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
Purchase tickets to this concert.
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 |