Guildford Borough Council
Concerts 1977/ 78
GUILDFORD BOROUGH
COUNCIL CONCERTS
1977/78
CIVIC HALL, GUILDFORD
SATURDAY 10 DECEMBER 1977
at 7.45 p.m.
Guildford
Philharmonic
Orchestra
Associate Leaders:HUGH BEAN and JOHN
LUDLOW
Philharmonic Choir
Philharmonic Choir
The Philharmonic Choir is the larger of the two
choirs under the conductorship of the Musical
Director, who acknowledges with thanks the
help he has received in training the choir from
Kenneth Lank and accompanist Linden
Knight. The Choir made its first recording in
1973 with the Guildford Philharmonic
Orchestra: ‘“Intimations of Immortality” by
Gerald Finzi, and in 1976 recorded Hadley’s
“The Trees So High” with the Philharmonia
Orchestra.
James Brown
Born in 1929, James Brown taught himself to
play the oboe at school, instead of browsing
over Physics which would have been essential
for his originally chosen career. Two years at
the Royal College of Music with Terence MacDonagh led to his first orchestral appointment
as co-principal oboe in the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden. Further study in Amsterdam
with Haakon Stotyn of the Concertgebouw
Orchestra and a position as principal oboe of
the Netherlands Opera Orchestra came before
he returned to England in 1954. Many years as
a freelance player make him wellknown in London’s orchestral life, and despite a preference
for playing in chamber orchestras (he is a
member of the English Chamber Orchestra) he
says he is very grateful for the fifteen seasons he
has enjoyed as principal oboe of the Guildford
Philharmonic Orchestra.
John Denman
John Denman was born in London in 1933. He
comes from a musical family, his father being a
wellknown viola player in the Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden. John Denman studied
the piano at the age of eight and began studying the clarinet when he was ten under George
Anderson of the Royal Academy of Music and
later with George Garside at Kneller Hall
Royal Military School. He has played with all
the leading London Orchestras and before leaving to take a position as professor of clarinet at
Arizona University he was principal clarinet
with the English National Opera Company,
and the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra. He
has made several recordings, including the
Finzi Clarinet Concerto with Vernon Handley
and the Philharmonia.
Nicholas Hunka
This
concert is promoted by Guildford
Borough Council with financial support from
the South East Arts Association.
Nicholas Hunka, the Guildford Philharmonic
Orchestra’s principal bassoonist, was born in
1943. He won a music scholarship to Cranleigh
School and then an Exhibition to the Royal
College of Music. On leaving in 1965 he joined
and following an extremely successful concert
hall recital for the BBC she has made several
the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra and a
recordings for them.
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He now
works in London with the major symphony and
chamber orchestras and also as a chamber
music player. Nicholas Hunka has appeared as
soloist with the City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra, BBC Midland Orchestra, BBC
Northern Ireland Orchestra and the
Sally Presant
year later became principal with the City of
Peter Clack began playing the trumpet at the
age of sixteen. He joined the army and studied
Sally Presant studied at the Royal College of
Music under Ruth Packer, and won a
scholarship to the opera school there. By the
age of twenty-three she had already worked
with distinguished conductors such as Sir
Charles Groves, David Willcocks and Norman
Del Mar, appeared in two roles with English
National Opera, and sung Hansel in a Royal
performance of Humperdinck’s Hansel and
Gretel. Though still at the outset of her career,
Sally Presant’s experience in oratorio is im-
the horn with Alfred Cursue, who was a
member of the Guildford Philharmonic
appearances throughout the British Isles.
Philomusica of London.
Peter Clack
Orchestra for many years. He has played with
all the London Orchestras and was a member
of the London Mozart Players. He is principal
horn of the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra
and is a permanent music master of
Charterhouse School.
Sally Burgess
Sally Burgess studied at the Royal College of
Music from 1972-77, first with Hervey Allen,
then with Marion Studholme. She was a
scholar at the RCM Opera School and was
awarded two Leverhulme Scholarships during
that time. This year she won the Recital prize
at the RCM. Sally Burgess made her London
debut in 1976 at St. John’s, Smith Square, and
last December made her Festival Hall debut
singing Brahms’ Requiem. She sings regularly
with the Ballet Rambert Mercury Ensemble,
both in recitals of modern music and accompanying the dancers. She has been offered principal work with the English National Opera for
the coming season, and has been accepted into
the recital series called “Live Music Now”
founded recently by Yehudi Menuhin K.B.E.
Yvonne Kenny
Yvonne Kenny was born in Sydney where she
studied part-time at the Sydney Conservatorium, and also for two years with the
Conservatorium Opera School. She came to
London in 1974 and continued her studies with
Erich Vietheer. In 1975 Yvonne Kenny won the
Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Award and became
a member of the Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden. During 1976 she sang with Scottish
Opera and for the English National Opera, as
well as covering many roles at the Royal Opera
House. She is also a busy concert performer,
pressive,
and
she
has
made many concert
Dennis O’Neill
Dennis O’Neill was born in South Wales.
While at Sheffield University he studied at the
Royal Manchester College of Music and took
his performer’s diploma at Trinity College of
Music, London, and after furthering his studies
in Italy, he studied with Frederick Cox in London. He joined Scottish Opera in 1971, and
during the 1974 season became a member of
Glyndebourne Opera. Dennis O’Neill recently
returned from two seasons as principal tenor to
the State Opera of South Australia. He has
made several television appearances for both
ITV and BBC and has also recorded frequently
for BBC Radio as well as the Australian Broadcasting Commission. As well as his opera com-
mitments, Denis O’Neill takes part in many
concerts throughout the country and has been
highly praised for his performances.
John Rath
John Rath studied Drama at Manchester
University whilst at the same time taking singing lessons at the Royal Manchester College of
Music. He continued his musical studies in
Basle with the Swiss mezzo-soprano, Elsa
Cannetti, and, before retui‘ning to Manchester
as a post graduate student, with Gino Becchi
and Max Lorenz. In 1975 he joined the English
Opera Group and a year later the English
Music Theatre Company. This year he has
sung with Opera Rara in Belfast and has been
abroad with Glyndebourne Touring Opera.
Vernon Handley
Since 1962 Vernon Handley has been Musical
Director to the Municipality of Guildford
where he has developed the Guildford Philhar-
monic into a professional body of major impor-
Staats-bibliothek in Berlin, has served as the
tance, and conducts the Proteus Choir as well
basis for the existing editions. It is careless and
as
the
several
Philharmonic
Choir.
He
records
both
Orchestra
with
has
made
inaccurate in the music text and in dynamic
and
and expression marks, but being reasonably
Choirs. In 1974 the Composers’ Guild of Great
simple
Britain named him ‘“Conductor of the Year”
“restoration’’ to be made. The most interesting
for his services to British music. He is a Fellow
point is that the copy emerged about 1869. In
of the Royal College of Music and has received
it, the flute has been replaced by the clarinet. It
in
form
has
made
it
possible
for
awards from the Classics Club Patron of Music
is thought that Mozart had planned to rewrite
Fund, the Cabot Foundation and the Arnold
the work from memory; if he did, did he re-
Bax Medal for Conducting.
orchestrate it and was the resulting autograph
the model for the present copy?
Regardless of these points, we have a delightful
and substantial work for wind instruments, the
accompanying orchestra consisting of strings,
The
Arrival
of
the
Queen
of
Sheba
oboes and horn.
(Solomon)
Handel 1685-1759
This little Sinfonia which opens Act III of
‘Solomon’ (written in 1749) is full of the bustle
of a big, spectacular entry. Handel summons
for the lady none of the orchestral pomp and
circumstance that Gounod and Goldmark were
to employ in their operas bearing her title. He
demands no brass or drums and has no interest
in ‘oriental’ colouring. Brisk, ever-varying little
fanfares from two oboes are all that interrupt
the hurrying of the strings.
The
first
movement
starts off with an im-
pressive tutti, which when the soloists eventual-
ly enter they take over as if to start the whole
thing again. At first their entries are made as a
group but very soon the material is fragmented
and given to each one of them in turn. The
movement
is
recapitulation
arriving
formally
concise,
exactly
the
the
right
point and introducing a beautiful written out
cadenza. The Adagio feels as if it ought to have
been an andante and after four bars of introduction
it
is the bassoon that starts the
arioso material of the
Sinfonia Concertante in Eb Major
at
movement.
With the
widely differing capabilities of the four solo instruments, Mozart manages to keep the can-
(Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn)
tabile spirit of the movement through to the
Mozart 1756-1791
very end.
James Brown — Oboe
At first appearance, the last movement is going
John Denman - Clarinet
to be a rondo in the style of the composer’s
Nicholas Hunka — Bassoon
Peter Clack — Horn
piano concerti with the soloists taking the tune
1.—Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Andantino con variazioni
straight away instead of the orchestra, but it is
not to be, for the oboe tune is discovered to have
a short refrain played by the oboes and the
orchestra and immediately this is finished the
solo
clarinet
starts off with the first of ten
We are indeed lucky to have this delightful concertante work of Mozart. For many years the
variations. At the end of the tenth, a short
score was lost, for when he first wrote it he did
the clarinet leading and this, after an increase
adagio introduces a lively 6/8 once again with
not make a copy. The story goes that when he
in speed, turns out to be the coda of this sunny
was in Paris in 1778, he was invited by the
movement.
Mannheim virtuosos Wendling (flute), Ramm
(oboe), Stich (horn) and Ritter (bassoon) to
write a concerto for them. As far as researchers
have been able to make out, the work was
written between 5th and 20th April in that
INTERVAL
year, and Mozart sold it to the Director of the
concert institute, Jean Le Gros, but the performance was frustrated by intrigues within the
institute and the concerto vanished. A copy
emerged, however, after Jahn’s fourth printing
of his Mozart biography. This copy, now in the
Programmes for the Supper Concert on
15 December will be on sale tonight in the foyer.
Lachrymae — In Memoriam John Dowland,
Op.23.
Carey Blyton (b.1932)
Five
Songs for High Voice and String
Orchestra
Sally Burgess — Soprano
Prelude
Madrigal (W. Drummond) - Interlude 1 To the moon (P. B. Shelley) — Interlude II The open door (F. Weiss) — Interlude III The sick rose (W. Blake) — Interlude IV —
Sonnet (S. Daniel)
Postlude
The five songs of this cycle were written in 1956
while the composer was in his third year at
Trinity College of Music, London; the Prelude,
Interludes and Postlude were added in 1960,
after he returned from the Royal Academy of
Music, Copenhagen, on a one-year scholarship
in composition awarded to him by the Sir
Winston Churchill Endowment Fund. The
poems, which range over five centuries, are sad
and bitter, and the work was occasioned by
both a personal sorrow and — of a more universal significance — the great sadness experienced
by John Dowland, our greatest song-writer, at
the end of his life, when he and his art were
found wanting after having previously enjoyed
an international reputation. Lachrymae-In
Memoriam John Dowland is perhaps Carey
Blyton’s most serious work: it is certainly his
most dissonant. It employs a number of techniques of Tudor music, and much use is made of
canon. The first performance of this song-cycle
was given by Jack Irons and the strings of the
Bromley Symphony Orchestra, conducted by
John Coulling, in the Dartford Rural District
Arts Week, 1967.
Vesperae Solennes de Confessore
Mozart 1756-1791
Dixit (Allegro vivace)
Confitebor (Allegro)
Beatus vir (Allegro vivace)
Laudate pueri (alla breve)
Laudate Dominum (Andante ma un poco
sostenuto)
Magnificat (Adagio—Allegro)
Mozart wrote two works with the name
Vespers. The first was Vesperae de Dominica
and the second the great C Major work that we
are to hear this evening. This was written during a stay in Salzburg in 1780 and thus dates
from the period which produced Idomineo, the
Haffner Symphony, the Sinfonia Concertante
for Violin and Viola and the G Major String
Quartet. Although simpler in form than the C
Minor Mass which it precedes by three years,
the Vespers has a maturity of utterance and a
level of inspiration not bettered by anything
written by the composer at this time. The solo
parts are arranged as one would expect: as important interjections into each movement, with
the exception of the Laudate Dominum which
is for soprano solo with choral accompaniment.
Solo parts are omitted from the Laudate Pueri;
thus the shape and weight of the service is
preserved and the musical form given satisfactory treatment, for the great Laudate pueri
follows three parts with solo and chorus, and is
followed by the reflective solo which in turn
leads to the triumphant Magnificat. The interesting point in the orchestration is that,
although three trombones and two trumpets
are used, there are no violas amongst the
strings.
Thursday 15 December at 7.30 p.m.
Civic Hall Restaurant
A SUPPER CONCERT
The Lydian Quartet —
Davina Marshall
Rosemary Roberts
Susan Georgiadis
Mary McLeod
Programme to include:—
Shostakovich String Quartet No.4
Elgar’s String Quartet in E minor
Tickets including Supper and Wine — £3
Available from Concerts Manager,
Guildford House, 155 High Street,
Guildford. Tel. 73800, and at the Philharmonic
Society stand in the foyer tonight
Cheques to be
made
Philharmonic Society
payable to Guildford