Guildford Borough Councill
Concerts 1976/77
The forty-third concert in the Enterprising series
Guildford Borough Council
John Barrow
1976/77
John Barrow was head chorister at Lichfield,
CIVIC HALL — GUILDFORD
where he gained valuable grounding in music.
SATURDAY 6 NOVEMBER 1976
he served for five and a half years at sea, naviga-
at 7.45 p.m.
However, before pursuing his present profession
ting passenger and cargo ships all over the world.
Since coming ashore he has sung in America,
Canada, Sweden, Luxembourg, Belgium and
Holland, as well as such far flung places as East
Africa and Mauritius.
John Barrow appears at major festivals in this
Guildford
Philharmonic
Orchestra
country, such as the Three Choirs, Aldeburgh,
Cheltenham, Oxford Bach and the City of
London, and he is heard regularly in the Royal
Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and at the
Proms. As well as numerous operatic appearances,
John Barrow is an accomplished recitalist. He has
appeared on television in leading roles in two
operas which were commissioned by the BBC.
He has performed with the Guildford musical
forces on several occasions, the last of these with
the Proteus Choir and Guildford Philharmonic
Associate Leaders:
Orchestra in a performance of Delius’s ‘Appala-
Hugh Bean and John Ludlow
chia’ in 1975.
Bernard Partridge
PHILHARMONIC CHOIR
JOHN BARROW
Bernard Partridge was born in Gloucester in 1944,
and started to play the violin at the age of six,
under the guidance of his father. His next teacher
was Gertrude Fuller, herself a pupil of the great
Eugene Ysaye. He then studied for a time with
BERNARD PARTRIDGE
VERNON HANDLEY
Emil Telmanyi in Denmark, and at sixteen won a
scholarship to study with Yfrah Neaman at the
Guildhall School of Music in London. He was
subsequently awarded a scholarship by the
Vaughan Williams Trust, which enabled him to
participate in Tibor Vargar’s master class at the
Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie, Detmold.
Impressed by the young violinist, Sir Robert
Mayer enabled him to continue his studies with a
Leverhulme Foundation.
In 1971, after his return to England, he made a
successful debut at the Wigmore Hall. Since then
he has given concerts throughout Britain and
This concert is promoted by Guildford Borough
appeared on BBC Television. In 1973 he was
Council with financial support from the South
appointed Associate-leader of the New Philhar-
East Arts Association.
monia Orchestra of London.
He plays, of course, all the major works in the
violin repertoire but is also a keen protagonist of
Twentieth Century music. In fact, he is shortly
to give the premieres of works by two British
composers, both of which have been dedicated to
him.
Bernard Partridge is planning an American tour in
the near future.
The Philharmonic Choir is the larger of the two
choirs under the conductorship of the Musical
Director, who acknowledges with thanks the help
he has received in training the choir from
Kenneth Lank and Mary Rivers, and accompanists
Patricia Finch and Prudence Smith. In 1973 the
choir made its first recording with the orchestra:
‘Intimations of Immortality’ by Gerald Finzi. The
Philharmonic Choir will be recording Hadley’s
“The Trees so High’ with the New Philharmonia
are purely orchestral. They may be said to
resemble three independent brooks which flow
into one stream at the beginning of the last
movement. Here the soloist and chorus sing the
words of the ballad ‘The Trees So High’ to music
which is reminiscent in part of the traditional
melody associated with it. The complete melody
occurs intact only in the first verse; it is a little
changed in the second; and it returns again for
the last verse but with the tempo broadened,
particularly so towards the very close of the work.
For the text I have drawn largely from that in the
Oxford Book of English Ballads with here and
there a modification towards the version used by
Cecil Sharp in his ‘Folk Songs from Somerset’,
where the tune is found in probably its most
familiar form — the form I use here.
I have imagined the chorus seated throughout and
the soloist, if acoustic conditions allow, standing
Orchestra next week.
behind the orchestra but apart from the chorus,
PROGRAMME
Although a contralto voice could justifiably sing
the solo part — indeed there is support for this
idea in some of the verses — yet a baritone is
without any air of formality, or apparent
consciousness of his (or her) own importance.
needed here for other reasons.
‘The Trees So High’ — Symphonic Ballad
in A minor
Patrick Hadley 1899 - 1976
The composer’s Preface to the full score says all
that needs to be said about this deeply felt work.
However, since the Guildford ‘enterprising’ series
has introduced so many unfamiliar and rewarding
pieces of music to its public, it is as well to add
that Patrick Hadley is only one of many composers
whose music is unjustly neglected. One has in
mind not only the British music which has constantly appeared in these programmes, but the
work of such men as Cyril Rootham, George
Butterworth, Joseph Holbrooke, Cyril Scott and
other men whose larger works are not heard at
all.” All have a command of the craft which, even
if their inspiration were not of the level that it is,
would demand a hearing for them
The following is the Preface to the full score of
The first three movements are mainly constructed
on the conventional symphonic plan, but with
recurring thematic material, particularly those
parts which are derived from phrases in the
original air. The moods and ideas underlying the
work arose out of this ballad and its tune, while
the Introduction itself (of which the themes are
structural to the entire work) owes its conception
to the impression left upon the mind of the
general shape and outline of those very trees ‘so
high® which loom up all around in the imagined
landscape amid which this simple country tragedy
PASH
is set.
(Preface printed by permission of Oxford
University Press)
THE TREES SO HIGH
All the trees they do grow high,
The leaves they are so green,
“The Trees So High’:
The day is past and gone, my love,
This work — of some thirty minutes’ length — has
four linked movements, of which the first three
That you and I have seen.
It is cold winter’s night, my love,
When you and I must bide alone
approach to form was constantly develop
ing, and
The pretty lad is young
by the time he reached the Violin Concerto he
And a’growing.
had absorbed his two major formal influenc
es,
those of Vaughan Williams and Sibelius. The
In a garden as I walked,
Violin Concerto had an early success. It is a
I heard them laugh and call;
*
*
concerto, demanding not only a virtuos
real
o tech-
nique from the soloist, but a deep insight
into
Moeran’s highly personal language. It therefore
*
wins advocates only amongst violinists who
are
complete musicians, rather than just clever
fiddlers.
"Midst five and twenty gallants there
My love exceeded all.
O the wind on the thatch,
The first movement begins with a falling
phrase on
the strings which is to be used in this moveme
nt
and the last as a sort of recall to the soloist
after
his many excursions-with the prineipal
themes.
Here and I alone must weep:
The pretty lad is young
And a’growing.
And, in fact, the soloist is never allowed
to play
this particular snippet of tune, only commen
ting
O father, dear father,
Great wrong to me is done,
on it once in the introduction to the
first movement, and supplying the same answer
to it at the
very end of the same movement. Before
that
That I should married be this day
Before the set of sun.
At the huffle of the gale,
occurs, however, the soloist launch
es a very
Here I toss and cannot sleep:
lyrical melody which is the first subjec
Whilst my pretty lad is young
moment he has supplied his answer
t, and the
to the intro-
ductory tune, sets off on a repeated semiqu
aver
decoration of the first subject, which
is now given
by different instruments. A short cadenz
a leads to
the second subject group, the first part
of which
is a beautiful repeated note melody given
out at
different registers by the soloist, and the
second
And a’growing.
My daughter, dear daughter,
If better be, more fit,
I’ll send him to the court awhile,
To point his pretty wit.
But the snow, snow-flakes fall,
part a lyrical dance where the orchest
ra and solo-
O and I am chill as dead
ist have equal parts. The full orchestra
tutti which
ends this section leads directly to the develo
pment
and recapitulation of both the main subject
Whilst my pretty lad is young
And a’growing.
groups, a device often used to great
effect by
Moeran’s friend, Bax, in his symphonies.
second movement has the classical form
Rondo, and is both an orchestral and
soloistic
tour de force. Indeed, so brilliant is
it that it is
amazing it has not been taken up and
used as a
violin virtuoso’s show piece. After
a brilliant
Violin Concerio
Moeran 1894 - 1950
introduction from the orchestra, the soloist
Allegro moderato
away with a jig which turns itself
Rondo vivace
length of this Rondo and all owe their
Moeran’s Violin Concerto was his last main
before his tragic death when he drowned
work
in
Ireland in 1950. He was at the peak of his
powers
for searching
chromatic harmony having been developed
and
refined in a number of smaller works, especia
lly
those for unaccompanied chorus. But
with his
great Symphony and Sinfonietta behind
him, his
moves
quickly into a
leaping tune. All sorts of variations occur
Lento
as a composer, his extraordinary gift
The
of the
inspiration to the Irish nature of the
in the
colour and
original tune.
By contrast, the last movement is meditat
ive in
the extreme. Something of the same
form is
adopted here as with the first moveme
nt: a short
introductory phrase on the strings, leadin
g to a
soaring lyrical one from the soloist.
Then, as in
the first movement, comes a cadenza-like
for solo clarinet and the solo violin; the
phrase that was heard on the strings is
passage
first
now
expanded and at last the soloist begins what must
be the main theme of the movement. It immediately begins developing, and after the manner of
Sibelius, constantly changes the shape, register and
harmony, until it melts imperceptibly into the
first phrase that we heard at the beginning of the
work. Once again the soloist comments but does
not repeat the phrase, and gathers the whole
orchestra together to build the climax of the work
against beautiful harmony from the brass, pointing
out that there is nothing more to be said. This
work is in its first two movements brilliantly
alive, and in the last, lyrically meditative. Regularly played, it could bring great satisfaction to
music-lovers the world over.
INTERVAL
Symphony No.4 in F minor
Vaughan Williams 1872 - 1958
Allegro
Andante moderato
Scherzo: Allegro molto
Finale con epilogo fugato: Allegro molto
The First Symphony of Vaughan Williams was
choral, the Second a deeply personal view of
London in all its moods and evocations and the
Third designated ‘Pastoral’. The Fourth had no
title, yet although it is a work which seems to be
concerned with purely musical issues with that
“logical continuation” in composition which so
exercised the mind of the symphony’s dedicatee,
Arnold Bax, there can be no doubt that this work
is concerned at least in three of its movements
with moods which are bitter, violent, and at times
desolate. Conceived in 1932, it was first performed in 1935, and the story goes that after one
performance conducted by the composer himself,
he said as he came off the platform, “If that is
modern music, I don’t like it!”. However, this
remark, as so many of the composer’s, can be
taken with a pinch of salt. There seems no doubt
that he had considerable regard for a work which
makes no concessions at all to a public which
wants its composers to ingratiate themselves. It
cannot be a coincidence that a work so tense and
so full of violence and anger was conceived at a
time when certain European states were using
force openly and proudly to gain their ends, and
advocating such force not much later to involve
the whole continent, and since Vaughan Williams
held that no artist should be cut off in an ivory
tower but should indeed live in the world, it is
not surprising that some of his music has to do
with the violent times through which he lived.
The first movement begins with dissonances which
move from one to another, the clashes quickly
projecting an angry mood. Motif after motif
follow one another in this introduction, but
eventually give way to a long cantilena on the
strings, still tormented however by accompanying
chords which show great contrariness about where
their main beat is. The development uses derivations of all the material so far heard: all the
motifs from the introduction and the cantilena
pitted against one another in a score littered with
accents and lines of emphasis. A viciously upward
thrusting motif turns out to be the strongest of
all in the introduction and contributes most to
the final part of the development. There is a
formal recapitulation of the cantilena before the
lento coda which closes the movement. Here the
widespread string registration of the Pastoral
Symphony, so at odds with the earlier acrid
frame of mind ends the movement on a question
mark. The second movement is perhaps the
easiest to accept of the four. An Andante
moderato which at first, at least, poses few
problems. It is in binary form with a tiny solo
flute cadenza dividing the two halves. This little
cadence for the flute is expanded at the end of
the movement as if it had tried to bring the
movement to an end earlier, and now was insisting
that the real work of the day recommence. The
two halves of the movement have become
increasingly tormented but never resolved, and it
is only as one looks back that one realises that
each of the themes has started life back in the
first movement, usually with the upward thrusting
figure from the introduction.
In that introduction had been a “flatter” figure,
starting with four notes gradually played in quicker thythm. The scherzo is a constant fight between
the upward thrusting figure and the “flatter” one,
the “flatter” one is even ironed totally into a
tune which has five repeated notes before it is
allowed to move away. It is brilliantly orches-
trated and would be almost too much to take but
for the introduction of the trio on bassoon, tromr
bone and tuba. This has been called an elephant-
ine dance, and is developed just long enough to
make the recapitulation of the scherzo an effective
contrast. Both the “flat” and the climbing
motifs
in simple form, the one on lower strings and
timpani, the other on higher strings and woodwind, constitute the coda of this brilliant movement and lead directly into the finale, which is
itself a very concise sonata movement, the main
subject of which is underpinned by one of
Vaughan Williams’s “oompah” basses. Yet, as it
proceeds, this movement shows themes which
declare a direct relationship with the main material
of the first movement. Before the fugal epilogue
and even before the recapitulation there is a
short
lento, reminiscent of the one at the end of the
first movement, which again forces us to reflect
through the ghastly quiet chording of the strings
on the terror and anguish of the music we have
experienced. An epilogue with Vaughan Williams
is used in the same way as it is in the symphonies
of Bax, to whom this one is dedicated, namely as
a coda to the whole symphony, not just the
last
movement. The brass blaze out the “flat”
tune. It
is not a strict fugue which enfolds on this material
because always there is thrusting through from
below a climbing motif. The different versions of
both ideas are recapitulated more and more
savagely, until the word ‘feroce’ appears in
the
score, and this propels the music in a great surge
into the restatement of the first bars of the whole
symphony. With the utmost savageness the
work
is ended by grinding repeated chords and then one
low-pitched derisory crash.
SATURDAY 13 NOVEMBER
Methodist Hall, Guildford at 7.30 p.m.
Guildford Philharmonic Society Members’
Evening
Omega Guitar Quartet
SUNDAY 21 NOVEMBER at 3.00 p.m.
Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra
Guest Leader: Bernard Partridge.
Overture ‘The Magic Flute’ — Mozart
Sinfonia Concertante in E flat for violin
and viola (K.364) — Mozart
Symphony No.l in C minor — Brahms
Carl Pini — violin
Csaba Erdelyi — viola
Vernon Handley