HANDEL

BELSHAZZAR

WINCHESTER MUSIC CLUB Winchester Music Club is affiliated to the National Federation of Music Societies which represents and 16 April 2005 supports amateur choirs, orchestras and music promoters throughout the United Kingdom. Programme

Belshazzar - an oratorio by George Frideric Handel

in the New Novello Choral Edition (Burrows)

Katherine Bond soprano Nick Pepin counter tenor Stewart Conley-Harper counter tenor Kevin Kyle tenor James Gower bass WINCHESTER MUSIC CLUB AND ORCHESTRA Conductor: Nicholas Wilks

Act I

Interval of 20 minutes

Act II followed by a short pause

Act III

We are indebted to the Friends of Winchester Music Club and to Winchester College, who help to make these concerts possible. Handel - Belshazzar

“Your most excellent Oratorio has given me great Delight in setting it to Musick and still engages me warmly.” wrote Handel to his librettist Charles Jennens in September 1744. The story, taken from the Bible, Herodotus and Xenophon, is well known. Belshazzar, the idolatrous and tyrannical King of Babylon, holds a lascivious feast during which he taunts the captive Jews by drinking wine from the goblets stolen from the Temple in Jerusalem. After he ignores the warnings of his virtuous mother Nitocris and the Jews, a mysterious hand appears and writes an indecipherable message on the wall. Only the Jewish prophet Daniel can interpret the writing, which is a message from God: Belshazzar’s days are numbered and his reign is finished. That very night, the Persians invade, led by the gloriously enlightened Cyrus, the very model of a benevolent conqueror. Belshazzar’s death and Cyrus’s accession heralds liberation for the Jews and a more just regime for the Babylonians. But the plot has its human aspect too. The fate of the hedonistic King, determined to bring about his own ruin through his alcohol-fuelled libertine lifestyle, is transformed into a tragedy by the heartfelt love and fear of his long-suffering mother Nictoris, who has converted to worshipping the God of Israel (with aid from the conveniently placed prophet Daniel). The self-destructive King, doomed after ordering the gold vessels pillaged from the Temple at Jerusalem to be used at the drunken feast, is the model of selfish and idolatrous Kingship. In contrast, the invading Persian King Cyrus is the idealised monarch who shows dignity, compassion, modesty, respect, and wisdom. The secondary character Gobrias thirsts for revenge due to Belshazzar’s murder of his son. The emotionally complex relationships between the five main characters produce a magnificent and compelling drama.

Handel’s music matches his libretto at every point. The comparison between the morally weak Belshazzar and the enlightened new order of Cyrus is strikingly made in Belshazzar’s defiant “I thank thee, Sesach” prior to the battle, followed soon after by Cyrus’s blazing “Destructive war”, a seemingly warlike aria that is in fact a flamboyant denunciation of tyranny and unjust war. The music of Belshazzar is full of such insights, but the moment when Gobrias achieves his revenge upon the tyrant (“To pow’r immortal my first thanks”) is Handel at his operatic best: Gobrias says he no longer weeps except for joy, but Handel’s string accompaniment makes it manifestly clear that Gobrias will never overcome the loss of his son. Other remarkable moments include Belshazzar’s naïve and headstrong feasting (“Let festal joy triumphant reign”), and the horror of the Jews when Belshazzar decides to drink from the sacred vessels (the chorus “Recall, o King, thy rash command”).

There are practical problems associated with performing Belshazzar which may account for its relative neglect. The first performance was afflicted by enforced last minute changes to compensate for the illness of the alto Mrs. Cibber, and Handel never performed Belshazzar in a version that realised fully its potential brilliance. Moreover, when all the numbers are included the oratorio runs to an unwieldly three hours. Most performances combine the two versions we know were performed during Handel’s lifetime and make some modest cuts, some of which the composer suggested. We have followed this practice for this evening’s performance. The topicality of Belshazzar is striking. The last time I conducted this work the war with Iraq was about to commence, and the public justifications for invasion were ominously similar - the much-trumpeted threat of attack and the liberation of an oppressed people from a despotic and erratic ruler. Yet Belshazzar’ s contemporary relevance should not surprise us. As Nitocris’s first solo asserts, history is doomed to repeat itself, and the victory of one empire over another is merely part of a tragic pattern of decline and fall. Handel’s astonishing achievement in ‘Belshazzar’ is to bring this ancient story vividly to life while constantly maintaining a sense of its universality. (c) Nicholas Wilks 2005

Katherine Bond began her vocal studies with the Highcliffe Junior Choir, Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year 1996. In 2000 she graduated with First Class Honours in music from Cardiff University where she was awarded the Sir Geraint Evans Recitalist Prize and Vale of Glamorgan Young Singer of the Year Award. She has since won an Allcard Award from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Grisi & Mario Prize, 2nd Prize in the John Warner Memorial Award, 3rd Prize in the Great Elm Vocal Awards and the Isabelle Jay Competition. She was also a finalist in the Thelma King Award and in the Delius Prize earlier this year. Solo concert appearances have included performances of Bach Magnificat at Snape Maltings Concert Hall and Cantata 209 for the Tilford Festival; Britten Les Illuminations with the Royal Academy String Orchestra; Darlow Music for Holy Week premiere at St George’s, Hanover Square; Elgar The Kingdom in Winchester Cathedral; Handel Belshazzar for the Petersfield Festival; Mozart Exsultate Jubilate. She participated in the Omaggio Festival, collaboration between the Royal Academy and the South Bank, performing Berio’s Sequenza III in concert and on Radio 3’s In tune and recently returned from a week of masterclasses with Malcolm Martineau on Debussy and Poulenc songs with the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme. Katherine’s operatic experience includes Hippolyte et Aricie (Aricie) with Welsh National Youth Opera; Orlando (Dorinda), Idomeneo (Ilia), Dialogues des Carmelites (Blanche), Der Rosenkavalier (Sophie), The Rape of Lucretia (Lucia) in Royal Academy opera scenes; Eugene Onegin (Tatyana) with New Youth Opera; School for Fathers (Lucieta) and The Magic Flute (Papagena) with Royal Academy Opera. Katherine is currently studying on the Royal Academy Opera programme with Jennifer Dakin and Clara Taylor. Future engagements include Handel’s Belshazzar at Winchester College, The Armed Man (Mass for Peace) and the title role in Royal Academy Opera’s Spring production of Massenet’s Cendrillon.

NICK PEPIN has held Lay Clerk positions as countertenor in many British cathedrals including Durham, Portsmouth, and most recently Winchester. In his position at Winchester he has sung on numerous CD recordings, recently a disk of Gibbons verse anthems with Hyperion, and has toured in the US, and throughout Europe. He sings regularly as a soloist in oratorio, especially Bach and Handel. Recent engagements include performances of Bernstein Chichester Psalms with the Bach Choir, London Festival Orchestra and Portsmouth Baroque Choir, Haydn Nelson Mass with the Northern Sinfonia and Orchestra of the 17th Century (USA), St Matthew Passion with Lichfield Choral Society, and numerous performances of Messiah (U.K., Sweden and U.S.A). Engagements locally have included Romsey and Swindon Choral Societies (St John Passion), Fareham Philharmonic Choir (Bach Magnificat) and the Petersfield festival at which he last performed Cyrus in the piece we hear again tonight (Handel Belshazzar). He is a member of the early music group Polyhymnia, specialising in Spanish renaissance repertoire. Performances have ranged from the Winchester International Early Music Festival, to Toledo, Spain. Nick has given many recitals, accompanied by his mother, June, a professional pianist, in Europe and the USA, and performs regularly as a soloist in lunchtime recitals. About five years ago he sang in the Denver cathedral choir for a 6 month period whilst on a Fulbright scholarship and during 2003/2004 he lived in Washington D.C. for a year. where he sang at the funeral of President Reagan as a member of the National Cathedral Choir. He has just released a solo CD of British song, “Gentle Springs” under his own label, Charlemagne.

Stewart Conley-Harper (counter-tenor) was born in Beverley, East Yorkshire, and at the age of nine began singing as a chorister with Beverley Minster Choir. While studying for a degree in music at UEA Norwich, Stewart took up a post of Choral Scholar at Norwich Cathedral, and after graduating in 1996 he became a Vicar Choral at Wells Cathedral. Stewart moved to Chichester in 1998 and is currently an Alto Lay Vicar in the Cathedral Choir, with whom he has been involved in numerous concerts, broadcasts, recordings and tours. He regularly performs as a soloist at concerts in the local area. Recent performances include Bach St John Passion; Pergolesi Stabat Mater; Bernstein Chichester Psalms; and Purcell Come ye Sons of Art and King Arthur. He has also recently completed recordings of Purcell duets for BBC Television (which was used in its Dance for the Camera documentary series on BBC Two), and a CD of Bernstein Chichester Psalms. Along with his cathedral commitments, Stewart is a teacher of singing and piano at a number of local independent schools.

Kevin Kyle (tenor) began his career in Music Theatre singing the role of Passarino in Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. In 1999 he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where he currently studies on the opera course. During his period of study at the Academy, Kevin has received the EMI Award, the British Land Award, the Norah Mary Turner Prize and the Kendall Prize. On the operatic stage Kevin’s most recent roles have included Basilio and Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro for Longborough Festival Opera, Frontino in L’amore Industrioso for Holland Park Opera, Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante for the Iford Festival, Arnalta in The Coronation of Poppea and Mosquito and Inn Keeper in The Cunning Little Vixen, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. Other roles include Ecclitico in Il Mondo Della Luna, Ferrando in Così Fan Tutte, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas for Opera Works, Acis in Acis and Galatea, Orphée in La Descent D’Orphée aux Enfers by Charpentier for Dramma per Musica, Fenton in Falstaff, and most recently Paris in The Judgement of Paris by John Eccles. On the concert platform Kevin performs extensively both in this country and abroad. In addition to the traditional repertoire Kevin also enjoys performing new works, recent performances include works by Rorem, Cage and Swayne. Last year he performed in the world première of What is the Word? by Kurtág for the Royal Academy of Music / South Bank Centre Kurtág Festival. Kevin was a finalist in the 2004 Handel Singing Competition and made his Proms debut last year under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Kevin has also performed for BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and BBC Television. He recently recorded a new version of the Band of Brothers theme tune for Sony, and made his acting debut this year in All in the Dark for the Handel Museum. Future projects include a staged performance of Bach’s St. John Passion and a recital of the songs of William Lloyd Webber.

James Gower (Bass) was born in Newport, South Wales. He read music and was a choral scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge before gaining a scholarship to study singing at the Royal Academy of Music on the London Royal Schools’ Opera and Royal Academy Opera courses. There he won several prizes and awards and participated in masterclasses given by Graham Johnson, Stuart Burrows, John Tomlinson, Sarah Walker, Thomas Allen and Kiri te Kanawa. For BBC Television he recorded a masterclass with Robert Tear, which was broadcast in December 2000. James is currently studying with Robert Lloyd. James made his Proms debut in July 2000 singing a false witness in Mendelssohn’s St Paul with BBC NOW directed by Richard Hickox, which was also recorded for Chandos. He has since performed with Hickox as Sir Walter Raleigh (Gloriana) at the St Endellion Festival; Nym (Sir John in Love) with the Northern Sinfonia; the voice of God, the Devil and Jesus, making his Royal Festival Hall debut in Sir John Tavener’s Fall and Resurrection with the City of London Sinfonia in the presence of the composer. Last March, James sang Horaste in a concert performance of Troilus and Cressida by Walton with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Richard Hickox, in Birmingham Symphony Hall and the Royal Festival Hall. The London performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 3. James’ recent operatic engagments were Colline, La Bohème, Opera Theatre Company, Ireland; Erster Priester and Zweiter geharnischter Mann, Die Zauberflöte and Doctor, Pelleas and Melisande, Glyndebourne on Tour; Pinellino, Gianni Schicchi, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, broadcast on BBC Television and performed at the Proms. In summer 2001 he sang the Commendatore in the London Royal Schools Opera production of Don Giovanni produced by John Copley and directed by Sir Colin Davis. For Royal Academy Opera he has performed Pistola, Falstaff and Seneca, L’Incoronazione di Poppea. James’ other opera roles include: Doctor Grenvil, La Traviata, Pimlico Opera and Glyndebourne on Tour; Il frate, Don Carlos, Stowe Opera; Chubukov, world première performance of The Proposal by Richard Dubugnon; Toante, Oreste (Handel), English Bach Society, Lindbury Studio Theatre, ROH; Basilio, The Barber of Seville, British Youth Opera. For the ENO Baylis Project he sang the Sun in Firestone, a new opera by John Browne and performed with 150 primary school children from the Tower Hamlets area of London.

Future engagements include the cover of Sparafucile, Rigoletto, Welsh National Opera.

Nicholas Wilks studied conducting and clarinet at the Royal Academy of Music, London and has since held posts as Musical Director of the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra, Haringey Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, the Finchley Children’s Music Group and New Youth Opera, which he formed in 1999 with the director Matthew Lane. Nicholas Wilks has worked extensively with youth orchestras nationally and internationally, including the Amsterdam Youth Orchestra, the Buskaid String Ensemble in Soweto, and the youth orchestras of La Ligua and Curanilahue in Chile. He is also active in the field of opera, with a recording of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde (a Sunday Telegraph’s “Critic’s Choice”) and productions of The Bartered Bride, Eugene Onegin, Der Freischütz and La Belle Hélène. He made his conducting debut at the BBC Proms in 2000 with the first performance of Alec Roth’s Earth and Sky, a setting of poetry by Vikram Seth commissioned by the BBC for Joanna MacGregor, Ensemble Bash and the Finchley Children’s Music Group. He has given a number of other first performances, including works by Brian Chapple, Alan Mills, Howard Goodall, Christopher Gunning and Roderick Skeaping. In 1999, he conducted the premieres of David Watts’s Metropolis with Haringey Youth Musicians in venues as diverse as Pretoria, Highgate, Hackney and the Millennium Dome in Greenwich. Nicholas was recently elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, is a trustee for Bukaid, a string teaching project in Soweto, South Africa, and has been invited to serve on the board of directors for the World Association of Youth Symphony Orchestras. In September 2004 he was appointed Master of Music at Winchester College.

WINCHESTER MUSIC CLUB was founded in 1925 by Sir George Dyson. The choir, which has a membership of about 100, is joined for some concerts by Winchester College Glee Club. The Club has in recent seasons performed many major choral and orchestral works of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries in the Cathedral and elsewhere. More details can be seen on our website:

www.hants.gov.uk/wmc

Rehearsals for the choir are held weekly during term time from September to March on Fridays at 7:30 pm in St Michael’s Church. Friends of Winchester Music Club kindly provide financial support for concerts, and are entitled to privilege booking. If you would like to audition for the choir, or require any further information, please contact the Secretary, Len Tatham, 34 Wales Street, Winchester, Hants SO23 8ET (tel: 01962 869800). WINCHESTER MUSIC CLUB ORCHESTRA

Violin I Brian Howells Anne Stow (leader) Spike Wilson David Amos Tom Dutton Bass Jenny Forni Barry Glynn Peter Marsh Melinda Samms Oboe Nick Benda Violin II Andrew King Bernard Green Paul Jeffrey Trumpet John Sargent Cameron Todd Joanna Selborne Jock Mackenzie

Violas Bassoon Gill Collymore Anna Meadows Richard Daniel Tim Griffiths Timpani Margy Jeffrey Paul Lovegrove Libby Merriman Philly Sargent Organ Louise Woods Philip White- Jones Cello Fannie Leigh Harpsichord Catherine Mitchell Christopher Fiona Smith Bucknall Dates for your Diary

Hampshire Music Service present a WINCHESTER MUSIC CLUB wonderful evening of music and invites you to a singing at Winchester Cathedral VOCAL WORKSHOP FOR FUN featuring Music from four Continents Hampshire County Youth Band, given by NICHOLAS WILKS Hampshire County Youth Choir on Saturday 4 June 2005 at 2.00 pm and the in the Bramston Hall, St Swithun’s Morriston Orpheus Male Voice Choir. School, Winchester The concert, supported by Roystan For further details, please contact Holdings Ltd, will be held on Saturday Len Tatham 30 April commencing 7.30pm. Tickets 34 Wales Street are available from Music at Winchester Winchester SO23 0ET 01962 877977 priced at £12 and £10. Tel. 01962 869800

WINCHESTER and COUNTY WINCHESTER MUSIC CLUB MUSIC FESTIVAL and ORCHESTRA Saturday 7 May 2005 Winchester College Glee Club 7.30 pm in Romsey Abbey and the Quiristers Handel: Samson Thursday 24 November 2005 Cecilia Osmond soprano 7.30 pm in Winchester Cathedral David Clegg counter tenor Dvorak: Stabat Mater Kevin Kyle tenor Ruth Holton soprano Alex Ashworth bass Frances Bourne mezzo soprano conductor: DEREK BECK Simon Wall tenor William Townend bass WINCHESTER and COUNTY conductor: NICHOLAS WILKS MUSIC FESTIVAL Saturday 14 May 2005 WINCHESTER MUSIC CLUB 7.30 pm in Winchester Cathedral and ORCHESTRA Brahms: German Requiem Saturday 18 March 2006 Tragic Overture 7.30 pm in Winchester College New Haydn: Insanae et Vanae Curae Hall Conductor: FRANCIS WELLS Faure: Cantique de Jean Racine Mozart: Vesperae Solennes de Confessore Haydn: Great Organ Mass conductor: NICHOLAS WILKS

Programmes and soloists subject to change if necessary. HANDEL

BELSHAZZAR

WINCHESTER MUSIC CLUB Winchester Music Club is affiliated to the National Federation of Music Societies which represents and 16 April 2005 supports amateur choirs, orchestras and music promoters throughout the United Kingdom.