by members of the
CONCERTO FOR VIOLA AND
ORCHESTRA
Gyula David
(First public performance in Gt. Britain)
Allegro moderato
Andante molto tranquillo
Vivace
Gyula David was born in Budapest in 1913. His
Viola Concerto appeared in 1951. He, himself, was
an orchestral viola player before taking up his
appointment as Professor at the Budapest
Conservatoire. Dedicated to Pal Lukacs, this
Concerto, although owing something to Bartok and
Kodaly, is more classical in effect than any solo
work by those two composers. It is particularly in
melodic ideas that David departs from the more
modern trends of Bartok, although the influence of
folk music and the use of asymetrical phrases is
obvious throughout the work. The influence of more
classical composers in the structure is unmistakable,
especially in the use of lengthy scale passages and in
the organic collaboration of the soloist and
orchestra.
The powerful first movement is in sonata form,
with two clear subject groups, the recapitulation of
the second of which delays a wonderful tutti coda.
The second movement is an inspired andante with
oboes and at times with all the woodwind. He
the melodic material always before the listener, and
finally incites the first fiddles to join him and then
when the soloist himself has not got the tune, he is
immediately hurtles off with the first subject. A
decorating it in the most flowing manner. The rondo
beautiful cadenza, recalling particularly the slow
is a real homage to Bartok and there are three
movement, halts the headlong character of the
principal ideas: a dance-like theme, a phrase made
rondo, but at the end of it, the lower strings and
of fourths and a very graceful melody carried on
woodwind stir up the orchestra in an eleven-bar
over the vigorous pulse. It is only after considerable
accelerando back to the first speed. With a last
virtuosi scurrying that the soloist is allowed to have
reminiscence of the graceful melody behind him, the
this last melody, which he shares at times with the
soloist leads everyone to an exuberant conclusion.
MAGNIFICAT FOR CHORUS AND
ORCHESTRA
accompanies the men’s “Deposuit.”
Berkeley
The fourth movement is for sopranos alone with i
The Magnificat was commissioned for the 1968
supremely serene opening, accompanied by quiet
Festival of the City of London, and was performed
woodwind chords (Esurientes Implevit Bonis), this is
in the opening concert in St. Paul’s Cathedral by the
suddenly shattered by the agitating Et Divites, but
combined choirs of Westminster Cathedral,
tranquility is restored by a soothing modulation back
Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s with the L.S.O.
to the simplicity of the Esurientes in G major.
and the composer conducting. The work can be said
Berkeley found some difficulty with the Et Divites at
to form something of a landmark in Berkeley’s
first, deciding that it needed more pathos and less
career in that it uses much larger forces than any of
of the cheerfulness that had worked its way into his
its predecessors and more dramatic scoring. This is
first version: it had not been his intention to make
also evident in the third symphony (in one
merry over the discomfort of the rich in the next
movement) that followed the Magnificat.
world! Not all the music is as overtly expressive as
Of his choice to set the work in Latin the
composer has written:
“I chose the Latin text
because the Latin liturgy, in these days so
here; the fifth movement (Suscepit Israel) is treated
in a more formal way—it is in fact a fugue in
which the exposition is sung by choir, the theme
shamefully neglected, has for me an immense value
being taken by the strings later. There is no pause
by reason of the associations its words have had
between this and the sixth movement which starts
for countless generations.” However, the Magnificat
is not so much a liturgical work but rather a
concert piece, requiring large mixed choir and full
orchestra. Owing to their brevity, several of the
with a recitative-like phrase that merges into a
melodic line at the words “Abraham Et Semine
Ejus.” The Gloria Patri begins with new material:
the voices with a clarion-like call accompanied by
verses have been joined up, thus dividing the work
harp and xylophone. The opening theme of the work
into seven sections as follows: the first movement
appears in the orchestra in a short recapitulation,
contains the first four verses of the canticle in a
lively allegro. The second movement is an andante
(Et Misericordia Ejus) for unaccompanied eight-part
chorus, this leads straight into the faster Fecit
Potentiam, in which the tuba prominently
followed by a coda which embraces the word Amen,
Magnificat anima mea Dominum.
My soul doth magnify the Lord.
working it up to a large climax. The final cadence
is derived from the basic tonic of the work, the
combined triads of C and D major.
Programme note by
Michael Berkeley.
Et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo, salutari meo.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
Quia respexit humilitatem ancilae suae:
For he hath regarded the lowliness of his
ecce enim
ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationem.
Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est:
et sanctum
timentibus eum.
mente cordis sui
all generations.
He hath shewed strength with his arm:
Deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit humiles.
et divites dimisit inanes
Suscepit Israel puerum suum recordatus
misericordiae suae:
Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros, Abraham,
et semini ejus in saecula.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto: sicut erat
in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula
saeculorum.
and
holy is his Name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him throughout
Fecit potentiam in brachio suo dispersit superbos
Amen.
for behold from henceforth all
For he that is mighty hath magnified me:
nomen ejus.
Et misericordia ejus a progenie in progenies
Esurientes implevit bonis:
handmaiden:
generations shall call me blessed.
he hath
scattered the proud in the imagination of his heart
He hath put down the mighty from their seat and
hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things and the
rich he hath sent empty away
He remembering his mercy hath holpen his
servant Israel:
As he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and
his seed for ever.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the
Holy Ghost:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.