Lewisham Choral Society Orff: Carmina Burana

John Joubert O Lorde, the maker of al thing Eric Whitacre Five Hebrew Love Songs Mozart Sonata for piano and violin in A

Louise Kemény – Soprano Tim Travers-Brown – Countertenor Alex Ashworth – Baritone Sydenham High School Voices Director: Caroline Lenton-Ward

Matthew Turner – Percussion leader Paula Muldoon – Violin Nico de Villiers and Jakob Fichert – Pianos

Conductor: Dan Ludford-Thomas

Cadogan Hall Saturday, 4 July 2015

A LITTLE QUIZ TO START.... Here's a little puzzle to start (no prizes I'm afraid!): what's the connection between the composers Pachelbel, Leoncavallo, Jeremiah Clarke, David Fanshawe, Dukas, Dohnányi and Orff? The answer: they're each really only known for a single composition. Carmina Burana by Carl Orff has established his name around the world and most people are likely to have heard at least extracts from it even without knowing what it was: apart from being one of the most performed and recorded works ever composed, extracts from it have provided the soundtrack to several films and TV programmes and been used to advertise everything from aftershave to beer, instant coffee and chocolate spread.

It is said that every day at least one performance of Carmina Burana is being put on somewhere in the world. Earlier today two open air performances of the work were due to be given in Germany: in a quarry in Dossenheim, near Heidelberg and in Altenburg market place near Leipzig! Back in 1974 another performance hit the headlines. On an August night in the Royal Albert Hall the 80th season of the Henry Wood Proms was in full swing with a performance of the Orff. The heat outside was more than matched inside by the BBC TV camera lights. The baritone soloist, Thomas Allen, was coming to the end of his second solo in Estuans interius when he fainted into his chair. He tried to recover but collapsed again and had to be carried off the stage by members of the orchestra. As it happened, one of the Prommers, Patrick McCarthy, who had recently become a professional singer, knew the baritone part. So he borrowed a dinner jacket and hastily stepped on the stage to save the night! My personal memory of singing Carmina Burana (as a choir member, not a soloist!) was in the same hall, with the late lamented John Ogdon playing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto in the first half. But that's another story...

I never met Carl Orff but was fortunate enough to meet both John Joubert (at the first performance of his Variations for strings Temps perdu in 1984) and Eric Whitacre (in 2009 when he conducted his music in Southwark Cathedral). The autographs on the following pages testify to those meetings! Fifteen years after the first performance of Carmina Burana in 1937, a young South African, John Joubert, produced what was to become a classic of the Anglican choral repertoire, the anthem O Lorde, the maker of al thing. Whether or not King Henry VIII wrote the words to this work is as open to dispute as his purported authorship of the tune Greensleeves. The music however is as indisputably by Joubert as the equally popular Christmas carol Torches, written around the same time. Joubert went on to teach at Hull University, moving to live in what later became the poet Philip Larkin's flat. The composer apparently was disappointed that, unlike Larkin's, his residence there was not marked by a blue plaque. Until that is, it was pointed out that these were reserved for the deceased! And luckily for us, Joubert is still very much alive, having celebrated his 88th birthday in March this year.

Our third composer is also a visitor from abroad, the American Eric Whitacre, whose works are among the most popular and performed in the classical choral repertoire today. Before they were married, Whitacre asked his wife-to-be, the Israeli singer and poet, Hila Plitmann, to write some words which he could set to music. The result was Five Hebrew Love Songs.

At the time of writing his A major piano & violin sonata, Mozart also was in love, although he went on to marry not his then beloved Aloysia, but rather her sister Constanze! Introduction and programme notes © Martin Bull

John Joubert O Lorde, the maker of al thing

Eric Whitacre Five Hebrew Love Songs

I. Temuná – A picture II. Kalá kallá – Light bride III. Lárov – Mostly IV. Éyze shéleg! – What snow! V. Rakút – Tenderness

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Sonata for piano and violin in A major, K305

1. Allegro molto 2. Tema. Andante grazioso – Variations I-V – Variation VI. Allegro

 Interval 

Carl Orff Carmina Burana Cantiones profanae

Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi Primo vere Uf dem anger Cour d'amours Blanziflor et Helena Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi

JOHN JOUBERT (1927-) John Joubert photographed by his grandson, John E. Morris John Joubert has now lived in the Birmingham suburb of Moseley for more than fifty of his 88 years but he began life far away from British shores. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa, to parents with French Protestant and Dutch ancestry. Nevertheless he was raised in the English Anglican tradition so it was perhaps no surprise that, after early studies in his country of birth, he moved to England and found success as a composer of church music. At the age of 19 he won a four-year scholarship to London's Royal Academy of Music, then became a lecturer at Hull University, where he stayed for twelve years before moving in 1962 to teach at Birmingham University until retiring from academe in 1986. Although it is his choral music which has won him most popularity (Classical Music magazine described him as “an unsung hero of English choral music”). You will more than likely know his Christmas carol Torches, of which Joubert describes his amusement when singers call at his home to sing the piece, without knowing they are singing it to its composer! Nevertheless, he has said “I never really wanted to be pigeonholed as a composer” and indeed he has written a large quantity and range of other works, including symphonies, concertos and operas. His 80th birthday was celebrated with a nationwide series of concerts wittily entitled “Joubertiade 2007”. And in 2010 he was Composer in Residence at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester. O Lorde, the maker of al thing In 1952 this piece won first prize in the Novello Anthem Competition. The text is taken from The King's Prymer (a Book of Hours written in English for use by the laity) and was first set to music by the Elizabethan composer William Mundy. The primer was published in 1545 during the reign of Henry VIII and in common with many texts and musical compositions of the time, the words were later attributed to the king himself. Nowadays however this attribution is called into question by some.

O Lord, the maker of al thing, We pray Thee nowe in this evening Us to defende, through Thy mercy, From al deceit of our en'my.

Let neither us deluded be, Good Lorde, with dreame or phantasy; Oure hearte wakyng in Thee thou kepe That we in sinne fal not on slepe.

O Father, throughe Thy blessed Sonne, Grant us this oure peticion, To whom, with the Holy Ghost alwaies, In heav'n and yearth be laude and praise. 

Photo: Marc Royce ERIC WHITACRE (1970-) Eric Whitacre started learning to play the piano as a child but his real dream was to become a rock star. He was in a marching band at junior high school and later joined a techno-pop band on the path to fulfilling his dream. He studied musical education in his native Nevada, despite not being able to read music. But Whitacre's life-changing moment came from a more unexpected source. Having been drawn into joining the university choir by the presence of “a lot of cute girls in the soprano section”, he was instantly blown away by the sounds of the Kyrie from Mozart's Requiem which they were rehearsing. “My life was profoundly changed on that day” he says, “and I became a choir geek of the highest order”. He was soon to take on serious compositional study, his first work was published at the age of 21 and four years later he was at New York's prestigious Julliard School of Music studying for a Master's degree. Five Hebrew Love Songs The composer tells the full story of his Five Hebrew Love Songs in the notes preceding the score, so I can do no better than quote him here:

“In the spring of 1996, my great friend and brilliant violinist Friedemann Eichorn invited me and my girlfriend-at-the-time Hila Plitmann (a soprano) to give a concert with him in his home city of Speyer, Germany. We had all met that year as students at the Juilliard School, and were inseparable. Because we were appearing as a band of travelling musicians, 'Friedy' asked me to write a set of troubadour songs for piano, violin and soprano. I asked Hila (who was born and raised in Jerusalem) to write me a few 'postcards' in her native tongue, and a few days later she presented me with these exquisite and delicate Hebrew poems. I set them while we vacationed in a small skiing village in the Swiss Alps, and we performed them for the first time a week later in Speyer.... Each of the songs captures a moment that Hila and I shared together. “Kalá Kallá”...was a pun I came up with while she was first teaching me Hebrew. The bells at the beginning of “Éyze shéleg” are the exact pitches that awakened us each morning in Germany as they rang from a nearby cathedral. These songs are profoundly personal for me, born entirely out of my new love for this soprano, poet, and now my beautiful wife, Hila Plitmann.”

To date there are five versions of this work; tonight we are performing the version for mixed chorus, violin and piano (with tambourine in the second song).

Temuna (A Picture) Temuná belibí charutá; A picture is engraved in my heart; Nodédet beyn ór uveyn ófel: Moving between light and darkness: Min dmamá shekazó et guféch kach otá, A sort of silence envelopes your body, Usaréch al paná'ich kach nófel. And your hair falls upon your face just so.

Kalá Kallá (Light Bride) Kalá kallá Light bride Kulá shelí. She is all mine, U'vekalút And lightly Tishák hí lí! She will kiss me! Laróv (Mostly) "Laróv," amár gag la'shama'im, “Mostly,” said the roof to the sky, "Hamerchák shebeynéynu hu ad; “the distance between you and I is endlessness; Ach lifnéy zman alu lechán shna'im, But a while ago two came up here, Uveynéynu nishár sentiméter echád." And only one centimetre was left between us.”

Éyze shéleg! (What Snow!) Éyze shéleg! What snow! Kmo chalamót ktaním Like little dreams Noflím mehashamá'im; Falling from the sky.

Rakút (Tenderness) Hu hayá malé rakút He was full of tenderness; Hi haytá kashá She was very hard. Vechól káma shenistá lehishaér kach, And as much as she tried to stay thus, Pashút, uvlí sibá tová, Simply, and with no good reason, Lakach otá el toch atzmó, He took her into himself, Veheníach And set her down Bamakóm hachí, hachí rach. In the softest, softest place.



WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) On 27 January 1756, the 35-year old Anna Maria, wife of the minor composer and music teacher Leopold Mozart, gave birth to their seventh child in the couple's apartment on the third floor of number 9, Getreidegasse in the capital city of the princely Archbishopric of Salzburg, within the Holy Roman Empire. Five of their children had not survived infancy and Anna Maria herself nearly died giving birth to this their second but sole surviving son. Nevertheless both mother and son survived and the next day the child was baptised in St Rupert's Cathedral as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, later known to the world as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

It was not long before Wolfgang began to show signs of his musical genius, faultlessly playing keyboard pieces from the age of four and composing small pieces from the age of five. He was surprising his father with his prowess and Leopold soon realised that his own work as a composer had been far outshone by his son's output.

Father and son, joined by Leopold's sister Nannerl (also a child prodigy), then set off on the first of many travels to display their musical expertise to the aristocracy and royalty across Europe. In his late teens Wolfgang followed his father's example by taking up employment as a court musician to his home town's Prince-Archbishop, although his concert tours continued and Mozart epitomised the prophet honoured everywhere except in his own land.

Sonata for piano and violin in A major, K305 The year is 1778. The 22-year old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is on one of those long European tours, begun the previous year in the German cities of Augsburg and Mannheim. On this occasion he is grudgingly accompanied by his mother Anna Maria (she had written to her husband that she was too old to undertake such a long journey). By the time they reach Paris in March 1778, Anna Maria's complaint proves to be sadly premonitory: on 3 July she suddenly takes ill and dies. After her funeral in the Parisian church of Saint-Eustache, her son flees back to Mannheim, to be comforted by the Weber family; on his previous visit he had fallen in love with the family's second eldest daughter, Aloysia. But Wolfgang's work as a composer could not cease: he pens six violin sonatas (K301 to 306). These are all two- movement works intended for domestic performance; the violin part could also be played on the flute. Despite this homely purpose, their dedication was far grander: they are sometimes referred to as the Palatine sonatas, as their dedicatee was the Electress Palatine Maria Elisabeth Augusta. When the Webers move to Munich at Christmas, Mozart joins them and presents his musical gift to the Electress at her husband's palace in the Bavarian capital.

The bouncy joyousness of the first movement (Allegro molto) of the A major sonata, K305, gives no hint that the composer was in mourning. But this is contrasted in its more subdued mood by the following movement, consisting of an andante grazioso theme and five variations, followed by a final allegro sixth variation.

 Interval 

CARL ORFF (1895-1982) In six days from now it will be the 120th anniversary of the birth of Carl Orff. Born and raised in the Bavarian capital, Munich, he was a precocious child who started learning the piano at the age of 5 and later took up the cello and the organ. His early attempts at composition were to accompany puppet shows he mounted for his family. They created a leading role for percussion, a trend which Orff was to continue throughout his life. Although he had little formal musical education until he entered the Munich Academy of Music in 1914, some of his compositions had already been published, including songs and an opera. The setting of words to music was another trait which was to dominate his life's work: little of his music does not have recourse to words. Although that music is often seen as simple or even simplistic, his adult life story is far from simple, shrouded in mystery and contradiction. Carl Orff by Jens Rusch

The conclusion I have reached on Orff is that he sought to be the archetypal artist in the ivory tower. He frequently looked back to the past: as a champion of the music of Monteverdi and Schütz well before it was fashionably revived; as a frequent user of ancient languages for his texts; and as an adapter of Ancient Greek myths for his storylines. Or he looked to the fantasy world of his childhood puppet shows and the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm for inspiration. His early work as something of an avant-garde composer setting texts by, among others, the Marxist Bertolt Brecht hardly enamoured him to deeply conservative and reactionary Bavaria. The man himself was frequently described as a self-centred individual who had little time for the practicalities of everyday life. Turning his back on the situation in Germany during the unstable interwar period and the rise of Nazism would perhaps have been tempting but he refused the opportunity to flee.

So he had no choice but to deal with those practicalities: the first of his four marriages had ended in divorce and he had very little money to support himself and his daughter Godela. Although he does not seem to have been interested in politics and was never a member of the Nazi party, the new government was his only potential source of regular and substantial revenue. Luck came into play here: the fact that his paternal grandparents were Jews who had converted to Catholicism somehow escaped the notice of the authorities, as did his close friendship with several Jewish artists. But he trod a careful path: when his friend Kurt Huber, music scholar and co-founder of the White Rose resistance movement, was arrested by the Gestapo, he refused Frau Huber's plea that he should use his growing influence with the government to plead for her husband. A few months later Huber was executed. Orff it seems never forgave himself: after the war he penned a letter to his dead friend begging for forgiveness. Because of his seeming collaboration with the Nazis, he was briefly arrested after the war and the allies classified him as “grey unacceptable” when considering him for future musical employment in post-war Germany. Luck came into play again: one of the American intelligence officers who did the vetting had been a music student and knew of Orff and his music, the classification was changed and the composer was able to take up a paying career once more.

But he was still plagued by nightmares (literally, according to his third wife). The choice of tortured heroes for several of his succeeding music theatre pieces – Oedipus, Antigone and Prometheus – appeared to reflect his own tortured soul. But he no longer suffered from material worries: his fame and fortune were assured by the success of his Schulwerk project, developed to teach young children music and movement accompanied by tuned and untuned percussion and still in use throughout the world today. And of course by his tremendously successful cantata Carmina Burana...

Carmina Burana, Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis

But success did not come easily even for Carmina Burana. Many simply did not know what they should make of it. At the first performance, by Frankfurt Opera in 1937, there was a long period of stony silence, causing Orff's daughter Godela to cry out: “Why don't you bastards clap?!” The Nazi ideologue Rosenberg and his cronies were deeply suspicious of what they saw as its incomprehensible text, its hints of degenerate jazz and a 'pornographic' storyline. A second staged performance was postponed for three years but then another break for Orff: Hitler's propaganda minister Goebbels heard the piece and loved it. Orff was soon on a list of favoured artists and Orff with his daughter receiving a very generous monthly stipend. Fuelled by this success, at the first performance the composer disowned most of his earlier music.

Orff's inspiration for the work had come from his discovery of a collection of over 250 poems and dramatic texts written between the 11th and 13th centuries by travelling scholars and clerics from across Europe who had penned these risqué ditties to sell as entertainment for the masses whilst cocking a snook at the established Church. The original manuscript came from the monastery of Benediktbeuern in southern Bavaria and Orff extracted 24 poems in Latin, Middle High German and Provençal and set them for three soloists, an adult and a children's choir and full orchestra. The piece was originally fully staged with a dance element; the full title shown above translates as “The Songs of Beuern: secular songs for singers and choruses accompanied by instruments and magic images”. But it is usually given in its concert version, as tonight, when we are also using the later reduced accompaniment by two pianos and percussion. The work partly harks back to the elemental method Orff first developed in the 1920s, a mix of rhythmic exploration, simple chant and (originally) dance. Its infectious harmonies are mixed with harsh, pounding rhythms made complex by constant change. The solo arias are challenging, often reaching stratospherically high notes. The work begins and ends with an appeal to Fortune, whose wheel turns inexorably between joy and grief, despair and hope. In between we are transported to the joys of spring, the excess of the tavern and the sensuality of the court of love.

FORTUNA IMPERATRIX MUNDI (FORTUNE, EMPRESS OF THE WORLD) 1. O Fortuna (O Fortune) (Chorus) O Fortuna, velut Luna statu variabilis, O Fortune, you are as changeable as the moon semper crescis aut decrescis; always waxing and waning; vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat hateful life now oppresses and then soothes ludo mentis aciem, as it fancies; egestatem, potestatem dissolvit ut glaciem. it melts both poverty and power like ice.

Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, Monstrous and vain Fate, turning as a wheel, status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis, you are evil, vain well-being always fades away; obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris; veiled in shadow you hound me also; nunc per ludum dorsum nudum now in your sport you attack fero tui sceleris. my naked back.

Sors salutis et virtutis michi nunc contraria, Fate is now against me in health and virtue, est affectus et defectus semper in angaria. driven on and weighed down, always enslaved. Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; So now without delay pluck the vibrating string; quod per sortem sternit fortem, since Fate strikes down the strong man, mecum omnes plangite! everyone weep with me!

2. Fortune plango vulnera (I lament the wounds of Fortune) (Chorus) Fortune plango vulnera stillantibus ocellis, I lament the wounds of Fortune with weeping eyes, quod sua michi munera subtrahit rebellis. for she has perversely taken away her gifts from me. Verum est, quod legitur, fronte capillata, What you read is true: her brow is covered in hair, but sed plerumque sequitur occasio calvata. usually when an opportunity arises she is bald.

In Fortune solio sederam elatus, I used to sit proudly on Fortune's throne, prosperitatis vario flore coronatus; crowned with the different flowers of prosperity; quicquid enim florui felix et beatus, although happy and blessed I may have flourished, nunc a summo corrui gloria privatus. now I fall from above deprived of glory.

Fortune rota volvitur: descendo minoratus; The wheel of Fortune turns: I descend, debased; alter in altum tollitur; nimis exaltatus another is raised up; far too high up rex sedet in vertice caveat ruinam! a king sits at the top - let him beware his ruin! Nam sub axe legimus Hecubam reginam. For under the axle we read: Queen Hecuba.

PRIMO VERE (EARLY SPRING) 3. Veris leta facies (The joyful face of spring) (Chorus) Veris leta facies mundo propinatur, The joyful face of spring comes to the world, hiemalis acies victa iam fugatur, the sharpness of winter overcome now flees, in vestitu vario Flora principatur, in changing apparel Flora rules, nemorum dulcisono que cantu celebratur. Ah! the sweet sound of the wood praises her in song. Ah! Flore fusus gremio Phebus novo more Lying on Flora's bosom Phoebus once more risum dat, hac vario iam stipate flore. smiles, now covered in colourful flowers. Zephyrus nectareo spirans in odore; Zephyr breathes in the smell of nectar; certatim pro bravio curramus in amore. Ah! let us race to vie for love's prize. Ah!

Cytharizat cantico dulcis Philomena, Sweet Philomena sings with her zither, flore rident vario prata iam serena, flower-covered meadows laugh in joy, salit cetus avium silve per amena, a flight of birds rises from the woods, chorus promit virginum iam gaudia millena. Ah! a chorus of maidens now promises a thousand joys. Ah!

4. Omnia sol temperat (The sun rules all) (Baritone) Omnia sol temperat purus et subtilis, The sun rules all, clear and fine, novo mundo reserat facies Aprilis, once more it discloses April's face to the world, ad Amorem properat animus herilis, Man's thoughts turn to Cupid et iocundis imperat deus puerilis. and joy is ruled by the boy-god.

Rerum tanta novitas in solemni vere So much that is new in festive Spring! et veris auctoritas iubet nos gaudere, Spring's example commands us to rejoice, vias prebet solitas, et in tuo vere it shows the usual path. And in your springtime fides est et probitas tuum retinere. it is right and honest to keep what is yours.

Ama me fideliter! Fidem meam nota: Love me faithfully! Note how I am faithful: de corde totaliter et ex mente tota with all my heart and with all my soul, sum presentialiter absens in remota, I am with you even when far away. quisquis amat taliter, volvitur in rota. Whoever loves this much, turns on the wheel.

5. Ecce gratum (Look, welcome Spring) (Chorus) Ecce gratum et optatum Ver reducit gaudia; Look, welcome and wished-for Spring brings back purpuratum floret pratum, Sol serenat omnia joy; violets fill the meadows, the sun brightens all, Iamiam cedant tristia! sadness is now over! Estas redit, nunc recedit Hyemis sevitia. Ah! Summer returns, the rigours of winter go. Ah!

Iam liquescit et decrescit grando, nix et Now ice, snow and the rest melt and disappear; cetera; bruma fugit, et iam sugit Ver Estatis Winter flees, and now Spring sucks at Summer's ubera; illi mens est misera, breast: a wretched soul is he qui nec vivit, nec lascivit sub Estatis dextera. who neither lives nor lusts under Summer's right Ah! hand. Ah!

Gloriantur et letantur in melle dulcedinis, They glory and rejoice in honeyed sweetness, qui conantur, ut utantur premio Cupidinis; those who strive to win Cupid's prize; simus jussu Cypridis gloriantes et letantes at Venus' command let us glory and rejoice pares esse Paridis. Ah! to be the equals of Paris. Ah!

ÛF DEM ANGER (ON THE GRASS) 6. Tanz (Dance) (Instrumental) 7. Floret silva nobilis (The noble woods are in bloom) (Chorus) Floret silva nobilis floribus et foliis. The noble woods are in bloom with flowers and leaves. Ubi est antiquus meus amicus? Ah! Hinc equitavit, Where is my lover of old? Ah! He has ridden eia, quis me amabit? Ah! away! Oh, who will love me? Ah!

Floret silva undique, The woods are blossoming all around, nah mime gesellen ist mir wê. I am aching for my love.

Gruonet der walt allenthalben, The woods are turning green all around, wâ ist min geselle alse lange? Ah! why is my love away so long? Ah! Der ist geriten hinnen, He has ridden away. o wi, wer sol mich minnen? Ah! Oh woe, who will love me? Ah! 8. Chramer, gip die varwe mir (Merchant, give me rouge) (Chorus) Chramer, gip die varwe mir, Merchant, give me rouge die min wengel roete, to redden my cheeks, damit ich die jungen man so I can make the young men an ir dank der minnenliebe noete. love me, whether they wish it or no. Seht mich an, jungen man! lat mich iu gevallen. Look at me, young men! Let me please you! Minnet, tugentliche man, minnecliche frouwen! Virtuous men, love women worthy of love! minne tuot iu hoch gemout Love ennobles your spirit unde lat iuch in hohen eren schouwen and gives you honour. Seht mich an, jungen man! lat mich iu gevallen. Look at me, young men! Let me please you! Wol dir, Werlt, daz du bist also freudenriche! Hail, world, so rich in joy! ich will dir sin undertan I will be obedient to you durch din liebe immer sicherliche. because of the pleasures you provide. Seht mich an, jungen man! lat mich iu gevallen. Look at me, young men! Let me please you! 9. Reie (Round dance) (Instrumental) Swaz hie gat umbe (Those who dance) (Chorus) Swaz hie gat umbe, daz sint allez megede, Those who dance around here are all maidens, die wellent an man alle disen sumer gan! who want to do without men all summer long. Ah! Sla! Ah! Sla! Chume, chum, geselle min (Come, come, my lad) (Chorus) Chume, chum, geselle min, Come, come, my lad, ih enbite harte din, ih enbite harte din, I am longing for you, I am longing for you, chume, chum, geselle min. come, come, my love.

Suzer rosenvarwer munt, Sweet rose coloured lips, chum uñ mache mich gesunt, come and make me better, chum uñ mache mich gesunt, come and make me better, suzer rosenvarwer munt sweet rose coloured lips.

Swaz hie gat umbe (Those who dance) (Chorus) Swaz hie gat umbe, daz sint allez megede, Those who dance around here are all maidens, die wellent an man alle disen sumer gan! who want to do without men all summer long. Ah! Ah! Sla! Sla! 10. Were diu werlt alle min (Were all the world mine) (Chorus) Were diu werlt alle min Were all the world mine von deme mere unze an den Rin from the sea to the Rhine, des wolt ih mih darben, I would do without it daz diu chünegin von Engellant so that the Queen of England lege an minen armen. might lie in my arms. IN TABERNA (IN THE TAVERN) 11. Estuans interius (Burning inside) (Baritone) Estuans interius ira vehement Burning inside with violent anger, in amaritudine loquor mee menti: in bitterness I speak to my heart: factus de materia, cinis elementi fashioned from matter, from the ashes of the elements, similis sum folio, de quo ludunt venti. I am like a leaf played with by the winds.

Cum sit enim proprium viro sapienti While it is for a wise man supra petram ponere sedem fundamenti, to build foundations on rock, stultus ego comparor fluvio labenti, I am a fool, like a flowing stream sub eodem tramite nunquam permanenti. which never stays on its course.

Feror ego veluti sine nauta navis, I am carried along like a ship without a sailor, ut per vias aeris vaga fertur avis; and like a roving bird in the air's path; non me tenent vincula, chains cannot hold me, non me tenent clavis, keys cannot hold me, quero mihi similes et adiungor pravis. I seek those like me and join the rogues.

Mihi cordis gravitas res videtur gravis; The heaviness of my heart seems like a burden to me; iocis est amabilis dulciorque favis; it is pleasant to joke, sweeter than honeycomb; quicquid Venus imperat, labor est suavis, whatever Venus commands is a sweet duty, que nunquam in cordibus habitat ignavis. she never dwells in a listless heart.

Via lata gradior more iuventutis I tread the wide path like the way of youth, inplicor et vitiis immemor virtutis, I give myself to vice, forgetful of virtue, voluptatis avidus magis quam salutis, I am eager for pleasure more than for salvation, mortuus in anima curam gero cutis. my soul is dead, so I shall attend to the flesh. 12. Cignus ustus cantat (The roast swan sings) (Countertenor and chorus) Olim lacus colueram, olim pulcher extiteram, Once I adorned lakes, once I looked beautiful, dum cignus ego fueram. when I was a swan. Miser, miser! modo niger et ustus fortiter! Misery! Now I am black and roasting fiercely! Girat, regirat garcifer; me rogus urit fortiter; The cook is turning me on the spit, burning fiercely propinat me nunc dapifer, on the pyre; the steward now serves me up.

Miser, miser! modo niger et ustus fortiter! Misery! Now black and roasting fiercely! Nunc in scutella iaceo, et volitare nequeo Now I lie on a plate, and can fly no longer, dentes frendentes video: I see bared teeth: Miser, miser! modo niger et ustus fortiter! Misery! Now I am black and roasting fiercely! 13. Ego sum abbas (I am the abbot) (Baritone and chorus) Ego sum abbas Cucaniensis et consilium I am the abbot of Cockaigne and I take counsel meum est cum bibulis, et in secta Decii with my drinking friends, I wish to join the order voluntas mea est, et qui mane me quesierit in of gamblers, and whoever seeks me early in the taberna, post vesperam nudus egredietur, tavern, after Vespers he will leave naked, and et sic denudatus veste clamabit: thus stripped of his clothes he will call out: Wafna, Wafna! quid fecisti sors turpissima? Woe! Woe! what have you done, vilest Fate? Nostre vite gaudia abstulisti omnia! You have stolen all the joys of our life! Wafna, Wafna! Ha ha! Woe! Woe! Ha ha! 14. In taberna quando sumus (When we are in the tavern) (Chorus) In taberna quando sumus, When we are in the tavern, non curamus quid sit humus, we do not worry about turning to dust, sed ad ludum properamus, but we hurry to gamble, cui semper insudamus. which always makes us sweat.

Quid agatur in taberna, What happens in the tavern, ubi nummus est pincerna, where money is host, hoc est opus ut queratur, you may well ask, si quid loquar, audiatur. and hear what I say.

Quidam ludunt, quidam bibunt, Some gamble, some drink, quidam indiscrete vivunt. some behave without discretion.

Sed in ludo qui morantur, But of those who gamble, ex his quidam denudantur some are stripped bare, quidam ibi vestiuntur, some win their clothes here, quidam saccis induuntur. some are dressed in rags. Ibi nullus timet mortem Here no-one fears death, sed pro Baccho mittunt sortem. but they toss the dice for Bacchus.

Primo pro nummata vini, First of all it is to him who stands the round ex hac bibunt libertini; that the libertines drink, semel bibunt pro captivis, once for those in prison, post hec bibunt ter pro vivis, thrice for the living, quater pro Christianis cunctis four times for all Christians, quinquies pro fidelibus defunctis, five for the faithful departed, sexies pro sororibus vanis, six for sisters of loose virtue, septies pro militibus silvanis. seven for the soldiers in the wood,

Octies pro fratribus perversis, Eight for errant brethren, nonies pro monachis dispersis, nine for monks spread everywhere, decies pro navigantibus, ten for sailors, undecies pro discordantibus, eleven for those who argue, duodecies pro penitentibus, twelve for the penitent, tredecies pro iter agentibus. thirteen for journeymen. Tam pro papa quam pro rege To the Pope as to the king bibunt omnes sine lege. they all drink without restraint.

Bibit hera, bibit herus, The mistress drinks, the master drinks, bibit miles, bibit clerus, the soldier drinks, the cleric drinks, bibit ille, bibit illa, the man drinks, the woman drinks, bibit servus cum ancilla, the servant drinks with the maid, bibit velox, bibit piger, the swift man drinks, the slow man drinks, bibit albus, bibit niger, the white man drinks, the black man drinks, bibit constans, bibit vagus, the stay-at-home drinks, the wanderer drinks, bibit rudis, bibit magus. the ignorant man drinks, the wise man drinks, Bibit pauper et egrotus, The poor man drinks and the sick man, bibit exul et ignotus, the outcast drinks and the low-born, bibit puer, bibit canus, the boy drinks, the greybeard drinks, bibit presul et decanus, the bishop drinks and the deacon, bibit soror, bibit frater, the sister drinks, the brother drinks, bibit anus, bibit mater, the old woman drinks, the mother drinks, bibit ista, bibit ille, this man drinks, that man drinks, bibunt centum, bibunt mille. a hundred drink, a thousand drink.

Parum sexcente nummate Six hundred coins would not suffice, durant, cum immoderate if everyone drinks without moderation bibunt omnes sine meta. and limit. Quamvis bibant mente leta, However much they drink with good cheer, sic nos rodunt omnes gentes we are the ones who everyone sponges from, et sic erimus egentes. and so we are destitute. Qui nos rodunt confundantur May those who slander us be cursed et cum iustis non scribantur. Io! and not be listed with the just. Hurrah! III. COUR D'AMOURS 15. Amor volat undique (Love flies everywhere) (Soprano and chorus) Amor volat undique, captus est libidine. Love flies everywhere, seized by desire. Iuvenes, iuvencule coniunguntur merito. Young men and women come together, rightly so.

Siqua sine socio, caret omni gaudio; The girl without a mate misses out on all pleasure, tenet noctis infima sub intimo she keeps dark night hidden cordis in custodia: fit res amarissima. in the depths of her heart: it is a most bitter fate. 16. Dies, nox et omnia (Day, night, everything) (Baritone) Dies, nox et omnia michi sunt contraria; Day and night, all is against me, virginum colloquia me fay planszer, maidens' chatter makes me weep, oy suvenz suspirer, plu me fay temer. often sigh and, what's more, scares me.

O sodales, ludite, vos qui scitis dicite My friends, make merry but be aware, michi mesto parcite, grand ey dolur, spare me in my sorrow, my pain is great, attamen consulite per voster honur. advise me at least, by your honour.

Tua pulchra facies me fay planszer milies Your beautiful face makes me weep a thousand pectus habet glacies. times, your heart is of ice. A remender, statim vivus fierem per un baser. To restore me, I would be revived by a kiss. 17. Stetit puella (A girl stood) (Soprano) Stetit puella rufa tunica; A girl stood in a red dress; si quis eam tetigit, tunica crepuit. Eia! if anyone touched it, the dress rustled. Aha!

Stetit puella tamquam rosula; A girl stood like a rosebud; facie splenduit, os eius floruit. Eia! her face shone and her mouth bloomed. Aha! 18. Circa mea pectora (In my heart) (Baritone and Chorus) Circa mea pectora multa sunt suspiria In my heart there are many sighs de tua pulchritudine, que me ledunt misere. Ah ! for your beauty, which wound me sorely. Ah! Manda liet, manda liet Let's have a song, let's have a song, min geselle chumet niet. my love doesn't come. Tui lucent oculi sicut solis radii, Your eyes shine like the rays of the sun, sicut splendor fulguris lucem donat tenebris. Ah! a flash of lightning to brighten the dark. Ah! Manda liet, manda liet Let's have a song, let's have a song, min geselle chumet niet. my love doesn't come.

Vellet deus, vellent dii quod mente proposui: May God grant, may the gods grant what I ut eius virginea reserassem vincula. Ah! propose: to loose the chains of her virginity. Ah! Manda liet, manda liet Let's have a song, let's have a song, min geselle chumet niet. my love does not come. 19. Si puer cum puellula (If a boy with a young girl) (Chorus) Si puer cum puellula moraretur in cellula, If a boy with a young girl stays in a little room, felix coniunctio. happy is their communion Amore suscrescente pariter e medio Love rises up, and between them avulso procul tedio, prudery is driven away, fit ludus ineffabilis an ineffable game begins membris, lacertis, labiis. in their limbs, arms and lips. 20.Veni, veni, venias (Come, come, O come) (Chorus) Veni, veni, venias ; Veni, veni, venias, Come, come, O come; Come, come, O come, ne me mori facias, do not make me die, hyrca, hyrce, nazaza, trillirivos! hyrca, hyrce, nazaza, trillirivos!

Pulchra tibi facies, oculorum acies, Beautiful is your face, the gleam of your eye, capillorum series, o quam clara species! your braided hair, what a glorious creature! Rosa rubicundior, lilio candidior, Redder than a rose, whiter than a lily, omnibus formosior, semper in te glorior! lovelier than all, I shall always glory in you! 21. In trutina (In the balance) (Soprano) In trutina mentis dubia fluctuant contraria In the wavering balance of my mind lascivus amor et pudicitia. lascivious love is set against modesty. Sed eligo quod video, collum iugo prebeo; But I choose what I see, offer my neck to the yoke; ad iugum tamen suave transeo. I yield to the sweet yoke. 22. Tempus es iocundum (This is the time for joy) (Soprano, baritone & chorus) Tempus est iocundum, o virgines, This is the time for joy, O maidens, modo congaudete vos iuvenes. rejoice with them, young men! Oh, oh, oh, totus floreo! Oh! Oh! Oh! I am bursting out all over! Iam amore virginali totus ardeo, I am all afire with my first love! novus, novus amor est, quo pereo. A new love is what I am dying of!

Mea me confortat promissio, I am elated by my promise, mea me deportat negatio. I am depressed by my refusal Oh, oh, oh, totus floreo! Oh! Oh! Oh! I am bursting out all over! Iam amore virginali totus ardeo, I am all afire with my first love! novus, novus amor est, quo pereo. A new love is what I am dying of!

Tempore brumali, vir patiens, In the winter, man is patient, animo vernali lasciviens. the breath of spring makes him lusty. Oh, oh, oh, totus floreo! Oh! Oh! Oh! I am bursting out all over! Iam amore virginali totus ardeo, I am all afire with my first love! novus, novus amor est, quo pereo. A new love is what I am dying of!

Mea mecum ludit virginitas, My virginity makes me frisky, mea me detrudit simplicitas. my simplicity holds me back. Oh, oh, oh, totus floreo! Oh! Oh! Oh! I am bursting out all over! Iam amore virginali totus ardeo, I am all afire with my first love! novus, novus amor est, quo pereo. A new love is what I am dying of!

Veni, domicella, cum gaudio, Come, my mistress, with joy, veni, veni, pulchra, iam pereo. come, come, my pretty, I am dying! Oh, oh, oh, totus floreo! Oh! Oh! Oh! I am bursting out all over! Iam amore virginali totus ardeo, I am all afire with my first love! novus, novus amor est, quo pereo A new love is what I am dying of!

23. Dulcissime (Sweetest one) (Soprano) Dulcissime, ah! Totam tibi subdo me! Sweetest one! Ah! I give myself to you totally! BLANZIFLOR ET HELENA (BLANCHEFLEUR AND HELEN) 24. Ave formosissima (Hail, most beautiful one) (Chorus) Ave formosissima, gemma pretiosa, Hail, most beautiful one, precious jewel, ave decus virginum, virgo gloriosa, Hail, pride among virgins, glorious virgin, ave mundi luminar, ave mundi rosa, Hail. light of the world, Hail, rose of the Blanziflor et Helena, Venus world, Blanchefleur and Helen, noble generosa! Venus! FORTUNA IMPERATRIX MUNDI (FORTUNE, EMPRESS OF THE WORLD) 25. O Fortuna (O Fortune) (Chorus) O Fortuna, velut Luna statu variabilis, O Fortune, you are as changeable as the moon semper crescis aut decrescis; always waxing and waning; vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat hateful life now oppresses and then soothes ludo mentis aciem, as it fancies; egestatem, potestatem dissolvit ut glaciem. it melts both poverty and power like ice.

Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, Monstrous and vain Fate, turning as a wheel, status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis, you are evil, vain well-being always fades away; obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris ; veiled in shadow you hound me also; nunc per ludum dorsum nudum now in your sport you attack fero tui sceleris. my naked back.

Sors salutis et virtutis michi nunc contraria, Fate is now against me in health and virtue, est affectus et defectus semper in angaria. driven on and weighed down, always enslaved. Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; So now without delay pluck the vibrating string; quod per sortem sternit fortem, since Fate strikes down the strong man, mecum omnes plangite! everyone weep with me!

Lyrics © Schott Musik International, Mainz, Germany Translation © Martin Bull 

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Louise Kemény – Soprano “Outstanding young soprano Louise Kemény” (The Times, 2014) recently graduated with distinction from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Opera School. Since then she has sung Teofane Ottone (English Touring Opera), Jano Jenůfa (Scottish Opera), Serpetta(cover) La Finta Giardiniera and Noble Orphan Der Rosenkavalier (Glyndebourne) and a live broadcast for BBC Radio 3.

Whilst in Glasgow Kemény sang Tytania A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scottish Opera with RCS) and, for British Youth Opera, Tiny Paul Bunyan and Little Moon/Soprano Actor in Weir A Night at the Chinese Opera, winning the Basil. A. Turner Prize. An Independent Opera Fellow, Kemény also won the Joaninha Trust Prize and the Ian Smith of Stornoway Prize for Opera; she is generously supported by the Worshipful Company of Musicians, RCS and South Square Trusts.

Highlghts on the concert platform include Mozart Mass in C minor at Goldsmith’s Hall, Stravinsky Les noces with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, a recital of Debussy song in Glasgow with Malcolm Martineau, and Tippett The Heart’s Assurance and Britten On This Island at the Museen der Stadt Nürnberg, in commemoration of the First World War.

Forthcoming engagements include Poppea Agrippina for Iford Arts’ Festival Opera, Beethoven Missa Solemnis at Kings College Chapel, Cambridge and a solo recital at St John’s Smith Square. www.louisekemeny.co.uk

Tim Travers-Brown – Countertenor Tim studied at the Royal Academy of Music and has appeared as a soloist and consort singer throughout Europe, Japan and the USA. Artists he has worked with include the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Dunedin Consort, The English Concert, Le Concert d’Astrée and Emmanuelle Haïm, Laurence Cummings, the Gabrieli Consort under Paul McCreesh, The Sixteen, Nicholas Kraemer, the Choir of the Enlightenment under Sir Charles Mackerras, the Parley of Instruments, pianist Jeremy Filsell and lutenist David Miller.

Opera engagements include Steffani Niobe (Cover) at The Royal Opera House and Orfeo for Peter Holman and The Parley of Instruments. Recordings include cantatas by Handel with The Musicke Companye, Bach cantatas with Bach Collegium Japan and Masaaki Suzuki and a solo disc of English song entitled The Frostbound Wood.

Tim teaches singing at Eton College, Charterhouse School and privately.

Alex Ashworth – Baritone Alex 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 début 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 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 Monteverdi Vespers in Carnegie Hall, New York, 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, Stravinsky Oedipus Rex with the London Symphony Orchestra, and Handel Giulio Cesare (DVD) for Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Later this year he appears in John Eliot Gardiner's new recording of Bach B Minor Mass.

The Sydenham High School Voices have a very busy rehearsal and concert schedule, with performances at The Royal Albert Hall (where they have become a regular feature of the TV Times Christmas with the Stars concert in aid of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research), St John’s Smith Square, St- Martin-in-the-Fields, Fairfield Halls in Croydon, Blackheath Concert Halls, the Grand Metropolitan Lodge in Covent Garden and at the Mansion House for the Lord Mayor of London. They have also been combined with a string of national and local music festival competition successes. And they have provided children’s choirs on numerous occasions for large scale choral works, including Monteverdi Vespers, Britten St Nicholas, and Fanshawe African Sanctus, as well as joining forces with parents, staff and friends to perform some of the great choral classics. In the last four years tours to Venice, Salzburg and Tuscany have been hugely successful and the choir has just returned from a concert tour of Estonia where they performed in Tallinn, Tartu and Viljandi. The choir is conducted by Caroline Lenton-Ward (Choral Director) and accompanied by Andrew Baars (Director of Music). They have released two CDs - Joyfully Sing and Choral Flourish - both available from the school. Enquiries to: [email protected]

Caroline Lenton-Ward was educated at the Royal Academy of Music where she was awarded the Charles Norman Prize. On leaving the RAM, she was granted awards from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust.

Caroline has appeared with the Royal Opera, Opera North, Kent Opera and the D'Oyly Carte, and performs regularly with many leading ensembles including the BBC Singers, Sinfonietta Voices and London Voices, and is demand as a concert soloist.

Solo appearances have included performances at the Royal Albert Hall; the Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic; Mozart C Minor Mass at the Barbican; Messiah with Sir David Willcocks; the Bridgewater Hall and the Philharmonic Hall with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; the role of the Virgin in Honegger's oratorio Joan of Arc, conducted by Libor Pešek; Verdi Requiem in Ely Cathedral; Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony; Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle; and Britten War Requiem.

Caroline is Choral Director and Singing Teacher at Sydenham High School; she also teaches singing at Goldsmiths, University of London as well as conducting the chamber choir; she set up and ran the Westminster Choral Project including the Westminster Junior Singers and Youth Choir, and works as a consultant in Choral Education.

Matthew Turner – Percussion leader Matthew studied timpani and percussion at the Royal Academy of Music and combines performing and teaching in a successful freelance career. He has worked with many orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestras and the Britten Sinfonia. He is a founder member of the “Striking Sounds” percussion ensemble who gave the world première of Paul Patterson Hell's Angels with the Brodsky Quartet at the Barbican and he was soloist in Panufnik Concertino for timpani, percussion and strings at the Brighton Festival. He is joined tonight in the percussion team by Will Burgess and Keith Price.

Paula Muldoon – Violin Irish-American violinist Paula Muldoon regularly performs and records with some of the world’s greatest orchestras. Her first professional engagement in the UK was Mahler’s 4th Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra; highlights of this year include concerts in Spain with the Philharmonia and dates at the BBC Proms, Edinburgh Festival and in France with John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. After finishing her MMus with distinction at the Guildhall, Paula spent a year in Liverpool as a member of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Among her recordings with that ensemble are acclaimed releases of Shostakovich 4th Symphony and Rachmaninov 1st Symphony. Paula received her B.Mus with Highest Honours from the University of Michigan, where she was also an award-winning translator. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, writing, cooking, running, watching Doctor Who and Star Trek, crosswords, word games, bad puns, and drinking good coffee.

Jakob Fichert – Piano Jakob Fichert is a pianist with an international profile. He has repeatedly performed in prestigious London venues such as the South Bank, Wigmore Hall and Kings Place and has recorded for Naxos and Toccata Classics to great critical acclaim both as a soloist and collaborating artist. Future plans include the recording of Adolf Busch’s complete piano works and several prestigious concerts featuring contemporary music in the UK, Belgium and Germany.

Much in demand as a pedagogue, Jakob has given numerous master classes for music specialist schools, conservatoires and universities in the UK and in China. He also works as an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and holds the positions of Principal Lecturer in piano at Leeds College of Music and Associate Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London and the University of York. www.jakobfichert.com

Nico de Villiers – Piano South Africa-born pianist Nico de Villiers is based in London and in demand as soloist, accompanist and coach in the UK as well as abroad. He holds degrees from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, University of Michigan and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Recent débuts include performances at the Barbican in London, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Birmingham Symphony Hall, the Mozarteum Grosser Saal in Salzburg and the Beethoven-Haus Kammermusiksaal in Bonn. Future concert engagements include recitals across the UK, the Netherlands, South Africa and China. Nico is currently undertaking his doctoral research at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, focusing on the songs of Dutch-born American composer Richard Hageman. He is grateful for the generous support of the Guildhall School and the International Opera Awards. Photo: Sebastian Charlesworth

Dan Ludford-Thomas - Conductor Dan began singing as a chorister at St Matthew’s Church, Northampton, and in 1986 became ‘Choirboy of the Year’ which led to radio and television broadcasts, and concerts at many of the major venues throughout the UK. He won choral scholarships to Wells Cathedral and Durham Cathedral where he read music at the University. On arrival in London he continued his vocal studies with Richard Smart and Nicholas Powell and conducting with Rumon Gamba and Mark Shanahan.

As a tenor, Dan has performed regularly with many major ensembles, including Chapelle du Roi, The Kings Consort, The Academy of Ancient Music, Florilegium, and The Sixteen and has sung with many choral societies as a soloist.

As a conductor he performs regularly in major concert venues including Birmingham Symphony Hall and The Royal Albert Hall. In 2012 he conducted over 300 singers and the Forest Philharmonic in a performance of Handel Messiah in the Royal Festival Hall and in 2014 conducted over 200 singers in a performance of Verdi Requiem in the Fairfield Halls. Dan is in demand as a choral animateur, directing choral workshops and projects in the UK and internationally. He was at the forefront in the delivery of the national singing initiative ‘Singup’ in collaboration with Ex Cathedra with whom he enjoys a long association as part of a team delivering singing programmes and concerts.

In 2012 Dan worked as a choirmaster on BBC2’s The Choir: Sing While You Work series and has continued as Artistic Director of the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir. He returned in 2013 to work on the BBC2’s The Choir: Sing While You Work series 2 as choirmaster to Citibank choir with whom he has continued as the musical director. Work with these choirs has led to performances at the Hammersmith Apollo and recent concerts in New York. Dan was the chorus master for the Choir of the Enlightenment, preparing them to sing Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Marin Alsop at the 2013 BBC Proms. Dan is currently Head of Singing at Dulwich College, and is a singing teacher at Eton College. He is the Associate Conductor of The Hackney Singers, Musical Director of Concordia Chamber Choir and the Director of Music of Lewisham Choral Society.

Lewisham Choral Society is one of London’s most popular community choirs, performing at local venues and major concert halls such as Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, the Cadogan Hall and the Fairfield Halls. It has provided the chorus for two shows at the Young Vic and was honoured to take part in the opening ceremony for the Paralympic Games in 2012. It is a large, lively community-based choir, with almost two hundred singers. Founded in 1950 by a group based at Lewisham’s parish church, it grew in size and ambition, marking its transformation by a change of name to Lewisham Choral Society in the early 1980s. The Society is a member of Making Music - the National Federation of Music Societies. We are a performing choir, staging four concerts a year and taking part in other choral singing events when opportunities arise. Under the professional direction of Dan Ludford-Thomas and his deputy Nico de Villiers, the choir’s repertoire ranges from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first - Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 through to contemporary works by Will Todd and Eric Whitacre.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN LEWISHAM CHORAL SOCIETY AS A SINGER?

Lewisham Choral Society offers a warm welcome to new joiners. We are open to singers in all voice parts, but given the need to maintain a good balance across the choir we are targeting our recruitment at tenors and basses. Although we do not audition, the choir performs to a high standard and tackles some complex pieces which require a level of experience and musical ability. Rehearsals are relatively fast-paced, so may not suit complete beginners. We rehearse on Monday evenings from 8 to 10 at St Laurence Church, 37 Bromley Road, Catford, SE6 2TS: five minutes' walk from Catford and Catford Bridge stations; buses 47, 54, 136, 171, 199 and 208 stop outside. Parking is relatively easy on nearby residential streets and there is limited parking within the church grounds. Rehearsals for Cherubini's Requiem in C minor and Rossini’s three motets O salutaris hostia, Ave Maria and Salve Regina start on Monday 7 September, continue until the autumn concert on 14 November and then run again without a break until the Christmas concert on 19 December. We shall schedule additional rehearsals as and when necessary. Singers are welcome to join as new members on 7, 14 or 21 September.

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Lewisham Choral Society would like to thank: The team at the Cadogan Hall Trevor Jarvis for stage management, concert logistics and programme production Rosemary Savinson for publicity planning and coordination Ben Lesley for poster design Martin Bull for programme notes and editing Lara Ruffle Coles for digital media marketing All the LCS volunteers for assistance on the day of the concert Lewisham Choral Society – Future performances

Please visit our website for updates www.lewishamchoralsociety.org.uk Ticket enquiries to 020 8309 0439 or website

Saturday 14 November 2015 at 7.30 pm Great Hall, Goldsmiths, SE14 6NW

Rossini – Motets: O salutaris hostia, Ave Maria & Salve Regina Mendelssohn – Capriccio brilliante for piano & orchestra, Op 22 (Piano soloist: Nico de Villiers) Cherubini – Requiem in C minor  Saturday 19 December 2015 at 7.30 pm Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, SW1X 9BZ

Music for Christmas with carols for choir and audience  Saturday 19 March 2016 at 7.30 pm Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, Croydon CR9 1DG

Mendelssohn – Elijah Joint concert with the Derbyshire Singers  Saturday 9 July 2016 at 7.30 pm Venue to be announced

Lili Boulanger – Vieille prière bouddhique Vierne – Messe solennelle 

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Lewisham Choral Society acknowledges the support of the London Borough of Lewisham.

Lewisham Choral Society, Registered Charity Number 1040570