Bath Choral Society Vaughan Williams Symphony No 5 Tippett A Child of Our Time Saturday 21 March 2015, 7.30pm Bath Abbey

Soprano: Alice Privett Mezzo Soprano: Kate Symonds-Joy Tenor: David Butt Philip Bass: Alex Ashworth Conductor: Will Dawes Programme £3 Southern Sinfonia contains full libretto bath-choral-society.org.uk

Photos by Richard Hurd and Jo Bryant

BATH CHORAL SOCIETY Conductor: Will Dawes Southern Sinfonia Leader: Alexander Hohenthal

Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 5 in D

Interval Tippett A Child of our Time

Soprano: Alice Privett Mezzo Soprano: Kate Symonds-Joy Tenor: David Butt Philip Bass: Alex Ashworth

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1955) Symphony no.5 in D

In every one of Vaughan Williams’s nine symphonies, the composer’s evocative style encourages the listener to conjure up mental pictures: the first three even have pictorial titles. ‘A Sea Symphony’ and ‘A London Symphony’ were followed by a ‘Pastoral Symphony’. But the pastoral element in that third work is ultimately ironic. Written while the composer’s personal experiences of the First World War must still have been vivid, it is more a lament for the war’s loss of life and for the loss of a way of life. In many respects the work we will hear tonight is more directly pastoral in its impact.

The first performance, conducted by the composer, was held in London in 1943 at the height of the Second World War, but the magical opening immediately transports us far away from chaos and destruction to an Arcadian Forest of Arden. Horn calls emerge mysteriously from this other world, answered by string figurations swirling around in a different key. This unsettling tonal ambiguity keeps the music flowing like some restless river meandering through a very English landscape. Following a gorgeously orchestrated blending of the horn calls and the swirling string figures, the river ‘side-slips’ perilously into rapids. Vaughan Williams dedicated this work to Jean Sibelius and this section has some typically Sibelian writing in the

3

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4 strings. Shimmering skeins of sound lead, via pungent comments from the woodwind and brass, to a series of broad and ever broader climaxes before it all subsides back towards the opening material. The horns weave their magic again, beckoning the music off into the far distance.

Rhythm is the driving impulse for the short second movement scherzo. Jig-like figures in the woodwind and strings bicker with each other until they are brought to order by vulgar interventions from the trombones. Then, all of a sudden, as the critic Scott Goddard once nicely put it, the movement ends, ‘blown away on a whisper’.

The Romanza is the spiritual and emotional heart of the symphony. The composer demonstrates his mastery of orchestral colour in a beautiful idyll initiated by cor anglais and then carried along by delightful permutations of wind band and strings. Distant new horizons constantly open up before us. We might almost be following a youthful Vaughan Williams cycling through tranquil Somerset lanes collecting folk tunes in a more peaceful pre-World War era.

The last movement is entitled Passacaglia, a form in which a continuously repeated bass line supports a varied melodic texture above it. But the composer doesn’t let the form dictate the music and we soon find ourselves drifting into something looser in structure. The undulating bass tune and the angular melody ambling along beside it, both derived from earlier material, vie for our attention until a sense of resolution starts to develop: a ‘summing-up’. Loud brass statements of the melody gain in confidence until, after an almost inevitable reminder of the opening horn calls and their swirling string accompaniment, everything slowly calms down towards a serene and satisfying conclusion.

Tom McCahill

Interval: please stay near your seat

Michael Tippett (1905-1998) A Child of our Time The inspiration for the oratorio

The title of this work* clearly prompts two questions: Who is the child, and what time is being referred to? The child, or more correctly the young man, in question is depicted on the cover of our programme. Herschel Grynszpan was a 17 year- old Jewish refugee living in Paris in 1938. The time links events in August and November of that year, one triggering the other. The connection between the child and the time provided Tippett with the essential mainspring of the oratorio: a particular agent and a particular sequence of events inspiring a universal message about oppression.

In August 1938, in Paris, Grynszpan heard that his family, along with several thousand other Polish Jews, were being deported with no prior notice across the German/Polish border. Outraged, Grynszpan obtained a gun, marched into the German Embassy in Paris, and shot and killed a German diplomat, Ernst von Rath. This impulsive action provided the Nazis with the perfect pretext for a vicious anti-Semitic pogrom. In that November, throughout Germany and Austria, hundreds of Jews were killed, many thousands arrested, and many dwellings, synagogues, and businesses were destroyed in what became known as Kristallnacht, ‘the night of shattered glass’.

Tippett started composing the work a year later, two days after Britain declared war on Germany. He had recently benefited from a course of Jungian psychotherapy. His related metaphorical ‘journey’ from

5 darkness into light is consonant with the musical and narrative journey evident in the oratorio. In fact, there is a quotation prefacing the score, taken from T.S.Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, ‘the darkness declares the glory of light’. The work contains other references to Eliot as well as to Wilfred Owen and the Old Testament. The final Negro Spiritual, reminding us of the biblical Jews crossing the River Jordan, links with the journey of John Bunyan’s Christian and Hopeful across a deep and wide river into heaven.

The Messiah-like structure of the work

The oratorio’s three-part structure closely and deliberately resembles that of Messiah. The first part prophesies events which are momentous within the context of the oratorio, the second is a narrative telling of those events, and the third part, more tentatively perhaps than in Messiah, offers hope of eventual triumph over oppression.

There is also a parallel with the Bach Passions in the resources relied upon in telling the story. We have a narrator, arias, choruses, and recitatives but, in place of Bach’s Lutheran chorales, Tippett included his own arrangements of five well-known Negro Spirituals. He thought that, besides being very appropriate to the theme of oppression, their universality, when compared with standard hymns or chorales would speak to agnostics and atheists as much as to practising Jews and Christians.

Part I defines the wintry darkness of rising oppression with a prophecy of looming disaster, ‘The world turns on its dark side. It is winter’. Science and technology have replaced spirituality and religion in men’s hearts and this has enabled autocratic despots to set themselves up as gods (for example, the ‘man of destiny’ in Part III, no. 28). Ordinary people become mere ‘seeds before the wind’. In nos 6 and 7, the average citizen who has ‘no money for his bread’ and the typical mother who asks ‘how can I comfort my children, when I am dead?’ are identified by popular dance-style rhythms in the accompaniment. These arias provide a perfect introduction to the first Spiritual, ‘Steal away’.

In Part II, telling the story, Tippett derives the universal from the particular by not naming individual characters or places. We have the ‘mother’, the ‘uncle’, the ‘boy’, and merely ‘a large city’ to represent Paris. However, in no.9, a parallel is drawn between the ‘boy’ and another child. ‘A star rises in mid- winter. Behold the man! The scape-goat! The child of our time.’ That this other child is Jesus is firmly suggested by an almost direct musical quotation of ‘Behold the Lamb of God’ from Messiah. The chorus then splits into the ‘persecutors’ and ‘the oppressed’. A desperate conversation between mother and son leads us into the second Spiritual, which is followed by the only direct reference to the murder responsible for the ensuing crisis. A powerful chorus brilliantly depicts the subsequent mob violence, ‘Burn down their houses’, ‘break them in pieces on the wheel’, but indications of shame and regret are introduced, both on the part of the mother and her son, and the avengers. ‘Men’s hearts are heavy: they cry for peace.’

Part III opens with a wintry chorus that makes one shiver. But this section promises absolution. Deliverance from oppression will come from the power of the feminine aspects of the human soul, because ‘winter cold means inner warmth, the secret nursery of the seed’ (reminding us of the ‘seeds before the wind’ in Part One). No.28 promises that ‘healing springs from the womb of time’ and ‘the man of destiny’, the oppressive dictator who sets himself up as an alternative God, will be ‘cut off from fellowship’. But the ‘boy’ is also included in this condemnation, ‘he, too, is outcast’.

A short orchestral Preludium leads into a general ensemble of soloists and chorus, ‘I would know my shadow from my light. So shall I at last be whole’, thus reflecting upon the overarching ‘darkness into light’ motif of the whole work. ‘Here is no final grieving, but an abiding hope.’ This abiding hope is wonderfully expressed in Tippett’s arrangement of the final Spiritual, ‘Deep River’.

*appropriated by Tippett from a protest novel, Ein Kind unserer Zeit, written by an Austro-Hungarian author, Odon von Horvath.

6 A Child of our Time Part I

No. 1 Chorus No. 6 Tenor Solo The world turns on its dark side. It is winter. I have no money for my bread; I have no gift for my love. I am caught between my desires and their frustration as No. 2 The Argument (Alto Solo) between the hammer and the anvil. How can I grow to a Man has measured the heavens with a telescope, driven man’s stature? the gods from their thrones. But the soul, watching the chaotic mirror, knows that the gods return. Truly the No. 7 Soprano Solo living god consumes within, and turns the flesh, and How can I cherish my man in such days, or become a turns the flesh to cancer! mother in a world of destruction? How shall I feed my children on so small a wage? How can I comfort them Interludium when I am dead?

No. 3 Scena (Chorus & Alto Solo) No. 8 A Spiritual (Chorus & Soloists) Is evil then good? Is reason untrue? Reason is true to Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus; itself; But pity breaks open the heart. We are lost. We Steal away, steal away home - are as seed before the wind. We are carried to a great I han’t got long to stay here. slaughter. My Lord, He calls me, He calls me by the thunder, The trumpet sounds within-a my soul, No. 4 The Narrator (Bass Solo) I han’t got long to stay here. Now in each nation there were some cast out by Green trees a-bending, poor sinner stands a-trembling, authority and tormented, made to suffer for the general The trumpet sounds within-a my soul, wrong. Pogroms in the east, lynching in the west; Europe I han’t got long to stay here. brooding on a war of starvation. And a great cry went up Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus, from the people. Steal away, steal away home - I han’t got long to stay here. No. 5 Chorus of the oppressed When shall the usurer’s city cease? And famine depart from the fruitful land?

7 Part II No. 9 Chorus No. 16 A Spiritual (Chorus & Soloists) A star rises in mid-winter. Behold the man! The scape- Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord, goat! The child of our time. Nobody knows the trouble I see. Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord, No. 10 The Narrator (Bass Solo) Nobody knows like Jesus. And a time came when in the continual persecution, one O brothers, pray for me, race stood for all. And help me to drive old Satan away. O mothers, pray for me No. 11 Double Chorus of Persecutors and And help me to drive old Satan away. Persecuted Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord, Away with them! Nobody knows the trouble I see. Where, where? Nobody knows the trouble I see, Lord, Curse them! Kill them! Nobody knows like Jesus. Why, why? No. 17 Scena (Duet - Bass und They infect the state. Alto Soloists) How? Narrator (Bass Solo) We have no refuge. The boy becomes desperate in his agony No. 12 The Narrator (Bass Solo) Alto A curse is born. The dark forces threaten him. Where they could, they fled from the terror. And among Narrator them a boy escaped secretly, and was kept in hiding in a He goes to authority. He is met with hostility great city. Alto No. 13 Chorus of the Self-righteous His other self rises in him, demonic and destructive. Narrator We cannot have them in our Empire. They shall not He shoots the official. work, nor draw a dole, let them starve in No-Man’s Alto Land! But he shoots only his dark brother - and see ... he is dead. No. 14 The Narrator (Bass Solo) No. 18 The Narrator (Bass Solo) And the boy’s mother wrote a letter, saying: They took a terrible vengeance. No. 15 Scena (The Mother, the Uncle and No. 19 The Terror (Chorus) Aunt, and the Boy) (Quartet) Burn down their houses! Beat in their heads! Break them The Mother (Soprano) in pieces on the wheel! O my son! In the dread terror they have brought me near to death. No. 20 The Narrator (Bass Solo) The Boy (Tenor) Men were ashamed of what was done. There was Mother! Ah Mother! Though men hunt me like an bitterness and horror. animal, I will defy the world to reach you. The Aunt (Alto) No. 21 Spiritual of Anger (Chorus and Have patience. Throw not your life away in futile Bass Solo) sacrifice. Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land; The Uncle (Bass) Tell old Pharaoh, to let my people go. You are as one against all. Accept the impotence of your When Israel was in Egypt land, humanity. Let my people got, The Boy Oppressed so hard they could not stand, No! I must save her. Let my people go,

8 “Thus spake the Lord”, bold Moses said, No. 24 Alto Solo Let my people go, The dark forces rise like a flood. Men’s hearts are heavy: “If not, I’ll smite your first born dead”, they cry for peace. Let my people go. Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land; No. 25 A Spiritual (Chorus and Soprano Tell old Pharaoh, to let my people go. Solo) No. 22 The boy sings in his prison (Tenor O! by and by, by and by, I`m going to lay down my Solo) heavy load. I know my robe’s going to fit me well, My dreams are all shattered in a ghastly reality. The wild I’ve tried it on at the gates of hell. beating of my heart is stilled: day by day. Earth and sky O hell is deep and a dark despair, are not for those in prison. Mother! Mother! O, stop, poor sinner, and don`t go there! No. 23 The Mother (Soprano Solo) O by and by, by and by, I`m going to lay down my heavy load. What have I done to you, my son? What will become of us now? The springs of hope are dried up. My heart aches, in unending pain.

Part III No. 26 Chorus Chorus What of the boy, then? What of him? The cold deepens. Bass The world descends into the icy waters He, too, is outcast, his manhood broken in the clash of Where lies the jewel of great price. powers. God overpowered him, the child of our time. No. 27 Alto Solo Preludium The soul of man is impassioned like a woman: she is old General Ensemble as the earth, beyond good and evil, the sensual garments. Her face will be illumined like the sun. Then is the time No. 29 Chorus and Soloists of his deliverance. I would know my shadow and my light, so shall I at last be whole. Then courage, brother, dare the grave passage. No. 28 Scena (Bass Solo and Chorus) Here is no final grieving, but an abiding hope. The Bass moving waters renew the earth. It is spring. The words of wisdom are these: winter cold means inner warmth, the secret nursery of the seed. No. 30 A Spiritual (Chorus and Soloists) Chorus Deep river, my home is over Jordan, How shall we have patience for the consummation of the deep river, Lord, mystery? Who will comfort us in the going through? I want to cross over into camp-ground -- Lord! Bass Patience is born in the tension of loneliness. The garden lies beyond the desert. Chorus Is the man of destiny master of us all? Shall those cast out, cast out be unavenged? Bass The man of destiny is cut off from fellowship. Healing springs from the womb of time. The simple-hearted shall exult in the end.

9 Will Dawes: Conductor Will Dawes is the Conductor of Bath Choral Society, Conductor of the Orlando Chamber Choir, Director of Ensemble 45, Chorusmaster for Ludus Baroque, Director of Music at the church of St Mary Magdalen, Oxford, and a member of Stile Antico. Will’s musical career started as a chorister at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and as a member of the Berkshire Young Musicians Trust. He studied Music at the University of Edinburgh and then Choral Conducting and Voice at the Royal Academy of Music under the direction of Patrick Russill, Paul Brough and David Lowe. There, he frequently conducted in the opera department and took part in master-classes with conductors such as David Hill, Timo Nuorane and Stephen Layton. On graduating, he was awarded the Thomas Armstrong Prize for Choral Direction. Will’s work with his various choirs has seen performances of works ranging from Bach St John Passion, Scarlatti Stabat Mater and Haydn The Seasons to Britten The Company of Heaven and, with Bath Choral Society, MacMillan Seven Last Words from the Cross, the latter being hailed as “A quite remarkable musical experience which had emotional intensity and depth of feeling”. As Chorusmaster to Ludus Baroque, he prepares the choir for their biannual performances of the great works by Handel and Bach, as well as for their recordings on the Delphian label. His work with Ensemble 45 has included national premières of works by Pärt, Penderecki, Rautavaara and Whitacre alongside music by Brahms, Carver, Britten and Gabriel Jackson. A recent highlight was directing the Eric Whitacre Singers in a recording of Fly to Paradise – the track for Virtual Choir 4, which reached no.1 in the iTunes classical chart in the UK, US, and Canada. Aside from his career as a conductor, Will is active as a consort singer and is a member of the internationally acclaimed and multiple-Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble Stile Antico. The group performs all over the globe, so far including concerts at the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall (BBC Proms), 30 different venues in the USA, as well as Mexico, Portugal, Estonia and Canada. He is a former Lay Clerk of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and has also appeared as part of the Gabrieli Consort, Collegium Vocale Gent and Polyphony. As a soloist, Will has sung works such as Orff Carmina Burana, Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, and Adams The Wound Dresser as well as more canonic works by J. S. Bach and Handel. His one and only operatic role to date is that of Mr Gedge in Britten . He studies with Giles Underwood. For further information, including forthcoming performances, please visit www.willdawes.co.uk

Alice Privett: Soprano Alice Privett graduated from the opera course at the Royal Academy of Music in 2014, where she was generously supported by the Winifred Disney and Jennifer Vyvyan Awards and was a Sickle Foundation Scholar; she now continues her studies with Elizabeth Ritchie. Her oratorio work includes Handel Messiah at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Israel in Egypt with the Huddersfield Choral Society, Bach B Minor Mass and Tippett A Child of our Time. Operatic roles include Poppea L’Incoronazione di Poppea, First Bridesmaid/cover of Susanna Nozze di Figaro (British Youth Opera), Despina (Hampstead Garden Opera), Papagena for Longborough Festival Opera, Pamina for LFO on tour,The Complete Singer, cover Nanetta for Iford Arts, Baronessa Irene and Ginevra Ariodante for Royal Academy Opera (RAO), Carolina The Secret Marriage for British Youth Opera,, Nerone L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the with Richard Egarr, Nedda, Pagliacci for Woodhouse Opera, and Gretel Hänsel und Gretel for West Green Opera. Recent song recitals include a selection of Birtwhistle songs aired on BBC Radio 3 as part of the proms, and a recital of Schoenberg and Berg song at King’s Place, London. In 2016 she will sing Strauss Four Last Songs at the Amersham Festival; upcoming roles include Gretel Humperdinck Hansel and Gretel (Pimlott Foundation) and Romilda Handel Xerxes for Longborough Festival Opera. In 2014 Alice was the recipient of the Helen Clarke Award from Garsington Opera, and this year she receives the Leonard Ingrams Award for exceptional promise.

10 Kate Symonds-Joy: Mezzo Soprano

Kate Symonds-Joy graduated with a First Class Music degree from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. She then studied on the Royal Academy Opera (RAO) course with Lillian Watson and Audrey Hyland, graduating with a DipRAM and the Charles Norman Prize. She was the winner of the 2011 Thelma King Vocal Award and was awarded the Basil A Turner Prize for her role Bianca in Britten for British Youth Opera.

Operatic roles include Mrs Herring in Britten Albert Herring for Britten-Pears in Aldeburgh, Noye’s Fludde in Westminster Cathedral, Wild Girl in Delius A Village Romeo and Juliet for Wexford Festival Opera, Orlofsky in Opera Danube’s Die Fledermaus at St John’s Smith Square, the title role in Bizet Carmen for Regents and Kentish Opera, and the following roles for RAO: Medea in Cavalli Giasone conducted by Jane Glover, Ino in Handel Semele with Sir Charles Mackerras, and Florence Pike in Britten Albert Herring directed by John Copley.

Recitals include the Wigmore Hall as part of the Royal Academy Song Circle, Berio Sequenza III for nonclassical, Janáček Diary of One Who Disappeared at Kings Place, Berio Folksongs with the Psappha Ensemble and an audio visual operatic installation in the Metropolitan Museum in New York with ERRATICA. Kate appears as soloist on Giles Swayne Stabat Mater (NAXOS), Strauss Deutsche Motette (Delphian), and Villa-Lobos Magnificat for Contraltino and Choir is soon to be released (Delphian).

Concert work includes Ravel Chansons Madecasses at the Purcell Room, Rutter Feel the Spirit at the Barbican, Mahler 2nd Symphony in Cadogan Hall, Handel Messiah with Bordeaux Opera, Brahms Alto Rhapsody with the Cambridge Sinfonia and Verdi Requiem in the Royal Albert Hall.

David Butt Philip:Tenor

David grew up in Wells in Somerset and began his musical training as a chorister at Peterborough Cathedral. He trained at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio.

In Autumn 2014, David made his English National Opera debut as Rodolfo, La Bohème to huge critical acclaim. He will reprise the role in 2015 for the Zorlu Centre in Istanbul and for English Touring Opera in venues throughout the UK. His burgeoning concert career sees him sing Tippett A Child of our Time in Bath and Haydn Nelson Mass with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder.

From 2012-14 David was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House where his roles included Abdallo/Nabucco (with Placido Domingo), First Armed Man, Die Zauberflöte, Master of Ceremonies, , Pang, Turandot, First Knight, Parsifal, Gastone, La Traviata, Apparition of a Youth, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Premier Commissaire, Dialogues des Carmélites and Offizier, Ariadne auf Naxos.

Concert performances include Verdi Requiem with Orchestre de Picardie and L’Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne, Mahler Das Klagende Lied with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle at the Barbican, Britten Folk Songs with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and recitals at the Wigmore Hall with Simon Lane and the Solstice Quartet.

David was a member of the Glyndebourne Chorus, a Glyndebourne Jerwood Young Artist and the winner of the prestigious John Christie Award in 2011. He made his debut later that year as Rodolfo, La Bohème for Glyndebourne on Tour. He has won many other awards.

Future plans include role debuts as Don José, Carmen (Nevill Holt Opera), Grigory, Boris Godunov, Laca, Jenufa and Pinkerton, Madama Butterfly.

11 Alex Ashworth: Bass

Alex Ashworth is a concert and opera singer working across Europe and the United Kingdom. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music and has since made his debut with opera houses including Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera. Abroad he has performed for the Opéra Comique in Paris, Opéra de Lille and the Icelandic Opera. Alex sings regularly on the concert platform and has worked as a soloist for conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Colin Davis and Paul McCreesh. Recent appearances include the United Kingdom première, with the Classical Opera Company, of Telemann Orfeo as Pluto, Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem with the Hallé Orchestra, Messiah with the CBSO and City of Birmingham Choir in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, a tour of Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Bach Christmas Oratorio and performances of Brahms Requiem in China. Alex’s recordings include Monteverdi Vespers for DVD with John Eliot Gardiner (released late 2014), Stravinsky, Œdipus Rex with the London Symphony Orchestra, and Handel Giulio Cesare (DVD) for Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Future plans include a recording of the B Minor Mass for John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Vespers for the Sixteen and Harry Christophers in Vienna and on tour across the US, and Mozart Requiem in Leipzig and Pisa.

How To Join Us And Help Us Choral Membership We welcome applications for future membership. If you would like further details and to arrange an audition, please contact the Registrar, Jane Milligan, on 01225 873815. Bursary Membership We offer an attractive bursary package to singers aged 16 to 25, including free membership, loan of music, singing lessons and a subsidised rate for participating in choir tours. Please contact the Registrar for details. Associate Membership Associate Membership is by annual subscription at a rate of £10 (per ‘household’) per year. This offers the advantage of advance mailing of concert details and attendance at the Society’s AGM and social events. For details, please contact Dorothy Robertson on 01225 742767. Supporting the Society If you have enjoyed our concerts and would like to contribute to the future of choral music in Bath you may wish to become a benefactor – individual, family or corporate – or consider leaving a legacy in your will. Please visit the ‘Get Involved’ page of our website (see the ‘http’ link in the last paragraph below) or contact the Secretary at [email protected] or telephone 01225 852946 for details, or talk to any choir-member about ways you can help. Facebook and Twitter Our social media addresses are www.facebook.com/BathChoralSociety and www.twitter.com/BathChoralSoc. E-newsletter Get regular news about Bath Choral Society, take part in quizzes and receive advance notice and details of our concerts four times a year by signing up to our email newsletter. Visit the “Get Involved” page of our website and type your home email address into the newsletter sign-up box at the bottom of the page: http://www.bath-choral-society.org.uk/index.php?page=join-our- newsletter. Alternatively, you can just scan the QR code below. Thank you for your interest and support.

12 BCS News We once again enjoyed our Christmas performances of Messiah, receiving favourable comments on the quality of our diction. Since then, in the past few weeks, we have been rehearsing for tonight’s performance of Tippett’s A Child of our Time and this has been an interesting challenge for us. On the one hand we have his arrangements of the Negro Spirituals in which the agony of slavery is powerfully expressed, and the choir’s challenge is to portray those emotions simply and directly. On the other hand, there are the less conventional movements where, despite the complexity of the music, we strive to express the darkness and savagery which is at the root of the work, though Tippett eventually moves us towards an ending imbued with hope. However, the acts of brutality we constantly witness in the news make it impossible to sing this music without being deeply moved, and being reminded of the continuing relevance of its message. Our rehearsals are taut and demanding but immensely satisfying. From time to time we put A Child of our Time to one side and rehearse some of the works which will be sung both at our summer concert at Prior Park Chapel (details on page 15) and during our forthcoming tour to Paris. This tour, taking place in July, will really put us on our mettle. Shortly after arriving we will be singing in Chartres Cathedral, surely one of the most desirable places to sing in the entire world! We will then visit the Madeleine, and finally the Eglise St Louis as part of the Festival de Musique en l’Île. We will obviously have our work cut out! We will be singing music from England, France, Germany, and the Baltics: something for everybody. Peter Martin (Secretary)

Southern Sinfonia Southern Sinfonia is an active Chamber Orchestra working across the South of England and the Midlands. It has a diversity of activities and playing styles. Many of the orchestra’s musicians are equally at home on baroque instruments as on modern. This versatility informs all the work that we undertake. The members also work in the community for education and outreach programmes. We are therefore able to offer young and old alike varied musical excellence. A considerable amount of time is spent working with choral societies which the players very much enjoy. The organisation is led by Patron, Sir Roger Norrington and Musical Director, David Hill. Please visit our website www.southernsinfonia.co.uk for information on forthcoming performances and details of how to contact us.

13 Bath Choral Society

President: Leonard Pearcey Patron: the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Bath, Cllr Cherry Beath Musical Director: Will Dawes Assistant Chorus Master: Geoff Ditcham Rehearsal Accompanist: Nick Thorne Sopranos Averil Armstrong Georgina Eggleston Madeleine Ludlow Janet Shoebridge Jane Bardo Susannah Essex Edith Mattausch-Burrows Julia Snow Sheila Barton Alice Fox Jane Milligan Kirsty Stephen Libby Birts Gabriel Frankcom Rachel Morcom Lesley Stephens Anita Bligh Susan Gillard Jessica Owen Celia Strathdee Caroline Bush Alison Hicks Philippa Parfrey Margaret Timms Wendy Carlson Lesley Hicks Nina Redmond Megan Yakeley Gillian Clarke Lorna Hooper Margaret Roberts Morag Cribb Ros Key-Pugh Elizabeth Roper Hannah Cross Alison King Frances Sadowski Altos Jo Archer Patricia Dunlop Liz Kozlowski Helen Roberts Elizabeth Bates Ruth Ellard Mary Morrison Dorothy Robertson Barbara Beavan Eleanor Emery Jackie Morrissey Helen Sheppard Nicola Clamp Julie Gardner Pat Murdoch Caroline Stagg Penelope Cowman Aimi Goodlass Pauline Norton Elizabeth Thorne Colette Culligan Camilla Gosling Nicola Phelps Eleanor Van Zandt Rebekah Cunningham Ann Hannam Diana Pidgeon Liz Westbrook Giedre Danyte Kathryn Jitan Anthea Pratt Debbie Dellar Christine Kneeshaw Alison Richards Tenors David Brunskill Mike Hillyer Tony Lloyd Tim Westbrook Mark Davies Keith Jordan Tom McCahill Andrew Ennis Jeremy Key-Pugh Steve Riches John Harding Mike Ledbury Ethan Sen Basses Michael Allum Geoff Frankcom Magnus Hinde Roger Sirett Simon Baker Roy Gardener Ben Laite Euan Tait Roger Boothroyd Martin Greene Lawrence Lockhart Michael Walker Rohan Chacko John Gutteridge Peter Martin Richard Whitehead Andrew Clarke Barnaby Hannam Paul Mattausch-Burrows Graham Wright Rob Dunton Stewart Harcourt Roy Salisbury

The chorus is drawn from members of Bath Choral Society

Bath Choral Society is a Registered Charity (number 263086) and is affiliated to the National Federation of Music Societies. www.bath-choral-society.org.uk

14 Midsummer Light Music for a Summer’s Evening Bach Rachmaninov Sibelius Pre-concert meals served between Grieg Nystedt Pärt 5.30pm and 7.00pm 2 courses from £15.00 pp 3.00pm Saturday 20 June 2015

Prior Park College Chapel Ralph Allen Drive, Bath BA2 5AH Bath Choral Society Conductor: Will Dawes

Honorary Acknowledgments Associate Members Cover Image and Design: Jo Bryant, Richard Hudd, Liz Kozlowski, Exceptional service to the Society is recognised Steve Riches with an Honorary Associate Membership. Those currently honoured are: Choir Photograph: Peter Bradshaw Simon Baker Christine Kneeshaw Matthew Bale Mike Ledbury Content/Copy Editing: Sheila Barton Tony Lloyd Tom McCahill, Peter Martin, Liz Thorne, Bob Bride Lorna Osbon Patricia Dunlop David Brunskill Jessica Owen Advertising: Barry Bryan Geoff Proctor Patricia Dunlop Valerie Crofts Monica Reddyhoff Cyril Davies Cathy Rowe Proofreading: Barbara Dewey Martin Sandbrook Cathy Rowe, Janet Shoebridge, Tom McCahill Ian Dewey Roger Sirett Patricia Dunlop Ros Smallwood Programme Sales: Ruth Dymock Liz Westbrook Andrew Morrison and Colin Edgcombe Tim Westbrook the team of concert stewards Brenda Forbes Graham Wright Typesetting and printing: Susan Gillard Joy Wyatt Ralph Allen Press Ann Hannam Norma Wyatt Barnaby Hannam Editor: Tom McCahill

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