Year: 2012

Saturday 8 September at 5.30 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew

Subscription Concert 3

Henry, Prince of Wales, was the elder son of James I and Anne of Denmark. His death at the age of eighteen from typhoid fever on 6 November 1612 was bewailed throughout England — and was, with the eventual succession to the throne of his inept brother Charles I, to change the course of English history. The general outpouring of grief for Hally (as Henry was affectionately known) was taken up in numerous songs, anthems and motets, many of which draw on the biblical texts of David’s laments for Absalom and Jonathan. This program remembers Henry in spoken word, songs for solo voice with instrumental accompaniment, and choral items.

Featuring Heleng Gagliano (soprano) and Rodney Hall (reader)

Please note the earlier start time of 5.30pm for concerts during the colder months.

PROGRAM
Voice & harpsichord: Thomas Campion All looks be pale
Reader: George Chapman, An Epicede, or Funerall Song (excerpt)
Choir: Thomas Tomkins Know you not (“Prince Henry, his Funerall Anthem”)
Reader: Sir Simonds D’Ewes Autobiography (excerpt)
Voice & harpsichord: William Byrd, Fair Britain Isle
Reader: Geoffrey Goodman, The Court of James the First (excerpt)
Voice & harpsichord: Orlando Gibbons, Nay, let me weep
Reader: Sir John Holles, member of Prince Henry’s household, Letter to Lord Gray (excerpt)
Choir: Richard Dering, Contristatus est Rex David
Richard Dering, And the king was moved
John Milton O woe is me for thee
Thomas Tomkins When David heard that Absalom was slain
Thomas Tomkins Then David mourned
Thomas Weelkes, O Jonathan
Thomas Weelkes, When David Heard
Reader: Thomas Campion, An Elegy upon the Untimely Death of Prince Henry
Voice & harpsichord: John Coprario Songs of Mourning: Bewailing the untimely death of Prince Henry (words by Thomas Campion)
1: To the most sacred King James
2: To the most sacred Queene ANne
3: To the most High and Mighty Prince Charles
4: To the most princely and vertuous the Lady Elizabeth
5: To the most illustrious and mighty Fredericke the fijt, Count Palatine of the Rhein
6: To the most disconsolate Great Brittaine
7: To the World
Reader: William Drummond of Hawthorndean, Tears on the Death of Moeliades (penultimate sonnet)
Choir: John Ward No object dearer
Reader: William Drummond of Hawthornden, Tears on the Death of Moeliades (final sonnet)
Choir: John Ward Weep forth your tears and do lament

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SINGERS

Soprano Deborah Summerbell Carol Veldhoven Kristy Biber Maria Pisani Claerwen Jones Kathryn Pisani

Alto Belinda Wong Yi Wen Chin Niki Ebacioni Rebecca Woods

Tenor Peter Campbell Tim van Nooten Vaughan McAlley Matthew Thomson

Bass Kieran Rowe Andrew Murray Alistair Clark

 

Saturday 19 May 2012 at 5.30 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew

Subscription Concert 3

Michelangelo, reluctant painter of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, completed the four-year task in 1512. The Chapel was first opened to the public on 1 November (All Saints’ Day) the same year. What music was performed on that occasion is not known for certain; but Josquin’s Missa Gaudeamus is based on the Introit for All Saints’ Day, and the Mass was copied into the Sistine Chapel choirbooks shortly before that time, making it a prime suspect. The motets that make up the remainder of this program were also copied into the choirbooks shortly before or during 1512, so at the very least these works were in the choir’s repertoire at this time, allowing our imaginations to synchronise sight and sound.

Please note the earlier start time of 5.30pm for concerts during the colder months.

PROGRAM
Antoine Brumel Laudate Dominum in caelis
Jacob Obrecht Laudemus nunc
Johannes Prioris In principio erat Verbum
Loyset Compère Ad honorem tuum Christe
Josquin Desprez Liber generationes Jesu
Josquin Desprez Salve Regina
Josquin Desprez Missa Gaudeamus

Purchase tickets to this concert.

SINGERS

Soprano Deborah Summerbell Carol Veldhoven Katherine Norman Maria Pisani Kirsty Biber

Alto Belinda Wong Yi Wen Chin Niki Ebacioni Rebecca Woods

Tenor Peter Campbell Matthew Thomson Vaughan McAlley

Bass Kieran Rowe Andrew Murray Philip Nicholls Alistair Clark

 

Saturday 24 March at 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew

Subscription Concert 2

With guest soloists Daniel Thomson (Evangelist) and Jerzy Kozlowski (Jesus)

St John’s account of the Passion of Christ is recited throughout most of the Western Church on Good Friday. Musical settings abound, from Gregorian chant to Arvo Pärt’s Passio of 1982. This program presents two of the finest German Baroque settings before Bach’s great Johannes-Passion. Demantius (1631) sets the Gospel as a large six-voice motet in three sections. Apart from introductory and concluding sentences, the text is entirely that presented in St John’s Gospel. Schütz (1666) also frames his biblical narrative with introduction and conclusion — the latter a setting of a stanza of the chorale ‘Christus, der uns selig macht,’ with which we open the program in a double-choir setting by Praetorius — but employs solo recitative for the Evangelist and individual characters, and four-voice choir for the interjections of the crowds.

PROGRAM
Praetorius Christus, der uns selig macht
Christoph Demantius Passion nach dem Evangelisten Johannes
Heinrich Schütz Historia des Leidens und Sterbens unser Herrn und Heilandes Jesu Christi nach dem Evangelisten St. Johannes

SINGERS

Soprano Deborah Summerbell Carol Veldhoven Fiona Seers Maria Pisani Claerwen Jones Kathryn Pisani

Alto Belinda Wong Yi Wen Chin Niki Ebacioni Rebecca Woods

Tenor Peter Campbell Tim Van Nooten Vaughan McAlley Stuart Tennant

Bass Andrew Murray Tim Daly Alistair Clark

Saturday 18 February at 8 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew

Subscription Concert 1

This program commemorates two outstanding Late Renaissance composers whose lives encroached on the early years of the Baroque. The two were friends and, for a period of some eighteen months, fellow students of Giovanni’s uncle Andrea Gabrieli. The two collaborated in the composition of at least one piece, while they currently share the attribution of another. Organ works by both composers will supplement the choral program listed here, and an ensemble of Renaissance brass, strings and organ joins us for this commemoration.

PROGRAM
Giovanni Gabrieli In ecclesiis
Giovanni Gabrieli Jubilate Deo
Giovanni Gabrieli Deus, qui beati Marcum
Giovanni Gabrieli O Domine Jesu Christe
Giovanni Gabrieli Deus, Deus meus
Giovanni Gabrieli O magnum mysterium
Giovanni Gabrieli Hodie completi sunt
Giovanni Gabrieli Magnificat a 8
Hans Leo Haßler Dixit Maria
Hans Leo Haßler Miserere mei, Deus
Hans Leo Haßler Missa Octava a 8

Danny Lucin, cornetto
Briar Goessi, violino
Ruth Wilkinson, flauto & viola da gamba
Julian Bain, trombone
Bob Collins, trombone
Glenn Bardwell, trombone
John O’Donnell, organo

SINGERS

Soprano Deborah Summerbell Carol Veldhoven Katherine Norman Maria Pisani Claerwen Jones Kathryn Pisani

Alto Belinda Wong Yi Wen Chin Niki Ebacioni Rebecca Woods

Tenor Peter Campbell Tim Van Nooten Vaughan McAlley Matthew Thomson

Bass Kieran Rowe Andrew Murray Alistair Clark