. .Saidrdayfz Méy 1998 ' 7 30pm
A proud tradition gained over many years is a valuable asset
" for an Orchestra or an Industrial Company.
Yet in the eyes (and ears) of our respective audiences, past
achievements are no substitute for present day performance.
BOC Gases and the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra have
traditions spanning | 10 years and 52 years respectively.
May the way we both perform — today and for many years to
come — continue to attract and satisfy those customers and
concert goers whom it is our privilege to serve.
Head Office:
BOC Gases, The Priestley Centre, |0 Priestley Road,
The Surrey Research Park, Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XY.
Tel: (01483) 579857. Fax: (01483) 50521 1.
Guildford Agent: J.T.Warsop Jnr & Co. Ltd, Delta Works, Midleton
Industrial Estate, Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XW.
Tel: (01483) 534222
Godalming Agent: Hunter Tool Company, 6| Brighton Road,
Godalming, Surrey GU7 INT. Tel:(01483) 423610
&7 BOC GASES
This concert...
...1s sponsored by Borax Europe Limited, a multinational, science-based
company
which
mines,
refines
and
distributes
boron-containing
chemicals (borates) to industries all over the world: chemicals which are
essential to glass and fibreglass, detergents, agriculture, ceramic glazes
and vitreous enamels, and a host of other industries and products
including fire retardants, and wood preservatives.
Borax is based in Guildford’s Surrey Research Park, and houses one of
the group’s world-wide technology centres; from here we also manage
the marketing and distribution of our products to customers in Europe,
Africa, the Middle East, India, and South America.
Our company was founded one hundred years ago as the result of an
agreement between an American prospector and two British entrepreneurs: today Borax comprises 13 companies, on four continents,
within the Rio Tinto Group. Together with our sister headquarters in
California we are responsible for the production of over a million tonnes
of borates a year from our mines in the USA and Argentina.
We came to the Research Park in 1994, bringing to Guildford one of the
world’s most advanced borate-dedicated laboratories: conducting mineral
research and analysis, process technology development, environmental
protection, technical service to our customers, and product innovation.
The Park is home, too, to one of the most comprehensive repositories of
borate technology and science to be found anywhere.
We value the many local links - academic, community and cultural - that
we have made and are delighted in our continued association with the
Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra. We trust sincerely that you will enjoy
our evening of Mozart and Strauss.
Bom
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Borax Europe Limited
170 Priestley Road
Guildford GU2 5RQ
The key of B
LY
]B) orax: a natural mineral of the element boron (B). Borax and
)
.
other borates touch all our lives - by making glass tougher,
fibreglass more consistent, detergents more effective, and helping
Crops to grow.
]B) orax Europe Limited: the European headquarters of this
)
;
global, high-technology company based on the Surrey Research
Park, orchestrating the world's foremost repertoire of borate
mining, refining, research and distribution.
]B) orax in Guildford: a centre of excellence where scores of
)
highly-qualified scientists explore the propertics of onc of the
world's most versatile minerals, in one of the world's few
borate-dedicated R&D laboratorics.
] B) orax: a member of the Rio Tinto Group; and once again
)
proud to support the current season of the Guildford
Philharmonic.
BORA Xfl'fl‘\‘\
R
170 Priestley Road
Guildford, GU2 5RQ
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GUILDFORD PHILHARMONIC
Songs of Farewell
Academic Festival Overture
Brahms
Four Last Songs*
Strauss
Interval (5 minutes)
~
Requiem
Mozart
Helen Field*
soprano
Joanne Lunn
- soprano (supported by the Friends)
Jeanette Ager
mezzo Soprano
Mark Wilde
tenor
Andrew Foster
bass (supported by the Friends)
Guildford Philharmonic Choir
Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra
Gillian Findlay
En Shao
guest leader
_
conductor
All concerts in the current season are funded by
LHAEDTORD
G H
The orchestra is grateful to the following for financial assistance:
South East Arts Board m
South East Music Trust
The Friends of Guildford Philharmonic
The season’s bouquets are donated by Soeyglty
This concert is sponsored by BORAXEH
BORAXE
1s an award winner under the Pairing Scheme (the
National Heritage Arts Sponsorship Scheme) for its support
of Guildford Philharmonic’s Songs of Farewell Concert.
The Pairing Scheme is a Government Scheme managed by
ABSA (Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts).
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Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
By the time Brahms was twenty, the influential Robert Schumann had publicly
said of him: ‘I thought that sooner or later someone would and must appear,
destined to give the ideal expression to the spirit of the times. And he has
finally come, a young blood in whose cradle Graces and Heroes kept watch.
His name is Johannes Brahms.’
As his career developed, the achievement of Brahms was such that, established
in the leading musical city of Vienna, he became exactly that central figure
as predicted by Schumann, maintaining at the same time a close friendship
with Schumann’s widow Clara. No other composer so clearly continued the
line of the German tradition after Beethoven; and the highly self-critical
Brahms destroyed those scores which did not wholly satisfy him, with the
result that the description ‘masterpiece’ applies to practically all his
compositions.
Academic Festival Overture, opus 80
Brahms composed the Academic Festival Overture in the summer of 1880,
after receiving the award of an honorary degree from the University of Breslau.
In these circumstances a new work was certainly expected, and there were
rumours that the authorities had been hoping for a symphony.
If so, they
were disappointed, although Brahms did reward them with music of lasting
significance.
In response to the citation which called him ‘Germany’s leader in the
intellectual art of musical composition’, Brahms assembled four student songs
into an overture which requires the largest orchestra he ever used, building
to a magnificent peroration on the academic song Gaudeamus igitur.
Historical context
Bismarck’s new unified German state was spreading its empire with African
conquests, while by a secret treaty Serbia became a protectorate of Austria,
and Italy had joined the Austro-German alliance, forming the Triple Alliance.
At the same time, diplomatic negotiations between all the major powers
continued in their various ways, as national interests developed across the
world.
© Terry Barfoot
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Strauss enjoyed
a remarkably long creative life,
spanning more than sixty years, from the early 1880s
right through to 1949, the year of his death at the
age of eighty-five. He became the leading German
composer as the result of the success of the series of
symphonic poems he composed during the last years
of nineteenth century; works such as Don Juan, Till
Eulenspiegel and Also Sprach Zarathustra have
remained popular with orchestras and audiences ever
since they were first performed.
In common with many composers through the ages,
Strauss was also a fine conductor, especially of
opera, and for the theatre he created several
masterpieces, including for example Salome and Der
Rosenkavalier, which have become central to the
repertoire of every major company.
He was
a
prolific composer who wrote music in all the established forms; beyond the
operas and tone poems his work has been particularly valued in the field of
the solo song with orchestra or piano. Indeed, few composers have matched
his understanding of how to write for the soprano voice.
Four Last Songs
1. Friihling
2. September
3. Beim Schlafengehen
4. Im Abendrot
When Kirsten Flagstad gave the first performance of these songs, at the Royal
Albert Hall in London on 22nd May 1950, with Wilhelm Furtwangler
conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, Strauss had been dead some eight
months. The Four Last Songs in fact comprise the composer’s last completed
work, bringing his creative life to a fitting close through the combination of
his two favoured media: the orchestra and the lyric soprano voice.
It was in 1946 that Strauss encountered Eichendorff’s poem Im Abendrot and
determined to set it to music, initially as an independent song. But by the
time he had completed it, in May 1948, its imageries of tenderness and the
calm acceptance of death had been linked also with three other songs, all to
poems by Hermann Hesse, thus providing a unified cycle.
These compositions were soon completed: Friihling in July 1948 and Beim
Schlafengehen three weeks later at the beginning of August. It was a further
six weeks before the last of the songs to be composed, September, was finished,;
and though another was planned, Strauss did not include it within the
completed work.
The order of the songs in performance is traditionally
different from their order of composition, however, since the musical and
poetic natures of Im Abendrot make for a deeply satisfying conclusion to the
cycle.
The music has that autumnal warmth which pervades the works of Strauss’s
final years. Friihling (Spring) is essentially a love song, the lyricism of which
is shared equally by the voice and the orchestra, and therefore intensifies the
effect as it proceeds. September is based upon two distinct themes, and the
imagery is of the autumnal garden’s gradual decline, captured in a mood of
nostalgia.
The poetic expression of Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep)
concerns a man weary of life and preparing for death.
Its leaping figure is
therefore symbolic of the aspiration of the soul to soar Heavenward.
The
central part of the song is given over to an orchestral interlude featuring a
solo violin. Here, as in the music of the outer sections, there is a moving and
sensitive acceptance of fate.
The richness of the scoring in Im Abendrot (At Sunset) enhances the autumnal
mood of Eichendorff’s poem, until in a postlude Strauss quotes the
transfiguration motif from his symphonic poem Death and Transfiguration,
which he had composed some sixty years before. And how wonderfully this
musical image befits the final lines of the poem: ‘How tired we are of travelling
- Is this perchance death?’
Historical context
The Germany in which Strauss had worked throughout his long and
distinguished career lay in ruins; he immortalised his grief in the moving
elegiac study for string orchestra, Metamorphosen.
Exonerated at the
Nuremburg Trials, the conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler began to rebuild his
international career: one of his first overseas concerts featuring the London
premiere of the Four Last Songs.
Post-war tensions between the Eastern and Western Allies led to the beginning
of the Cold War. In June 1948 the Berlin airlift began, in order to beat the
Soviet blockade of the city; it continued until May the following year, when
a land corridor was conceded. In May and October 1949 the two halves of
the new Germany, the Federal Republic (Western) and Democratic Republic
(Eastern), were established, while on 4th April, at a conference in Washington,
NATO was founded.
-
Four Last Songs
Spring
Frihling
In darkling caverns
In ddammrigen Griften
| dreamed long
Tralimte ich lang
of your trees and azure breezes,
Von deinem Balmen und blauen Luften
of your scents and birdsong
Von deinem Duft und Vogelgesang.
Now you lie revealed
Nun liegst du erschlossen
in glitter and array,
In Gleiss und Zeir
bathed in light
Von Licht Ubergossen
like a miracle before me
Wie ein Wunder vor mir.
You know me again:
Du kennst mich wieder,
you invite me tenderly.
Du lockest mich zart,
There quivers through all my limbs
es zittert durch all meine Glieder
your blessed presence.
Deine selige Gegenwart
September
September
The garden is in mourning;
Der Garten trauert,
the rain sinks coolly on the flowers,
Kahl sinkt in die Blumen der Regen.
summertime shudders
Der Sommer schauert
quietly to its close.
Still sienem Ende entgegen
Leaf upon golden leaf is dropping
Golden tropft Blatt um Blatt
down from the tall acacia tree.
Nieder vom hohen Akazienbaum
Summer smiles amazed and exhausted,
Sommer lachelt erstaunt und matt
on the dying dream that was this garden.
In den sterbenden Gartentraum.
Long by the roses,
Lange noch bei den Rosen
it tarries, yearns for rest,
Bleibt er stehen, sich nach Ruh.
slowly closes its (great)
Langsam tut er die (grossen),
weary eyes.
Mudegewordenen Augen zu.
Going to Sleep
Beim Schlafengehen
Now the day has wearied me.
Nun der Tag mich miid gemacht,
And my ardent longing shall
Soll mein sehnliches Verlangen
the stormy night in friendship
Freundlich die gestirnte Nacht
enfold like a tired child.
Wie ein mides Kind empfangen.
Hands, leave all work;
Hande lasst von allem Tun,
brow, forget all thought.
Stirn vergiss du alles Denken,
Now all my senses
Alle meine Sinne nun
long to sink themselves in slumber.
Wollen sich in Schlummer senken.
And the spirit unguarded
Und die Seele unbewacht
longs to soar on free wings,
Will in freien Fligen schweben,
so that, in the magic circle of night,
Um im Zauberkreis der Nacht
it may live deeply, and a thousandfold.
Tief und tausendfach zu leben.
At Sunset
Im Abendrot
Through want and joy we have
Wir sind durch Not und Freude
walked hand in hand;
gegangen Hand in Hand,
we are both resting from our travels now,
vom Wandern ruhn wir (beide)
in the quiet countryside.
num Uberm stillen Land.
Around us the valleys fold up,
Rings sich die Taler neigen,
already the air grows dark,
es dunkelt schon die Luft,
only two larks still soar
zwei Lerchen nur noch steigen
wistfully into balmy sky.
nachtratienend in den Duft.
Come here, and let them fly about,
Tritt her und lass sie schwirren,
soon it is time for sleep.
bals ist es Schlafenszeit,
We must not go astray
dass wir uns nicht verirren
in this solitude.
in dieser Einsamkeit
O spacious, tranquil peace,
O weiter, stiller Friede!
so profound in the gloaming.
So tief im Abendrot
How tired we are of travelling -
Wie sind wir wandermude -
is this perchance death?
ist dies etwa der Tod?
© 1950 By Boosey & Co. Ltd.
Reproduced by permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd.
When he heard of Mozart’s tragically early death in 1791, his friend and
fellow composer Joseph Haydn said, “We shall not see such a talent again in
a hundred years.” Unlike Beethoven and Haydn, the two other outstanding
exponents of the Viennese classical style, Mozart worked in every current
medium. He was, and remains, the most universal of composers.
The boy Mozart had been paraded around the musical capitals of Europe by
his father Leopold, who was anxious to maximise the earning potential of his
son’s precocious virtuosity. The most positive result of this extraordinary
childhood was that Mozart gained a musical education based on his
experiences with the finest musicians of the age; of these the most significant
was his encounter in London during 1764 with Bach’s youngest son, Johann
Christian.
A creative impulse which began as an extraordinary talent for emulation
became by the age of sixteen a genius which raised music to new heights of
elegance, sophistication and insight. As his career developed, the young
Mozart understandably continued to look beyond the provincial confines of
Salzburg, and his wanderings gradually brought about the tensions which
caused his employer, the Prince-Archbishop Hieronymous Colloredo, to
dismiss the composer from his service in 1781. From then on, for the final
ten golden years of his short life, Mozart lived and worked in Vienna.
Vienna was one of the major musical centres of Europe, a city which drew
Gluck to it a generation before Mozart, and which, later, would attract
Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler.
During his Vienna years, the years of his
‘maturity’, Mozart created a stream of masterpieces of an extraordinary
richness which is practically unparalleled in the history of music, though
recognition of his talents by his contemporaries was fitful, to say the least.
The combination of fickle Viennese fashions, changing economic and political
circumstances, and his own financial naivety meant that when he died in
December 1791 of kidney failure, at the age of just thirty-five, Mozart was in
debt.
Various legends have flourished concerning the nature of Mozart’s death:
that he was buried in a pauper’s grave, for instance, and that he was poisoned
by his musician rival Antonio Salieri. The facts, of course, do not support
these myths.
Requiem, K626
1. Requiem and Kyrie
5. Recordare
2. Dies Irae
3. Tuba mirum
6. Confutatis maledictis
9. Hostias
10. Sanctus
7. Lacrimosa
11. Benedictus
4. Rex tremendae
8. Domine Jesu
12. Agnus Dei
Count Franz Walsegg-Stuppach’s young wife Anna died in February 1791,
and he decided to honour her memory by commissioning a setting of the
Requiem Mass. It was the Count’s habit to stage chamber music soirées at
his home, and sometimes to suggest that he might be the composer of the
new music his guests heard. So it was that Walsegg sent his steward Franz
Anton Leitgeb to Mozart with the commission for the Requiem.
Mozart’s last year was one of his busiest, for the major works alone included
two operas, the E flat String Quintet, the Clarinet Concerto and the Requiem.
The pressures of having to keep to schedule must have contributed to his
poor health, and of course there were also the pressing financial needs of his
family.
It was probably because he received payment in advance that he
accepted the Requiem commission in July, at a time when he was already
heavily committed, especially to his two operas La Clemenza di Tito and Die
Zauberflote.
October.
It seems he did not really begin work on the Requiem until
In the remaining weeks of his life, Mozart was able to finish only the Requiem
and Kyrie movements, and to leave full sketches consisting of the voice parts,
bass line and some orchestration, of the eight sections from the Dies Irae
through as far as the Hostias.
After his death on 5th December, his wife
Constanze therefore faced a dilemma, since the unfinished Requiem would
need to be completed or the commission fee returned. She appealed to
Mozart’s pupils Joseph Eybler and Franz Xaver Stissmayr, and the latter
produced a finished version from the sketches. He composed the remaining
part of the Lacrimosa, as well as the Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Del,
repeating the fugue of the Kyrie to the words ‘Cum sanctis’. However, it is
impossible to be sure of the details behind these generalities: it must remain
a mystery that the incomplete Mozart Requiem has held such an influence
upon generation after generation. The Siissmayr version maintains its position
despite numerous attempts by others to rival it.
The heavy tread of the opening is powerfully expressive, but it is thoroughly
typical of the prevailing Requiem style, for Mozart was aware of existing
settings by Michael Haydn and Florian Leopold Gassmann. The mournful
theme of the bassoons and basset horns precedes the stern entry of the trumpets
and timpani, and the richly textured opening chorus. The fugal Kyrie reflects
Mozart’s interest in baroque models.
Its subject is close to the outlines of
music he admired and had previously arranged: the chorus And with His
Stripes from Handel’s Messiah, and the Fugue no. 20 from Book Two of
Bach’s Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues. Mozart’s treatment is lengthy
and
elaborate, with a dark expressive power that is entirely his own.
The Dies Irae is at once dramatic and sacred, developing a considerable
tension which finds its release in the unaccompanied trombone solo of
Tuba mirum and its celebrated solo for the bass voice.
the
The Rex tremendae is appropriately thrilling, the trumpets and drums adding
their powerful effect, while the Recordare brings its prayerful peace by means
of glorious melodic inspiration.
The stern declamation of the tenors and
basses in the Confutatis maledictus is doubled by the bassoons and trombones
as the urgent violins drive to the climax. This has its foil in the humble
plea
“Voca me cum benedictus’ ( ‘Call me with the blessed’ ), which is given to
higher voices.
the
The unfinished Lacrimosa was completed in somewhat cursory fashion by
Siissmayr, but it nevertheless creates a mood of the utmost pathos. Both the
Domine Jesu and the Hostias have the characteristics of motets, though they
are strongly contrasted in effect.
The exultant Sanctus and the serene Benedictus for solo quartet are largely
the work of Siissmayr, for Mozart’s sketches were insubstantial here. In the
Agnus Dei this problem was solved by returning to the music of the earlier
movements; there were precedents for so doing in at least two of Mozart’s
own Salzburg Masses (K220 and K317). Thus it was that the Requiem ended
with the fugue previously heard in the Kyrie.
Constanze arranged for copies of the completed score to be made, and a
performance was given in January 1793 under the auspices of Baron Gottfried
van Swieten, preceding by some months that which Count Walsegg, now
claiming sole ownership, himself directed. The ‘benefit’ concert was recorded
in a Viennese newspaper:
‘Mozart, who achieved an immortal name in the art of music, left a widow
and two orphans in poverty. Many noble benefactors are helping this
unfortunate woman. Two days ago Baron Swieten presented a public concert
with a sung Requiem as a memorial to Mozart: the young widow received
proceeds of over three hundred gold ducats.’
Historical context
Understandably, it was the continuing French Revolution which dominated
European history during 1791. In August, at Pillnitz in Prussia, Leopold II
of Austria met with Frederick Wilhelm II, and the two emperors issued a
formal declaration of support for their cousin Louis XVI, demanding his
immediate restoration to the French throne. That same month Austria and
the Ottoman Empire signed the Peace of Sistova, by which Belgrade was
returned to Ottoman control.
In the world of the arts, Joseph Haydn left Vienna to spend the 1791-92
concert season in London, for which he composed the first six of his twelve
London Symphonies.
The most important publications of the year were
probably James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson and Tom Paine’s The Rights
of Man.
© Terry Barfoot.
En Shao - conductor
En Shao was born in Tianjin, China, in 1954. He started
to play the piano at the age of four, and the violin at
five. In 1966 he was forced to stop his music studies
for four years because of the Cultural Revolution.
Gradually, however, he was able to return to these
studies, and by the age of 18 was working as a
composer, pianist and percussionist with a local
orchestra.
After graduating from the Beijing Centre
Music Conservatory, he became second Principal
Conductor of the Chinese Broadcasting Symphony
Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Central Philharmonic Orchestra
of China and the National Youth Orchestra.
He came to England in 1988, having been awarded the Lord Rhodes Fellowship
at the Royal Northern College of Music. In 1989 he won the Sixth Hungarian
Television International Conductors’ Competition, resulting in engagements with
the Hungarian Radio Orchestra and State Symphony Orchestra. In January 1990
he became Associate Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, a post created
specially for him. From 1992 - 1995 he was Principal Conductor of the Ulster
Orchestra, with whom he made his Proms debut in August 1995.
He is now
Principal Guest Conductor of the Euskadi Orchestra in Spain. This is his third
season as Principal Conductor of the Guildford Philharmonic.
In the UK, En Shao has worked with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra,
the BBC Orchestras, The Northern Sinfonia, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic,
the Halle and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He made his London debut
with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1992, and with the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra in 1994.
En Shao has completed four major tours with the ABC orchestras in Australia.
He has worked with the Toronto Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, and the
Vancouver Symphony; and with the National Symphony Orchestra in
Johannesburg. Future engagements include visits to Australia, the United States,
Scandinavia and the Far East.
En Shao has a wide range of interests including Chinese cooking, contemporary
interior design and architecture, ballet and jazz. He takes a particular interest in
environmental issues.
Helen Field - soprano
Born in North Wales, Helen Field was a graduate of the
Royal Northern College of Music, gaining an LRAM in
singing. She has won many awards which have included
the Dame Eva Turner Opera Award, the Young Welsh
Singers Competition and the Royal Society of Arts
Scholarship.
The Royal Society of Arts later awarded
her a Fellowship.
Her opera career began when she became a Principal
Soprano with the Welsh National Opera, where she sang many major roles including
Mimi La Boheme, Vixen The Cunning Little Vixen (nominated for an Olivier
award and filmed by the BBC) Jenufa, Tatiana Eugene Onegin, Marenka Bartered
Bride, Desdemona Otello ( a Peter Stein production and recorded by the BBC)
Gilda Rigoletto, Poppea The Coronation of Poppea and recently Cio Cio San
Madam Butterfly.
Miss Field has also sung with all the major opera companies in England. At English
National Opera she sang Tippett’s Midsummer Marriage, Violetta La Traviata,
Nedda I Pagliacci, Pamina The Magic Flute, Donna Anna Don Giovanni,
Marguerite Faust (receiving an Olivier nomination). At Opera North she sang the
British premiere of Richard Strauss’ Daphne, Susanna Marriage of Figaro,
Magda La Rondine, and Manon.
For Scottish Opera she sang the role of Katya
Katya Kabanova and recently gave the World Premiere of James MacMillan’s
Opera
Ines de Castro.
Another World Premiere was given for Glyndebourne
Opera when she sang JoAnn in Tippett’s New Year. At Glyndebourne she has also
sung Mimi La Boheme and Pearl in Birtwistle’s The Second Mrs Kong.
Most
recent was her Royal Opera House debut as Salome.
Abroad her major roles have included Gilda at the Met for ENO on tour.
In
Germany, the Governess in Turn of the Screw (which was filmed by German
Television), and Cio Cio San at Deutsch Oper, Berlin.
In Belgium she has sung
Salome at La Monnaie. She has also sung in France, Italy and Spain.
In January this year, she sang Salome at the Los Angeles Opera and in the summer
will repeat the role with the Santa Fe Opera Festival.
In 1999 Miss Field will
perform Jenufa in Liege.
As a concert artist Miss Field has sung with all the major orchestras within the
United Kingdom. She sang Strauss’s Four Last Songs at the Last Night of the
BBC Proms, and performed them again for German Radio in Hamburg, conducted
by Gunther Wand. Miss Field gave a Puccini recital at the Leipzig Gewandhaus
conducted by Maestro Kurt Masur, and was the soprano soloist in Mahler’s
Symphony No.4 in a live television relay for the BBC from the Schauspielhaus,
Berlin. Miss Field has also performed all the standard and lesser known works in
oratorio and is a regular exponent of Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass.
Joanne Lunn - soprano
Joanne Lunn was born in 1975, and is currently studying with
Margaret Cable at the Royal College of Music.
She has won
many prizes and was a placed finalist in both the 1997 Great
Elm Annual Vocal Awards and the National Mozart Competition.
Joanne is in demand as an oratorio soloist both in London and
nationally. Recent performances include Bach’s B minor Mass,
Magnificat and St John Passion, Mozart’s C minor Mass,
Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Handel’s Messiah.
As asoloist Joanne’s performances have included a private soiree
for HM The Queen Mother, guest soloist for Prom Praise in Newcastle, the Royal Albert
Hall, St John’s Smith Square, the 1996 Scotland summer tour and St David’s Hall Cardiff.
As a member of Philip Pickett’s New London Consort and Musicians of the Globe,
Joanne has been involved in recording, radio and concert work at Aldeburgh, the Queen
Elizabeth Hall, the Utrecht Early Music Festival, Shakespeare’s Globe and in Seville
and Colombia, South America.
Joanne made her Purcell Room solo debut in March 1998 in the opening concert of the
Young Artists series.
Jeanette Ager - mezzo-soprano
Jeanette Ager was awarded an Exhibition to study at the Royal
Academy of Music where she was further supported by the Michael
James Music Trust. Atthe RAM she won many prizes, including
for lieder, English, French and German Song, and early music.
She is now continuing her studies with Linda Esther Gray.
In 1996 she won the Gold Medal in the Royal Over-Seas League
Music Competition, and an award from the Tillett Trust Young
Artist Platform, resulting in two recitals at the Wigmore Hall.
In oratorio she has performed Haydn’s St Nicholas with the
London Mozart Players and the Choir of St John’s College
Cambridge, Handel’s Messiah at the Barbican and in Bermuda with the Bermuda
Philharmonic Society, and Judas Maccabaeus at Winchester Cathedral. She was also
the contralto soloist in Anthony Milner’s Salutatio Angelica at Truro Cathedral.
Her operatic work has included Glyndebourne Opera chorus (1997 Season) and Kent Opera.
For Hyperion Jeanette has recorded five pieces by Lili Boulanger as mezzo soloist with
the New London Chamber Choir conducted by James Wood. She was a soloist in a
Deutsche Grammophon recording of three songs for women’s choir by Ruth Crawford,
called To An Unkind God.
Her recent work has included Britten’s Phaedra with the Brunel Ensemble, Tippett’s
Child of our Time, Durufle’s Requiem at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Beethoven’s
Missa Solemnis at York Minster.
Future engagements include Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius at Truro Cathedral,
Shostakovich’s setting of six poems by Marina Tsvetayeva with the Cambridge
University Chamber Orchestra, and a recital at the 1998 Cheltenham Festival.
Mark Wilde - tenor
Mark Wilde is from Dundee where he was a chorister at the
Cathedral. He read music at the University of East Anglia
during which time he was a choral scholar with Norwich
Cathedral Choir. Mark was a Lay Clerk at the Queen’s Free
Chapel of St George, Windsor Castle whilst being a
Foundation Scholar at the Royal College of Music; he was
later the Thomas Allen Opera Scholar. He studies singing
with Neil Mackie.
He performs regularly throughout the UK and abroad in oratorio and in recital, most
notably Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Helsinki, Britten’s Serenade with the Aalborg
Symphony Orchestra, Britten’s War Requiem in Westminster Cathedral, Britten’s
St Nicolas in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Berlioz Te Deum in Orleans Cathedral,
Mozart’s Requiem in Israel, a recital for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen
Mother, Monteverdi’s Vespers in Norway, and Bach’s B minor Mass in Bocholt,
Germany. Mark is the soloist on the only recording of Priaulx Rainier’s Requiem.
In opera he has sung Ferrando for Sir Colin Davis and, more recently with Pimlico
Opera. He has also taken roles in Handel’s Arminio, Maxwell Davies’ The
Lighthouse and Vivaldi’s Ottone in Villa and Giustino for BBC Radio 3. He is to
sing the title role in Britten’s Albert Herring in Perth this May.
Andrew Foster - bass
Andrew Foster, originally from Wigan in Lancashire, is
studying at the Royal Academy of Music with Mark
Wildman. Here he has obtained a First Class Honours degree
and some ofthe prizes he has won include the Oratorio Prize,
Major Van Sommeron Godfrey English Song Prize, Flora
Nielsen Recital Prize, Elena Gerhardt Lieder Prize, Gilbert
- Betjeman Operatic Prize, and Henry Cummings Prize.
Andrew has performed around the country as bass soloist
and given his own recitals. He has sung the roles of Peter Quince Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Bartolo Le Nozze di Figaro, Marziano Handel’s Alessandro and
Supt. Budd Albert Herring. He is due to sing Farasmane in Radamisto and
Commendatore in Don Giovanni.
Andrew is the winner of the highly coveted John Warner Memorial Award at the
Chichester Music Festival; Robert Sutcliffe Award at the Leyland Music Festival;
Voices of Discovery Competition in Dundee and Sir Anthony Lewis Award from the
Musica Britannica. Having successfully obtained a scholarship from the Countess
of Munster Musical Trust and Musicians’ Benevolent Fund, Andrew is now in the
Opera Department of the London Royal Schools Vocal Faculty.
Guildford Philharmonic
The Guildford Philharmonic, the Borough’s own professional orchestra, is at the heart of
music-making in the south east, with a huge repertoire extending from the 17th century to the
present day. Its main concert season runs from October to July in a variety of venues including
the Civic Hall Guildford, Guildford Cathedral, the Electric Theatre, Holy Trinity Church, the
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, and, for the first time this season, Guildford Lido! As well as this
it gives concerts throughout London and the south of England in a number of venues which
include Kenwood Park, Royal Festival Hall, King’s College Cambridge, St George’s Chapel
Windsor, and the cathedrals of Winchester, Chichester, Canterbury and St Albans.
As well as the more mainstream orchestral concerts, the orchestra is involved in a wide range
of educational projects, both in schools and concert halls, involving young composers,
instrumentalists and singers.
The young Chinese conductor En Shao was appointed Principal Conductor in 1995, following
in the illustrious footsteps of Crossley Clitheroe (who founded the orchestra in 1944), Vernon
Handley, Sir Charles Groves and Sir Alexander Gibson. With En Shao, the orchestra continues
its work of attracting new audiences for all types of classical music, and of blending the
traditional and familiar with the new and challenging.
The orchestra is funded and promoted by Guildford Borough, with assistance from the
South
East Arts Board, South East Music Trust, the Musicians’ Union, and the Friends
of the
Philharmonic. It is grateful to corporate sponsors, both local and national, and looks
forward
to many more such mutually beneficial relationships in the future.
First violins:
Karen Demmel
Gillian Findlay
Cor Anglais:
Bob Winquist
Bass Trombone:
Maurice Brett
Janice Knight
Jean Burt
Martin Nicholls
Martin Gill
Ellen Jackson
Clarinets/Basset
Tuba:
Horns:
Stephen Wick
Linda McLaren
Nicholas Barnard
Cellos:
David Rix
Victor Slaymark
Peter Newman
Douglas Cummings
Martin Palmer
John Stilwell
Avril Maclennan
Michael Ronayne
Emer Calthorpe
Bass clarinet:
Duncan Moulton
Phillip Augar
Paul Allen
Christine Clutton
Timpani:
Roger Blair
Percussion:
Christopher Nall
Anthony Short
Nicholas Boothroyd
Bassoons:
Rachel Hess
Penny CIiff
Keith Bartlett
Robin Kennard
Mark Glentworth
Second violins:
Basses:
Paul Buxton
Tim Mallett
Michael Lea
Peter Bennett
Harp:
Helen Tunstall
Jenny Buxton
Maurice Neal
Andrew Bernardi
David Jones
Peter Hembrough
Kevin Elliott
Peter Hamilton Box
General Manager:
Carl Beddow
Jane Hanna
Paul Moore
Nicola Goold
Krista Caspersz
David Clack
Christine Norsworthy
Ginny Wray
Flutes:
Catherine Belton
Kate Hill
Sarah Voigt
Robert Manasse
Paula Tysall
Piccolo:
Violas:
Horns:
Peter Holt
Trumpets:
Alistair Mackie
Secretary:
Giles Liddiard
Shirley Ewen
Andy Hendrie
Anna Pyne
John Meek
Music Administrator;
Music Development
Trombones:
Officer (SEMT):
Clare Lister
Justin Ward
Oboes:
Anne Rycroft
Ian White
Neil Black
Michael Newman
Malcolm Frammingham
Juliet Lewis
Stage Assistant:
Ken Davidson
Guildford Philharmonic Choir
The Guildford Philharmonic Choir was founded in 1947 by the Borough of Guildford to perform major
works from the choral repertoire with the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra. Since this time, the Choir
has grown both in stature and in reputation and can now rightly claim its place as one of the foremost
choruses in the country.
The Choir grew to prominence under the batons of such eminent British musicians as Sir Charles
Groves, Vernon Handley and Sir David Willcocks, the latter being the Choir’s President.
As well as being well known in the South East for performing the set-pieces of the choral repertoire,
the Choir has developed an interesting specialisation in 20th-century British music, and has recorded
Gerald Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality and Patrick Hadley’s The Trees So High under Vernon Handley.
The Choir performed Britten’s War Requiem with the Freiburger Bachchor in Freiburg Munster in
November 1993 and took part in the VE Day celebrations performing in front of HM The Queen in
Hyde Park.
The Choir is currently enjoying rising to the challenge that the arrival of a new Chorus Director of
Jeremy Backhouse’s stature brings. He was appointed to the post in January 1995 and has continued
the tradition of attracting an ever wider audeince to the joys of choral music with recent memorable
performances of Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi, Britten’s St Nicolas and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius.
The Choir will be singing Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Freiburger Bachchor in the new Concert
Hall in Freiburg on 17 May and Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 at the Barbican on 21 May.
For details about joining the Choir, please contact Noreen Ayton (01932) 221918.
For details about becoming a Benefactor of the Choir, please contact Susan Ranft (01306) 888870.
1st Sopranos
Susan Ranft
2nd Altos
1st Basses
Olivia Ames-Lewis
Gillian Rix
Sally Bailey
Peter Allen
Joanna Andrews
Joan Robinson
Iris Ball
John Paul Bland
Noreen Ayton
Maureen Shortland
Evelyn Beastall
Neil Clayton
Sally Bayton
Kathy Stickland
Iris Bennett
Philip Davies
Viv Chamberlin-Kidd
Christine Wilks
Mary Clayton
Michael Dawe
Elaine Chapman
Lucinda Wilson
Carol Hobbs
Simon Doran
Rachel Edmondson
Sheila Hodson
Michael Dudley
Terence Ellis
Jenny Hasnip
1st Altos
Krystyna Marsden
Mo Kfouri
Marion Arbuckle
Mary Moon
Michael Golden
Susan Norton
Mary Anne Barber
Brenda Moore
Laurie James
Margaret Parry
Tamsin Bland
Jean Munro
Tony Macklow-Smith
Jessica Pires
Jane Brooks
Anne Philps
David Ross
Kate Rayner
Amanda Clayton
Prue Smith
Philip Stanford
Judy Smith
Margaret
Rosemary Smith
Keith Torbet
Carol Terry
Dentskevich
Hilary Steynor
Enid Weston
Andrea Dombrowe
Janice Wicker
2nd Basses
Elisabeth Willis
Valerie Edwards
June Windle
Roger Barrett
Frances Worpe
Celia Embleton
Maralyn Wong
Michael Bradbeer
Rebecca Greenwood
Beatrice Wood
John Britten
2nd Sopranos
Karen Halahan
Jacqueline Alderton
Ingrid Hardiman
1st Tenors
Rodney Cuff
Penny Baxter
Jo Harman
Bob Cowell
Nick Gough
Debbie Dring
Joy Hunter
Andrew Reid
Peter Herbert
Angela Hand
Eva Krutmeijer
John Trigg
Michael Jeffery
Susan Hinton
Helen Lavin
Maggie van
Stephen Jepson
Nora Kennea
Kay McManus
Koetsveld
Neil Martin
Jane Kenney
Christine Medlow
Laurence Welch
Maxwell New
Judith Lewy
Lesley Scordellis
Jacqueline Norman
Catherine Shacklady
2nd Tenors
John Parry
Penny Overton
Gillian Sharpe
Hilary Trigg
Douglas Cook
Leslie Harfield
Nigel Pollock
Alison Palmer
Rosalind Plowright
Norman Carpenter
-
Barry Norman
Chris Robinson
John Graham (viola)
Concert-goers will be saddened to learn of the death last week of John
Graham. John was born in Winnipeg in 1938 and left there in 1960 to
continue his violin studies at the Royal Academy of Music. He decided
to change to the viola and continued his studies under Gwynne Edwards.
John’s many musical activities included some years with the London
Mozart Players, Park Lane Chamber Group, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
and Royal Philharmonic Pops Orchestra where he played Principal Viola.
He had made a valued contribution to the Guildford Philharmonic for
over twenty years. He was a popular and highly respected player of
outstanding musical integrity and talent, and will be sadly missed by his
many colleagues.
John is survived by his wife Jean and daughters Janice and Julia, all highly
accomplished musicians.
John Meek
Friends of Guildford Philharmonic
The Friends of Guildford Philharmonic do many things throughout
the year to support the Guildford Philharmonic’s work.
They have a commitment to helping young musicians at the outset
of their careers, and over the past few years have sponsored a number
of string players to play with the orchestra for a season.
In this concert two of the young soloists in Mozart’s Requiem, Joanne
Lunn (soprano) and Andrew Foster (bass), are being sponsored by
the Friends.
If you would like to find out more about the Friends, please contact
Rita Horton (01483 570814) or Jean Carpenter (01483 714634).
Forthcoming Concerts
Alice in Wonderland
Friday 15 May 9.30pm
Electric Theatre
Phantasmagoria -
a musical gyre and gimble through
the wabe of Lewis Carroll’s
Wonderland, devised and presented by
Alasdair Malloy, with actor and Palm
Court Trio.
fit the first
A little inocent child-like entertainment
fit the second
Lenses and a looking-glass
fit the third
Insane infusions
fit the fourth
Curioser and curioser
fit the fifth
Epistles and an epilogue
Music, Water, Lights
Saturday 20 June 8.30pm
A party to celebrate the
Guildford Lido
Relaunch of the Lido and
Guildford Philharmonic
its 65th Birthday
En Shao
Last Night of the Proms
Saturday 11 July 8.00pm
Spectacular Classics with
Shalford Park
conductor
Fireworks
Guildford Philharmonic
John Bradbury
Tickets: (01483) 444555
conductor
Seoelh, | \ K pnnedy
Secretts of Milford are delighted
:
to donate the floral bouquets to
W|th John Lenehan
=
this season’s soloists
Beceetis
Flawer Shap for siynmasty
orchestrated flower arrangements
together with works especially arrangedfor piano
and violin.
Weddmgs Decoration of Homes,
:
~
.
Kennedy will present an exciting and varied
programme which incorporates Brahms & Bach
“_It's good to have him back whatever he plays. Kennedy
:
Churches and Marquees Bouquets
remains one of those violinists, rather like Gidon Kremer and
Isaac Stern from the generation before him, for whom the
* Gift Baskets * Floral Tributes
inspiration of the moment is a major part of the musical
* Accessories
persona.” - The Gramophone
Secretts - on the Milford to
GUILDFORD CIVIC
Godalming Road just outside Milford
Telephone: 01483 427971
Sunday 31st May 7.30pm
o | |BOROFHGE I S
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
RENTALS & SALES
RENTAL R‘e“‘a\s
iTS DEDUCTED IF PURCHASED
Main Agents for
YAMAHA
BOOSEY & naWKED
IBRITTEN’S MUSIC Ltd
3-4
Station Approach, West Byfleet, Surrey KT14 6NG
Tel: 01932 351165 (24 hrs) / 351614
Mail Order Music 01932 354898 (24hrs)
Open 6 days a week 9am - 5.30pm.
(Sat Closed 4.30pm)
solicitors
Hart Brown are proud
to support The Professional Orchestra
of the South East
GUILDFORD
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01483 887766
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