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Vespers (extracts)
The Bells
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Saturday
19th May 2012
7.30 pm Guildford Cathedral
vivacechorus.org
Vlvace
Chor
An Evening of Music by
RACHMANINOYV
All-Night Vigil (Vespers), Op. 37 - extracts
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Vocalise No. 14, Op. 34
The Bells, Op. 35
Francis Pott
Piano
Sara Lian Owen
Soprano
Edward Hughes
Tenor
Gareth Brynmor John
Baritone
The Brandenburg Sinfonia
Conductor: Jeremy Backhouse
Tonight's concert is being held in Guildford Cathedral
by kind permission of the Dean and Chapter.
PRE-CONCERT TALKS
Before Vivace Chorus concerts in Guildford Cathedral, we offer ticket
holders a free talk given by an acknowledged music expert who has a §
special interest in the works to be performed. We are delighted that §
before this concert of music by Rachmaninov, including not only two
choral pieces, but also his ever-popular Piano Concerto No. 2., the talk is j
being given by tonight’s solo pianist, Francis Pott, himself — there can
surely be no greater ‘special interest’ than to be about to perform such a
well-known work to a cathedral full of eager concert-goers!
The pre-concert talk for Britten’s War Requiem on November 17" will be
given by Christopher Mark, senior lecturerin musicology at the Unlversny
of Surrey, whose research is focused on 20" century English music. He
has published book chapters, articles and reviews on Elgar, Britten,
Vaughan Williams and Tippett, and has also written two books on Britten:
Early Benjamin Britten was published in 1995 and the second, Britten:
An Extraordinary Life, is due for publication in late 2012.
Members of the audience who wish to attend the talk and do not already
have reserved seating can reserve their concert seats beforehand in the
appropriate unreserved areas of the Cathedral. The talk should finish at
7.10pm, allowing time to order refreshments for the interval.
e
e Night at the Opém, March 2012
‘Congratulations! Bravo! What a super concert. I can't:
tell you how much we enjoyed it and look forward to the:
f
next one.”
"Fantastic concert last night. We enjoyed it /mmense/y
Great choir, orchestra and soloists. Well done.”
"Un véritable regal ce samedi. Bravo les artistes.”
/
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"I't really was a splendid evening with Jeremy, Vivace ana’
the Brana’enburg Sinfonia on top form.”
.
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Flash photography, audio and video recording are not permitted
without the prior written consent of the Vivace Chorus. Please also
kindly switch off all mobile phones and alarms on digital watches.
2
Vivace Chorus
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 — 1943)
“Six foot two of Russian gloom” was
Igor Stravinsky’s celebrated dismissal
of Sergei Rachmaninov. Probably this
has played its part in leading posterity
to focus mainly on the vein of Slavic
melancholy running through much of
Rachmaninov’s
music,
while
Rachmaninov the pianist's famously
poker-faced stage demeanour could
hardly
have
invited
anyone
to
question
Stravinsky’'s
assessment.
Yet the picture is misleading. The
pianist's scowl might be attributable
to a lifelong battle with stage fright
(sometimes he had to be physically
pushed towards the piano), and also
conjecturally to the condition known
as acromegaly, which would account for the heavily impassive features
and also the massive hand stretches demanded by his keyboard writing.
Moreover, the Rachmaninov known to friends and family was a warmhearted, generous soul who took a childlike delight in the practical jokery
of his four offspring, and who reportedly once wept with gentle mirth
when these managed to tie together the shoelaces of a visiting fellow
composer under the dining table. On another occasion, the great violinist
Fritz Kreisler suddenly lost his place during a duo recital. “Where are
we?”, he hissed towards the keyboard. “In the Carnegie Hall’,
reassuringly replied Rachmaninov without dropping a stitch. But the dry
humour had been hard won.
The story behind Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto is well known:
the
premiere of his First Symphony had been conducted by the
composer Glazunov in a state of what was later alleged to be advanced
inebriation. A notorious review by César Cui declared its intentions early:
“If there were a conservatoire in hell...", it began, before suggesting that
its most talented graduate could not have come up with a more infernal
racket, even had he been asked to compose a symphony entitled
The Seven Plagues of Egypt. A combination of Glazunov, the public and
Cui precipitated depression in Rachmaninov to the point of nervous
collapse.
Composition ceased entirely, until the sinisterly-named
neurologist Dr Nikolai Dahl (one of musical history’s more crucial walk-on
Vivace Chorus
3
parts) succeeded in lifting him out of the Slough of Despond through
some pioneering form of hypnotherapy.
The Second Concerto is not the sole token of Rachmaninov’s recovery,
which saw the simultaneous creation of his Second Suite for two pianos
and the lyrical ‘Cello Sonata. However, the composer still faced many
difficulties over the Concerto’s first movement, which he actually
composed only after giving a performance of the completed slow
movement and finale. One wonders at what point he even realised that
the Concerto’s sovereign key must be C minor, since the slow movement
is in remote E major and the finale sets off towards A minor, making its
decisive key-change only just before the soloist enters.
The Concerto bore a grateful inscription to Dahl. Rachmaninov’s cousin
and former teacher, the pianist Alexander Siloti, had taken Europe and
the USA by storm in 1898 with the composer’s equally celebrated solo
piece, the’ C sharp minor Prelude. This had led to Rachmaninov’s own
London debut with the Royal Philharmonic Society, as both pianist and
conductor, in spring 1899. The enormous success of the Second
Concerto occurred in the years immediately following, its fame becoming
international in 1902 and leading to a London performance by Siloti in
May that year. The shrewd assurance with which Rachmaninov handles
form, continuity and the integration of highly memorable thematic ideas
across all three movements easily blinds us to the fact that this is the
work of a man then still in his mid-twenties.
Rachmaninov had graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire as a
pianist in 1891. Learning of Siloti’s imminent retirement, he risked all by
requesting that his examination be held a year early, since he had no
wish to study with anyone else. His graduation as a composer therefore
followed in 1892, bringing him the Conservatoire’s coveted Great Gold
Medal,
awarded
only twice
previously.
His
great
success
on
this
occasion lay with his one-act opera, Aleko. Thus, he emerged into the
wider world pre-eminent in areas likely to lead almost anywhere but
towards sacred composition, of which his total output at that stage
amounted only to a six-part Latin motet, Deus Meus (1890).
Eighteen
years
elapsed
before
Rachmaninov produced
his
mature
setting of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom in 1910, and a further five
before he completed the All-Night Vigil, popularly known as his Vespers.
In the former the raw materials were entirely his own, but in the latter he
turned to traditional plainchant, thought to have come with Christianity
itself from Byzantium, but by now saturated with a wholly Russian flavour
and identity. Specialists could say much about Rachmaninov’s specific
choice of chants, but more important for a concert audience is the sheer
4
Vivace Chorus
sublimity
conjured
by
their
assimilation
into
a
completely
unified
compositional idiom. Raw material of this kind tends to work on a law of
diminishing returns: the more elaborate in the first place, the less suitable
for musical development, and vice versa. It comes then as no surprise
that Rachmaninov had perceived a wider potential in liturgical chant, with
its unvarnished spareness and its general adherence to narrow melodic
intervals. In a symphonic context, this had a unique capacity to evoke the
culture, terrain and traditions of a vast country with a vividly dramatic
past.
In addition,
Rachmaninov had conceived an almost obsessive
attachment to the chant Dies Irae, which had first made an appearance
in his Symphony No. 1. This persists, in fragmented guise, as a presence
among many of the piano solo pieces, the Concerto heard this evening
(and its successor), the ‘Cello Sonata, the symphonic poem The Isle of
the Dead, the Second Symphony, the Rhapsody on a Theme of
Paganini, and the composer’s final work, the Symphonic Dances.
Through these runs a more general current of indigenous Russian
liturgy, but the imported Dies Irae from western Europe stands apart.
Like others whose creativity fed upon introspection, throughout his life
Rachmaninov was haunted by the shadow of human and individual
transience; and this chant (especially the stepwise descent of its first four
notes) came to be for him a kind of icon — not so much of judgement and
damnation as of mortality itself: at times poignant, at others terrifying, as
the third movement of The Bells hair-raisingly demonstrates.
In 1912 Rachmaninov was looking for a text to set as a sequel to his
cantata Vesna (Spring), when, from an anonymous admirer, he received
a copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Bells in the translation by the
Russian poet Konstantin Balmont. The admirer was later revealed as
Mariya Danilova, a ‘cello student at the Moscow Conservatoire. The
eventual
result
(in
1913)
remains
arguably
Rachmaninov’s
most
ambitious work, deploying chorus, soloists and the largest orchestra he
had yet required. Across respective movements the bells themselves
evoke festivity, marriage, danger and, finally, departure from this world,
with even the marriage sounds undermined (especially in the choral
interjections) by that omnipresent shape of the Dies Irae, as if in grim
reminder that love itself is but an idyllic interlude on mankind’s inexorable
journey into the unknown.
Rachmaninov tends to be underestimated by those acquainted only with
the surface character of his melodies (as if that were not an achievement
in itself). True, the symphonic process might not always sit easily with
such lyricism, and the composer frequently agonised over revisions or
Vivace Chorus
5
even drastic cuts. But his language, even at its richest, emerges from a
controlled use of small melodic motifs, woven into overlapping strands
until they become virtually omnipresent; and his gloriously generous
melodic inspiration never deserted him. The works heard this evening all
preceded revolution in Russia. A practical man with young mouths to
feed,
Rachmaninov
proved
a
survivor,
moving
his
family
first
to
Switzerland and then, as storm clouds gathered over Europe in the
1930s, emigrating to America. The farewell to Russia separated him from
comfortable upbringing on a much-loved family estate near Novgorod
(where the cathedral bells exerted a lasting influence which possibly we
can hear tonight). Yet, even if his music changed in exile, becoming
leaner and more tersely astringent, he would have understood
Tennyson’s line, 1 am a part of all that | have known' In 1973,
performing
Rachmaninov’s
Second
Symphony
with
the
London
Symphony Orchestra in Moscow, the conductor André Previn was
moved by sounds of open weeping behind him in the audience, and,
backstage afterwards, by an elderly lady who tearfully and wordlessly
handed him a large apple, a prized rarity in the Soviet Union then.
Stravinsky, one would like to think, may have been in a minority. Six foot
two, yes. Russian gloom? Judge for yourself...
© Francis Pott, 2012
All-Night Vigil (Vespers) Op. 37
The All-Night Vigil (BceHowwHoe 6aenne; Vsenoshchnoye bdeniye) is an
a cappella choral composition, written (in less than 2 weeks!) and
premiéred in 1915, in the middle of the first world war. During this period
Rachmaninov was travelling throughout Russia with Serge Koussevitsky,
giving concerts in aid of the war against Germany. His inspiration was as
much politically motivated as anything else — the composition was a
powerful affirmation of nationalism during the war. It consists of settings
of texts taken from the All-night vigil ceremony which precedes the great
holy days of the Russian Orthodox Church. The title of the work is often
translated simply as
Vespers, although only the first six of its fifteen
movements set texts from the Russian Orthodox canonical
hour of
Vespers.
Tonight we present a selection of movements: numbers 1, 6, 7, 14 and
15, sung in the original Russian.
6
Vivace Chorus
The first movement is a fourfold call to prayer, in six and then eight parts,
preceded by the word Amin (Amen), which would have been chanted by
the priest.
Movement 6 is the last movement of Vespers proper and is a hymn to
the Mother of God. This three-part setting is solemn but retains a sense
of rejoicing and gladness.
The start of
Matins
(Movement 7)
is
a chorus
in
praise of God;
Rachmaninov’s setting is rich, with bell-like sounds as the word ‘Slava
(praise) is reiterated.
Movement 14 is the second of the two Resurrection hymns in the work;
these are not sung in one service but alternate to the prevailing chant for
that week. Both are based on znamenny chant, the primordial age-old
form of Russian liturgical, unison singing.
The Vigil ends with another hymn to the Virgin, known as the Akathist
Hymn as the people stand throughout (akathistos means without sitting).
Rachmaninov’s brilliant setting ends the All-Night Vigil in a lively fashion.
1. Come, Let Us Worship (Priidite, Poklonimsya)
Amen.
Come, let us worship God, our King.
Come, let us worship and fall down before Christ, our King and our God.
Come, let us worship and fall down before the very Christ, our King and our God.
Come, let us worship and fall down before Him.
6. Hail Mary, Full of Grace (Bogoroditsye Devo)
Rejoice, O Virgin Mother of God, Mary full of grace; the Lord is with Thee.
Blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb,
for Thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls.
7. Glory to God in the Highest (Slava V Vyshnikh Bogu)
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will amongst men.
O Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall proclaim Thy praise.
14. Resurrection Hymn (Voskres 1z Groba)
Thou didst rise from the tomb and burst the bonds of hell,
Thou didst destroy the condemnation of death, O Lord,
releasing all mankind from the snares of the enemy.
Thou didst show Thyself to Thine apostles,
and didst send them forth to proclaim Thee;
Vivace Chorus
7
and through them Thou hast granted Thy peace to the world,
O Thou who art plenteous in mercy.
15. Thanksgiving to the Mother of God (Vzbrannoy Voyevode)
To Thee, the victorious leader of triumphant hosts, we Thy servants,
delivered from evil, offer hymns of thanksgiving, O Mother of God.
Since Thou dost possess invincible might, set us free from all calamities,
so that we may cry to Thee:
“Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!”
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
I
Moderato
Il
Adagio sostenuto
Il
Allegro scherzando
~ Interval~
(Refreshments may be ordered before the concert)
Vocalise No. 14, Op. 34
The term vocalise denotes a vocal exercise, consisting of a wordless
melody sung to one or more vowels. It was originally designed to help
with pitch and to improve legato singing, but several composers turned
the vocalise into an art form, setting the human voice against the piano
or other instruments. Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, published in 1912, is one
of the best known of the genre; it was the last of a set of 14 songs,
originally for soprano and piano. Its sinuous melody is one of
Rachmaninov’'s most haunting and beautiful themes, and like other
vocalises, sounds equally effective whether sung, played by a solo violin
or orchestrated, as in tonight's programme.
8
Vivace Chorus
The Bells, Op. 35 (Konokona; Kolokola)
Sung tonight in Russian and translated here from the Russian text by
Michael Golden.
I. Allegro, ma non tanto — Tenor solo and chorus
The Silver Sleigh Bells
Listen!
The sleighs are racing in a line, racing in a line.
Their little bells are jingling.
Their silvery light ringing sweetly torments our ears
And, with their singing and their jingling, of oblivion they speak.
Oh, such ringing, ringing, ringing,
Like the tinkling laughter of a child, in the tranquil air of the night
They tell that our daytime delusions will be followed by renewal
Of that magical delight of tender sleep.
The sleighs are racing, racing in a line,
Their little bells are jingling.
The stars are listening as the sleighs, racing away, are speaking,
And, heeding them, the stars themselves are glowing
And, dreaming and shining in the heavens, their spirits soar,
And with evanescent radiance, and with silent fascination,
Together with the ringing, together with the singing, of oblivion they speak.
Il. Lento — Soprano solo and chorus
The Mellow Wedding Bells
Listen!
The holy summons of golden bells calls you to the wedding!
How much tender bliss there is in this youthful song!
Through the peaceful air of the night,
It is as if someone’s eyes are watching, glowing
And, through a wave of melodious sounds, gaze towards the moon.
From the pealing of the wondrous chapel bells,
Full of fabulous rejoicing,
Now swelling, now fading, radiant beams are flying out.
Once more fading, once more sparkling, they are flying out,
And shed a radiant gaze into the future,
Where tender dreams serenely slumber,
Proclaimed in the harmony of the golden bells.
Vivace Chorus
9
lll. Presto — Chorus
The Loud Alarum Bells
Listen!
Hearken to the beating alarum bell,
Like the madness of a brazen hell.
These sounds, in wild torment, a tale of horrors they repeat.
As if clamouring for help,
They cast their cries into the night,
Straight to the ears of the dark night.
Every sound,
Now longer, now shorter,
Proclaims its terror.
And their fright is so intense;
How terrible is every cry
That the rending pealing, unable to be heard,
Can only beat and cry out, cry out, cry out,
And only weep for mercy
And turn to the wailing grief of the blazing inferno.
But, meanwhile, the insane fire
Is both deaf and deafening,
Devouring all.
Then, from the windows, then on the roofs,
It soars yet higher, higher, higher.
And, as if to say: | yearn to soar even higher,
And flare up to meet the moonbeams,
And either | die now or fly up to the moon.
Oh, alarum bells, alarum bells, alarum bells,
If only you could turn back
This horror, these flames, these sparks, the glance,
The first glance of fire,
Which you now proclaim, with your wailing, weeping and ringing.
But now there is no salvation for us;
We are surrounded by flames, by seething,
And by terror and by rage.
Your summons, with such discordance of wild sounds,
Proclaims peril to us.
Then the deaf calamity grows, then falls, like the tide.
Our ears keenly hear the waves in the changing sounds.
Again it falls, again it sobs, the brazen, grinding surf!
10
Vivace Chorus
IV. Lento lugubre
— Baritone and Chorus
The Mournful Iron Bells
The funeral bell is tolling,
The long, slow bell!
The sounds of bitter sorrow are heard
And the dream of bitter life is ended.
The iron bell proclaims the sorrow of burial
And, involuntarily, we tremble,
And from our daily amusements we hasten,
And we sob, and we remember that one day our eyes will also close.
Unchangingly monotonous, the distant proclamation,
The funereal heavy ringing,
As if moaning, sorrowful, angry and weeping,
Grows into a long, slow resonance,
Proclaiming that the sufferer has fallen into eternal sleep.
The rusty belfries sternly repeat one message
Both for the righteous and the unrighteous:
That on your heart there will lie a stone,
And that your eyes will close in sleep.
The funereal torch is burning,
But from the bell-tower someone cries, someone loudly speaks.
A dark figure is standing there.
It roars with laughter and it thunders
And it howls, howls, howls.
It clings to the bell-tower
And swings the echoing bell.
The echoing bell sobs and sobs,
Moaning and groaning in the silent air,
Slowly, solemnly, proclaiming the eternal peace of the tomb.
Some of the printed music for this evening's concert has been hired from
Boosey & Hawkes Music Hire Library,
Surrey County Council Performing Arts Library and
Yorkshire Libraries and Information Music and Drama Service.
Vivace Chorus
11
Francis
began
his
musical
life as a chorister at New
College, Oxford. He held an
open
music scholarship at
Winchester College and then
at
Magdalene
College,
Cambridge, where he studied
composition
with
Holloway and Hugh
while
also
studies
Robin
Wood
pursuing
privately in
piano
London
with the distinguished British
artist, Hamish Milne.
Throughout the 1990s Francis was John Bennett Lecturer in Music at
St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and also a lay clerk in the Choir of Winchester
Cathedral. In 2001 he became Head of London College of Music,
University of West London, later leading Research across the institution’s
wider Faculty of Arts and acceding in 2007 to the University’s first ever
Chair in Composition; he also holds the M.A. and postgraduate Mus.B.
degrees of the University of Cambridge, a Fellowship of London College
of Music (FLCM) and a Ph.D.
Francis prefers to see himself as one of a long line of composer-pianists
for whom advanced pianism is a means to another end, and less as a
‘career’ performer; he regards playing as merely one among many
manifestations of “being a musician”. Nonetheless, he has been heard
several times
playing
his own piano music on
BBC
Radio 3,
has
participated in a number of commercial CD recordings and has appeared
at prestigious venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall. He treasures the
review of an Oxford critic who in the 1980s dubbed him “a pianist
possessed by a thousand devils” after a performance of Liszt's Dante
Sonata, seemingly with approval. He has done his best to live up — or
down — to this ever since. An especial interest for Francis is the pianistic
tradition of the late 19" and early 20" centuries; in particular, Russian
repertoire
and
the
music
of
Nikolai
Medtner,
a
close
friend
of
Rachmaninov.
In demand as a soloist and accompanist, he has also maintained piano
duo partnerships with Roger Owens and Jeremy Filsell, the latter his
predecessor as accompanist to Vivace and a brilliant exponent of his
organ compositions over the past 30 years.
12
Vivace Chorus
Welsh
soprano
completed
her
Sara
BMus
Lian
Owen
at The
Royal
i Academy of Music and graduated in
2010 with a First Class degree and a
Regency Award.
In 2007 Sara was a finalist in the
Kathleen Ferrier Bursary Competition
and she won the coveted Osborne
Roberts Blue Riband Prize at the
National Eisteddfod in 2010. Her
concert
Cminor
work
Mass
includes
Mozart's
and
Requiem,
Beethoven's 9TM Symphony, Rossini's
Petite
.
Messe Solennelle, Vivaldi's
Gloria and Will Todd's Mass in Blue.
She has appeared on BBC Radio
Wales, S4C, BBC2 and also at the
%
Queen
Elizabeth
Hall,
Royal
Albert
Hall and St Martin-in-the-Fields. During summer 2011 she
appeared in
Glyndebourne Festival Opera's first ever staging of Die Meistersi
nger
von Nirnberg, under Vladimir Jurowski. Sara joined Royal
Academy
Opera in September 2011, to continue her studies with Elizabeth Ritchie
and Ingrid Surgenor. In her first term she performed the role
of Nora in
Vaughan Williams' Riders to the Sea, conducted by Peter
Robinson.
Future engagements include Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle with
the
Waverley Singers and a second season at Glyndebourne Festival
Opera.
Sara is extremely grateful for the generous support of the Headley
Trust
in memory of Howard Miner, Ryan Davies Memorial
Fund, The
Josephine Baker Trust and The Arts Council of Wales.
The Vivace Chorus gratefully acknowledges the sponsorship of
Sara Lian Owen and Gareth Brynmor John
by the Josephine Baker Trust.
Vivace Chorus
13
Edward Hughes studied at the Royal
College of Music International Opera
School (RCMIOS) with Tim Evanswas
he
there
Whilst
Jones.
supported by an MBF Sybil Tutton
Award, the Gisela Gledhill Award,
the Wall Trust and the Christopher
and Susan Gordon-Wells Award. He
is also a Concordia Foundation
Young Artist and Ambassador. In
from
graduated
Edward
2009,
Imperial College London with a
MEng in Aeronautical Engineering.
Concert highlights include Mahler’s
Das Lied von der Erde at the
Mini-Mahler and Edinburgh fringe
festivals with members of the Berlin
in
Philharmonic Orchestra and
London with the London Mahler
Orchestra, Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius at Holy Trinity Church,
Sloane Square, Verdi's Requiem with Vietnamese National Opera at
Hanoi Opera House, Mozart's Requiem with the Royal Choral Society
and London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Rachmaninov’s The Bells with
Canterbury Choral Society.
Edward performed the roles of Rinuccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi for
Pervalidus Opera, Ferrando (cover) in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at
Longborough Festival Opera, The Duke in Gilbert and Sullivan's
Patience, Orpheus in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, Haroun in
Bizet's Djamileh for RCMIOS and Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute
for London Youth Opera. Most recently, Edward covered for the tenor in
Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet Song of the Earth (Mahler) at the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden. Edward will be singing the role of the
1st Armed Man in The Magic Flute at Longborough Festival Opera in the
summer.
14
Vivace Chorus
Gareth Brynmor John — Baritone
Gareth Brynmor John has performed
around
the
UK,
with
widely
performances including the St John
and St Matthew Passions, the Mozart,
Haydn, Stanford and Fauré Requiems,
Schubert Masses, The Messiah in St
Martin-in-the-Fields,
and
Vaughan
Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols
in
St
John’s,
Philharmonic
Smith
Hall,
Square,
Ljublijana.
and
Gareth
has a keen interest in song repertoire
and is part of the RAM Song Circle.
Recent performances include Brahms
in the Duke’s Hall and Wolf's
Italienisches Liederbuch in the David
op. 71
Josefowitz
Recital
Academy
of
Hall at the Royal
Music.
A forthcoming
recital at King's Place will feature works
of Brahms.
In addition to concert work, Gareth’s opera roles have included the
Gendarme in the Cambridge University Opera Society (CUOS)
production of Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tiresias; Eliab in Samuel
Hogarth's modern chamber opera, David and Goliath; the title role in
Puccini's Gianni Schicchi as part of the Cambridge Summer Music
Festival; the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with CUOS in
West Road Concert Hall; Papageno in Mozart’'s The Magic Flute with
Shadwell Opera; Sid in Britten’s Albert Herring with Shadwell Opera; The
Ferryman in Britten's Curlew River with Royal Academy Opera (RAO)
and Claudio in Berlioz's Beatrice and Benedict with Sir Colin Davis and
John Copley (RAO). Forthcoming roles include Speaker in Mozart's The
Magic Flute (RAO) and The Count in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro as
part of the Amersham Festival.
Gareth graduated in 2007 from St John's College, Cambridge, where he
was a Choral Scholar and subsequently a Lay Clerk under David Hill and
Andrew Nethsingha. He is now continuing his studies on the Royal
Academy of Music Opera Course with Mark Wildman. Gareth is kindly
supported by the Josephine Baker Trust and is the Reizenstein Scholar.
Vivace Chorus
15
Jeremy
Backhouse
began
his
musical
career
in
Canterbury
Cathedral, where he was Head
Chorister, and later studied music at
Liverpool
University.
He
spent
5 years as Music Editor at the Royal
National Institute of Blind People
(RNIB), where he was responsible for
the transcription of print music into
Braille.
In
1986 he joined EMI
Records as a Literary Editor and from
April 1990 combined his work as a
Consultant Editor for EMI Classics and later Boosey & Hawkes Music
Publishers with his career as a freelance conductor.
In January 1995, Jeremy was appointed Chorus Master and
subsequently Music Director of the Vivace Chorus (then the Guildford
Philharmonic Choir). Jeremy has presented and conducted some
ambitious programmes, including Howell's Hymnus Paradisi and
Szymanowski's Stabat Mater, Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony (No. 2),
Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, Mendelssohn’s ‘“Lobgesang’
(Symphony No. 2), Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible,
and, most recently, Mahler's ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ (No. 8) in the
Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Major classical
popular works have included Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, Verdi's
Requiem and Haydn's The Creation.
Since 1980, Jeremy has been the conductor of the Vasari Singers,
acknowledged as one of the finest chamber choirs in the country,
performing music from the Renaissance to contemporary commissions.
Jeremy is totally committed to contemporary music and to the
commissioning of new works. He and Vasari have commissioned over
20 works in their recent history, and this enthusiasm has spread to the
Vivace Chorus who, in May 2009, performed the premiere of their first
commission — local composer Will Todd's Te Deum.
Jeremy has also worked with a number of the country's leading choirs,
including the Philharmonia Chorus, the London Choral Society and the
Brighton Festival Chorus. For 6 years, to the end of 2004, Jeremy was
the Music Director of the Wooburn Singers, following Richard Hickox and
Stephen Jackson. In January 2009, Jeremy was appointed Music
Director of the Salisbury Community Choir.
16
Vivace Chorus
RBranieiie
Artistic Director — Robert Porter
Associate Music Director — Sarah Tenant-Flowers
Sinfonia
The Brandenburg Sinfonia is one of the most dynamically versatile
musical organisations in the country. It is renowned for its special quality
of sound and poised vivacity in performance. The orchestra performs
regularly in the majority of the major venues across the country, and in
London at the Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall,
Fairfield Halls and St John's, Smith Square. The Brandenburg Sinfonia is
also in great demand abroad and has visited France, USA, Bermuda, the
Channel Islands, Barbados, Russia, Germany, Japan and Hong Kong. In
1999 the orchestra established major concert series at both St Martin-inthe-Fields and Crystal Palace Bowl.
The orchestra’s repertoire ranges from Bach to Lloyd Webber and its
members give around 100 performances during the year, as well as
forming the touring companies for First Act Opera, London City Opera,
Opera Holland Park, London Opera Players and Central Festival Opera.
Violin 1
Charlotte Scott
Liz van Ments
Kirra Thomas
Rebecca Totterdell
Viola
Oboe
Julia Knight
Trumpet
Mariam Ruetschi
Triona Milne
Stephen Hudson
Rachel Broadbent
Katie Bennington
Chris Deacon
Gillian Hicks
Miriam Eisele
Cor Anglais
Barbara Dziewiecka Ester Harling
Sophie f\’/IcMillan
Melissa Reiner
Cello
Clarinet
Barbara Zdziarska
Adrian Bradbiiry
Jugn_ Lluqa
Cecilia Romero
Hitoshi Suzuki
Chris Rutland
T
Estafania Manzo
Harriet Witshire
Gabriella Swallow
Lucy
Wildin
Violin2
Sar;h Westlge
Gabriella Nikula
Tai-Mi Song
Oriana Kristzen
y
Joanna McWheeney Bass
Christiane Eidsten = Merheban Gillett
Dahl
Emma Martin
Judith Choi Castro
Iwona Boesche
Jan Zahourek
Kate Aldridge
Laura Campbell
Flute
Robert Manasse
Kimberley Boyle
Lynn Peters
Vivace Chorus
:
e,
o """
Sarah Watts
Bassoon
Adam McKenzie
~ 1om Hardy
Robert Bourton
David Geoghegan
Trombone
Susan White
Mark Townend
Andrew Lester
Tuba
Adrian Miott
Timpani
Tristan
nistan
F
Fry
percyssion
Tim Evans
Janne Metsapelto
Contra Bassoon
Sarah Stuart
Rosie Cow
Horn
Vicky Laster
Dave Lee
Adrian Uren
Nick Wolmark
Celeste
Christopher Herrick
Piccolo
Jason Koczur
Nicola Smedley
Emma Whitney
Susie Koczur
Haro
17
About Vivace Chorus
Jeremy Backhouse
Music Director
Francis Pott
Accompanist
James Garrow
Chairman
Vivace Chorus has two aims: to make
music of the highest standard and to
have fun while doing so.
TM
5
The choir has come a long way since it
began over 60 years ago as the
Guildford Philharmonic Choir, gaining
over time an enviable reputation for
performing first-class concerts across a
wide range of musical repertoire.
&
Since 1995, the choir has thrived under the exceptional leadership of our
Music Director, Jeremy Backhouse, ably supported by Francis Pott.
Jeremy’s passion for choral works and his sheer enthusiasm for musicmaking are evident at every rehearsal and every performance, and
Francis is not just a very fine rehearsal accompanist but is also a
composer of international reputation and a concert pianist in his own
right. Hence we are delighted that Francis will be taking centre-stage
performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in tonight’s concert.
. We relish the opportunity to
. perform
more
unusual
TM8 works such as
Symphony
No.
Mabhler's
8,
or
Prokofiev’'s
Alexander
|
Nevsky
as
much
as
the
great choral masterpieces
. of Verdi, Bach, Brahms,
Handel or Haydn. At a more
intimate level, we are at
S8
home
with
the
o Fauré, Tavener,
| Lauridsen.
works
of
Allegri or
Contemporary
g
music
is
an
|mportant
feature of the repertoire and our ‘Contemporary Choral Classics’ series,
which has featured works such as Will Todd’s Mass in Blue, is designed
both to challenge the choir and to promote the classics of the future.
18
Vivace Chorus
Our most recent successes have included a sell-out performance of
Mahler's Symphony No. 8, the Symphony of a Thousand’, at the Royal
Albert Hall in May 2011, involving five choirs and the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra conducted by Jeremy, and a performance last November of
the Brahms Requiem which prompted a reviewer to say, “Guildford is
indeed most fortunate to have such a great ensemble in its midst”. In
March this year we made our highly successful debut at Guildford’s new
venue ‘G Live’ with a very popular programme — A Night at the Opera -
see page 21 for a review. We are very pleased to welcome back two of
the soloists for tonight’s concert.
To start the 2012-2013 season, we will be performing Benjamin Britten’s
War Requiem in November. Composed and first performed 50 years ago
to celebrate the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, it has
become one of the defining masterpieces of the 20" century.
In addition to our own concerts, we also sing in charity concerts such as
the Shooting Star CHASE Carol Concert, at the Mayor of Guildford’s
Carol Concert and, with our good friends the Brandenburg Sinfonia, we
sing twice a year in the superb venue of St Martin-in-the-Fields.
We also, on occasion, venture further afield. Trips abroad have included
visits to Freiburg, Germany, to sing with the Freiburger Bachchor and, in
June 2009, to France where we gave concerts of music from the early
16" to late 20" centuries in the cathedrals of Paris (Notre-Dame), Rouen
and Beauvais. Next month we are off on tour again, this time giving
concerts in Strasbourg, Heidelberg and Freiburg.
New members are always welcome, so if you love beautiful choral music
and
want to have fun singing, please contact Jane Brooks at
membership@vivacechorus.org to find out how you can be a part of our
exciting future. We rehearse in
Holy Trinity Church, Guildford °
High
Street,
on
Monday !
evenings.
Sl
w
-
|
For more information, do visit
our website, vivacechorus.org,
where you can also sign up to
receive information about our
concerts,
us
info@vivacechorus.org
or follow us on
on
Facebook or
Twitter.
Vivace Chorus
19
Vivace Chorus Singers
Helen Beevers
Lesley Scordellis
SECOND TENORS
John Bawden
Ewan Bramhall
Mary Broughton
Elaine Chapman
Catherine Shacklady
Ann Smith
Tony Chantler
Rachel Edmondson
Marjory Stewart
Hilary Trigg
FIRST SOPRANOS
Penny Muray
Christine Asbridge
Gill Perkins
Peter Butterworth
Susan Norton
Margaret Perkins
Maggie Woolcock
Gillian Rix
SECOND ALTOS
Geoff Johns
Stephen Linton
Peter Norman
Jon Scott
John Thornely
Carol Terry
Joan Thomas
Valerie Adam
Evelyn Beastall
FIRST BASSES
Sally Varley
Sylvia Chantler
Mary Clayton
Phil Beastall
John Britten
SECOND SOPRANOS
Elizabeth Evans
Valerie Garrow
Margaret Grisewood
Barbara Hilder
Carol Hobbs
Yvonne Hungerford
Margaret Mann
Stephen Chowns
Michael Golden
Brian John
Mo Kfouri
Jacqueline Alderton
Anna Arthur
Marianne llisley
Jane Kenney
Krystyna Marsden
Alison Palmer
Kate Peters
Isobel Rooth
Judy Smith
Philippa Smith
Paula Sutton
Christine Wilks
Frances Worpe
FIRST ALTOS
Jeremy Johnson
Eric Kennedy
Jonathan Long
Val Morcom
Chris Newbery
Adrian Oxborrow
Jacqueline Norman
Beryl Northam
Chris Peters
Robin Privett
Sheila Rowell
David Ross
Prue Smith
Jo Stokes
Rosey Storey
Anne Whitley
June Windle
Philip Stanford
Barry Sterndale-Bennett
SECOND BASSES
Peter Andrews
Barbara Barklem
Penny Baxter
Elisabeth Yates
Roger Barrett
Norman Carpenter
Jane Brooks
Liz Durning
FIRST TENORS
Kate Emerson
Jean Leston
Bob Bromham
Bob Cowell
Geoffrey Forster
James Garrow
Stuart Gooch
Judith Lewy
Lois McCabe
Tim Hardyment
Nick Manning
Martin Price
Kay McManus
Christine Medlow
Rosalind Milton
Mary Moon
20
Mike Bishop
Chris Robinson
Nick Gough
Michael Jeffery
Neil Martin
Roger Penny
Michael Taylor
John Trigg
Vivace Chorus
R
T
P
T
R
w
o
gigw
-
v qwiaers
e
gk
L8
A3
o
-
A
A Nghf at the Opera 17 March 2012
From a review by Gillian Ramsden
..
A venture to thrill the heart of this ex-opera singer took place
:
" last night at & Live. Guildford's new concert venue hosted the
’
Vwace Chorus in an exciting programme of operatic favourites old and new. We are
5
: the plush grandeur of the Royal Albert Hall, but tonight we saw Vivacein a new light.
:
‘ used o the serious side of this choirin the soaring space of Guildford Cathedral, even :
Smgmg one or two works chosen to complement each other in a programme is one
:
fhmg
.
but dipping a toe into so many, and varied, styles of opera, (not an oratorio in
f
s:gh‘r) is not a venture for the faint hearted!
:
The Brandenburg Sinfonia opened the programme with a lively performance of the
over'fur'e from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and then the stage quickly filled with
g fownsfolk eager to welcome the picadors and toreadors in The March of the
* Toreadors from Bizet's Carmen... The singing was full of vitality and the difficult
LSESURN
O
:choral entries in this Bizet chorus were precisely executed.
¢ As number after number went by, the choir showed mastery of French, German,
Ifahan and Russian, not just the language but the styles too. The broad sweeps of
sound in the choruses from Die Meistersinger and Boris Godunovwere a Jjoy. Onlyin
’rhe Easter Hymn did the musical entries get behind as the choir moved on- stage
already singing, but it happens at Covent Garden too!
The Triumphal scene from Verdi's A/da encapsulated all the strengths of this
;
: excellent choir; beautiful pirano singing, especiallyin the section for ladies only; full
¢
rnch forte sections, and excellent entries. Thanks too to the wonderful trumpets.
All the soloists deserve mention: Sara Lian Owen has a soprano voice which showed
‘ itself capable of singing with the colour necessary for Dido's Lament but also able to
spm out the limpid lines of Rusalka's Song to the Moon. However it was in the Puccini
* arias that it found its home.
: Thomas Faulkner's bass had all the Russian' darkness necessary for Borisand I expect
¢ To hear more of himin the future. Gareth Brynmor John has a baritone voice of great
- beauty and flexibility and sang with ease and control; another voice to look out forin
Le
:
¢
:¢ future. The tenor, Philip Modeno, brought us all the opera 'pops'... with all the full and 5
rmgmg tone one has come to expect when hearing these well-loved numbers. Special
pr'alse for Nessun Dorma'...just imagine singing that straight after the Brindisi
¢The orchestrain full flight sometimes overpowered the singers, but this is an
accompllshed group, as it showed in its sparkling performance of the Polovtsian
- Dances. This was an encore to be proud of, and a definite'party piece ' for Vivace.
! Thanks to J eremy Backhouse for conducting throughout with such verve and
’
£ commlfmen'r quu‘re a four-de-force.
AL
Vivace Chorus
¢
N
21
Vivace Chorus Patrons
The Vivace Chorus is extremely grateful to all Patrons
for their financial support.
Honorary Life Patrons:
Mr Bill Bellerby MBE
Dr John Trigg MBE
Mrs Doreen Bellerby MBE
Platinum Patrons:
Dr Roger Barrett
Mrs Pamela Leggatt
Mr & Mrs Peter B P Bevan
John and Janet McLean
John and Barbara Britten
Ron and Christine Medlow
Mr & Mrs R H R Broughton
Dr Roger Muray
Mr Michael Dawe
Mr & Mrs John Parry
Mr & Mrs G Dombrowe
Margaret Perkins
Mr & Mrs Joseph Durning
Dr & Mrs M G M Smith
Dr Michael Golden
Barry Sterndale-Bennett
Susan and Cecil Hinton
Mrs Pamela Usher
Mrs Carol Hobbs
Miss Enid Weston
Mrs Rita Horton
Bill and June Windle
Mr Laurie James
Gold Patrons:
Robin and Jill Broadley
Mrs Jean Radley
Mrs Philip Davies
Brenda and Brian Reed
Mr & Mrs Maxwell S New
Prue and Derek Smith
Silver Patrons:
Mrs Iris Bennett
Mr Lionel Moon
Bob & Maryel Cowell
Maggie van Koetsveld
Without
the
help
of
Patrons,
together
with
grants
and
our
other
fundraising efforts, we would be unable to perform such a wide-ranging
and exciting repertoire. Patrons receive certain benefits so if you would
like to join do please contact Barry Sterndale-Bennett on 07753 958726
or email patrons@vivacechorus.org.
22
Vivace Chorus
Discover a centre of culture
in the heart of Guildford
) Gu 5 ) lgaf ord
The Guildford Institute is a local
e Ins t l t u't e
charity committed to providing
educational and cultural activities
in a social atmosphere.
We offer a wide range of talks,
=
courses, trips, activities and exhibitions,
a unique library and a vegetarian
restaurant for morning coffee and lunch.
Open to all.
Ward Street, Guildford GU1 4LH
www.guildford-institute.org.uk
For a brochure call 01483 562142
JOFNHARWOOD
Optometrists & Contact Lens Practitioners
Vision For
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Visit our new Woking premises to view our
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Vivace Chorus
Telephone: 01483 766800
also at Camberley, Fleet & Guildford
23
Vivace Chorus dates for your diary
RNLI Gala concert
Saturday, 13 October 2012 — Holy Trinity Church
Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem
Saturday, 17 November 2012 — Guildford Cathedral
Composed and first performed 50 years ago for the consecration of the
new Coventry Cathedral, the War Requiem has become one of the
defining masterpieces of the 20" century — a devastating meditation on
the pity of war that is every bit as relevant today. This is a large-scale but
poignant work, interspersing the war poetry of Wilfred Owen, killed just a
week before the end of World War 1, with the text of the Requiem mass.
It is a timeless message to everyone worldwide. There will be a retiring
collection in aid of ‘Help for Heroes'.
A note from Vivace Chorus bass John
Britten,
Benjamin Britten's
nephew:
My Uncle Benjamin experienced World War 1 as a young child in muchbombed Lowestoft. Although his passionate pacifism will have been
reinforced by the many wars of the 20" century, notably the Spanish Civil
War and World War 2, | feel that the seeds of his attitudes and
convictions were already being sown by what he saw and heard in his
first five years of life. The War Requiem was perhaps his greatest effort
to warn of the dangers and horrors of war.
Further details at vivacechorus.org
or from info@vivacechorus.org
i
The staging for tonight’s concert is owned by the Association of Surrey Choirs.
|
To hire please contact Carrie Tinsley, Cathedral Office. tel: 01483 547870
%
-
Financially assisted by
Vivace Chorus
Registered Charity No. 1026337
G’ GUILDFORD
BOROUGH
Printed by WORDCRAFT
115 Merrow Woods, Guildford, Surrey GU1 2LJ
Tel: 01483 560735
24
Vivace Chorus
Looking forward
to seeing younext
TM CELL .
R
4
/"
/
In November we celebrate the
.
=
soth anniversary of one of
the greatest works of the 20th
> thsaturday
3
May 201
T3 P Cullond e \
Century; in March we're ‘Music Making’
with Julian Lloyd Webber and in May you can come to
hear the music of four fantastic, living British composers.
Or, ‘Come and Sing’ Bach with us in January.
vivacechorus.org
Registered Charity No.1026337
F£N2RAOV:0ET SNUEMABTR
g RACHMANINOV
2ND PIANO CONCERIEG®
VESPERS & THE BELLS