HANDEL

Messiah Saturday, 21st November 2015, 7.30 p.m.

St John’s Church, Newall Terrace, Dumfries NICOLA JUNOR, Soprano TAYLOR WILSON, Contralto RÓNAN BUSFIELD, Tenor ANDREW McTAGGART, Bass

Conductor:

EDWARD TAYLOR

www.dumfrieschoralsociety.co.uk Scottish Charity No. SC002864

Programme: £1.50

St John’s Ensemble (Leader: SUSAN SMYTH)

PROGRAMME

Part I Instrumental: Sinfonia (Overture) Recitative [Tenor]: Comfort ye my people Air [Tenor]: Ev’ry valley shall be exalted Chorus: And the glory of the Lord Recitative [Bass]: Thus saith the Lord Air [Contralto]: But who may abide the day of his coming? Chorus: And he shall purify Recitative [Contralto]: Behold, a virgin shall conceive Air [Contralto] and Chorus: O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion Recitative [Bass]: For behold, darkness shall cover the earth Air [Bass]: The people that walked in darkness Chorus: For unto us a child is born Instrumental: Pastoral symphony Recitative [Soprano]: There were shepherds abiding in the field Recitative [Soprano]: And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them Recitative [Soprano]: And the angel said unto them Recitative [Soprano]: And suddenly there was with the angel Chorus: Glory to God Air [Soprano]: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion Recitative [Contralto]: Then shall the eyes of the blind Air [Contralto & Soprano]: He shall feed his flock Chorus: His yoke is easy, and his burthen is light

INTERVAL – 15 minutes

[Toilets are situated at the bottom end of the hall adjoining the church, with access either through the hall from the main door, or through the door to the right of the performance area in the church]

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY

with ROBERT LIND (Baritone)

MARGARET HARVIE (Piano) JORDAN ENGLISH (Organ)

EDWARD TAYLOR (Conductor)

Saturday 19th December 2015, 7.00 p.m. St John’s Church, Newall Terrace, Dumfries

Christmas Concert An evening of Christmas music

(with interval soft drinks and mince pies)

including: VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Fantasia on Christmas Carols

MATHIAS: Ave Rex

PROGRAMME

Part II Chorus: Behold the Lamb of God Air [Contralto]: He was despised Chorus: Surely he hath borne our griefs Chorus: And with his stripes we are healed Chorus: All we like sheep have gone astray Recitative [Tenor]: All they that see him laugh him to scorn Chorus: He trusted in God Recitative [Tenor]: Thy rebuke hath broken his heart Air [Tenor]: Behold, and see if there be any sorrow Recitative [Tenor]: He was cut off out of the land of the living Air [Tenor]: But thou didst not leave his soul in hell Chorus: Lift up your heads, O ye gates Air [Soprano]: How beautiful are the feet Chorus: Their sound is gone out Air [Bass]: Why do the nations so furiously rage together? Chorus: Let us break their bonds asunder Recitative [Tenor]: He that dwelleth in Heaven Air [Tenor]: Thou shalt break them

Part III Chorus: Hallelujah Air [Soprano]: I know that my redeemer liveth Chorus: Since by man came death Recitative [Bass]: Behold, I tell you a mystery Air [Bass]: The trumpet shall sound Chorus: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain; Amen

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY

Saturday 19th March 2016, 7.30 p.m. St John’s Church, Newall Terrace, Dumfries

JOHN RUTTER: Birthday Madrigals GEORGE SHEARING: Songs and Sonnets

ANDREW CARTER: Benedicite

featuring

CANTATE CHILDREN’S CHOIR

with MARGARET HARVIE (Piano)

IAN HARE (Organ) DONALD SCOTT (Double Bass) EDWARD TAYLOR (Conductor)

THE PERFORMERS

NICOLA JUNOR (Soprano) was born and brought up in Dundee and is a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and Jordanhill College of Education. After various teaching posts in Dundee she has held positions in Dumfries and Galloway at Kirkcudbright, Stranraer, St Joseph’s College, Dumfries, and is currently a music teacher at Douglas Ewart High School in Newton Stewart. A former member of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Nicola regularly appears as a soprano soloist with local choral societies and choirs. Her repertoire includes Fauré’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in G, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, and she previously sang Vaughan Williams’

Dona Nobis Pacem and Duruflé’s Requiem with the Choral in April 2014. Closely involved with the development of children’s singing, her experience includes nine years as musical director of the former NYCoS Dumfries and Galloway (West) Children’s Choir, and a leader of the Galloway Machars Choir. She held the post of Musical Director of Dumfries Choral Society from 2004 -2013, during which time she conducted Messiah (November 2005) and also performances featuring both of this evening’s male soloists. Nicola is currently Musical Director of Stranraer Ladies Choir.

TAYLOR WILSON (Mezzo-Soprano) studied voice at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, opera studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and read modern languages at Strathclyde University (French, German, Italian). Opera rôles have included Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina, Mother in Britten’s Noyes Fludde, Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Carmen in Bizet’s Carmen, Flora in Verdi’s La Traviata, Siebel in Gounod’s Faust, Noble Orphan in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, and Bird Seller in Massenet’s Manon with Scottish Opera. Taylor performs regularly in both recital and oratorio - solo engagements have included a Dutch radio performance in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Holland, recitals in Schloss Münchenwiler, Switzerland, Los Angeles, Denmark and Hong Kong, Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn in Wiesbaden, Mozart’s Requiem in Ireland and Körpper’s Schöpfer Geist in Hanover. Taylor is also a champion of contemporary music and in the last few years has created many operatic rôles and collaborated with composers such as James MacMillan (Raising Sparks, for mezzo-soprano and ensemble) and Judith Weir. She has recently returned from London's Tête à Tête contemporary opera festival, where she featured in Tim Benjamin’s Silent Jack, a one-woman opera that was especially written for her, to critical acclaim (‘Wilson gave a brilliant all-round performance’). www.taylorwilson.com www.facebook.com/taylorwilsonvocalist

RÓNAN BUSFIELD (Tenor) was a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford University, where he studied music, later singing as a Lay Clerk in the choir of the Chapel of St George, Windsor Castle. Subsequently, he completed English National Opera’s ‘Opera Works’, studied for a Masters in Opera at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Stephen Robertson, and was a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist. Rôles have included Edmondo in Donizetti’s L’assedio di Calais and Cecco in Haydn’s Life on the Moon for English Touring Opera; Ordinary Person in James MacMillan’s Inés de Castro, Father in Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins, Brühlmann in Massenet’s Werther, and Gastone/Giuseppe in Verdi’s La traviata for Scottish Opera; Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore for Winterbourne Opera; Philippe in Balfe’s The Sleeping Queen and Una Guardia in Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze for Wexford Festival Opera; Flute in Britten’s A

Midsummer Night’s Dream, Don Jerome in Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, and Woodpecker in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen for RCS/Scottish Opera; the Mayor in Britten’s Albert Herring for the RCS and the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme; Male Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at the RCS, and a chorus member in Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen for Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Rónan’s recent concert performances have included Mozart’s Requiem and Schubert’s Auf dem Strom at the Southwell Festival, Britten’s Serenade with the City of London Sinfonia at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte and Schumann’s Liederkreis for SJE Arts, Oxford; Bach’s Advent Cantatas for English Touring Opera, and Bruckner’s Te Deum and Verdi’s Requiem at Glasgow City Halls. We are delighted to welcome Rónan back following his performances with the Choral of Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Rossini’s Stabat Mater in 2012, and as a particularly memorable Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion in March 2013. www.ronanbusfield.com

ANDREW McTAGGART (Baritone) graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow in 2012, where he attended the Alexander Gibson Opera School. While at the RCS his rôles included Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Don Carlos in Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, Badger in Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen, Antonio in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Coppelius in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Captain in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin; opera scenes included the title rôle in Britten’s Billy Budd, Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème and Golaud in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. Andrew also created the role of Duncan in the European première of Tom Cunningham’s chamber opera The Okavango Macbeth (recorded on Delphian Records). Already an established name

THE PERFORMERS

on the concert platform, engagements have included Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the RSNO, Handel’s Messiah at the Usher Hall, Howard Goodall’s Eternal Light with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast and Christus in James MacMillan’s St John Passion at the Association of British Choral Directors conference. Andrew has also been heard on BBC Radio 3 performing Finzi’s Let Us Garlands Bring as part of the ‘Crear Scholarship’ with Malcolm Martineau, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs and Goodall’s Eternal Light with the National Youth Choir of Scotland. Andrew has been a Scottish Opera ‘Robertson Trust Emerging Artist’ since the 2012/2013 season, where his rôles have included Marchese d’Obigny in Verdi’s La Traviata, Bottom in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Samuel in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. Recent engagements have included Garibaldo in Handel’s Rodelinda, the Notary in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Yamadori in the new David McVicar production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, all for Scottish Opera; the title rôle in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi for Opera Bohemia; and Thoas in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride in St Andrews. Already this season Andrew has sung the rôle of Moralès in Bizet’s Carmen for Scottish Opera, and will go on to perform Brahms’ Requiem, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder. Andrew previously appeared with the Choral in its Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebration concert in April 2012. www.andrewmctaggart.co.uk

MARGARET HARVIE (Rehearsal accompanist) was a pupil of Mary Moore in Edinburgh and a member of the Edinburgh University Singers under the direction of Herrick Bunney. A well-known Dumfries musician, she has been accompanist of Dumfries Male Voice Choir and is an official accompanist to the Dumfries and District Competitive Music Festival. She is organist of Irongray Church. As accompanist to the Dumfries and Galloway Chorus and in a similar rôle with the former Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival Chorus, Margaret has worked, to acclaim, with internationally known conductors including Christopher Seaman, Philip Ledger, Owain Arwel Hughes, Takua Yuasa, and Christopher Bell. In March 1996 Margaret was honoured by Dumfries and Galloway Regional Council with an Artistic Achievement Award in recognition of the very great contribution she makes to the artistic life of our community as an accompanist, and in November 2013 she was

presented with a Special Award commendation for her services to music as a culture champion nominee at the Dumfries and Galloway Life People of the Year 2012 Awards. Margaret has been Dumfries Choral Society’s incomparable accompanist since 1975.

EDWARD TAYLOR (Conductor) is Assistant Organist and Youth Choir Director at Carlisle Cathedral. He holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Leeds and is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists, having held organ scholarships at Portsmouth, Wakefield, and Ely Cathedrals, and at Leeds Parish Church. He has studied the organ with Nicholas Kynaston, David Sanger, Simon Lindley and Henry Fairs, and with Christophe Mantoux at the Strasbourg Conservatoire in France, and attended master-classes with Naji Hakim, Thomas Dahl, Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin, David Briggs and Gillian Weir. With a vast repertoire of works from the Renaissance to the 21st Century, and particularly from the French romantic period, he leads a busy freelance career as a concert organist, accompanist and chamber musician, travelling extensively in Europe and North America. Edward is also active as a choral conductor and specialises in choral workshops for children, youth choirs and 'Come and Sing' events for adult choirs. Music Director of both Dumfries Choral Society and Penrith Singers, Edward is also a Musical Animateur for the Government's ‘Singing Out Project’, in which he leads singing in primary schools throughout Cumbria and hosts choral workshops for children, working with over 500 children each year, and in 2009 he co-founded the Carlisle Cathedral Children’s Choir, Carlisle Cantate, which will be appearing with the Choral in March 2016 in a performance of Andrew Carter’s Benedicite. As a Cathedral musician, Edward plays the organ for seven services each week and has directed the Cathedral's Youth Choir on various broadcasts, in numerous concerts throughout Cumbria, on successful tours to Brittany and Mallorca, and in the making of their debut CD God is Gone Up with a Triumphant Shout in collaboration with Borders Brass. www.edwardtaylor-organist.co.uk

Dumfries Choral Society is most grateful to JEAN MASON, former musical director and current member of the soprano section, for assistance with rehearsals. [Please note that the use of any form of unauthorised photographic or recording equipment during the performance is expressly forbidden. You are also politely requested to ensure that all mobile phones, pagers, watch alarms, etc., are disabled before the start of the performance. Thank you.]

MESSIAH – A NOTE

Early in November 1741 George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was delayed by bad weather in Chester as he travelled to Dublin in response to an invitation by the Lord Lieutenant and the governors of three charitable institutions to visit the city, where he went on to present the only full season of oratorio performances that he gave anywhere outside London. The 56 year-old Handel took the opportunity caused by the delay to rehearse some local singers in choruses from a new oratorio which he had composed in London during the late summer in an amazing twenty-four day burst of creative activity. Messiah received its first performance on 13th April 1742 in the New Musick-Hall, Fishamble Street, Dublin; as this was the Tuesday before Easter the composer thus fulfilled the previously expressed desire of his librettist Charles Jennens that the work be performed during Passiontide. The three charities, the Society for Relieving Prisoners, the Charitable Infirmary, and Mercer’s Hospital, benefited from the occasion by some £400, and Messiah’s triumphant reception, repeated at a second performance in early June, bore immediate popular testimony to the greatness of Handel’s composition.

On Handel’s return to England, however, the London public was less willing immediately to accord the oratorio its wholehearted esteem, principally because of concerns about the suitability of the presentation in a theatre or concert-hall of a work recounting the life of Christ. It was only from 1750, when the Foundling Hospital began to promote it as an annual charity attraction, that Messiah really took hold of the popular musical imagination, exerting a fascination for audiences which has lasted ever since. Appropriately, Handel’s last appearance in public was when the by now blind composer attended a performance of the oratorio in April 1759, just a few days before his death.

The greatness of Messiah derives from the particularly successful marriage of music and text. Charles Jennens (1700-1773), a pompous and conceited literary scholar and in later life Shakespearean editor, was Handel’s principal librettist between 1738 and 1744, the two men collaborating also on Saul and Belshazzar, and probably on Israel in Egypt (the identity of the librettist of this work is unknown, but it is generally held to be by Jennens). The text of Messiah is extracted from the Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testaments, and is therefore profoundly religious in expression. Jennens made an astute selection of Biblical fragments, rejected the temptation to amplify and ornament them, and instead created an internally and intellectually driven drama which commands attention principally through what is not explained. Unlike opera plots Biblical stories are better known to audiences, and in Messiah familiarity with the historical narrative is assumed, so that the work becomes instead a commentary on the Nativity, Passion, Resurrection

and Ascension, introduced by the promises of God uttered by the prophets and concluded by the ultimate fulfilment of these promises in redemption. In form, the division of the work into three parts and its overall duration are descended directly from the traditions of baroque Italian opera, but whereas in other contemporary oratorios, not just the secular ones, this derivation would often have been taken further by the allocation of named parts to the solo rôles, so in Messiah the soloists do not take on any such dramatic characterisations, the story being expressed in narrative form, although the operatic conventions of recitative and aria are employed, recitative admittedly only to a limited extent.

Although Handel completed the music of Messiah in an incredibly short time this achievement was not unique, for he often wrote extended works in brief bursts of creative energy: indeed, a fortnight after completing Messiah he embarked on Samson, another oratorio of comparable length, which was finished just a month later. There can be little doubt that such compression of the gestation period of these works, in particular of Messiah, is responsible for much of the music’s tautness and conciseness of style, which bestow on each performance a striking impression of spontaneity. In fact, as in many of his larger compositions, Handel used music that he had previously written for other purposes, and even borrowed themes from other composers. Undoubtedly this was not just to save himself time but because he felt that such music was wholly appropriate to the spirit of the words he was setting. When he came to orchestrate the work he did so very sparingly, perhaps reflecting the limited resources he knew would be available to him for the work’s first performance in Dublin. Straightforward it may be, but it contributes greatly to the concentration and intensity that are such a feature of this oratorio, and perfectly supports the subtle inflections of the text.

Charles Jennens

MESSIAH – A NOTE

Like many baroque works Messiah has over the years spawned several performing editions affording a limited variety of interpretations: perhaps the most extreme was the one by Mozart who, in re-orchestrating the work to include a number of additional wind instruments, effectively moved its whole sound world from the baroque to the classical age. This evening’s performance uses the edition prepared by the eminent English musicologist and teacher Harold Watkins Shaw (1911-1996), which was first published in 1959. Its particular strength (further revisions have subsequently been made) lies in its provision of alternative versions of several solo passages, reflecting Handel’s own practice of adapting the work to suit best the forces at his disposal, and in its observations of many of the performing conventions of Handel’s time.

Whatever the edition used, the genius of Handel’s creation can never be suppressed: the work is, by turns, dramatic and calm, exciting and contemplative. Above all, Messiah is imbued with a clarity, freshness and spontaneity which make every performance a vital, moving, and relevant experience for both performers and audience. Since 1960 Dumfries Choral Society has performed the complete oratorio fifteen times, most recently in 2005 under the baton of this evening’s soprano soloist Nicola Junor. GC

THE CHOIR Sopranos

Jill Asher Julia Bell Morag Blair Susanna Boytha Sheila Brown Melody Campbell Pauline Cathcart

Lesley Creamer Maureen Dawson Julie Dennison Valerie Fraser Barbara Girvin Rosie Hancock Clare Hodge

Kate Hunter Dorothy Imlach Hilary Jack Carina Lamb Angela Lockerbie Kathryn Logan Angela McCullough

Jean Mason Elizabeth Meldrum Pam Mitchell Daveen Morton Alison Robertson Vera Sutton Pam Taylor

Anne Twiname Elise Wardlaw Margaret Young

Altos

Sheila Adams Marilyn Callander Eileen Cowan Sarah Cussons Christine Dudgeon Mary Gibson

Jill Hardy Faith Hillier Jenny Hope-Srobat Fiona Horsburgh Kay Keith Nan Kellar

Barbara Kelly Claire McClurg Esther Mackenzie Lizanne MacKenzie Shona McNaught Margaret Mactaggart

Audrey Marshall Sheena Meek Emma Munday Margaret Newlands Lynn Otty Fiona Power

Nina Rennie Nancy Rigg Janet Shankland Moira Troup

Tenors

Ann Beaton Alistair Brown Helen Copland

Ian Crosbie Keith Dennison Pauline Johnstone

Fraser McIntosh Brenda Macleod

Charlie McMillan John McMillan

Rhona Pringle Mike Stenhouse

Basses

Andrew Bixler Malcolm Budd Peter Clements

Geoff Creamer Douglas Dawson

George Ferguson Jim Girvin

Andrew MacKenzie Brian Power

Stephen Salt Mike Shire

THE ORCHESTRA 1st Violin Susan Smyth (Leader) David Humpston Edwin Schreiber Robert Charlesworth

2nd Violin John Upson Pauline Roe Hildred Younie

Viola Katharine Holmes Robert Thurlow Jon Buchan

Cello Susan Beeby David Potter Lesley Adamson

Double Bass Helen Keating Oboe Sue Austen John Taylor Bassoon Peter Hutchison

Trumpet Alan Branston Alison Richardson Timpani Jamie Brand Organ John Green

Harold Watkins Shaw

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Honorary President: The Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry

Scottish Charity No. SC002864

Website: www.dumfrieschoralsociety.co.uk

Dumfries Choral Society, a member of Making Music Scotland, gratefully acknowledges the generous financial assistance and services given by the following Patrons, Friends, and Sponsors:

Patrons Friends

The Duchess of Buccleuch Mrs Margaret Carruthers Mrs Barbara Kelly Miss Gerry Lynch, MBE Mr J & Dr P McFadden Mrs Agnes Riley Mrs Jennifer Taylor

Mr & Mrs Peter Boreham Mrs Jessie Carnochan Mrs Mary Cleland Mrs Agatha Ann Graves Mrs Nan Kellar

Mr Ian P M Meldrum Mr James More Mr Hugh Norman Mr John Walker Mrs Maxine Windsor

Sponsors

The Aberdour Hotel

Bibliographic Data Services Ltd

Asher Associates

Elite Display

Barbours, Dumfries

University of the West of Scotland

Barnhill Joinery Ltd Weesleekit Web Design If you would like information about becoming a Friend, Patron, or Sponsor of Dumfries Choral Society, please contact the Patrons’ Secretary, Mrs Sheena Meek (07753 824073), or visit the website at: www.dumfrieschoralsociety.co.uk

The Society gratefully acknowledges a generous donation received from the Buccleuch Charitable Trust.

Dumfries Choral Society also thanks the following:

¾ Revd Canon Robin Paisley, the Vestry, and the Congregation of St John’s Church for permitting the use of the Church and other facilities this evening.

¾ The staff of Midsteeple Box Office (Dumfries and Galloway Council) for assistance with ticket sales. ¾ Mr David Jones for making his chamber organ available for this evening’s performance. ¾ The Committee of Solway Sinfonia for making their timpani available to us for this performance.