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KOOR SINGERS & PLAYERS www.koor.app present Beethoven Mass in C Beethoven Overture, ‘Zur Namensfeier’ Live-streamed from Blackheath Halls www.blackheathhalls.com December 16th, 2020 Tonight’s performance will be without interval Tonight’s performers Charlotte Shaw SOPRANO Martha McLorinan MEZZO SOPRANO Laurence Kilsby TENOR Jonathan Brown BASS KOOR SINGERS & PLAYERS Sarah Sexton LEADER Simon Capet CONDUCTOR David Clegg ARTIST ADMINISTRATOR Programme Beethoven Overture, ‘Zur Namensfeier’ Beethoven Mass in C Notes Overture, ‘Zur Namensfeier’ (Name Day), Opus 115 Beethoven’s “Namensfeier” Overture, Op. 115 was a result of the composer's long compositional process. It began with ideas the composer sketched in 1809. These fragments resurfaced around 1811 when Beethoven first became interested in creating a musical setting of Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy.” Schiller’s liberating words reached epic new heights in the final movement of the Ninth Symphony, written some thirteen years later. Beethoven’s first attempt at the “Ode to Joy” sprang to life in this fleeting, fun-loving Overture. It was originally scheduled to be performed on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the name day of the Austrian Emperor Franz I. Beethoven failed to complete the work in time and it was premiered on Christmas Day, 1815 instead. As with the Choral Fantasy, you can hear seeds of the Ninth Symphony in this music. Yet, there is nothing serious, profound, or earth-shattering here. Instead, it is a festive, celebratory romp—an “ode to joy” that delivers pure, unsophisticated fun. Out of the bombast leaps a frolicking cast of instrumental voices. At moments, strange, quirky dissonances seem to anticipate the sounds of the twentieth century. Mass in C Major, Opus 87 Beethoven composed this, his first mass, during the summer of 1807. Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II (Haydn's last patron) invited him to compose a mass in honor of his wife's name-day in September. Beethoven's only previous foray in sacred music had been the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives (1803/4). He approached the project with some trepidation, for he was relatively inexperienced in setting sacred texts. Moreover, between 1796 and 1806 a mass had been composed each year for Princess Esterházy by Haydn or Hummel. Beethoven had a formidable standard to match! He adopted a relatively conservative approach, casting his Mass into the traditional five movements: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. Familiar symphonic forms dominate the structure of each movement. Although some of the dramatic contrasts we associate with Beethoven are present, their effect is largely muted. Beethoven's Mass was poorly received at its first performance, and was not published until 1812. Traditionally, masses were broken into individual concert numbers: arias, duets, an occasional vocal trio, and choruses. Beethoven interpreted the mass in symphonic terms, casting it in monumental movements, each having its own sub-sections. He integrated his soloists into the musical fabric, rather than setting them in relief with individual numbers. For example, the solo quartet dominates the Benedictus, but sings mostly together rather than individually. The soloists become an adjunct to the chorus. One aspect that is novel is Beethoven’s key centers, which do not center on the stated tonality as Haydn’s masses did. Beethoven’s Mass begins and ends in C major, but is not limited to that key. He uses C major for takeoff and landing, as it were, and returns to it midway through in the Credo. He chooses other tonalities for the remaining segments, placing his Christe in E major, the Qui tollis in F minor and A-flat major, Et Incarnatus in E-flat major, Sanctus and Osanna in A major, and Benedictus in F major. At the end of the Mass, he refers back to music of the Kyrie for the conclusion, "Dona nobis pacem." Two excellent choral fugues on the texts "Cum sanctu spiritu" and "Et vitam venturi" are among the particular delights of this rewarding work. The Mass in C is scored for pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets; timpani, a quartet of vocal soloists, mixed chorus, strings, and organ. Performers Biographies Charlotte Shaw - Soprano British soprano Charlotte Shaw (nee Beament) is an alumna of the Rising Star of the Enlightenment programme for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Alvarez Young Artist Programme and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Charlotte is a regular soloist for English National Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera and has also sung for Glyndebourne Jerwood Artists, Garsington Festival, Brighton Festival, London Handel Festival and Barber Opera. Her operatic repertoire includes Tytania A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, Lucia THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA, Title role SEMELE, Serpetta LA FINTA GIARDINIERA, Michal SAUL, Title role BERENICE, Zerlina DON GIOVANNI, Barbarina LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Belinda DIDO AND AENEAS, Mabel PIRATES OF PENZANCE, Armilla in Porpora’s L’AGRIPPINA, Teresa in Julian Philips THE YELLOW SOFA, Miss Schlesen in Philip Glass’ SATYAGRAHA and Shadow Marnie in the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s MARNIE. Concert performances include Handel’s SUSANNA, Haydn’s CREATION, MISSA SANCTI NICOLAI, THE SEASONS, NELSON MASS and HARMONIEMESSE, Mozarts’ REQUIEM, EXSULTATE JUBILATE and SOLEMNES DE CONFESSORE, Handel’s MESSIAH, ISRAEL IN EGYPT, and SAUL, Bach’s B MINOR MASS and CHRISTMAS ORATORIO, Villa Lobos’ BACHIANAS BRASILIERAS, Vivaldi’s NULLA IN MUNDO PAX SINCERA, Mahler’s FOURTH SYMPHONY, Strauss’ VIER LETZTE LIEDE in venues including Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cadogan Hall, Kings Place and Snape Maltings and on tours of Europe and Asia with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Gabrieli Consort and London Chamber Arts Orchestra. Recent engagements include Glass’ AKHNATEN and Birtwhistle’s MASK OF ORPHEUS for ENO, a staged Bach ST JOHN PASSION with Sir Simon Rattle and Peter Sellers, semi-staged productions of Purcell’s FAIRY QUEEN and KING ARTHUR with the Gabrieli Consort and Handel’s SAUL for the Théatre du Châtelet in Paris. Martha McLorinan - Mezzo-soprano Martha McLorinan studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she held a scholarship and won the Margaret Tann Williams prize. She was also a prizewinner at the Royal Overseas League and the Thelma King Award, and now enjoys a career of oratorio, opera and recording across the UK and Europe. Recent solo oratorio highlights include Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at St. John’s Cathedral, Malta (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/John Butt), St. John Passion at Zarayadye Concert Hall, Moscow (Taverner Consort and Players/Andrew Parrott), Christmas Oratorio at Philharmonie Luxembourg (Le Concert Lorrain/Andrew Parrott), B Minor Mass at Kloster Eberbach (Gabrieli Consort and Players/Paul McCreesh) and at the British Museum (Academy of Ancient Music/Nigel Short), Magnificat at Snape Maltings (Les Siecles/Francois Xavier-Roth), Handel’s Messiah at Birmingham Symphony Hall (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Simon Halsey), Haydn’s Harmoniemesse at the Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam (The Sixteen and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century/Harry Christophers), and Copland’s In The Beginning at St. John’s Smith Square (Tenebrae/Nigel Short). She also works regularly with choral societies across the country singing works such as Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Verdi’s Requiem and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. Operatic roles include Notary’s Wife and cover Anna (Strauss’s Intermezzo) and Lotinka (Dvorak’s The Jacobin) for Buxton Festival Opera, La Messaggera and Proserpina (Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo) at Cheltenham and Swidnica festivals (i fagiolini/Robert Hollingworth), First Witch (Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas) at Royal Festival Hall (London Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Roger Norrington) and Second Witch at Cadogan Hall (Trevor Pinnock and Friends). She made her BBC proms debut as the Alto 2 soloist in Stockhausen’s Mittwoch Aus Licht (Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore). Martha’s work with Tenebrae has taken her to the Royal Opera House, where she sang in a quartet of female voices for Joby Talbot’s ballet Alice in Wonderland. She has also enjoyed various collaborations with i fagiolini such as Betrayal: A Polyphonic Crime Drama (a fully staged show of Gesualdo with six singers and six dancers) and How Like an Angel (seven acrobats and nine singers). Martha features on various recordings, and can be heard as a soloist in Garcia’s Missa Pastoril (Brazilian Adventures, Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore, Hyperion) and in Judith Bingham’s The Drowned Lovers (Music of the Spheres, Tenebrae/Nigel Short, Bene Arte). She also recently filmed this, for release later this year. Earlier this year, she recorded songs by William Byrd with Fretwork for release in 2021. Future plans include recording songs by Alec Roth with the Sacconi Quartet, after having premiered his Beginnings and Endings last year. Laurence Kilsby - Tenor Laurence is a British Tenor and an ABRSM Vocal Scholar supported by the Victoria Robey Scholarship at the Royal College of Music, under the tutelage of Tenor, Timothy Evans-Jones and Pianist, Gary Matthewman. He is a Drake Calleja Scholar for the 2020/21 academic year and was the recipient of the First Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Society Bursary for Young Singers (2018). He looks forward to participating in the Carnegie Hall Song Studio with Renée Fleming and Gerald Martin Moore, as well as competing in the DAS LIED – International Song Competition in the new year. Laurence began his formal training as a chorister with the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum, studying under Soprano, Bronwen Mills. He won the title of BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year in 2009, subsequently making his solo debut at the Royal Albert Hall, broadcast on Sky Arts. He appears as a soloist on a number of recordings, including the critically-acclaimed recording of Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Solemn Vespers (Schola Cantorum), as well as the Grammy nominated album, Handel’s L’Allegro, Penseroso ed il Moderato (Gabrieli Consort).