Beyond the Wall Concert Programme
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the BEYONDwall EXULTATE SINGERS conducted by David Ogden with cellist Richard May and accompanists Nicholas Abbott, Oliver Condy and Richard Johnson CLIFTON CATHEDRAL, BRISTOL BeyondSUNDAY 8th NOVEMBER 2009 at 7.45pm The wall Exultate Singers would like to thank: Ilya Bohae for his help with the pronunciation of the Czech text of Petr Eben’s Bitter Earth, supported by Making Music South West’s Foreign Language Grant. Alicja Mazur for her help with the pronunciation of the Polish text of the traditional Bogurodzica plainchant. Canon Alan Finley, Richard Jeffrey-Gray, Mary Manners, Peter Hek and the staff of Clifton Cathedral. Peter Millar for speaking at tonight’s concert and adjudicating the competition. All the young people who put forward submissions for the art and creative writing project. The Lord and Lady Mayoress of Bristol for accepting our invitation to hear tonight’s concert. Graham Melville-Mason, Patron of the Dvořák Society, for his help and advice. Alina Peretti for her help with publicising the concert to the Polish community. Roxanna Panufnik for her enthusiasm and commitment to the project. Oliver Condy for conducting the pre-concert discussion. Christopher Gray for researching and creating the sequence of images. Pippa Ramsay for co-ordinating the schools’ art and creative writing competition. Exultate Singers is grateful for the support of: The Friends of Exultate Singers John Lewis Partnership Richard Pedlar Architects www.rpca.co.uk Pillow May Chartered Accountants www.pillowmay.co.uk Providence Music Shop www.providencemusic.co.uk the BEYONDwall Programme Hořká hlína Bitter Earth Petr Eben (1929-2007) Píseň a Mužů Song of the Men and Women Píseň o Rodné Zemi Song of the Homeland Solo: Martin Le Poidevin Země Chudých Song of the Poor Behind the Wall - after World War II Peter Millar Berliner Messe Kyrie Arvo Pärt (b.1935) Cello Sonata George Crumb (b.1929) Fantasia; Tema pastorale con variazioni; Toccata Over the Wall - the night the wall came down Berliner Messe Gloria Arvo Pärt (b.1935) Bogurodzica, Dziewica Polish plainsong All Shall Be Well World Premiere Roxanna Panufnik (b.1968) There will be a short interval during which you are invited to stretch your legs and view the exhibition of submissions for the creative writing and art competition Song to the Virgin Mary Sir Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991) Through the Wall - the night the wall came down Sarabande from Cello Suite in D minor J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Bourrée in C major J.S. Bach Beyond the Wall - the future Prague Te Deum 1989 Petr Eben Please ensure you have turned off any digital watches or mobile phones before the concert begins. Beyond The Wall - Full of Hope PRogramme notes By DaviD oGDEn, ian Carpenter AND RiCHaRD MAY Hořká hlína Petr Eben World War. The deep sense of patriotism and sentiments of yearning for the poet’s homeland As a boy in poignantly echoed Eben’s own feelings at a time Nazi-occupied of uncertainty in his country’s future. Bohemia in the 1940’s the Czech The first movement, Píseň a Mužů (Song of composer Petr the Men and Women), contrasts outbursts of Eben found aggressive interrogation with a calm lullaby sung comfort and by the lower voices. The author pleads, ‘Let no inspiration more bayonets draw blood’. playing the cello in a trio with his father and Píseň o Rodné Zemi (Song of the Homeland) is a brother and also playing the church organ in quiet and humble confession sung by a baritone his home town of Českém Krumlově whilst soloist and upper voices. The soprano and alto the adult musicians were away on military accompaniment is in the style of a sarabande - a service. Music, especially choral and organ slow dance in 3 time. The word Krásná (beautiful) music, was to become the great passion of the is repeated throughout until at the end it changes composer’s life as he became one of the most to těžká (heavy), as if their dreamy optimism of loved and respected figures in Czech cultural the future is now weighed down by the reality of life and his country’s internationally best-known the present moment. contemporary composer. A fiery piano solo begins Země Chudých (Song Petr Eben’s father was Jewish and in 1943, Petr of the Poor) leading into the men passionately was expelled from school and shunned by many singing an embittered and angry plea. In the of his friends. He was taken to the concentration fourth verse the men sing of their unity with camp at Buchenwald in Germany and later the land and gradually the ladies build up their recalled standing with his brother in one of the confidence to sing with the men, praising the camp’s shower rooms, fully expecting to be land for its goodness to them, “Your sap will give gassed.While there was relief when water fell on us strength” - the beauty of creation will give the them, that moment was to colour Eben’s life and oppressed and downcast strength to survive. the human, Christian attitude by which he was to live out his days. Translation of the text (sung in Czech): He emerged from the camp with a reinforced I Píseň a Mužů Song of the Men and Women religious faith and a belief above all in the ability Say it, as a bayonet, say it. of the human spirit to survive the most terrible This simple word, say it, as a bayonet, say it. things. After the war he studied at the Prague They ask you plainly: “Who are you?” Academy of Music and in 1955 was appointed to You must answer. teach music at the Charles University. However he Let no more sharp grooved bayonets was never promoted due to his refusal to join the draw blood amidst our flowers and cities. Communist Party. Let children grow and not perish, so mothers dream as they cherish The cantata Bitter Earth for choir, baritone and their only sons cradled in their laps. piano, was composed in 1960 and tonight Mothers are cradling their little sons, receives its UK premiere. It sets verses by with dreams of life they care for them Jaroslav Seifert from the collection Zhasněte Mothers are cradling their little sons, světla (Put Out The Lights) written in the period For better things they care for them. of the Czech nation’s peril prior to the Second Mothers are cradling their little sons, with greater visions they comfort them. My native land, you belong to me, For happy endings they cradle and more to me than to another. and comfort them. You are my fate, my destiny, But when they ask you, ‘Who are you?” I know you called for me You must answer. and I saw you before my eyes Answer as a bayonet plainly, and raised the weapon high, this simple word. You must answer. for now you are in need, II Píseň o Rodné Zemi Song of the Homeland and in this evil time, you are my land, now you belong to me. Beautiful as on a jug a painted flower For pebbles shining smooth, is the land that bore you, gave you life, for flame of yellow flowers, beautiful as on a jug a painted flower, for hemlock and poppies sweeter than a loaf from fresh-ground flour that bloom along your paths, into which you’ve deeply sunk your knife. we love and shelter you. Countless times disheartened, disappointed, Until the breath is silenced, always newly you return to it your sap will give us strength countless times disheartened, disappointed, and that may ease our pain. to this land so rich and sun-anointed, poor like springtime in a gravel pit. Berliner Messe arvo Pärt Beautiful as on a jug a painted flower, The works of heavy as our guilt that will not go away the Estonian - never can its memory decay. composer Arvo At the end, at our final hour Pärt divide into we shall slumber in its bitter earth. two distinct III Země Chudých Song of the Poor periods. As a Sweet grapes, but they’re not mine. student he The vineyards, they’re not for me. employed a From others’ peaceful gardens neo-classical style and, later, he switched to using waft scented blooms. Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique, serialism And when they asked me this, and collage. However, this proved to be creatively “What do we poor ones dream of?” unfruitful, as well as unpopular with the Soviet instead of words, establishment. In the early 1970s he spent came bitter laughter as my answer. I did not reap the grain, several years studying early music and emerged rolling it through my fingers with a new reductive, tonal style that he called when from the golden field “tintinabulli” in which he could compose fluently I heard the engines roar. and prolifically. In 1980 he moved to Vienna and But still I chance to catch became an Austrian citizen before moving to the sweet fragrance by my window West Berlin a year later. when others brought home their fresh bread. The Berliner Messe was composed in Not on the river banks, the tintinabulli style for the ‘German Catholics nor in the gold bearing sands Days’ held in Berlin in May 1990 and was first did I find precious gold performed during a church service in what was or semi-precious stones. still, although only just, East Berlin. The work was So, earth, I could not say originally scored for four solo voices and organ “I found what I was seeking, but it was later revised for chorus and string I now have all I want.