Saturday 19th March 2005

Transcription

1 M usic s easure Saturday 19th March 2005

2 Kathryn Cook Christopher Martyn Peter Taylor Kathryn Cook performs an extensive repertoire of vocal music, from the Baroque period through to contemporary music. She has performed as far a field as North and South America, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, Spain and France, while in this country she has given concerts in Beverley Minster, Southwell Minster, Cheltenham and Huddersfield Town Halls, Derby, Leicester and Birmingham Cathedrals, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Barbican. The works she has performed most recently include Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Handel's Messiah and Jephtha, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Mozart s Requiem, and Elgar's Dream of Gerontius. As a choral singer she has performed in North and South America and throughout Europe with the Gabrieli Consort and Singers, and the Joyful Company of Singers. She was a member of the Daily Service Singers on BBC Radio 4 for several years, and has taken part in numerous commercial recordings of Baroque music and 20 th century music for Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos and EMI. She has taken part in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, most recently in 2003 performing Handel's Saul with the Gabrieli Consort. Christopher is a Londoner by birth, but he has lived and worked in the Midlands since the 1970's. His first interest was in church music, and he was a songman in the Leicester Cathedral Choir for several years. His formal vocal training began when he was studying for the M. Phil degree in English at Leicester University. As a pupil of Stuart Smith, he has taken part in master-classes with Norma Procter, John Carol Case and Joy Mammem. An experienced recitalist and interpreter of works in the standard oratorio repertoire, he is happy to sing anything from Bach to Britten, and is particularly keen on the work of nineteenth century composers. Recent engagements have included performances of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, Puccini's Messa di Gloria, Handel's Messiah and Orff's Carmina Burana with the BGCS. He has sung more than a dozen operatic roles, including Ferrando, Nemorino, Alfredo, the Duke of Mantua, Don Alvaro, Don Jose, Max and Lenski, and created the roles of The Squire and Tony respectively in Betty Roe's one act operas Canterbury Morning and A Flight of Pilgrims.

3 Born in Solihull, Peter began his training with church choirs at an early age. He has recently achieved a commendation in his Post-Graduate Diploma in singing with Adrian Clarke at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Previously he achieved a B.Sc. in Environmental Geosciences at Sheffield University. Whilst at Sheffield, Peter was choral scholar at St. John s Church, Ranmoor, and for two years was Chairman of the University Singers Society. He took up the position of Musical Director of the main chorus in September 2003 and conducted them in a performance of Rossini s in May He has also recently been appointed Musical Director of Hallam Choral Society in Sheffield. Choral singing continues to play an important part in Peter s life and he has recently sung in choirs directed by Jeffery Skidmore, Paul Spicer, Malcolm Goldring and Douglas Bostock. Recent solo performances include Haydn s, Handel s, Faure s, Vaughan Williams, Bach s (Cantata BVW 21), Britten s and Tippet s. Peter was proud to make his Symphony Hall debut last year, singing the part of 2 nd Priest in Birmingham Bach Choir s Good Friday performance of Bach s. In opera Peter has twice performed the role of in Purcell s, and created the role of in Slater s. He has also appeared as the in Janacek s, conducted by Stephen Barlow and directed by John Fulljames. He is a chorus member with Stanley Hall Opera in Essex and has performed with them in Donizetti s, and Rossini s both conducted by Orlando Jopling and directed by Glyndebourne s Annilese Miskimmon. Peter is a founder member of vocal quartet 4-4Voices, which provides Opera Gala nights to theatres and for corporate events, and a ready made quartet for Oratorio work. He also has a great love of Lieder and Art Song and regularly performs recitals in and around Sheffield and Birmingham. Peter runs a private vocal teaching practice from his home in Sheffield. Would you like to become a friend of Barnt Green Choral Society? As a friend you are entitled to reduced price tickets for our two main concerts, held in November and March, and priority booking for our popular Christmas and Summer concerts. You will also receive a copy of our newsletter, which we produce twice a year. Your contribution will be greatly appreciated and will help the Society continue to produce enjoyable concerts using first class soloists and musicians. If you would like to become a friend of BGCS please send your name and address and a cheque for 10 to: Fiona Brown, The Secretary BGCS, Stable Door House, School Lane, Alvechurch, Birmingham B48 7SA.

4 ( ) Valerie Adams, Ros Bateman, Gillian Bradshaw, Mavis Brazil, Gillian Cloke, Margot Davies, Caroline Farnsworth, Eileen Felton, Sue Fox, Norma Hazell, Lesley Henley, June Lawton, Janet Lee, Betty Lucas, June Lucock, Anne McKay, Frances Morris, Lesley Penfold, Joan Prescott, Mysie Raine, Elizabeth Richmond, Shirley Sharp, Margaret Stokes, Wendy Tricklebank, Julie Ward, Pam Wright. Basia Bielinski, Norma Brookes, Fiona Brown, Sylvia Cartwright, Lynne Hession, Julie Johnson, Pam Jones, Maggie Kelly, Helen Maybee, Margaret Maybee, Christine Morse, Rosemary Parker, Margaret Parry, Diane Scrivens, Carolyn Shaw, Elizabeth Whitehorn, Andrea Wilkie, Aileen Winwood. Richard Colley, Harold Crisp, Michael Davenport, Paul Goldsmith, Raymond Hopkins, David Marsh, Peter Mobley, Pauline Quartly, John Russell, Kevin Ward, Albeert Whurr. Bill Bailey, Wally Davies, John Felton, Chris Hackney, Brian Jones, Peter Main, David Richmond, Len Smith, John Whitehorn, Brian Williams.

5 The `Romantic' (a convenient label for reference purposes) Period is said to have begun about 1820, although there are no watertight divisions. Both tonight's composers belong to this period, Elgar having been born a year before Puccini but outliving him by 10 years. Many `Romantic' composers looked back to the past, holding in high esteem the `Baroque' and `Classical' music of earlier generations, and tonight's composers are no exception, each being at home with fugal writing for example. It is worth mentioning that Elgar was an ardent Wagnerian in his youth and a motivic composer - his sketch books are filled with isolated germinal ideas, to be moulded and unified under the compulsion of a commission. It is also worth drawing attention to the fact that the difference between this work and others of Elgar is that many of the pre-existing ideas had previously been used in published works. Thus there are referential themes - to be understood from the text - from the `Enigma' Variations, Sea Pictures, Gerontius, the Violin Concerto and the Symphonies. The vocal score of `The Music Makers' was ready on 18 th. July 1912, the orchestration completed on 21 st. August, the first performance taking place at the Birmingham Festival on 1 st. October. The work was dedicated to an old friend, Nicholas Kilburn, an iron merchant and amateur musician of some distinction. Arthur O' Shaughnessy ( ), a friend of Rossetti and a zoologist on the staff of the British Museum, is remembered by this one representative period poem, which combines an impulsive, heroic optimism with nostalgia, melancholy and regret. The aspiration comes from a dream fantasy that was an immediate attraction for Elgar, a large part of his genius lay in the exploration and symbolism of dreams. It was in 1908 that Elgar informed his publisher that he had received permission to use this poem. The lovely long vowel sounds `ea/ee' are exploited throughout the work. The orchestration is typically Elgar, with his apt choice of instrumental colour matching the mood of the words. The opening phrase lingers in the mind, especially as Elgar astutely brings it back at the end, underlining the thoughts and feelings of both the composer and the poet encapsulated therein.

6 Giacomo Puccini came from a famously musical family and was born in Lucca in A long line of Puccinis, stretching back through the 19 th. to the 18 th. century, had been employed as church musicians. This pattern was broken by Giacomo and his younger brother Michele, neither of whom had much to do with the sacred tradition. Given the family history, and like Verdi before him, his early talents seemed to mark him out as a future maestro di cappella, and logically the church offered a solid job, with a pension and fringe benefits. It is supposed that a performance of Aida in Pisa in March 1876 was responsible for firing Puccini's youthful operatic imagination - there are certainly operatic elements in this Mass. My first experience of this work brought me into contact with Barnt Green Choral Society, when I was dragooned into what was then a small tenor section - I'm really a bass! Thereafter I spent twelve years as their pianist! I was captivated by the memorable tunes and bouncy rhythms (e.g. in the Gloria). Originally entitled Messa a Quattro voci con orchestra, it is a fivemovement Mass for large orchestra, four-part chorus and male soloists and was first performed in Lucca in One is perhaps reminded of the canon of Italian sacred music, Verdi's masterpiece Messa da Requiem of There are certainly operatic elements in the main musical ideas - in the solo music especially. Giacomo Puccini's ancestors would no doubt have been proud of his ingenious use of the `antique' mode of formal counterpoint, very much part of the church tradition, an example of which can be heard right at the outset and in such numbers as the `Cum Sancto Spiritu' with its fugal writing. Mosco Carner, one of the greatest experts on Puccini states: `Puccini's Messa is a considerable score of almost two hundred pages, worthy of being heard because, besides containing splendid pages of choral writing, it is the most important and inspired of his early works and the climax of his style as a composer of sacred music'. Puccini exploits all the orchestral colours of the full orchestra to create an endless variety of sounds to match the skilful word setting both for the soloists and the chorus. This is a lovely, imaginative work and deserves to be heard more often. Peter Ward 12 th. January 2005

7 Sir Edward Elgar The Music Makers OPUS 69 An Ode set for contralto solo, choir and orchestra Interval Coffee and biscuits available Giacomo Puccini Messa di Gloria Per soli, coro a 4 voci miste e orchestra 1). Kyrie 2). Gloria 3). Credo 4). Sanctus e Benedictus 5). Agnus Dei

8 Ode. We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams; World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world for ever, it seems. With wonderful deathless ditties We build up the world's great cities. And out of a fabulous story We fashion an empire's glory: One man with a dream, at pleasure, Shall go forth and conquer a crown; And three with a new song's measure Can trample a kingdom down. We, in the ages lying In the buried past of the earth. Built Nineveh with our sighing, And Babel itself with our mirth; And o'erthrew them with prophesying To the old of the new world's worth; For each age is a dream that is dying, Or one that is coming to birth. A breath of our inspiration Is the life of each generation ; A wondrous thing of our dreaming Unearthly, impossible seeming The soldier, the king, and the peasant Are working together in one, Till our dream shall become their present, And their work in the world be done. They had no vision amazing Of the goodly house they are raising; They had no divine foreshowing Of the land to which they are going:

9 But on one man's soul it hath broken, A light that doth not depart; And his look, or a word he hath spoken, Wrought flame in another man's heart. And therefore to-day is thrilling With a past day's late fulfilling; And the multitudes are enlisted In the faith that their fathers resisted And, scorning the dream of tomorrow, Are bringing to pass, as they may, In the world; for its joy or its sorrow, The dream that was scorned yesterday. But we, with our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see, Our souls with high music ringing: 0 men! it must ever be That we dwell, in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. For we are afar with the dawning And the suns that are not yet high, And out of the infinite morning Intrepid you hear us cry How, spite of your human scorning, Once more God's future draws nigh, And already goes forth the warning That ye of the past must die. Great hail! we cry to the comers From the dazzling unknown shore; Bring us hither your sun and summers, And renew our world as of yore; You shall teach us your song's new numbers, And things that we dreamed not before: Yea, in spite of a dreamer who slumbers; And a singer who sings no more. Arthur O Shaughnessy

10 Bluebell cover water colour: Margaret Maybee. Notice to patrons. Please be advised the inks used on the cover of this publication are water soluble. Exposure to damp or water will cause them to run. Every effort has been made to ensure the details given in this programme are correct, however, neither the publisher, nor Barnt Green Choral Society, its officers or members can be held responsible for any loss, damage, injury or inconvenience caused either by the materials used in or error of information in this publication, howsoever caused.

11 "We are the Music Makers" Yes indeed - that is why we are members of Barnt Green Choral Society! One of our members, John Russell, is delighted that we are helping him to celebrate his 80 th birthday by having Elgars "The Music Makers" at the centre of our programme this evening. It is a beautiful piece of music and will enable us to share John's celebration with you all tonight. Also on this programme is another of John's favourites, "Messa di Gloria". John joined the Society in 195l, and was a stalwart member until 1977 when he had to relocate to Cornwall. He returned to Worcestershire in 1994 and in a short time he had rejoined his beloved BGCS. Over the years, both in Barnt Green and Bude, Cornwall, he has had the pleasure of singing many and various types of Choral music. Of them all "The Music Makers" and Messa di Gloria" were the two works which gave him the most pleasure and satisfaction. In order to celebrate his long association with the choir and his approaching 80th birthday, in May, John asked the Committee to consider performing the Elgar and Puccini works for the Spring Concert this year, and was absolutely "thrilled to bits" that this was approved. We gratefully acknowledge John's considerable financial donation towards the performance of these works tonight. I know all members have enjoyed the rehearsals and now it is my sincerest wish that you, our audience, will thoroughly enjoy our performance tonight. Steve joined Barnt Green Choral Society in May He was brought up in Hexham, Northumberland, where he was a chorister in Hexham Abbey Choir, and where he started learning to play the organ. He took Music with applied Physics at Surrey University, studying the Organ under Philip Moore and Gerald Gifford. He returned to Hexham to teach Music after a post-graduate year at Newcastle University before moving to Bromsgrove, where he works at North Bromsgrove High School. He spent many years as organist and choirmaster at St. Godwalds, Finstall, and has conducting experience with a wide range of choirs and ensembles. He enjoys acting when he gets the chance, and loves Scottish Islands. He hopes that choir members find rehearsals fun as well as challenging!

12 Barnt Green Choral Society, (Registered Charity No ) is an affiliated member of (National Federation of Music Societies). The Society gratefully acknowledges support from: Saturday, June 11 th, 2005, 7.30 p.m. St. Andrew s Church, Barnt Green and afterwards in the Parish Centre, Barnt Green. You are cordially invited to a Victorian Evening and supper. November 19 th, 2005, 7.30 p.m. Venue to be announced. Rutter: Mass of the Children. T Norma Hazell (Chairman)