Saturday 6 December, 2014 at 7.00pm HANDEL: MESSIAH Lesley-Jane Rogers soprano Louise Mott mezzo soprano Matthew Minter tenor Andrew Kidd bass Music for Awhile Orchestra (on period instruments) Matthew Owens conductor Saturday 28 March, 2015 at 7.00pm ELGAR: THE KINGDOM Jane Irwin soprano Kathryn Rudge mezzo soprano Peter Auty tenor David Kempster baritone Southern Sinfonia Matthew Owens conductor Saturday 2 May, 2015 from 9.30am to 6.00pm Come & Sing Day with Matthew Owens J. S. BACH: LUTHERAN MASS IN F, BWV 253 HANDEL: MESSIAH HIGHLIGHTS in the Methodist Church, Wells 2 Johannes Brahms Alto Rhapsody Ein Deutsches Requiem Ralph Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending ________________________________________________ Katherine Broderick soprano Rachael Lloyd mezzo soprano Darren Jeffery baritone violin Thomas Kemp ________________________________________________ Wells Cathedral Oratorio Society Chorus ________________________________________________ Southern Sinfonia Alexander Hohenthal leader ________________________________________________ Matthew Owens conductor ________________________________________________ This concert takes place in the Cathedral by kind permission of the Chapter of Wells Cathedral. The use of mobile telephones, photography, or recording of any kind is forbidden except by express permission of the Chapter. Printed music supplied by Somerset Libraries, Arts, & Information Wells Cathedral Oratorio Society is affiliated to Making Music. 3 Part One Rhapsody for Contralto Solo, Chorus and Orchestra (Op. 53) (1869) Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833, Hamburg – 3 April 1897, Vienna) Goethe’s ‘Harzreise im Winter’ Born to a poor, Lu- Joachim introduced theran family, his fa- Brahms to Robert ther being a versatile Schumann in Düssel- town musician in dorf, who was so im- Hamburg, Brahms pressed that he pub- became the great lished an article com- master of symphonic paring him to Beetho- and sonata style in ven and claiming that the second half of Brahms was “destined the 19th century, fol- to give ideal expres- low-ing in the Classi- sion to the times.” cal tradition of Robert’s wife, the pia- Haydn, Mozart and nist Clara Schumann, Beethoven and learn- wrote that Brahms ing his craft from “..is one who comes as Bach and the earlier if straight from God... composers. He re- what he played to us sisted taking Ger- Johannes Brahms in 1865 is so masterly that one man music in the op- cannot but think that posing course of the organic structure and the good God sent him into the world harmonic freedom espoused by the ‘New ready-made.” German School’ of Wagner and Liszt. Within two years, whilst Clara was ex- Studying piano from the age of seven Jo- pecting their eighth child, Robert Schu- hannes helped the family finances by mann made a second suicide attempt, was playing in dance halls. In his early teens he diagnosed as having “psychotic melancho- was conducting choirs and became widely lia”, and was confined in a mental sanato- known as a pianist and composer after a rium until his death in 1856. During this concert tour when nineteen. During it he time Brahms supported Clara and her met the violinist Joachim in Hannover and family, living in an apartment in the same Liszt and Cornelius at the court in Weimar. house. 4 At some point the since I remember be- twenty-two year old ing moved by a depth Johannes fell deeply of pain in words and in love with her, alt- music. This piece hough Clara was the seems to me neither elder by fourteen more nor less than the years; but after Rob- expression of his own ert’s death Clara heart’s anguish. If only made it clear that he would for once they could not have speak as tenderly!” the life together that He dedicated it to Ju- he hoped for. Howev- lie and its first public er, they continued performance was on 3 with a close lifelong March 1870, at Jena, relationship. sung by Pauline Viar- Brahms later devel- dot-Garcia (Leonore in oped a growing affec- the Paris premier of tion for Clara’s eldest Clara Schumann in 1854 Fidelio). daughter, Julie, twen- The work is in three ty years his junior, but without declaring sections: the first two, in a chromatically it. In 1869, after being told of her engage- dense and wandering C minor, are for the ment to an Italian count he wrote the Al- soloist and orchestra and describe the to Rhapsody as a gift for her wedding. The pain of the wanderer, the second section text Brahms selected, perhaps inappropri- being a da capo aria. The third section, in ately, is verses from Goethe’s Harzreise a nominal C major, brings in the male im Winter, which described the poet chorus joining in a plea to a celestial spirit meeting a man who had withdrawn from for an abatement of the wanderer’s pain. the world after an unhap- Whilst this third part has py love affair. Brahms was inevitable similarities of also taking on the role of style to the German Req- the unrequited lover. He uiem, finished the year set the rhapsody for a before, the earlier sec- contralto, his favourite tions are more closely voice, with a male chorus linked to the style of the in the third part. ‘New German School’ Julie married her Count with some possible quota- on September 22 1869 tions from Wagner. and after the ceremony At the time he wrote it Brahms took his score to Brahms was probably Clara who wrote: aware that Julie had ter- “Johannes brought me a minal tuberculosis and, wonderful piece. He called tragically, she was dead Julie Schumann in 1866 it his bridal song. It is long within two years. 5 Contralto, Adagio Aber abseits wer ist’s? But who is that apart? Im Gebüsch verliert sich sein Pfad; His path disappears in the bushes; hinter ihm schlagen die Sträuche zusammen, behind him the branches spring together; das Gras steht wieder auf, the grass stands up again; die Öde verschlingt ihn. the wasteland engulfs him. Contralto, Poco Andante Ach, wer heilet die Schmerzen Ah, who heals the pains dess, dem Balsam zu Gift ward? of him for whom balsam turned to poison? Der sich Menschenhaß Who drank hatred of men aus der Fülle der Liebe trank! from the abundance of love? Erst verachtet, nun ein Verächter, First scorned, now a scorner, zehrt er heimlich auf he secretly feeds on seinen eigenen Wert his own merit, In ungenügender Selbstsucht. in unsatisfying egotism. Contralto and male chorus, Adagio Ist auf deinem Psalter, If there is on your psaltery Vater der Liebe, ein Ton Father of love, one note seinem Ohre vernehmlich, his ear can hear, so erquicke sein Herz! then refresh his heart! Öffne den umwölkten Blick Open his clouded gaze über die tausend Quellen to the thousand springs neben dem Durstenden next to him who thirsts in der Wüste! in the wilderness! The Lark Ascending (1914-1921) Ralph Vaughan Williams (October 12, 1872, Down Ampney - August 26, 1958, London) Vaughan Williams was born in the Cots- The Oxford Book of Carols, with similar wold village of Down Ampney. He was a success. pupil of Stanford and Parry at the Royal Aged 42, Vaughan Williams volunteered College of Music after which he studied to serve in the Field Ambulance Service in with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Flanders for the 1914–1918 war, during Ravel in Paris. which he was deeply affected by the car- At the turn of the century he was among nage and the loss of close friends such as the very first to travel into the country- the composer George Butterworth. side to collect folk-songs and carols from Before the war he had met and then sus- singers, notating them for future genera- tained a long and deep friendship with tions to enjoy. As musical editor of The the composer Gustav Holst and had be- English Hymnal he composed several came professor of composition at the hymns that are now world-wide favour- Royal College of Music in London. ites (For all the Saints; Come down, O In his lifetime, Vaughan Williams es- love Divine). Later he also helped to edit 6 chewed all honours with the exception And he the wine which overflows of the Order of Merit which was con- to lift us with him as he goes. ferred upon him in 1938. His ashes are Till lost on his aerial rings interred near those of fellow composer, In light, and then the fancy sings. Purcell, in Westminster Abbey. Vaughan Williams’s orchestral romance Vaughan Williams’s little Romance, as he offers an impressionistic image of the called it, was started in 1914, before the lark’s song and the countryside, which is war, with sketches for a violin and piano represented by two folk tunes. The struc- duet, written for his friend the distin- ture of the piece is a straightforward ABA guished violinist Marie Hall, with whom development, with each theme introduced he consulted. It took six years to reach and linked by the solo intervals. Within its present form. The this the violin solo is no- composer finished it for table for its fluid writing Marie Hall whilst they and the organic way in were staying at Kings which it emerges from Weston House and the and blends back into the first public performance orchestral texture. was by her at nearby Shirehampton Public The work opens with a Hall, Bristol, on 15 De- calm set of sustained cember 1920. With Ma- chords from the strings rie Hall contributing, he and winds. The violin en- rewrote it for violin and ters as the lark, with as- small orchestra, in cending, repeated inter- which form it was dedi- vals and nimble, then cated to her and first elongated arpeggios performed at the which rise into the first Queens Hall in June theme, and the orches- 1921 under Sir Adrian tra quietly enters to ac- Boult.