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Mozart Requiem by Candlelight [2006-07-14]

Subject:
Mozart: Requiem
Classification:
Sub-classification:
Location:
Year:
2006
Date:
July 14th, 2006
Text content:

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St Martin-in-the-Fields
Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4jj

Concerts by Candlelight

Friday 14 July at 7.30pm

Mozart
Requiem
&

by Candlelight

Bn@lenburg
Y sinfonia

Mozart

Salzburg Symphony No. 1

Mozart

Divertimento The Marriage of Figaro

Mozart

Ave Verum Corpus

Mozart

Requiem
Soloists:

Ciara Hendrich soprano

Michelle Daly mezzo-soprano

Edward Lee tenor

Alex Baker bass

with the Vivace Chorus

Conductor Jeremy Backhouse

Jeremy Backhouse is firmly established as one of Britain’s leading choral conductors.

His ability to inspire vivid, passionate performances from choirs and choruses both
in performance and recordings is widely recognised. Jeremy Backhouse has been the

sole Music Director of the acclaimed chamber choir the Vasari Singers, Conductor
of the Guildford Philharmonic Choir since 1995 and since 1998, Conductor of the

Wooburn Singers - only the third in the choir’s history, following Richard Hickox
and Stephen Jackson.

Jeremy has also been conductor of the BBC Club Choir and the Kent Youth Choir,
and has worked with many other choirs including the Brighton Festival Chorus, the

London Choral Society, The Trinity College of Music Chamber Choir and the
Philharmonia Chorus.

He has conducted the BBC Singers on Radio 3

in

programmes of music by Lennox Berkeley, Holst, Rubbra, Bax, Phyllis Tate,
Massenet and Delibes.

Bnelenl@urg
Y sinfonta

The Orchestra

Violin I

Basset Horn

Tom Kemp

Andrew Webster

Lawrence Whitfield

Juliet Bucknall

Emil Chakalov

Bassoon

Violin II

Robert Porter
Graham Hobs

Ed Bale
Alison Strange

Trumpet

Viola

Howard Rowntree

Cian O’Duill

Gillian Hicks

Rachel Robson

Trombone

Cello

Danny Scott

Patrick Jones

Ed Jones

Dominic O’Dell

Andrew Lester

Bass

Timpani

Lucy Hare

Tristan Fry

Artistic Director

Concert Manager

PA to Artistic Director

Robert Porter

Jane Kersley

Eve Christie

Ensemble Director

Events Manager

Finance Director

Julian Leaper

Wendy Warrilow

Patricia Unwin

Associate Music Director

Transport Manager

Sarah Tenant-Flowers

Alan Fryer

Divertimento K136

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 - 1791

During the early 1770’s, Mozart and his father Leopold made several journeys to

Italy. Mozart wrote the three divertimenti before he left to perform whilst
travelling. These three divertimento, of which this is one, are collectively known as
the ‘Salzburg Symphonies’.

They differ from the usual divertimenti in that they have no movement in the style
of a minuet. This has led to the theory being put forward that they are ‘skeleton’
symphonies, with wind parts to have been added as available on his tours.
This divertimenti has only three movements. The first, an Allegro, appears

deceptively simple, but contains some lively counterpoint. The gentle Andante is in
the singing Italian style, whilst the presto has thematic links to the first movement,
but is typically much more high-spirited.

Divertimento -

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 - 1791

The Marriage of Figaro

It was common throughout the Classical period to arrange excerpts from the most
popular current productions in the Opera House for small wind band, or
‘Harmonie’, for use as background music for grand dinners and other functions.
In fact Mozart himself includes an accompanying wind band (playing quotations
from Figaro) in the banquet scene of Don Giovanni.

This is a special arrangement of three arias from The Marriage of Figaro for two

Bassett Horns (not horns at all but more like tenor clarinets), Bassoon and Double
Bass.

The three arias are:

Al deso di chi t'adora (Act 4 Scene 10)

Vo che sapete (Act 2 Scene 3)
Non piu andrai (Act 1 Scene 8)

Ave Verum Corpus

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 - 1791

This short motet of less than fifty bars is one of the jewels in the choral repertoire.

Written on 17th June 1791 a few months before Mozart’s death on 5th December
at the tragically early age of 35, it is a pure example of Mozart’s ability to illuminate
a profound spiritual depth, within a simple, craftsman like creation.

It was written for Anton Stoll, the choirmaster at the local church at the spa Baden,
by the way of returning a favour to a friend.
It’s a calm moving and serene piece.

INTERVAL - 20 minutes

Requiem

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 - 1791

Mozart was commissioned to write the Requiem Mass by a wealthy nobleman,

Count Walsegg, in memory of his wife who had died at the age of twenty. Work on

the Requiem proceeded slowly as Mozart was in the process of completing his two
final operas La Clemenza Di Tito and The Magic Flute. By the time he came to
concentrate on the Requiem, he was suffering from his final illness and his growing

weakness made it impossible for him to complete the work.
Indeed, by the time he died, only the first two movements were completely
finished. The third to the ninth movements Dies Irae to Hostias were drafted out,

but there were no notes for the final four movements. Constanze, Mozart’s wife, was
afraid that she would have to return the payment already made by Count Walsegg
and so asked Mozart’s pupil Franz Stissmayer to complete the Requiem.
Siissmayer had spent the whole of Mozart’s final months with him, working on the
requiem so it is likely, even for the final four movements, that the whole piece

closely resembles Mozart’s intended music.
The generally dark and passionate character of the work is accounted for by the
predominance of minor keys and the rich texture of the orchestration: Mozart did
not use french horns or the upper woodwind, using basset horns, bassoons,
trumpets, trombones and timpani, with the strings playing mainly in the lower
registers. However another major factor is Mozart’s bold, harmonic language,

which leads the listener through the despair of death to the joy of eternal life.

Ciara Hendrich soprano

Michelle Daly mezzo-soprano

Edward Lee tenor

Alex Baker bass

Soprano

Ciara Hendprich is currently studying at the Guildhall of Music and
Drama with John Evans, generously supported by the Foyle
Foundation.

She performs regularly as a soloist in wonderful venues such as
Winchester Cathedral and St. James’ Piccadilly.
In May 2005 she reached the final of the Guildhall's prestigious

Gold Medal competition in the Barbican and was winner of the
-

:

Lord Mayor’s Prize the same year. Operatic roles include Despina

(Cost fan tutte) and Venus (Eccles, The Judgement of Paris) and sang the role of Maria in

a singspiel of Shakespeare’s Loves Labours Lost with Opera da Camera in Austria last year.
In 2007 she will sing the role of Female Chorus in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia and future

plans include a return to Austria for a concert and recording of Monteverdi, Schumann’s
Myrten in the Chelsea Schubert Festival and the Oxford Lieder Festival and Mahler’s 42b
Symphony at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Mezzo-Soprano

Michelle Daly was born in Dublin and began singing at eight with
Daniel McNulty. She was a member of the Christchurch Cathedral
Girls Choir and continued with Philip O’Reilly. She was a finalist
in the Belfast Musical Busaries in 2003 at the Waterfront Hall,
Belfast.
She graduated from the RNCM with Bachelor of Music in 2005,
where she studied with Honor Sheppard. There she took part in

The Queen of Spades, The Rakes Progress. Roles include Seconda
Cercatrice in Swor Angelica, Cherubino and Dorabella. She is

currently studying a Masters in performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
where she studies with Annette Thompson. There she has performed as Cornelia in Giulio

Cesare, Nancy in Albert Herring and as chorus in Falstaff and Il Tabarro.
Michelle’s oratorio experience includes performances of Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn Masses
and Handel's Samson. In summer 2005 she performed Mystery in Purcell’'s Faery Queen at

Aldeburgh as part of the Britten Pears Young Artist programme. She also took part in The
Wexford Festival Opera’s New Young Artist’s Development programme under tenor
Dennis O'Neill. Michelle is currently performing in Cosz fan Tutte with Opera Holland

Park. Michelle looks forward to joining British Youth Opera in August to understudy
Madam Larina in Eugene Onegin.

This year, Michelle was supported by The Musicians Benevolent Fund, The Arts Council of
Ireland, The Stanley Picker Trust and City Education Trust.

Tenor

|

Edward Lee first started

|

Cathedral. As a music scholar at Charterhouse, he performed ‘On

singing

as

a chorister at Salisbury

Wenlock Edge’ by Vaughan Williams in the Winner’s Concert of the

National Youth Chamber Music Competition for Schools at St.
John’s Smith Square (2003).
After a gap year singing in Lichfield Cathedral, Edward began
studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD) with

David

Pollard.

His

GSMD performances

include Eccles’

‘The

Judgement of Paris’ (2004), Charpentier’s ‘La maladie imagionaire’

(2004) and a contemporary opera workshop on “T’he Birds’ by Ed Hughes (2005).
His oratorio experience includes Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ with Cardiff University Medics’ Choir

and Orchestra (2005), Haydn’s ‘Nelson Mass’ with the Haslemere Choral Society and

Symphony Orchestra (2005) and Bach’s ‘Magnificat’ with the East Surrey Choral Society
(2005). Edward Took part in a Renaissance Masterclass in Roujan, in the south of France

with Anthony Rooley (2005) and he performed in the Lions International Performance

Festival 2005 at the International Conference Centre, Hong Kong.

Edward was a finalist in the ‘Kathleen Ferrier Bursary for Young Singers’ (2005) and his
future plans include Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress’ in the Aldeburgh Festival (2006).

Bass

Alexander Baker was born in Epsom, Surrey in 1985. At the age of
eight he attended St George’s School, Windsor Castle where he had the

f

privilege to be Crucifer for many Royal occasions at St George’s Chapel.
During his time at Windsor he appeared in the Academy Award winning

film, Shakespeare in Love as a choir boy. In 1998, Alexander was given
a full music Scholarship to the Royal Hospital School, Suffolk. It was

there that he began to sing as a Baritone under the tuition of Jane

Bagnall. He made his professional debut in 2000 when he was at school singing the
Baritone role in Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols for the Holbrook Music

Society. He has since appeared with the Music Society on many occasions and most recently

singing the solo part in Haydn’s Creation.

In 2003 Alexander was accepted into the Guildhall School of Music and now studies under
David Pollard. In November 2004, he formed a partnership with Alasdair Young and

performed a recital for the Royal Hospital School. He made his operatic debut in February
2006 sing Smirnoff in The Bear by William Walton in Islington.In May 2006 he took part
in a masterclass given by Sir John Tomlinson. He has also performed on the opening night

of the Aldeburgh Festival in 2006 in The Rakes Progress with the Philharmonia Orchestra

under Martyn Brabbins.
Future engagements include Smirnoff in The Bear by William Walton, (European Tour)

and a solo recital as part of a festival in Leipzig, Germany with Alasdair Young.

Vivace Chorus
Formerly Guildford Philbarmonic Chotr

The Guildford Philharmonic Choir was founded in 1947 by the Borough of
Guildford to perform major works from the choral repertoire with the Guildford
Philharmonic Orchestra. During this time the choir has grown both in stature and

reputation and can now rightly claim it’s place as one of the foremost choruses in
the country. The choir grew to prominence under the batons of such eminent
musicians as Sir Charles Groves, Vernon Handley and Sir David Willcocks.
Sir David remains in close contact with the choir as its President. The choir became
independent of the Borough of Guildford in 1997 and to reflect this change, it
changed its name to the Vivace Chorus.

The most recent concert performed by the Vivace Chorus was the first in its
Contemporary Choral Classics Cycle, an innovative series of choral concerts

comprising works from the 20th and 21st century - classics of the future paired
with established masterpieces. Performed in this concert was Karl Jenkins' “The
Armed Man” in which the Muezzin from the Woking Mosque performed the Muslim
Call to Prayer in Guildford Cathedral.

Other recent performances have included Dvorak’s Reguiem, Verdi Requiem, Mahler’s
Symphony no. 8, Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky (both in
Russian) and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius.

Next season, as well as Vivace Chorus’s usual performances in Guildford Cathedral,
they will be performing in the Fairfield Hall, Croydon and the Freiburg
Konzerthaus in Germany.

The Vivace Chorus website can be found at www.VivaceChorus.org.

] sinfonia
The Brandenburg Sinfonia is one of the most dynamically versatile musical organisations
in the country. It is renowned for its special quality of sound and poised vivacity in
performance. In recent years the orchestra has performed in the majority of the major
venues across the country, and in London at the Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Fairfield
Hall and St John’s Smith Square.
The Brandenburg Sinfonia is also in great demand abroad and has recently visited France
twice, USA, Bermuda, the Channel Islands, Barbados and St Petersburg.

Future tours include France, Germany, USA, Japan and Hong Kong.
A large number of artists of international standing have worked with the orchestra
including Emmanuel Hurwitz, Lesley Garrett, John Georgiadis, John Wallace, Ian Watson,
Michael Thompson and Gordon Hunt.
Its repertoire ranges from Bach to Lloyd Webber and its members give around three
hundred performances of orchestral, chamber, choral and operatic music during the year.
Along with selected freelance players, members of the orchestra are also members of the
Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Opera House and English Chamber orchestras
who choose to play with the Brandenburg Sinfonia in order to make music with the finest

of their peers in a more intimate and sympathetic setting.
The orchestras for a number of touring companies are formed from members of the
Brandenburg Sinfonia including First Act Opera, London City Opera, Opera Holland
Park and London Opera Players.

“What made it actually rather enjoyable was the playing of the chamber
orchestra which was consistently well shaded and nuanced”
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

“Some of the most stylish Mozart playing for some time”
THE TIMES

“An ensemble of distinguished players”
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

FTIHELDS

St Martin-in-the-Fields
Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4j]

Concerts by Candlelight

Friday 1 September at 7.30pm

Mozart
Requiem
&

by Candlelight

enburg
anl
W) Sinfonia
Mozart

Salzburg Symphony No. 1

Mozart

Ave Verum Corpus

Mozart

Divertimento The Marriage of Figaro

Mozart

Requiem
with the Twickenham Choral Society
Conductor Christopher Herrick

Tickets: £6, £8, £12, £16 & £20
Box Office: 020 7839 8362

Web: www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org

Future performances by the
Brandenburg Sinfonia at St. Martins in 2006:

1st September

Mozart Requiem

Twickenham Choral Society

For further information about the Brandenburg Sinfonia or any of the
events listed please contact us:
Tel/Fax: 01372 209817

E-mail: bob@brandenburg.org.uk

9 Queen Anne’s Terrace, Leatherhead SURREY KT22 7HR

Our latest CD The Elegance of the Barogque will be on sale at the back of

the church during the interval and after the concert price £10.

Smoking and consumption offood & drink
are not allowed in the church.
Patrons are kindly requested to switch off
mobile phones and alarms on digital watches.

Flash photography, audio or video recording is not permitted.
Please try to restrain coughing;
A handkerchiefplaced over the mouth when coughing

assists greatly in limiting the noise. Thank you.
Interval is 20 minutes.

A bell will be rung 5 & 2 minutes before the end of the interval.
Once the concert starts again admittance will only be between pieces.
The Crypt Gallery and Café-in-the-Crypt

can be hired for private functions. Phone: 020 7839 4342

rogranmae frinise by

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E-mail: mail@pentecost-printing.co.uk

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Vi sinfonia