Wednesday 30 September 2015, 7.00pm St Giles’ Cripplegate Lasse Thoresen Mon Dieu Jonathan Dove It sounded as if the streets were running Andrej Makor Paisaje Mikko Heiniö Mater fons amoris Miłosz Bembinow Shakespired Bjørn Bolstad Skjelbred Still in silence Cecilia McDowall Standing as I do before God Cˇrt Sojar Voglar Salve Regina Perttu Haapanen Readymade Alice BBC Singers James Morgan conductor Presented by Name Hosted by the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) and organised by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers & Authors (BASCA) There will be no interval This concert is being recorded by BBC Radio 3 for future broadcast. It will be available for 30 days after broadcast via the Radio 3 website. You can listen to – and download – the concert on your mobile or tablet via the BBC iPlayer Radio app. Please ensure all mobile phones and watch-alarms are switched off. This performance is organised as a part of the European Contemporary Composers Orchestra (ECCO), a trademark project of ECSA. It aims to establish itself as a pan-European ‘body of sound’ dedicated to performance, circulation and promotion of contemporary art music, as well as gaining new audiences. In practice, it is a network of active ensembles, orchestras and young professionals, supporting creative dialogue among composers and performers through contemporary performances and on an international level. The pieces you will hear today were drawn competitively following a Europe-wide call for scores and showcase works from award-winning, multi-cultural and highly talented composers from all over Europe – nine choral works by composers from five different countries, all written in the past 15 years. BASCA exists to support and protect the artistic and professional interests of songwriters, composers and lyricists in the UK. Throughout Europe there are over 40 similar associations of more than 23,000 composers and songwriters that form ECSA with the mission to protect the rights of composers and improve the development of music creation across Europe. LASSE THORESEN (born 1949) Mon Dieu (1995) Mon Dieu, mon adoré, My God, my adored, Mon roi, mon désir! my king, my desire! Quelle langue peut exprimer What language can express Ma gratitude à ton égard? my gratitude to you? J’etais insouciant. I was careless. Tu m’as éveillé. You have awakened me. Je m’étais détourné de toi, I was turned away from you, Tu m’as aide par ta grâce by your grace you helped me À retourner vers toi. to be returned to you. J’étais comme mort. I was like death. Tu m’as ranimé par l’eau de la vie. You revived me by the water of life. J’étais desséché. I was parched. Tu m’as ressuscité par le flot céleste You raised me up by the heavenly stream. De la parole qui s’est écoulé The word was spoken De la plume du Très Miséricordieux. by the fount of great mercy. O divine Providence! O divine Providence! Toute existence émane de ta bonté; All existence emanates from your goodness; Ne la prive pas des eaux de ta générosité, Do not deprive the waters of your generosity, Et ne l’éloigne pas d l’océan de ta misericorde. and do not starve the ocean of thy mercy. Je te supplie m’aider me secourir en tout temps I beg you to help me at all times Et en toutes circonstances et je demande, and in all circumstances, and I ask Su ciel de ta grâce, ton antique faveur. heaven of thy grace, the ancient favour. Tu es, en vérité, le Seigneur généreux Thou art, verily, the generous Lord Et le Souverain de royaume de l’éternité. and Sovereign of the kingdom of eternity. Bahá ’u’lláh (1817–92) Page 3 JONATHAN DOVE (born 1959) It sounded as if the Streets were running (2006) It sounded as if the Streets were running, And then – the Streets stood still – Eclipse – was all we could see at the Window And Awe – was all we could feel. By and by – the boldest stole out of his Covert To see if Time was there – Nature was in an Opal Apron, Mixing fresher Air. Emily Dickinson (1830–86) ANDREJ MAKOR (born 1987) Paisaje (2013) Michaela Haslam soprano Cherith Millburn-Fryer alto Steven Jeffes tenor Jamie W. Hall bass El campo The olive grove de olivos is opened, se abre y se cierra closes como un abanico. like a fan. Sobre el olivar Above the olive grove hay un cielo hundido a sunken sky y una illuvia oscura and a dark heaven de luceros frios. of cold stars. Tiembla junco y penumbra Reeds tremble and shimmer a la orilla del rio. at the river bank. Se riza el aire griz. The grey air curls. Los olivos The olive trees están cargados are loaded with screams. de gritos. A flock Una bandada of captive birds, de pájaros cautivos, that move their long lines que mueven sus larguísimas in the gloom. colas en lo sombrio. Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) MIKKO HEINIÖ (born 1948) Mater, fons amoris (2011) Michaela Haslam soprano Elizabeth Poole soprano Margaret Cameron alto Eia, Mater, fons amoris O thou Mother! fount of love! Me sentire vim doloris Touch my spirit from above, Fac, ut tecum lugeam. make my heart with thine accord: Quis non posset contemplari Who cannot be suffering Dolentem cum Filio? with her son? Flammis ne urar succensus, Be to me, O Virgin, nigh, Per te, Virgo, sim defensus lest in flames I burn and die, In die iudicii. in his awful Judgement Day. Christe, cum sit hinc exire, Christ, when thou shalt call me hence, Da per Matrem me venire be thy mother my defence, Ad palmam victoriae. be thy Cross my victory; Quando corpus morietur, While my body here decays, Fac, ut animae donetur may my soul thy goodness praise, Paradisi gloria. safe in Paradise with thee. Bogoroditse Devo, raduitsya, Hail Mary, full of grace, Blagodatnaya Mariye, Gospod s toboyu. the Lord is with thee; Blagoslovena tï v zhenakh, blessed art thou among women, I blagosloven plod chreva tvoyevo. and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. From the Stabat mater and the Russian Orthodox Vespers Page 5 MIŁOSZ BEMBINOW (born 1978) Shakespired (2015) 1 The expense of spirit (Sonnet 129) 3 Love is too young (Sonnet 151) The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Love is too young to know what conscience is; Is lust in action; and till action, lust Yet who knows not, conscience is born of love? Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust, Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove. Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight, For thou betraying me, I do betray Past reason hunted, and no sooner had My nobler part to my gross body’s treason; Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait My soul doth tell my body that he may On purpose laid to make the taker mad; Triumph in love; flesh stays no farther reason, Mad in pursuit and in possession so; But rising at thy name, doth point out thee Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride, A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe; He is contented thy poor drudge to be, Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream. To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side. All this the world well knows; yet none knows well No want of conscience hold it that I call To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. Her ‘love’, for whose dear love I rise and fall. William Shakespeare (1564–1616) 2 Two loves I have (Sonnet 144) Two loves I have of comfort and despair, Which like two spirits do suggest me still; The better angel is a man right fair, The worser spirit a woman colour’d ill. To win me soon to hell, my female evil Tempteth my better angel from my side, And would corrupt my saint to be a devil, Wooing his purity with her foul pride. And whether that my angel be turn’d fiend Suspect I may, yet not directly tell; But being both from me, both to each friend, I guess one angel in another’s hell: Yet this shall I ne’er know, but live in doubt, Till my bad angel fire my good one out. BJØRN BOLSTAD SKJELBRED (born 1970) Still in Silence (2012) Still in silence. CECILIA McDOWALL (born 1951) Standing as I do before God (1907) Emma Tring soprano I have seen death so often that it is not strange or fearful to me. Edith Cavell (1865–1915) Standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realise patriotism is not enough: I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone. And when the time was close, For once her eyes filled with tears, Then she quietly rose through the stilled prison, The grey dawn light, passed gas flame, Tired flowers, out beyond her final night, A flame alight in hours before infinity, In the presence of death leaving all enmity: In view of God we are air after breath. Standing as I do. Sean Street (born 1946) CˇRT SOJAR VOGLAR (born 1976) Salve regina (2014) Salve regina, mater misericordiae, Hail, holy queen, mother of mercy, Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, Salve! hail our life, our sweetness and our hope! Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae, To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve, Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes, to thee do we send up our sighs, In hac lacrimarum valle.