Category: Concerts

Concert 3: Saturday 11 May at 5.30 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew

Subscription Concert 3

Choral music constitutes a major part of Britten’s output, having occupied the composer throughout his creative life. Indeed it was a major choral work written at the age of 19 whose BBC broadcast made Britten a household name overnight. This program presents a mixture of sacred and secular works, all settings of English poetry (with a little macaronic verse), from anonymous Medieval writers through Robert Herrick, George Crabbe and John Clare to Gerard Manley Hopkins, W.H. Auden and William Plomer.

PROGRAM

Choral Dances from Gloriana
Hymn to St. Cecilia
A Hymn to the Virgin
Five Flower Songs
Sacred and Profane
A M D G

SINGERS

Concert 2: Saturday 23 March at 8.00 pm
Xavier College Chapel, Barkers Rd, Kew

Subscription Concert 2

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

The Eton Choirbook is the major repository of English choral music from around 1500. The greater part of its repertoire is Marian, that is, works addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, such as Wylkynson’s resplendent nine-voice Salve regina featured in past programs. Passion music is by its nature less dazzling, though the writing remains rich and complex. All three Stabat mater settings take full advantage of the dramatic possibilities of the text. And Davy’s Passio is among the earliest polyphonic settings of St Matthew’s account of the Passion.

PROGRAM
John Browne Stabat mater
Richard Davy Stabat mater
Richard Davy Passio Domini in ramis palmarum

Note: William Cornish ‘Stabat mater’ advertised in subscription brochure but not performed.

SINGERS

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

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