Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder

Brahms

Ein deutsches Requiem

DULWICH CHORAL SOCIETY

DULWICH FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA Leader: Lennox Mackenzie

ANITA WATSON soprano

GERARD COLLETT baritone

AIDAN OLIVER conductor

St Barnabas Church, Dulwich Village

Saturday 23 March 2013, 7.30pm

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Tonight’s performance is dedicated to the memory of James Cleall-Harding, a much-loved former Chairman of Dulwich Choral Society, who died recently.

James (‘Jimmie’) Cleall-Harding 1928 – 2013

Jimmie, as he was known to all of us, joined the Dulwich Choral Society in l966 as a bass. A firm and sound singer and an excellent sight-reader, he arrived at a time when musicians of his quality were much in demand. At that time the choir rehearsed in Dulwich Hamlet School and Jimmie and his wife June lived locally. Jimmie worked as a systems analyst in Tower Hamlets but always managed to get to rehearsals on time. In those days the Director of Music was Graham Stewart whose day-time job was with the LCC, but who was also organist at St Stephen’s, South Dulwich. Jimmie was meticulous in studying the scores to be performed (sometimes wearing a rubber thimble on his finger to make sure he turned the page at the right time). He was also quite prepared to correct a fellow bass who got a note wrong or started chatting while the conductor was giving directions! Jimmie served on the Committee for several years and was undoubtedly one of our finest Chairmen. He was later appointed a Vice-President. Jimmie and his wife were much involved in organising social events for DCS, in particular Progressive Suppers (with each course served at a different venue) and June became famous for her puddings! Jimmie was also largely responsible for the arrangements for our 60th Anniversary Party at the Apothecaries’ Hall in London on 2 July 2004 and for the production of an excellent History of DCS to mark the occasion. Jimmie and June eventually left London, but he continued to attend rehearsals and concerts regularly until about 2007 when his health began to deteriorate. Jimmie and June remained living in Hampshire until his death a few weeks ago on 3 February. June has kindly offered to let me have a copy of the Funeral Service booklet which includes some of Jimmie’s favourite pieces and at which several members of DCS were present. I shall be pleased to show it during the interval of tonight’s concert to anyone who would like to see it. Michael Goodman

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Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949) VIER LETZTE LIEDER

I - Frühling In dämmrigen Grüften träumte ich lang von deinen Bäumen und blauen Lüften, von deinem Duft und Vogelsang. Nun liegst du erschlossen in Gleiß und Zier, von Licht übergossen wie ein Wunder vor mir. Du kennest mich wieder, du lockst mich zart, es zittert durch all meine Glieder deine selige Gegenwart!

II - September Der Garten trauert, kühl sinkt in die Blumen der Regen. Der Sommer schauert still seinem Ende entgegen. Golden tropft Blatt um Blatt nieder vom hohen Akazienbaum. Sommer lächelt erstaunt und matt in den sterbenden Gartentraum. Lange noch bei den Rosen bleibt er stehn, sehnt sich nach Ruh. Langsam tut er die müdgewordnen Augen zu.

III - Beim Schlafgehn Nun der Tag mich müd’ gemacht, soll mein sehnliches Verlangen freundlich die gestirnte Nacht wie ein müdes Kind empfangen. Hände, laßt von allem Tun, Stirn, vergiß du alles Denken, alle meine Sinne nun wollen sich in Schlummer senken. Und die Seele unbewacht will in freien Flügen schweben, um im Zauberkreis der Nacht tief und tausendfach zu leben.

Hermann Hesse (1877 – 1962)

I - Spring In dusky vaults I have long dreamt of your trees and blue skies, of your scents and the songs of birds. Now you lie revealed in glistening splendour, flushed with light, like a wonder before me. You know me again, you beckon tenderly to me; all of my limbs quiver from your blissful presence!

II - September The garden is mourning, the rain sinks coolly into the flowers. Summer shudders as it meets its end. Leaf upon leaf drops golden down from the lofty acacia. Summer smiles, astonished and weak, in the dying garden dream. For a while still by the roses it remains standing, yearning for peace. Slowly it closes its large eyes grown weary.

III - While going to sleep Now that the day has made me so tired, my dearest longings shall be accepted kindly by the starry night like a weary child. Hands, cease your activity, head, forget all of your thoughts; all my senses now will sink into slumber. And my soul, unobserved, will float about on untrammelled wings in the enchanted circle of the night, living a thousandfold more deeply.

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IV - Im Abendrot Wir sind durch Not und Freude gegangen Hand in Hand, vom Wandern ruhen wir nun überm stillen Land. Rings sich die Täler neigen, es dunkelt schon die Luft, zwei Lerchen nur noch steigen nachträumend in den Duft. Tritt her, und laß sie schwirren, bald ist es Schlafenszeit, daß wir uns nicht verirren in dieser Einsamkeit. O weiter, stiller Friede! So tief im Abendrot Wie sind wir wandermüde - Ist dies etwa der Tod?

Joseph von Eichendorff (1788 – 1857)

ichard Strauss largely withdrew from public life after 1935 to his villa at Garmisch in the lovely Bavarian Alps. He lived there throughout the

Second World War, spared the physical ravages of the conflict, but deeply wounded by the loss of many friends and by the bombing of Dresden, Munich and Vienna. In October 1945, under the threat of being called before the Denazification Board, he moved to Switzerland, where he lived for the next four years. Strauss was cleared by the board in June 1948, but he chose to stay in Switzerland for medical treatment that winter, returning to Bavaria in May 1949. Although increasingly feeble during his Swiss sojourn, his mind was clear, and he continued to compose—a Concerto for Oboe, the Duet Concertino and the surpassingly beautiful Four Last Songs. At the end of 1946, Strauss read Eichendorff’s poem Im Abendrot, in which an aged couple, having moved together through the world for a lifetime, look at the setting sun and ask, “Is that perhaps death?” The words matched precisely Strauss’s feelings of those years, and he determined to set the poem for soprano and orchestra. The first sketches appeared early in 1947, and the piece was completed by May 1948. During that time, a friend sent Strauss a volume of poems by Hermann Hesse, and from that collection he chose four verses to form a five-song cycle with the Eichendorff setting. The Hesse pieces were composed between July and September 1948, making them the final works that Strauss completed. (He never finished the last of the Hesse songs.) He died quietly at his Garmisch home exactly one year later.

IV - At sunset We've gone through joy and crisis together, hand in hand, and now we rest from wandering above the silent land. The valleys slope around us, the air is growing dark, and dreamily, into the haze, there still ascend two larks. Come here, and let them flutter, the time for sleep is soon. We would not want to lose our way in this great solitude. O vast and silent peace! So deep in twilight ruddiness, we are so wander-weary - could this perchance be death? Strauss’s years in Switzerland were ones of reflective meditation — re-reading Goethe, composing a little, studying again the beloved score of Wagner’s Tristan —during which he put the finishing touches on what he called an “eighty-year, industrious, honorable and good German artistic life.” Each of the magnificent Four Last Songs treats metaphorically the approach of death — through images of rebirth in spring, autumn, rest and sunset — by returning one final time to the soprano voice, for which he had written so much glorious music throughout his career. In these moving creations, Strauss left what British musicologist Neville Cardus described as “the most consciously and most beautifully delivered ‘Abschied’ [‘farewell’] in all music.” As though bringing round full the cycle of his life’s work, Strauss quoted in the closing pages of Im Abendrot a theme from his tone poem Death and Transfiguration, written six decades earlier, in 1889. Of these Four Last Songs, warm and wise rather than bitter and fearful, Michael Kennedy wrote in his study of the composer:

“The vocal line, floating, curving, soaring in an ecstasy of cantilena, is given a backcloth of Strauss’s most glowing, richly harmonised, detailed and evocative orchestration... [There is] no suggestion of religious consolation, even in extremis. The beauty of the world and the beauty of the female voice were uppermost in his thoughts to the end. Has there ever been so conscious a farewell in music, or one so touchingly effective and artistically so good?”

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Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897) EIN DEUTSCHES REQUIEM

I Selig sind, die da Leid tragen, denn sie sollen getröstet werden. Die mit Tränen säen, werden mit Freuden ernten. Sie gehen hin und weinen und tragen edlen Samen, und kommen mit Freuden und bringen ihre Garben. II Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen wie des Grases Blumen. Das Gras ist verdorret und die Blume abgefallen. So seid nun geduldig, lieben Brüder, bis auf die Zukunft des Herrn. Siehe, ein Ackermann wartet auf die köstliche Frucht der Erde und ist geduldig darüber, bis er empfahe den Morgenregen und Abendregen. So seid geduldig. Aber des Herrn Wort bleibet in Ewigkeit. Die Erlöseten des Herrn werden wieder kommen und gen Zion kommen mit Jauchzen; Freude, ewige Freude, wird über ihrem Haupte sein; Freude und Wonne werden sie ergreifen, und Schmerz und Seufzen wird weg müssen. III Herr, lehre doch mich, dass ein Ende mit mir haben muss, und mein Leben ein Ziel hat, und ich davon muss. Siehe, meine Tage sind einer Hand breit vor Dir, und mein Leben ist wie nichts vor Dir. Ach, wie gar nichts sind alle Menschen, die doch so sicher leben. Sie gehen daher wie ein Schemen, und machen ihnen viel vergebliche Unruhe, sie sammeln und wissen nicht, wer es kriegen wird. Nun Herr, wes soll ich mich trösten? Ich hoffe auf Dich. Der Gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand, und keine Qual rühret sie an.

I Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. (Matthew 5: 4) They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. (Psalms 126: 5 – 6) II For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. (I Peter 1: 24) Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. (James 5: 7) Be patient therefore. But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. (I Peter 1: 25) And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35: 10) III Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreath; and mine age is as nothing before thee: Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them. And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee. (Psalms 39: 4 – 7) But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. (Wisdom 3: 1)

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IV Wie lieblich sind Deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth! Meine Seele verlanget und sehnet sich nach den Vorhöfen des Herrn; Mein Leib und Seele freuen sich in dem lebendigen Gott. Wohl denen, die in Deinem Hause wohnen, die loben Dich immerdar. V (Solo): Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit, aber ich will euch wieder sehen, und euer Herz soll sich freuen, und eure Freude soll niemand von euch nehmen. (Chorus): Ich will euch trösten, wie einen seine Mutter tröstet. (Solo): Sehet mich an: Ich habe eine kleine Zeit Mühe und Arbeit gehabt und habe grossen Trost funden. VI Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt, sondern die zukünftige suchen wir. Siehe, ich sage euch ein Geheimnis. Wir werden nicht alle entschlafen, wir werden aber alle verwandelt werden; und dasselbige plötzlich in einem Augenblick zu der Zeit der letzten Posaune. Denn es wird die Posaune schallen und die Toten werden auferstehen, unverweslich; und wir werden verwandelt werden. Dann wird erfüllet werden das Wort, das geschrieben steht. Der Tod ist verschlungen in den Sieg, Tod, wo ist dein Stachel? Hölle, wo ist dein Sieg? Herr, du bist würdig zu nehmen Preis und Ehre und Kraft, denn du hast alle Dinge erschaffen, und durch deinen Willen haben sie das Wesen und sind geschaffen. VII Selig sind die Toten, die in dem Herrn sterben, von nun an. Ja der Geist spricht, dass sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit, denn ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach.

IV How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising Thee. (Psalms 84: 1, 2, 4) V (Solo): And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. (John 16: 22) (Chorus): As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. (Isaiah 66: 13) (Solo): Behold with your eyes, how that I laboured but a little, and found for myself much rest. (Ecclesiasticus 51: 35) VI For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. (Hebrews 13: 14) Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (I Corinthians 15: 51 – 55) Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4: 11) VII Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. (Revelation 14: 13)

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PROGRAMME NOTE

Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem, nach Worten der heiligen Schrift, Op.45 (A German Requiem, to Words from Holy Scripture)

Johannes Brahms was a very shy person. He rarely talked about himself and because he was uncomfortable in company he could appear gauche and tactless; in spite of this, he was able to form warm, loyal and long-lasting friendships. He was particularly reticent about his work, systematically destroying his sketches and working drafts; he did make very occasional comments to close friends about his inspiration and working processes and some of these were collected by his early biographers. As a result of this reticence, Brahms was frequently misunderstood by his contemporaries as well as by later commentators. He was hailed as the outstanding musical conservative in opposition to the progressive music of Wagner, yet there is evidence that he revered Wagner’s compositions while disagreeing with his conviction that musical forms should be generated by a literary programme. While being taken as the model of the ‘serious’ musician, he counted Johann Strauss Jr among his closest friends and on one occasion he signed an album with a quotation from The Blue Danube Waltz and the words ‘Not, alas, written by J Brahms’. When Verdi’s Requiem was premiered in 1874 – only five years after the first performance of Brahms’s work – the conductor Hans von Bülow published an unfavourable criticism, calling it an ‘opera in ecclesiastical vestments’ by comparison with the protestant thoughtfulness of Brahms. Brahms heard the first Viennese performance in the following year and immediately bought a copy of the score, declaring: ‘Bülow has made an ass of himself, only a genius could have written this’. Brahms started work on the Requiem in 1865, completing the first, second and fourth movements by late April that year, and the third, sixth and seventh movements in August 1866. The first three movements were previewed in Vienna on 1 December 1867 as part of a concert in memory of Schubert, who was finally achieving recognition 40 years after his death. The work was not well received, partly because of a misunderstanding in the orchestra where the timpani-player misread the fp accents in the sustained, quiet pedal note - Brahms described it as

his ‘eternal D’ - accompanying the fugue at the end of the third movement; instead he played a thunderous fortissimo which drowned out both choir and orchestra. The complete work, apart from the fifth movement, was performed in Bremen Cathedral on Good Friday (10 April) 1868. The fifth movement was composed in May 1868 and was previewed in Zurich in the following September. The complete work was premiered in Leipzig on 18 February 1869 and publication followed later in the same year.

Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897), photographed in his early 30s. This photograph was taken in about 1865, just at the time when Brahms was making a permanent home in Vienna and starting work on the Requiem.

[Public domain image]

Brahms was born in Hamburg and, while he moved around extensively, he maintained a base in his parents’ house until his late 30s. He first visited Vienna in 1862 and over the following 10 years he gradually established a permanent home for himself in the city. His mother died in early February 1865 and because he started work on the Requiem a couple of months later, his friends assumed that it was written in her memory. Brahms never really confirmed this but when he was in the process of preparing the manuscript for engraving he played it through with his friend Hermann Deiters commenting during the fifth movement, with its choral refrain ‘... I will comfort you

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as a mother comforts’, that here he had thought of his mother. It has also been suggested that the work was inspired by the death of Robert Schumann in 1856. Again, Brahms never commented on this but the second movement does incorporate material from a proposed memorial to his friend and mentor, which was sketched but never completed. Brahms had been introduced to Schumann in 1853, when he was scarcely 20. Schumann found the younger man so impressive that he published an essay entitled Neue Bahnen (New Pathways) in which he hailed Brahms as a major figure of the future and encouraged him publicly to compose for large choral and orchestral forces. Schumann and his wife Clara, one of the outstanding concert pianists of the day, virtually adopted Brahms into their family. After Schumann’s mental collapse in 1854 Brahms, together with the violinist Joseph Joachim and the musicologist Hermann Deiters, moved into lodgings close to the Schumann family home so as to act as back-up for Clara as she struggled to support her young family during her husband’s illness and after his death. Brahms formed a close attachment to Clara Schumann who certainly acted as his personal and professional mentor until her death in 1896; the precise nature of their relationship remains unknown as all of their personal correspondence was destroyed. Although Brahms had only been close to Schumann for a few months before his health collapsed, the older man obviously exerted a powerful influence on all aspects of his development. Brahms had been given a traditional Lutheran up-bringing, which involved learning extended passages of scripture by heart. He is known to have commented: ‘We learned the Bible by heart, without understanding any of it – should a light ignite in later life, then one already has all the material which then suddenly comes to life’ and, on another occasion: ‘It was Schumann who first aroused my deeper interest in the holy Writ. He was always quoting the Bible. Then the death of mother gave my studies of the scripture a new impetus’. Brahms remained proud of his ability to quote chapter and verse from the Bible throughout his life and he drew on this extensive knowledge to assemble a series of biblical quotations to form the text for the Requiem. Lutheran theology rejected the idea of praying for the dead in favour of prayers of consolation for the bereaved; collections of suitable texts and chorales for memorial services had been published from the 16th century onwards and Brahms was working within a well established tradition. Schumann had composed his Requiem für Mignon in

1849; this is a setting of an excerpt from Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister and while it does not use texts from scripture it does have a marked consolatory tone. Brahms conducted its first Viennese performance in 1864, shortly before starting work on his own Requiem. Schumann had encouraged Brahms to explore the music of the 16th and 17th centuries. Brahms had been training and directing choirs since he was a teenager and we know that he prepared performing editions of early music – English madrigals, renaissance and baroque works by Italian and German composers, little-known works by Bach and Handel – for choirs in Detmold, Hamburg and Vienna between 1857 and 1875. In this context it is particularly significant that he included religious works by Heinrich Schütz in his choral programmes. Schütz (1585 – 1672) had studied with Gabrieli in Venice and is credited with establishing a distinctive Lutheran repertoire using Italian Baroque models. Brahms worked on Schütz’s Deutsches Exequien and settings of some of the texts which he used in his own Requiem. Brahms chose texts which form a meditation on ‘selig’ – a combination of blessed, happy and fortunate – the word that opens and closes the whole work. Significantly, although there are quotations from the words of Christ there is no mention of the Christian doctrine of the redemption. When the first performance was being prepared in Bremen, the conductor Rheinthaler – who had studied in a theological college before becoming a professional musician – wrote to Brahms asking whether he had considered including scriptural quotations outlining the redemptive power of Christ’s death. Brahms replied that he had considered quoting John 3: 16 (For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…) but had decided against it. The word ‘Requiem’ would have been distasteful to Lutheran listeners, and Rheinthaler also queried the work’s title. Brahms replied that he would happily substitute the word ‘Human’ for ‘German’ but significantly he made no mention of calling it anything other than a Requiem. In the end, Rheinthaler and the cathedral authorities in Bremen included the aria Erbarme dich (Have mercy Lord) from Bach’s St Matthew Passion, as well as I know that my Redeemer liveth and Hallelujah from Handel’s Messiah in the programme. Brahms lived during the political upheavals of German unification; supporters of the idea regarded the German language as the defining characteristic of German-ness and Luther’s translation of the Bible as the foundation stone of the modern language.

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The stronghold of German nationalism was found in the north among people who had, like Brahms, experienced a Lutheran education. We know that he took a keen interest in politics, that he admired Bismarck and that he supported the policy of German unification under Prussian leadership, in spite of making his home in Vienna. Much of the Requiem was composed during the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 after which Berlin replaced Vienna as the focal point for German unification. In spite of his sympathy for Bismarck’s policies, Brahms was troubled by this conflict between German-speaking countries and wrote to a friend comparing it with the inconclusive horrors of the Thirty Years’ War. On the other hand, he was enthusiastic about the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. He wrote to his father talking about ‘giving the French a good thrashing’ and composed his Triumphlied to celebrate the Prussian victory. It is significant that when the complete version of the

Requiem was first performed in Bremen it was part of a memorial concert for German war dead and the completed sections of the Triumphlied were also on the programme. It is possible that Brahms intended the two works to stand together – mourning the fallen and then rejoicing in the military victory. Brahms may not have composed the Requiem explicitly as a memorial to Schumann but he incorporated his mentor’s ideas and advice in it. It was his first work for large choir and orchestra, it built on an intimate knowledge of renaissance and baroque music and it drew on Lutheran theology to produce a work of consolation for the bereaved. It fulfilled Schumann’s prophecy by establishing Brahms as a composer with an important international profile.

Dr Frances Palmer

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ANITA WATSON

After completing a Bachelor of Music from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australian soprano Anita Watson graduated with honours from the Australian Opera Studio. She was a member of the Cologne Opera Studio 2006 – 07 and the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 2007 – 09. Anita has won prizes in many prestigious competitions amongst them the Australian Singing Competition, the ‘Queen Sonja International Music Competition’ in Oslo, ‘Neue Stimmen’ in Germany and the Plácido Domingo ‘Operalia’ competition. In 2009 she was awarded the 1st prize and the audience award at the international ‘ARD Music Competition’ in Munich and the ‘SWR Emmerich-Smola Prize’ in 2010. As a Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden her roles included the title role in Donizetti's Rita, Naiad (Ariadne auf Naxos), Gretel and Dewfairy (Hänsel und Gretel), First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Flowergirl (Parsifal) and Second Woman (Dido and Aeneas. In 2010 Anita made her house debuts at Teatro la Fenice in Venice as Governess in The Turn of the Screw and at the Salzburg Festival as 5th Maid in Elektra. Other performances have included Mimì (Nationale Reisopera) and Donna Anna (Landestheater Salzburg, Teatro la Fenice and Opera Australia). In addition to opera Anita has appeared worldwide in concerts, recitals and television and radio broadcasts. In 2010 Anita sang Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Antonio Pappano. She also performed the Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder with the Rheinische Philharmonie in Koblenz and the Mariinsky Orchestra in St Petersburg, Stravinsky’s Mavra with the CBSO, Mahler’s 8th Symphony with Sir Mark Elder and recorded Ariadne auf Naxos for the Chandos label. She recently visited Australia to perform Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the MSO. Future engagements include First Lady (Die Zauberflöte) for the Royal Opera House, Governess (The Turn of the Screw) for Théatre du Capitole in Toulouse and Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress) in Santiago de Chile.

GERARD COLLETT British baritone Gerard Collett studied at the Royal Academy of Music and later at the National Opera Studio. He continues to study with Janis Kelly and Iris dell'Acqua. Gerard made his debut at English National Opera as Petrucci (Lucrezia Borgia) broadcast live on Sky Arts 3D, and returned to sing Second Mate (Billy Budd). As a student at the RAM he performed the roles of Conte Perrucchetto (La Fedeltà Premiata), Vater (Hänsel und Gretel), Mercurio (La Calisto) and Bubjentsov (Paradise Moscow). Recent highlights on the concert platform include performances with the Southbank Sinfonia at the Anghiari Summer Festival in Italy, and at the Cadogan Hall in London, Fauré’s Requiem with the English Chamber Orchestra, Szymanowski's Stabat Mater at Canterbury Cathedral and excerpts from Eugene Onegin and Così fan tutte with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. A committed recitalist, he has performed in recitals with Philip Langridge and Dame Felicity Lott. He was a member of the Academy's prestigious Song Circle, of Graham Johnson’s Young Songmakers and is an alumnus of the Stean’s Insitute at the Ravinia Festival, Chicago. Gerard was invited by Dame Margaret Price to perform a recital for her in Wales, and he was later invited to perform at her Memorial Concert at the Wigmore Hall. Gerard Collett is the inaugural winner of the Peter Hulsen Orchestral Song Award, launched by the Southbank Sinfonia in collaboration with the Musicians Benevolent Fund. He won the Jean Meikle Prize for a Duo, accompanied by James Baillieu, in the 2009 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition. Whilst at the RAM his awards included the Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award, a Susan Chilcott Scholarship, a Sybil Tutton Award, a Countess of Munster Award and an Independent Opera Scholarship. Current and future engagements include the title role in Eugene Onegin for Bury Court Opera and the Southbank Sinfonia, Schaunard (La Bohème) at the Longborough Festival and Papageno (Die Zauberflöte) for the Opera Project.

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AIDAN OLIVER Aidan Oliver is Director of Music at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey (the Parliamentary Church), and the director of Philharmonia Voices, the professional chorus that collaborates with the Philharmonia Orchestra on many of its most ambitious projects. Founded at the invitation of the Philharmonia in 2004, this is now recognised as one of the country’s elite professional choruses. Aidan is also the Associate Conductor of the St Endellion Summer Festival in Cornwall, and conductor of Dulwich Choral

Society. He also works regularly as a freelance member of the music staff at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and as a guest chorus master and conductor with many of London’s top groups, including the BBC Symphony Chorus, the Bach Choir, Exaudi, and New London Chamber Choir. Last year he prepared the choruses of English National Opera and the John Wilson Orchestra for acclaimed BBC Proms performances of Peter Grimes and My Fair Lady respectively. With the Philharmonia, Aidan’s recent engagements have included conducting the chamber orchestra in Britten’s War Requiem in a performance directed by Lorin Maazel; touring the USA as Assistant Conductor to Esa-Pekka Salonen in performances of Berg’s Wozzeck, and preparing the massed combined choruses for a performance of Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand under Maazel. Philharmonia Voices will be collaborating this year in projects including Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky and Shostakovich’s unfinished opera Orango. Aidan Oliver began his musical career as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral, later studying at Eton College and at King’s College Cambridge. After graduating with a double First in Classics, he pursued further studies at Harvard University (as a Kennedy Scholar), the National Opera Studio and King’s College London. He was the recipient of one of the inaugural BBC Singers Conducting Fellowships, and of a Churchill Fellowship to study sacred choral music in Russia.

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Dulwich Choral Society Honorary President Dame Emma Kirkby Vice Presidents Roger Page Musical Director Aidan Oliver Chairman Dr Iain Saville CBE Accompanist David Elwin Dulwich Choral Society was founded in 1944. Today it is a thriving, friendly choir that performs at least three concerts a year, including two with professional orchestras and top-class soloists. Since 2006 Aidan Oliver, one of the UK’s leading choral conductors, has been the choir’s Musical Director. As well as giving concerts in the Dulwich area, the choir has performed more widely in central London and abroad. Since 1998 the choir has undertaken tours to Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Germany and Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina; in 2012 the choir continued this tradition with a five-day visit to Umbria in Italy, performing in Assisi, Perugia and Todi. Closer to home the choir performs in several of the beautiful churches in and around Dulwich, and enjoys a strong local following.

Would you like to join us?

New choir members are always welcome. If you are interested in joining the choir, please contact Jo Merry, our Membership Secretary, on 020 7737 3169 or membership@dulwichchoralsociety.org.uk for more details. Entry is subject to an informal audition by the Musical Director who, besides a reasonable singing voice, will be looking for basic sight-reading ability and general musicality. Membership costs around £160 a year, with discounted rates for those aged under 25. Rehearsals take place on Monday evenings from 7.30 to 9.30pm, at All Saints Church, Lovelace Road, West Dulwich, London. The church is about 5 – 10 minutes’ walk from either Tulse Hill or West Dulwich stations and is served by a number of bus routes including the 3, P13 and 201. For further details, visit:

www.dulwichchoralsociety.org.uk

Sopranos Carrie Andrews Margaret Bailey Lynda Beadnall Jackie Bowie Sue Chandler Alex Craker Marie-Pierre Denaro Lu Ecclestone Edith Fehrenbach Sophie Fender Kate Frigerio Sylvia Francis-Mullins Honor Gay Didi Greig Gaynor Jones Juliana Kirby Denise Lawson Julia Layton Heidi Lempp Emily Lodge Priscilla Macpherson Morven Main Fenella Maitland-Smith Teresa Marshall Sarah O'Meara Frances Palmer Susan Perolls Elisabeth Poirel Pat Price-Tomes Carmo Ponte Fleur Read June Rice Jenny Thomas Mette Turner Jane Tippett Charlotte Townsend Katherine Venn Tenors Roger Atkins Forbes Bailey Nick Bolt Giles Craven Robert Foster Steve Harrison Andrew Lang Jon Layton Jonathan Palmer Michael Palmer Chris Papavaissiliou John Quigley Iain Saville Peter Swift Nick Vaisey

Altos Cinzia Alzetta-Greaves Sue Anderson Becky Bahar Katharine Bolton Helen Chown Jane Fletcher Vivien Gambling Jill Harris Sarah Hughes Stephanie Jacob Julie Jones Jennifer Kay Valerie Kenny Susie Lindsay Ruth Martin Jo Merry Karen Mills Sue Newell Chrissi Pallidis Jane Palmer Nicola Prior Rosemary Publicover Rebecca Sloane Frances Steele Basses Christopher Braun Ian Chown Chris Dodd Michael Faulkner Hugo Fausett Malcolm Field Simon Foster Stephen Frost Michael Goodman Alan Grant John Greig Alex Hamilton Nick Lowe Michael Kenny Adrian Lambourne Mike Lock Peter Main Hugh Marchant Barney Rayfield Tim Sandford Jonathan Sedgwick Mike Shepherd Crispin Southgate

Paul Stern Richard Webb

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Dulwich Festival Orchestra Lennox Mackenzie Leader Orchestra fixer: Jill Harris 1st

VIOLIN

Lennox Mackenzie Rachel Allen Sue Kinnersley Helen Allport Caroline Davis Mario Basilisco Xuan Do Thomas Crehan

2nd VIOLIN

Alison Kelly Holly Bhattacharya Alex Afia Lynn Cook Cristina Ocana Rosado Lois Oliver

VIOLA

Germán Clavijo Caroline O’Neill Elizabeth Butler Bethany Britt

CELLO

Alexandra Mackenzie Anna Mowat James Barralet David Kadumukasa

DOUBLE BASS

Jani Pensola Sebastian Pennar

FLUTE

Lynda Coffin Christine Hankin Jane Pickles

PICCOLO Judith Treggor

OBOES Ruth Bolister Olivia Duque

COR ANGLAIS Jenny Brittlebank*

CLARINET

Hale Hambleton Hannah Marcinowicz

BASS CLARINET

Douglas Mitchell* BASSOON

Simon Chiswell Emma Harding Rachel Simms (contrabassoon)

HORN

Kevin Elliott Lindsay Kempley Jason Koczur Hannes Arnold

TRUMPET Oliver Carey Shane Brennan Joe Atkins*

TROMBONE Simon Wills David Roode Andy Ross (bass trombone)

TUBA Mark Grainger

HARP Jean Kelly

TIMPANI

Janne Metsapelto

ORGAN / CELESTE

William Vann *Strauss only

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Friends and Patrons

Dulwich Choral Society gratefully acknowledges the financial support it receives from its valued Friends and Patrons.

Bryan Gould Carmo Ponte Giles Brindley Howard and Helen Moseley Iain Saville and Jo Merry Inge Kelly Isaac and Shula Marks Jennifer Tippett John and Judy Clark John Lawson Juliet King-Smith June and the late Jimmie Cleall-Harding Margaret Doubleday Michael and Pat Goodman Mike and Jo Lock Nick and Kara Lawson Peter Thomas Roger and Scilla Page

The Friends and Patrons are a group of people who enjoy coming to our concerts and social events whenever possible and are interested in ensuring the future stability of the choir. Supporters of the Choir (and current choir members) will be warmly welcomed as new Friends and Patrons. Benefits of membership of the scheme include:

• advance booking for concerts • discounts on tickets bought through the choir • reserved seats with tickets bought through the

choir • a free interval drink with each ticket bought (at

certain concert venues) • a programme signed by a soloist (for patrons) • mailings of details of future programmes

Dulwich Choral Society is a registered charity with number 264764. Donations made under Gift Aid will enable the income tax to be recovered as an additional benefit.

For more information, please contact: Alex Craker Tel: 07780 953 309 Email: alex.craker@virgin.net

Forthcoming concerts

Summer concert The Passing of the Year Saturday 6 July 2013 St Barnabas Church, Dulwich Village

Jonathan Dove The Passing of the Year John Rutter A Sprig of Thyme A pastoral journey through the English countryside with music by two of the UK’s most approachable choral composers of today. Two cycles of partsongs – one virtuosic and thrilling, the other lyrical and charming – will be interspersed with the words of Thomas Hardy to create a moving journey through the lives and loves of country folk over the four seasons.

Autumn concert Saturday 7 December 2013 All Saints Church, Lovelace Road, West Dulwich

Joseph Haydn Nelson Mass Edward Elgar Sospiri Maurice Duruflé Requiem In one of the most intimate of all Requiem settings, Duruflé clothed the plainsong melodies of the Mass for the Dead with his own unmistakeable harmonies like clouds of incense. It will be preceded here by Elgar’s most heartbreaking outpouring, his Sospiri (‘Sighs’) for strings, harp and organ – a perfect prelude to Duruflé’s consolatory masterpiece. In complete contrast, Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis (‘Mass in troubled times’) – written under the threat of Napoleonic invasion – deploys trumpets, drums and virtuoso soprano solo to thrilling effect. Forever associated with Europe’s liberating hero, Lord Nelson, this is among Haydn’s most dramatic and brilliant choral works.