Guildford
Philharmonic
Orchestra
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/This concert is promoted by Guildford
Corporation with financial assistance from
the Arts Council of Great Britain.
CIVIC HALL, GUILDFORD
SATURDAY 11 DECEMBER 1971
at 7.45 p.m.
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Scholarship. She made an outstanding
impression at the Wexford Festival when
she took over the role of Annius in La
Clemenza di Tito at short notice. She has
appeared as soloist with the Welsh National
Opera Company, and made her debut at
the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in
1970. Although her operatic commitments
have so far restricted her concert
appearances, she has given recitals and
sung in oratorio performances in many
parts of this country, and she records
frequently for the BBC.
Guildford
Philharmonic
Orchestra
f ed by John Ludlow
rhilharmonic Choir
Lillian Watson—Soprano
Delia Wallis—Mezzo soprano
Terry Jenkins—Tenor
William Mason—DBass
Vernon Handley—Conductor
Lillian Watson
Lillian Watson was born in London in 1947.
She studied at the Guildhall School of
Music for four years and then at the
London Opera Centre for a further two
years. She has appeared as soloist at the
Wexford Festival, and for the Kent Opera
and Welsh National Opera Companies.
Miss Watson has made several recordings,
and this month made her debut at Covent
Garden, singing the role of Barbarina in
The Marriage of Figaro.
(Lillian Watson appears by permission of
the Chief Administrator, Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden)
Delia Wallis
Delia Wallis, born in 1946, studied at the
Guildhall School of Music and at the
London Opera Centre on a Peter Stuyvesant
Terry Jenkins
Terry Jenkins’ first singing experience was
as a boy chorister in the Westminster Abbey
Choir. However, it was only while studying
Engineering at London University that he
decided to make singing his career. He
studied at the Guildhall School of Music
under Fabian Smith, winning the Peter
Latham Scholarship in 1966, and further
study then followed at the London Opera
Centre. He has been a member of the
Glyndebourne Festival Chorus since 1+
and a principal soloist in the Glyndebourz
Tours for the last three years.
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William Mason
After a period as a chorister at Bristol
Cathedral School, William Mason took up
a choral exhibition at Christ’s College,
Cambridge, where he read music. There he
sang in concerts, recitals and in two
University opera productions. After
leaving Cambridge he won a
scholarship to the Royal Academy of
Music. He now sings regularly with the
BBC, and is a freelance soloist.
Philharmonic Choir
The Philharmonic Choir is the larger of the
two choirs under the conductorship of the
Musical Director. It is mainly concerned
with the performance of large choral works
with orchestra, and has an extremely wide
repertoire. In 1970 the Philharmonic Choir
gave the first performance in this country
of Martinu’s ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’.
The Director of Music acknowledges with
thanks the help he has received in training
the Philharmonic Choir from Mr.
Kenneth Lank, and accompanists Miss
Mary Rivers and Miss Patricia Finch,
and from Mrs. D. W. Wren, who has given
much time to a seating plan to
accommodate the choir.
PROGRAMME
Strings, harp, flutes and bassoons
decorate it.
Variations and Fugue on a Theme of
Mozart, Opus 132
Max Reger 1873-1916
Mozart was
July
composed
1914,
and
is
between
May
thought
by
apparent.
many
to be his best orchestral work. At the turn
of the century he was a considerable
musical figure in Europe, and, as well as a
brilliant organist and composer, he had
been very successful as conductor of the
Meiningen Court Orchestra which had
ecome famous under Von Biilow. His
compositions,
however,
have
not
remained in the orchestral repertoire; yet,
as has been seen with other composers,
this need not be the result of any
inferiority,
rather
more
often,
especially
nowadays, it is the lack of courage on the
part of programme planners and concert
organisations and the narrowing of
conductors’ repertoires. Certainly,
Sinfonietta, the Piano Concerto, the Hiller
Variations and Mozart Variations all
deserve a place in the concert repertoire.
They are characterised by clarity of
construction
now divided in each section so that half
are muted and half unmuted. Although
the texture thickens, the theme is always
The Variations and Fugue on a theme of
and
Variation 2: Poco agitato.
The theme passes to the strings who are
paradoxically expressed in a
thick and colourful orchestral texture, a
command of classical devices, especially
the fugue, a graceful line not common in
Variation 3: Con moto.
The clarinets have the theme on even
notes rather than in its six-eight rhythm
but use only four bars of it. The strings
take over the same four bars and the
variation uses only this material.
Variation
4:
Vivace.
Horns, clarinets and bassoons use the first
few intervals of the thcme, but hammer
out a staccato variation. The orchestra
plunges on to this, fortissimo, and swift
alternations of fortissimo and piano rush
along on these intervals, ending fortissimo.
Variation 5: Quasi presto.
The theme is now fragmented and tossed
about from strings to woodwind ana
back again. This is a most unusual
version because in the midst of all the
bustle Reger several times introduces a
few bars of a much slower tempo, during
which the woodwind soloists point out
that the quasi presto is no way to treat
the theme.
late nineteenth century German music,
Variation 6: Sostenuto.
and a quite moving and sincere regard for
the older composers.
Quietly and expressively the strings state
Opus 132 is the final expression of Reger’s
deep love of Mozart. On one occasion he
wrote:
“The greatest musical miracle
that the earth has ever seen was MozartTM.
He chooses one of the best known of
Mozart’s piano themes, and at first seems
to be writing straightforward graceful
variations, but gradually the mood of
each
variation
becomes
less
Mozartian
and more
obviously charged with
emotion until finally an elaborate fugue
becomes the only device possible for
summing up the experiences of the work.
Theme:
Andante
grazioso.
The oboe, clarinet and strings state the
different parts of the theme, the first
violins being divided so that one section
plays with mutes and one without.
Variation
1:
L’istesso
tempo.
Oboes and clarinets have the theme.
the theme, while the woodwind delicately
decorate it with quiet cascades of triplets.
The chromatically descending base line
colours the variation touchingly, and
could only have been written by a postDelius composer. This variation is the first
one which allows each decoration of the
theme to become more and more loving.
Reger has finished with mere devices, and
seems concerned to pay his tribute to
Mozart in his own rich style.
Variation 7: Andante grazioso.
The horns and ’cellos have the theme,
and the whole orchestra adds complicated
and rich figures to embellish it. The
second part of the theme is stated by
horns, violas and ’cellos fortissimo, but
gradually
the passionate
outburst ebbs
away, and a simple and very touching
final two bars of a slower tempo allow
the flute and clarinet the last quiet
comment.
Interval
During the Interval refreshments 5p will
be served in the Surrey Room by
members of the Concertgoers’ Society.
Mass in C minor (K. 427)
Mozart 1756-1791
The Mass in C Minor and the Requiem
are the most impressive of Mozart’s
religious works. The Mass is a very
important landmark in Mozart’s
development because when he broke with
the Archbishop of Salzburg and went to
Vienna, he became acquainted with the
works of Bach and Handel for the first
time. The two great masters of Church
music made a tremendous impression on
Mozart and he came to the writing of his
religious works thereafter with a new zeal
and freshness. The first work after his
study of Bach and Handel was the C
Minor Mass of 1782-1783. There was also
a personal reason for the composition:
his fiancée Constanze Weber, was ill and
he promised to write a Mass after her
recovery. He wrote to his father, “As
for the Mass, it is quite correct that it has
not flowed from my pen without
previous intention, I really promised it in
my heart”. When he had married, in
August 1782, he at once started the work.
A number of personal problems
interrupted the writing of the Mass and
when Mozart arrived back in Salzburg in
1783, he merely took with him the
complsted movements which were the
Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Benedictus.
The Credo was in pieces and the Agnus
Dei not begun. At the first performance
Constanze sang the soprano solo part. How
Mozart filled in the parts lacking in the
Mass, or even whether he did, is
unknown; editions have appeared in
which one of his pupils and later editors
have put in sections from one or mare of
his other works. He never completed the
remaining sections, but it is in the
complete form that the work is generally
performed because it gives a true picture
of the new Church music style which
Mozart took on after his study of the
works of the Baroque masters. The deep
faith and the sublime and happy faith
stand side by side in the huge contrasts of
this work. The strict seriousness of the
Kyrie includes a coloratura Christe eleison
for soprano. The Gloria is all Handel; the
Laudamus te the very spirit of Italian
Opera. And so on right through the
work, contrasts and styles blended by
Mozart’s symphonic brilliance
culminating in the sublime fugato for
double chorus, Osanna.
I. Kyrie
“Kyrie”—Soprano and Chorus
I1.
Gloria
“Gloria”—Chorus
“Laudamus te”—Mezzo Soprano
“Gratias”—Chorus
“Domine”—Soprano Duet
“Qui tollis"—Chorus
“Quoniam”—Soprano, Mezzo Soprano
and
Tenor
“Jesu Christe—Cum sancto spiritu”—Chorus
III. Credo
“Credo”—Chorus
“Et incarnatus est”—Soprano
1V. Sanctus
“Sanctus” and ‘“Osanna”—Chorus
“Benedictus”—Quartet: Soprano, Mezzo
Soprano, Tenor and Bass
Sunday 19 December at 3.00 p.m.
Civic Hall
CAROL CONCERT
presented by
The Rotary Club of Guildford
Philharmonic and Proteus Choirs
Conductors: Kenneth Lank and
Vernon Handley
Collection in aid of The Mayor of
Guildford’s Christmas and Local Distress
Fund.