Guildford Philharmonic Choir
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William Walton
Belshazzar’s Feast
Edward Elgar
Serenade for Strings
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Five Mystical Songs
David Fanshawe
Fanfare to Planet Earth
& Millennium March
Robert Rice
Vasari Singers
Forest Philharmonic Orchestra
Jeremy Backhouse
Saturday 10 June at 7.30pm
Guildford Civic
£1.50
Dates for your Diary
Guildford Philharmonic Choir
2000-2001 Season
Saturday 28 October 2000
Guildford Cathedral
Mozart Symphony No 40 in G Minor
Mass in C Minor
Sunday 17 December 2000
Guildford Civic
Christmas Carol Concert
Saturday 10 March 2001
Guildford Civic
Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem
Saturday 12 May 2001
Guildford Cathedral
Vaughan Williams Symphony No 1 “Sea Symphony”
Tickets available from Guildford Civic 01483 444555
or Roger Penny 01483 564076
Interval
William Walton
Belshazzar’s Feast
DAVID FANSHAWE, a Churchill Fellow and the recipient of many international awards,
is a composer and explorer, ethnomusicologist, guest speaker, photographer, author,
media, film and TV personality. Born in 1942 in Devon, England, David Fanshawe was
educated at St George’s Choir School and Stowe, after which he joined a documentary
film company in London, gaining valuable experience as a film editor. In 1965 he won
a foundation scholarship to the Royal College of Music, studying composition with
John Lambert.
His ambition to record indigenous folk music began in Arabia in 1966 and was intensified
on subsequent journeys through North and East Africa, SE Asia and the Pacific, resulting
in his unique and highly original blend of Music and Travel. Major compositions feature
his acclaimed African Sanctus, Salaams and Arabian Fantasy. His work is the focus of
unique albums, concerts, multi-media events and award-winning documentary films
including BBC’s African Sanctus, Musical Mariner (National Geographic) and Tropical
Beat. Other works include 30 scores for film and television and concert works for
orchestra, chamber ensemble and choir, including Dona Nobis Pacem, The Awakening
and his new Fanfare to Planet Earth and Millennium March.
Since 1978, his ten-year odyssey recording across the Pacific ocean has resulted in a
monumental archive: thousands of stereo tapes, slides and journals, preserving and
documenting the music and oral traditions of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. He
is currently publishing, digitally copying and cataloguing his Africa and Pacific
Collections, whilst composing Pacific Odyssey for a world premiere at the Sydney Opera
House.
Fanfare to Planet Earth
The Fanfare opens dramatically with heraldic trumpets answered by sforzando strikes
on deep percussion. This main theme has strong major / minor shifts and its influences
are universal in character. The music develops antiphonally with the brass in canons and
continues on a grand scale, evoking a kaleidoscope of history at the dawning of a new
era. The Fanfare embraces the splendour and grandeur of our planet earth, molto
grandioso, and culminates in a chordal cluster - a blaze of brass and percussion in G
major, which describes my feelings of optimism at the start of the 21* century.
Millennium March
Constructed along classical lines, the theme of Millennium March is catchy and not
without humour. Its recurring motif on trumpets, con brio, develops the opening bars of
the Fanfare. With a prominent, chromatically descending bass line on trombones, the
March is set in counterpoint against lively triplet harmonies on horns, with a quirky
counter melody on the upper wind. After a short second subject, punctuated by brass in
triads, the main theme is further developed into a sweeping middle section, which is
distinctly English in character and reflects my own very English roots. The March gathers
momentum through several dramatic key-changes and ends with a surprise flourish of
chromaticism, marked Tempo Apocalyptic.
A note from the composer
I have composed Fanfare to Planet Earth and Millennium March to honour and
celebrate the dawn of the new Millennium. Within the score, I have tried to reflect upon
the 57 years I have lived on this planet, sharing some of the world’s great musical diversity,
which I have been privileged to experience. We have reached the end of an era. We are
embarking on a new future, in which, I hope, the World will become a better place for
our children to inherit. The works are arranged for wind band, brass band, big band,
marching band, bagpipes and symphony orchestra. Long live tunes and live music good luck for the new Millennium.
© David Fanshawe
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Serenade for Strings in E minor Op 20
Allegro piacevole
Larghetto
Allegro
This “early” work was written and first performed in 1893, after Elgar, now in his midthirties, had moved back to Malvern from London (having concluded that he could not
“make it” as a composer in the big city). 1890 saw the performance of Froissart overture
at the Worcester Festival. The string serenade was performed on a few occasions but it
was not until the end of the century that Elgar established himself as a significant
COmpOSer.
The serenade has become one of his most performed pieces, perhaps because, as W.H.Reed
expressed it, the music is “playable by performers of moderate ability without being
below the notice of the crack orchestral player”. The work certainly also contains the
seeds of Elgar’s later style (especially the slow movement), and with this intimate
knowledge of the string instruments (teacher and violinist himself) the work is popular
with players as well as audiences.
© Matt Kelly
Ralph Vaughan Williams 1872 - 1958
Vaughan Williams is arguably the greatest composer Britain has seen since the days of
Henry Purcell. In a long and extensive career, he composed music notable for its power,
nobility and expressiveness, representing, perhaps, the essence of “Englishness”.
He was born in 1872 in the Cotswold village of Down Ampney. Educated at Charterhouse
School, then Trinity College, Cambridge, he was later a pupil of Stanford and Parry at
the Royal College of Music. For a brief period Vaughan Williams studied with Ravel in
Paris. At the turn of the century he was among the very first to travel into the
countryside to collect folk-songs and carols from singers, notating them for future
generations to enjoy. As musical editor of the English Hymnal, he composed several
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hymns that are now world-wide favourites (e.g. For All the Saints, Come Down O Love
Divine). Later he also helped edit The Oxford Book of Carols, with similar success.
Vaughan Williams volunteered to serve in the Field Ambulance service in Flanders
throughout the 1914 - 1918 war, during which the loss of close friends such as the
composer George Butterworth affected him deeply.
Before the war he had met and then sustained a long and deep friendship with the composer
Gustav Holst. For many years Vaughan Williams conducted and led the Leith Hill Music
Festival, conducting Bach’s St Matthew Passion on a regular basis. He also became a
member of the Board of Professors at the Royal College of Music.
Vaughan Williams was given the Order of Merit in 1935, and died in August 1958. His
ashes are interred in Westminster Abbey , near Purcell.
In a long and productive life, music flowed from his creative pen in profusion. Hardly a
musical genre was untouched or failed to be enriched by his work, which included nine
symphonies, five operas, film music, ballet and stage music, several song cycles, church
music and works for chorus and orchestra.
© RVW Society
Five Mystical Songs
Deceptively simple, these five short songs are striking for their passion, depth and sheer
beauty of sound.
First performed in 1911, Vaughan Williams had been working sporadically on the pieces
since 1906. The songs set to music poems written by the seventeenth century religious
poet, George Herbert, from a collection known as The Temple, published shortly after
his early death in 1633. The romantic ardour of Vaughan Williams’ music is ideally
suited to the religious sentiment of Herbert’s poetry. The spiritual link, or as Vaughan
Williams coins it, the mysticism, is in the heartfelt inspiration of the two artistic creations.
It may come as some surprise to learn that Vaughan Williams was a professed atheist, but
in Herbert’s religious text, Vaughan Williams recognises the same depth of vision and
sincerity to a cause as Vaughan Williams espoused to his own art of composition.
The first two songs, Easter and I Got Me Flowers, take as their text the two halves of a
single poem. The words are striking and so too is the music. The tone turns to the
sensuous with the words “Awake my lute...” reflecting the musical imagery in the words
to perfection. The “stretched sinews” of the crucified Christ are poignantly echoed by
the prominent harp. The second part of the poem, I Got Me Flowers, begins gently
enough with a plainsong style melody and the chorus humming to a short “u” sound. It
builds to a climax with soloist, chorus and full orchestra declaring that there is no day to
compare with this (ie Easter Day) “There is but one, and that one ever”. Vaughan Williams
decided to split the poem as the metre alters completely after the words “I got me flowers
to strew thy way”.
The third song, I bade me welcome, is the most ambitious of the five. It is also the
longest as well as being the last to be written, taking the form of a dialogue between the
poet and Love (ie God). The end, with the wordless chorus marked pppp intoning the
ancient Corpus Christi antiphon, O Sacrum Convivium, has been identified as one of the
great moments in Vaughan Williams’ music that will either “touch something very deep
within your soul or simply pass you by”. The depth of Herbert’s religious conviction is
portrayed superbly by the purity of Vaughan William’s music and the spine-tingling
sensation it induces is felt long after the last notes have died away.
The fourth song, The Call, masks profound thoughts behind deceptively simple words.
In an invocation of the Trinity, each verse (there are three) begins by invoking an attribute
of God, with the ensuing three lines describing how the particular attribute guides us
through life and brings us to communion with God. The modal harmony chosen by
Vaughan Williams lends to the song a feeling of antiquity and the consecutive triads give
the song its structure and strength.
And finally the Antiphon bursts forth. The most well-known of the five songs, it is for chorus
only. The robust and exultant style can be traced through many of Vaughan Williams
subsequent works, the Benedicte, the last chorus of Dona Nobis Pacem and the finale of the
Eighth Symphony. It is a spirited and rousing setting of the well-known hymn Let All the
World in Every Corner Sing and the spirit of the words has rarely been better captured. Itis
a joyful and life-affirming end to a profound and heartfelt song cycle.
© Elizabeth-Claire Bazin
Easter
Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him may’st rise:
That, as his death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more, Just.
Awake my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art.
The cross taught all wood to resound his name
Who bore the same.
His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.
Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song
Pleasant and long:
Or since all music is but three parts vied
And multiplied;
O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part
And make up our defects with his sweet art.
I got me flowers
I got me flowers to strew thy way;
I got me boughs off many a tree:
But thou wast up by break of day,
And brought’st thy sweets along with thee.
The sun arising in the East,
Though he give light, and the East perfume;
If they should offer to contest
With thy arising, they presume.
Can there be any day but this,
Though many suns to shine endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we miss:
There is but one, and that one ever.
Love bade me welcome
Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If T lack’d any thing.
A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but 1?
Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
The Call
Come, my Way, my Truth, My Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath:
Such a Truth, as ends all strife:
Such a Life, as killeth death.
Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a Light, as shows a feast:
Such a Feast, as mends in length:
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.
Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a Joy, as none can move:
P e =Y o
Such a Love, as none can part:
Such a Heart, as joys in love.
Antiphon
Let all the world in every corner sing,
My God and King.
The heavens are not too high,
His praise may thither fly:
The earth is not too low,
His praises there may grow.
Let all the world in every corner sing,
My God and King.
The Church with Psalms must shout,
No door can keep them out:
But above all, the heart
Must bear the longest part.
Let all the world in every corner sing,
My God and King.
If you would like to find out more about Ralph Vaughan Williams, the RVW Society ( registered
charity number 1017175) is an active and enthusiastic society committed to promoting the
composer’s music through concerts, lectures and its journal, which is published three times a
year. Annual membership costs £15 andfurther details of the society’s activities may be obtained
from the Membership Secretary Dr David Betts, Tudor Cottage, 30 Tivoli Road, Brighton, East
Sussex, BN1 5BH.
William Walton 1902 - 1983
William Walton was born on 29 March 1902 in Oldham, Lancashire. His father was
choir master at the local parish church and as a young boy, Walton was familiar with the
standard choral repertoire, such as Haydn’s Creation and Handel’s Messiah.
At the age of 10, Walton gained a place as chorister at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford,
where he was to remain, first as chorister then as undergraduate, until 1920. At Oxford,
Walton widened his repertoire becoming increasingly immersed in the works of
contemporary composers, including Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg and Satie. At Oxford,
Walton became friends with the poet Sacherverell Sitwell and together they arranged
concerts at Oxford whilst Walton continued to broaden his musical education by attending
concerts in London, at the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester and by staying up late studying
newly published music scores in Oxford’s well-stocked library. All of this was to the
detriment of his official studies and he did not get his degree but went down from Oxford
in 1920 to lodge with his friend Sitwell, Sitwell’s brother Osbert and his sister, Edith.
This marked a further step in Walton’s musical education as, whilst staying with the
Sitwells, he met many great contemporary composers including Peter Warlock,
Frederick Delius and Constant Lambert, with whom Walton was to become close friends.
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Walton’s first composition of note was a piano quartet performed in Salzburg in 1923.
The next major work was the ground-breaking Facade, scored for four instrumentalists
and the simultaneous reciting of poems by Edith Sitwell. Walton continued to compose
whilst working as a jazz pianist for a year with a band. The overture Portsmouth Point
(1925) brought him international popularity, while the more introspective Viola Concerto
(1929) solidified his reputation in England and abroad. Three major blockbusters were
to follow: Belshazzar’s Feast (1931), the First Symphony (1935) and a Violin Concerto
(1939). The march Crown Imperial (1937) was composed for the coronation of King
George VI and at this time, Walton was considered as the foremost composer of Britain.
During World War II, Walton principally composed music for patriotic films, followed
by a project which was to take him eight years, the opera Troilus and Cressida (1954).
By this time Benjamin Britten had appeared on the musical scene and had superseded
Walton in the eyes of the critics. This did not affect Walton’s output and some of his
later works, such as the Cello Concerto (1957), are remarkable. In later years, Walton
moved to the island of Ischia in Naples. He continued to actively compose until his
death there in 1983.
Belshazzar’s Feast
British audiences have always shown a great fondness for oratorios. Handel found his
oratorios to be just as popular as his operas, despite their lack of spectacle and in the 19"
century Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah with its flowing arias and dramatic choruses, was
an immediate hit. Many composers adopted the form and tried to emulate these successes.
Some, such as Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius” succeeded, but many were performed
once, never to be heard again. And so it was that in 1929 a young William Walton was
commissioned by the BBC to compose a work, modest in size, to be limited to “a small
chorus, a small orchestra not exceeding 15 and a soloist”. Walton asked his friend,
Osbert Sitwell, to select passages from the Old Testament and for the main text, Sitwell
chose an adaptation of the fifth chapter of the Book of Daniel, telling the story of
Belshazzar the King and the fall of the mighty city of Babylon. To accompany this,
Sitwell also chose passages from Isaiah, Psalm 137 (the lament of the captive Hebrews
by the waters of Babylon) and Psalm 81 (the Hebrews hymn of triumph over the fallen
city).
Walton responded with music that is as direct, bold and striking as the Old Testament
itself. The work is full of contrast, jagged rhythms and harsh dissonances. Crunching
brass and explosive percussion are juxtaposed with smoothly flowing passages of wistful
harmonies where the huge orchestral forces are tacet. The combined effect is of immense
power as awesome as the Old Testament. All of this tautly compressed into 35 minutes,
galloping through the biblical text selected by Sitwell, yet never rushing or speeding and
not so much as a hint of short windedness.
The first performance, given at the Leeds Festival of 1931 (after choral rehearsals lasting
some 6 months) burst upon a surprised audience to critical acclaim and shocked reactions
amongst the Establishment, an Establishment which remained shocked for some time.
A proposed performance at the Three Choirs Festival for the following year was postponed
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TS
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as it was not considered appropriate for performance in a cathedral. It was not until
1957 that the work was performed at that festival.
The work is all the more remarkable for being that of a 29-year-old man. The score
reveals an amalgam of influences from Elgar through Mendelsson back as far as Purcell.
It is scored for a mixed choir, baritone solo and a large orchestra consisting of expanded
woodwind sections and a huge percussion section including four kettle drums, snare
drums, bass drum, tenor drums, triangles, tambourine, castanets, cymbals, gong,
xylophone, glockenspiel, woodblock, whip and even an anvil! In addition, there are two
harps, piano and organ.
Trombones open the work with a unison B flat repeated 11 times, followed by an emphatic
recitative for the male chorus. It continues with the Lament of the Hebrews, captives in
the mighty city of Babylon; the female voices joining in the poignant flowing harmonies.
The mood of despair and hopelessness in this first part of the work, underlined by the
wailing saxophone, is interposed with more forceful passages as the Israelite prisoners
tell how their captives expected them to provide entertainment. The resentful mood
breaks through to the accompaniment of short stabbing brass as the choir repeats “How
can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
The second section begins after a brief pause, with a narrative by the baritone soloist
telling of the King’s feast. The composer himself described this part as a “shopping
list”, being an account of Babylon’s greatness. The choir jumps in to continue the narration
with the orchestra periodically launching into the text like a great symbolic thunderbolt,
creating an atmosphere of tension and despair. Walton’s jazz rhythms no longer shock
as they once did when the work was first performed. The preparations for the feast lead
into barbaric choruses of praise for the different heathen gods, each illustrated by the
composer by imaginative orchestration and exotic percussion. Flute, piccolo and triangle
against the women’s voices for the God of Silver, xylophone and col legno violins for
the God of Wood and so on. The God of Brass comes last and the brass band, already
active, erupts into full glory.
The second part ends with a dramatic pause followed by the baritone soloist eerily taking
up the central part of the narration about the writing on the wall. Walton accompanies
this passage with delicate, spine-tingling instrumentation, cymbals, drum and gong, and
when the soloist recounts the death of Belshazzar, the choir burst out to snatch the word
“slain” from the soloist’s mouth in a great shout. In that moment, the chorus is transformed
from rejoicing courtiers in the city of Babylon to the Jews, bright-eyed with vengeance.
Three great hammer blows from the orchestra symbolically complete the destruction of
the city.
The final section is a hymn of praise to the true God of Jacob. Itis briefly interrupted by
reference to the weeping and wailing of other kings and merchants who no doubt now
realise their precarious position. The full choir divides into two choirs and the work
hurtles into a joyous, blazing conclusion with enraptured Hallelujahs flung back and
forth in antiphony between the two choirs.
© Elizabeth-Claire Bazin
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“The score is a riot of sound, continually pouring in intensity up to the climax where,
against a background ofpercussion noises, the writing on the wall is slowly spelled out.
To the ordinary orchestra are added two squads of trumpeters.
Belshazzar’s Feast is stark Judaism from first to last, and the jubilant chorus of revenge
accomplished makes a powerful finale.”
The Times, 11 October 1931
Thus spake Isaiah:
Thy sons that thou shalt beget,
They shall be taken away
And be eunuchs
In the palace of the King of Babylon.
Howl ye, howl ye, therefore:
For the day of the Lord is at hand!
By the waters of Babylon,
There we sat down: yea, we wept
And hanged our harps upon the willows.
For they that wasted us
Required of us mirth;
They that carried us away captive
Required of us a song.
Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a strange land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget her cunning.
- If I do not remember thee,
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.
Yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
By the waters of Babylon
There we sat down: yea, we wept.
O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed,
Happy shall he be that taketh thy children
And dasheth them against a stone,
For with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down
And shall be found no more at all.
Babylon was a great city,
Her merchandise was of gold and silver,
Of precious stones, of pearls, of fine linen,
Of purple, silk and scarlet,
All manner vessels of ivory,
All manner vessels of most precious wood,
Of brass, iron and marble,
Cinnamon, odours and ointments,
Of frankincense, wine and oil,
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2YNETRSOy
eLoSit
Fine flour, wheat and beasts,
Sheep, horses, chariots, slaves,
And the souls of men.
In Babylon
Belshazzar the King made a great feast,
Made a feast to a thousand of his lords,
And drank wine before the thousand.
Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine,
Commanded us to bring the gold and silver vessels:
Yea! the golden vessels, which his father, Nebuchadnezzar,
Had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem.
He commanded us to bring the golden vessels
Of the temple of the house of God,
That the King, his Princes, his wives
And his concubines might drink therein.
Then the King commanded us:
Bring ye the cornet, flute, sackbut, psaltery
And all kinds of music: they drank wine again,
Yea, drank from the sacred vessels,
And then spake the King:
Praise ye the God of Gold,
Praise ye the God of Silver,
Praise ye the God of Iron,
Praise ye the God of Wood,
Praise ye the God of Stone,
Praise ye the God of Brass,
Praise ye the Gods!
Thus in Babylon, the mighty city,
Belshazzar the King made a great feast,
Made a feast to a thousand of his lords,
And drank wine before the thousand.
Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine,
Commanded us to bring the gold and silver vessels
That his Princes, his wives and his concubines
Might rejoice and drink therein.
After they had praised their strange gods,
The idols and the devils,
False gods who can neither see nor hear,
Called they for the timbrel and the pleasant harp
To extol the glory of the King.
Then they pledged the King before the people,
Crying, Thou, O King, art King of Kings:
O King, live for ever...
And in that same hour, as they feasted,
Came forth fingers of a man’s hand
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And the King saw
The part of the hand that wrote.
And this was the writing that was written:
“MENE, MENE, TEKEL UPHARSIN”
“Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.”
In that night was Belshazzar the King slain
And his Kingdom divided.
Then sing aloud to God our strength:
Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
Take a psalm, bring hither the timbrel,
Blow up the trumpet in the new moon,
Blow up the trumpet in Zion
For Babylon the Great is fallen, fallen.
Alleluia!
Then sing aloud to God our strength:
Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob,
While the Kings of the Earth lament
And the merchants of the Earth
Weep, wail and rend their raiment.
They cry, Alas, Alas, that great city,
In one hour is her judgement come.
The trumpeters and pipers are silent,
And the harpers have ceased to harp,
And the light of a candle shall shine no more.
Then sing aloud to God our strength
Make a joyful noise to the God of Jacob,
For Babylon the Great is fallen. Alleluia!
If you would like to find out more about William Walton, visit the following web site dedicated to
his music and works - www.geocities.com/Vienna/5827/walton.htm
Robert Rice was educated at Tiffin School, Kingston-uponThames, and read music at King’s College, Cambridge, where
he held a choral scholarship. He completed his postgraduate
training at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Mark
Wildman, where he graduated with the prestigious DipRAM,
having won prizes for performance in many genres including
Baroque arias, English song and Russian song.
Robert’s concert work takes him all over the British Isles and
has included work with the CBSO and Bournemouth
Sinfonietta. His repertoire is based around the major oratorios,
with recent engagements including appearances with the Oxford Bach Choir, the Hereford
Choral Society and the Edinburgh Choral Union. In the 1997-98 season he sang the role
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of Christus in Bach’s St. John Passion at St. John’s, Smith Square on Good Friday, and
later returned to St. John’s to take part in a Monteverdi Vespers of 1610.
Robert’s repertoire also includes many works involving wide vocal ranges such as Carmina
Burana. A keen advocate of contemporary vocal music, Robert made his South Bank debut
in 1998 as The King in Peter Maxwell Davies’ music-theatre work Eight Songs for a Mad
King; and more recent dramatic work includes Gyorgy Ligeti’s Aventures in Bonn and the
cover of Borilée in Rameau’s Les Boreades at the Salzburg Festival. During 1999 he gave
recitals in Birmingham and London, where he also made his debut at the Royal Festival Hall.
Jeremy Backhouse began his musical career in Canterbury
Cathedral where he was Head Chorister, and later studied music
at Liverpool University. He spent five years as Music Editor at
the Royal National Institute for the Blind, where he was
responsible for the transcription of print music into Braille. In
1986 he joined EMI Records as a Literary Editor and since
GPelracd
April 1990 he has combined his work as a Consultant Editor
for EMI Classics with his career as a freelance conductor and
record producer.
In January 1995, he was appointed Chorus Master of the
Guildford Philharmonic Choir, working closely with conductors such as Jonathan
Willcocks, En Shao and Vernon Handley, as well as regularly conducting concerts with
the choir and orchestra alike. In March 1998, he conducted a memorable performance of
Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in Guildford’s Civic Hall, the first public performance
to be promoted by the choir itself. In March 1999 Jeremy gave a “masterly” performance
of Bruckner’s Mass in E minor and Mahler’s Symphony No.2 in Guildford Cathedral.
Jeremy is also the conductor of the Vasari Singers, widely acknowledged as one of the
finest chamber choirs in the country. Since winning the prestigious Sainsbury’s Choir of
the Year competition in 1988, they have performed regularly on the South Bank and at
St.John’s, Smith Square in London.
In April 1995 he was invited for the first time to conduct the BBC Singers, “the country’s
leading professional choir”, in a programme of music by Lennox Berkeley, broadcast on
BBC Radio 3; since then he has conducted them in broadcast programmes of Holst (for
the BBC’s “Fairest Isle” celebrations), Rubbra, Massenet and Delibes.
Most recently he has been working with the Brighton Festival Chorus as an assistant
conductor, and in September 1998, became the Music Director of the Wooburn Singers.
With this choir and the Hanover Band he conducted a “magnificent” performance of
Bach’s Mass in B minor in October 1999 followed by an extremely well-received
performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in March 2000.
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The Forest Philharmonic
The Forest Philharmonic was founded in the London Borough of Waltham Forest in
1962 and has since become this country’s leading community orchestra. Rivalling the
highest professional standards, it uniquely combines the talents of London’s best amateur
musicians with those of its up and coming music students. The orchestra has been
joined by many international artists such as pianists John Lill and Ronan O’Hora, violinists
Gyorgy Pauk and Tasmin Little, cellists Robert Cohen and Natalie Clein, and singers
Lesley Garrett, Della Jones and Patricia MacMahon.
The Forest Philharmonic is also regularly invited to perform around the country, acting
as an ambassador for the Borough of Waltham Forest and broadening the orchestra’s
repertoire of orchestral and choral works.
The 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 reputation and can
now rightly claim its place as one of the foremost choruses in the country. The Choir is
now independent from the Borough of Guildford but still maintains close links with the
Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra, with joint performances such as the one this evening.
The Choir grew to prominence under the batons of such eminent British musicians as Sir
Charles Groves, Vernon Handley and Sir David Willcocks. Sir David remains in close
contact with the Choir as its current President.
Notable achievements in recent years include Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Freiburger
Bachchor in Freiburg in May 1998 and a rousing performance of Elgar’s Dream of
Gerontius at the Guildford Civic Hall in March 1998. Last season’s highlights included
Philip Moore’s De Profundis and Poulenc’s Gloria in collaboration with the University
of Surrey choir and orchestra. In March 1999 the Choir gave a widely acclaimed
performance of two works which must surely rank among the greatest choral works of
all time, Mahler’s Second Symphony — “Resurrection” and Bruckner’s Mass in E Minor.
The Choir has enjoyed a challenging and exciting concert programme for the 1999/2000
season. On 20 November 1999 it performed The Creation by Haydn with the Guildford
Philharmonic Orchestra and in March it held a gala performance of Bach’s St Matthew
Passion with its twin choir, the Freiburger Bachchor.
The Choir is always searching for new members to maintain its high standard and auditions
are held throughout the year. For further details about joining the Choir or for any
information about any of our future concerts, please contact Noreen Ayton (Tel: 01932
221918). Rehearsals are held on Monday evenings throughout term time in central
Guildford and prospective members are most welcome to attend rehearsals on an informal
basis before committing to an audition.
If you would like to find out more about how you can support the choir by becoming a
Benefactor, please contact Susan Ranft (Tel: 01306 888870).
16
15T SOPRANOS
1STALTOS
15T TENORS
15T BASSES
Joanna Andrews
Mary Anne Barber
Noreen Ayton
Jane Brooks
Amanda Clayton
Peter Allen
Richard Austen
Neil Clayton
Valerie Edwards
Bob Cowell
Johnny Larsson
Chris Robinson
John Trigg
Celia Embleton
Maggie Van Koetsveld
Sally Bayton
Elizabeth-Claire Bazin
Ursula Camplisson
Elaine Chapman
Maura Dearden
Rachel Edmondson
Lois McCabe
Susan Norton
Margaret Parry
Kate Rayner
Judy Smith
Philip Davies
Simon Doran
Mandy Freeman
Ingrid Hardiman
Michael Dudley
Terence Ellis
Jo Harman
Joy Hunter
Geoffrey Forster
Laurie James
Carol Jones
Helen Lavin
Valerie Leggatt
Tony Macklow-Smith
Chris Newbery
Alec Leggatt
Kay McManus
Roger Penny
Claire Strudley
Carol Terry
Christine Medlow
Rosalind Milton
David Ross
Enid Weston
Frances Worpe
Penny Overton
Lesley Scordellis
Catherine Shacklady
2" SOPRANOS
2P ALTOS
2P TENORS
2P BASSES
Jacqueline Alderton
Marion Arbuckle
Bob Bromham
Peter Andrews
Roger Barrett
Philip Stanford
Olivia Ames-Lewis
Sally Bailey
Douglas Cook
Penny Baxter
Iris Ball
Tony Cousins
Alan Batterbury
Josephine Field
Evelyn Beastall
Leslie Harfield
Norman Carpenter
Angela Hand
Iris Bennett
Nick Gough
Nora Kennea
Mary Clayton
Peter Herbert
Jane Kenney
Andrea Dombrowe
Michael Jeffery
Judith Lewy
Anne Gorath
Stephen Jepson
Gayle Mayson
Carol Hobbs
Max New
Alison Palmer
Sheila Hodson
John Parry
Vivienne Parsons
Krystyna Marsden
Susan Ranft
Mary Moon
Alison Rawlinson
Brenda Moore
Gillian Rix
Jean Munro
Jill Scott
Sue O’Connell
Dawn Smith
Anne Philps
Vicki Steele
Gillian Sharpe
Kathy Stickland
Prue Smith
Tessa Wilkinson
Rosey Storey
Christine Wilks
Maralyn Wong
k2
Vasari Singers
The Vasari Singers is one of the most versatile and popular chamber choirs in the
country. Since winning the prestigious Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year competition in
1988 broadcast on BBC Television, the choir has established an impressive reputation
as a group which performs to the very highest standards. Their musical and performing
ability has been further confirmed in a series of highly-acclaimed concerts throughout
the country.
They perform regularly at St John’s, Smith Square, at the Barbican Centre (notably,
as part of the Hungarian and Scandinavian Festivals), the Purcell Room and Queen
Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank, at the Wigmore Hall and in the cathedrals of
Canterbury, Winchester, Peterborough, Ely and Hereford. Each year they sing the
services in Canterbury during a cathedral choir break and, also annually, they sing
Midnight Mass in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve. The choir revels in the
variety of venue and bookings: for example, one Christmas they joined Peter Skellern,
Richard Stilgoe, Cantabile and the BBC Big Band and BBC Concert Orchestra for a
concert on BBC Radio 2, broadcast live throughout Europe; they also featured in the
BBC’s moving Songs of Praise on the Hospice movement from Holy Trinity, Clapham
Common.
The choir has also broadcast frequently on BBC Radios 3 and 4. Their recordings,
for both EMI Eminence and United, have been widely praised by the musical press
and public alike, their CD of Howells’ Requiem and the Frank Martin Mass being
nominated for a Gramophone Award in 1995 and being selected (along with their
Britten CD) for inclusion in the 1996 Gramophone Good CD Guide and 1996 Penguin
Guide. Other CD releases include recordings of works by Gérecki, Ridout, Pirt and
Tavener (on EMI Eminence), which have been welcomed with unanimous critical
acclaim; from the Gramophone: “Vasari Singers are a group of the very highest
calibre, but they excel even themselves here ... the overall choral tone so perfectly
blended and exquisitely balanced that it quite takes the breath away”. Of their
recording released in March 1997, Parry Songs of Farewell, Vaughan Williams’ Mass
in G minor and Frank Bridge’s A Prayer, Classical Music wrote: “...the performance
of the Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor will undoubtedly enhance their reputation
as one of Britain’s finest chamber choirs.” Their latest recording, of sacred and secular
works by Kodaly was released on the Guild label in July 1999.
18
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19
GUILDFORD PHILHARMONIC CHOIR
President: Sir David Willcocks CBE, MC.
PATRONS
Honorary Freemen Bill and Doreen Bellerby MBE
M/s Annie Chatterley and Dr. Michael Kearsley
Dr. Rodney Cuff
Mr. Michael Dawe
Dr. and Mrs. William Dodds
M/s Margaret Denskevich
Carole Harding Roots, Executive Presentation(Staines)
Mr. Laurie James
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Kilkenny
Mr. Ron Medlow
Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell New
The Earl of Onslow
Penny and Hayter Opticians
Mr. Claud Parry
PRR Partners (Management Consultants, Westcott)
Mrs. Jean Radley
Mrs. Jean Shail
FRIENDS
Mr. P.M. Bennett
Britten’s Music Ltd
Dega Broadcast Systems
Mrs. Joyce Feather
Management Simulations
Mr. and Mrs. John Oliver
Miss Elizabeth Ranft, Shakespeare’s Globe
Mr. and Mrs. James Ranft
Mr. Ian Rayner
Miss Suzanne Rix
Mr. Michael Shortland
Mr. Edward Varley
If you are interested in participating please contact
Susan Ranft (Tel: 01306 888870)
20