David Fawcett Conductor

Katy Hill SopranoPatricia Orr AltoTom Raskin TenorEd Ballard Bass

Sinclair Sinfonia Ann Hubble (Lead)

Established in 1975, the Festival Chorus is a choir of over 100 voices based between Clapham and Wandsworth Commons. We are one of the most accomplished amateur choirs in South London, performing three times a year alongside professional orchestras and soloists.

Our next concert, featuring pieces by Brahms, Schumann and Schubert, will be on Saturday 30 November. Tickets will be available from the St Luke’s Music Society Box Office (07951 791619, www.slms.org.uk) and from Northcote Music Shop (155c Northcote Road, SW11).

Membership of the Festival Chorus is open to all, regardless of ability and experience, and there are no auditions. Rehearsals are held on Monday evenings at 8pm at Broomwood Methodist Church Hall, Kyrle Road, SW11 6BD.

Rehearsals for our next concert start on Monday 2 September and all are welcome.

www.festivalchorus.co.uk

A Baroque Evening

Tonight’s concert takes us on a journey from great expectation to profound sorrow: beginning with the Virgin Mary’s joyous exclamation on meeting her elderly cousin Elizabeth, through the Old Testament prophesy of Christ’s coming greatness “after the order of Melchizedek”, and ending with the Holy Mother’s grief at the foot of the Cross where her only son hangs forlorn and crucified.

The opening Magnificat was composed by Antonio Vivaldi some time around 1720. Boundaries between the Church and secular society were extremely flexible in the 18th century, so it is not surprising that Vivaldi, an ordained priest, was a prolific composer of operas as well as of sacred music. While his operatic ventures often took him on long journeys abroad, Vivaldi’s working life centred on the Ospedalle dela Pietà, an institution for foundlings which placed a strong emphasis on musical education. The five arias in tonight’s Magnificat were originally written for five of the Pietà’s leading pupils (Apollonia, Maria la Bolognesa, Chiaretta, Ambrosina and Albetta) and a light-hearted poem written around 1730 tells that Apollonia had a clear soprano voice and was “an expert at both pathetic and lively singing”, Maria had a pleasing voice but “tended to inaccuracy”, while Ambrosina had a deep voice whose tone “sounded like that of a tenor”, and indeed her aria is written in the tenor clef.

The second piece, the Dixit Dominus, was composed by Alessandro Scarlatti at some point between 1703 and 1707. This extraordinarily emotional setting of the Vesper Psalm (109, Authorised Version 110) is one of three surviving examples by Scarlatti, written in the stile antico, and thought by some to be a partial inspiration for Handel’s later masterpiece.

The final work tonight is the beautiful and haunting Stabat Mater, composed by Antonio Bononcini. Relatively unknown today, Bononcini came from a very musical family (his elder brother Giovanni spent a number of years in London at the same time as Handel, where their friendly rivalry inspired the epigram “Tweedledum and Tweedledee”). Bononcini’s Stabat Mater is a rare pleasure, distinguished not only for its skilful craftsmanship but also for its dramatic qualities, fine sense of vocal line and richness of harmony. A truly remarkable setting of this great medieval poem, it is certainly in the same company as Pergolesi’s more famous composition.

Magnificat (Antonio Vivaldi)1. Choir:

Magnificat anima mea Dominum.2. Soprano:

Et exsultavit spiritus meusin Deo salutari meo.

3. Quia respexit humilitatemancillae suae;ecce enim ex hoc beatamme dicent omnes generationes.

4. Quia fecit mihi magna,qui potens est,et sanctum nomen eius.

5. Choir:Et misericordia eius a progenie in progenies timentibus eum.

6. Fecit potentiam in brachio suo,dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.

7. Deposuit potentes de sedeet exaltavit humiles.

8. Soprano, Alto:Esurientes implevit boniset divites dimisit inanes.

9. Choir:Suscepit Israel puerum suum,recordatus misericordiae.

10. Alto:Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros,Abraham et semini eius in saecula.

11. Choir:Gloria Patri,et Filio,et Spiritui Sancto,Sicut erat in principio,et nunc, et semper,et in saecula saeculorum.Amen.

My soul glorifies the Lord.

My spirit rejoices in God,my Saviour.He looks on his servantin her lowliness;henceforth all ages willcall me blessed.The Almighty worksmarvels for me.Holy his name.

His mercy is from age to age,on those who fear him.He puts forth his arm in strengthand scatters the proud-hearted.He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly.

He fills the starving with good things, sends the rich away empty.

He protects Israel, his servant,remembering his mercy.

The mercy promised to our fathers,to Abraham and his sons for ever.

Glory be to the Father,and to the Sonand to the Holy Spirit;As it was in the beginning,is now, and ever shall beworld without end.Amen.

Dixit Dominus (Alessandro Scarlatti)1. Choir and soloists:

Dixit Dominus Domino meo:Sede a dextris meis,donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum.

2. Soprano:Virgam virtutis tuae emittet Dominus ex Sion:dominare in medio inimicorum tuorum.

3. Alto:Tecum principiumin die virtutis tuae,in splendoribus sanctorum.Ex utero ante luciferum genui te.

4. Choir and soloists:Juravit Dominuset non paenitebit eum:Tu es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech.

5. Bass:Dominus a dextris tuis,confregit in die irae suae reges.

6. Choir:Judicabit in nationibus,Implebit ruinas,Conquassabit capita in terra multorum.

7. Soprano, Alto:De torrente in via bibet,propterea exaltabit caput.

8. Choir and soloists:Gloria Patri, et Filio,et Spiritui Sancto,Sicut erat in principio,et nunc, et semper,et in saecula saeculorum.Amen.

The Lord said unto my Lord,Sit thou at my right hand,until I make thine enemiesthy footstool.

The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion:rule thou in the midst ofthine enemies.

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning:thou hast the dew of thy youth.

The Lord hath sworn,and will not repent,Thou art a priest for ever afterthe order of Melchizedek.

The Lord at thy right hand shall strikethrough kings in the day of his wrath.

He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.

He shall drink of the brook in the way:therefore shall he lift up the head.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Sonand to the Holy Spirit;As it was in the beginning,is now, and ever shall be, world without end.Amen.

INTERVALStabat Mater (Antonio Bononcini)

1. Choir:Stabat mater dolorosajuxta Crucem lacrimosa,dum pendebat Filius.Cujus animam gementem,contristatem et dolentempertransivit gladius.

2. Soprano:O quam tristis et afflictafuit illa benedicta,mater Unigeniti.Quae moerebat et dolebat,Et tremebat cum videbatnati poenas inclyti.

3. Soprano, Alto:Quis est homo qui non fleret,Christi matrem si videretin tanto supplicio?Quis non posset contristaripiam Matrem contemplaridolentem cum Filio?

4. Choir:Pro peccatis suae gentisvidit Jesum in tormentis,et flagellis subditum.Vidit suum dulcem Natummorientem desolatum,dum emisit spiritum.

5. Alto:Eja, Mater, fons amorisme sentire vim dolorisfac, ut tecum lugeam.Fac, ut ardeat cor meum

in amando Christum Deumut sibi complaceam.

At the Cross her station keeping,stood the mournful Mother weeping,close to her Son to the last.Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,all His bitter anguish bearing,now at length the sword has passed.

O how sad and sore distressedwas that Mother, highly blest,of the sole-begotten One.Christ above in torment hangs,she beneath beholds the pangsof her dying glorious Son.

Is there one who would not weep,whelmed in miseries so deep,Christ's dear Mother to behold?Can the human heart refrainfrom partaking in her pain,in that Mother's pain untold?

For the sins of His own nation,She saw Jesus wracked with torment,All with scourges rent:She beheld her tender Child,Saw Him hang in desolation,Till His spirit forth He sent.

O thou Mother! fount of love!Touch my spirit from above,make my heart with thine accord:Make me feel as thou hast felt;make my soul to glow and meltwith the love of Christ my Lord.

6. Choir:Sancta Mater, istud agas,crucifixi fige plagascordi meo valide.

Tui Nati vulnerati,tam dignati pro me pati,poenas mecum divide.

7. Alto:Fac me tecum pie flere,crucifixo condolere,donec ego vixero.

8. Bass:Juxta Crucem tecum stare,te libenter sociarein planctu desidero.

9. Choir:Virgo virginum praeclara,mihi jam non sis amara,fac me tecum plangere.

10. Tenor:Fac ut portem Christi mortem,passionis fac consortem,et plagas recolere.

11. Alto, Tenor, Choir:Fac me plagis vulnerari,Cruce hac inebriari,Ob amorem Filii.Inflammatus et accensus,per te, Virgo, sim defensusin die judicii

12. Bass:Fac me cruce custodirimorte Christi praemuniriconfoveri gratia.

13. Choir:Quando corpus morietur,fac, ut animae doneturParadisi gloria.

Holy Mother! pierce me through,in my heart each wound renewof my Saviour crucified:Let me share with thee His pain,who for all my sins was slain,who for me in torments died.

Let me mingle tears with thee,mourning Him who mourned for me,all the days that I may live:

By the Cross with thee to stay,there with thee to weep and pray,is all I ask of thee to give.

Virgin of all virgins blest!,Listen to my fond request:let me share thy grief divine;

Let me, to my latest breath,in my body bear the deathof that dying Son of thine.

Wounded with His every wound,steep my soul till it hath swooned,in His very Blood away;Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,lest in flames I burn and die,in His awful Judgment Day.

Christ, when Thou shall call me hence,be Thy Mother my defence,be Thy Cross my victory;

While my body here decays,may my soul Thy goodness praise,Safe in Paradise with Thee.

David Fawcett ConductorDavid was born in Radcliffe, Lancashire, and pursued his early interest in music in piano lessons and in church choirs. He later studied organ, became an Associate of the Royal College of Organists at the age of 17 and took the organ scholarship at Nottingham University, where he studied Music. He became Musical Director of the Festival Chorus in 1988, alongside a

career in Whitehall and the BBC. Since 2010 he has been a part-time professional musician and teacher as well as a freelance editor and consultant in media policy.

David is Director of Music at St Mary's church, Balham, where this year he has started a Junior Choir and after-school singing club for children of 7 and over. He teaches piano, organ and singing to private pupils, specialising in adult beginners. To read more about his musical activities or to enquire about his availability for teaching or other engagements, visit www.londonorganistdotorg.wordpress.com.

Katy Hill SopranoKaty began her singing career as a mischievous and often inaccurate member of the choir here at St Luke's. Once she finally learnt how to behave she went on to study as a choral scholar and music student at Gonville & Cauis college, Cambridge. Now a consort singer and soloist, Katy performs and tours regularly with leading ensembles that include The Monteverdi Choir, The Sixteen, Synergy vocals, I Fagiolini, Tenebrae and her own group, Galàn. She is also a visiting singing teacher at Charterhouse School and vocal coach to the trebles at Lagos Cathedral.

As a soloist Katy has sung Handel's Israel in Egypt, Schutz' Musikalische Exequien and arias from Bach Cantatas for Sir John Eliot Gardiner in venues that include The Cadogan Hall London, Berliner Philharmonie Berlin and Cité de la Musique Paris; Howells' Sir Patrick Spens with The Bach Choir in The Festival Hall, Lute songs from the 1589 Florentine Intermedi live on BBC Radio Three's 'In Tune', Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 in Winchester Cathedral, Bach's St Matthew Passion at the Endellion Easter Festival, and his B Minor Mass and St John Passion at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. She made her debut at the Proms in 2012 as a Bridesmaid in Weber’s Le Freishütz in a concert performance of the Gardiner/Jemmett production at The Opera Comique, Paris. Other stage experience includes Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in the Aix-en-Provence festival, Bizet’s Carmen at Opéra Comique and Grand Théâtre de

Luxembourg, an award-winning production of We are Shadows in the Spitalfields Festival, and Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians at the Palais Garnier, Paris. Television appearances include Howard Goodall’s How Music Works on Channel Four, and Simon Russell Beale & The Sixteen's Sacred Music at Christmas on BBC4.

Patricia Orr AltoBorn in Scotland, Patricia graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in Law and French awarded with first class honours, the McCormack prize as the most distinguished graduate of the academic year and a distinction in French language. Subsequently, she trained at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio. She was the 2006 winner of the Alfred Alexander Prize, a finalist in the Royal Overseas League Competition in 2006 and a finalist in the Bruce Millar Competition in 2008.

As an Associate Artist with Welsh National Opera, she has sung the roles of Dryad Ariadne auf Naxos, Varvara Kat’a Kabanova and Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia. For Opera Holland Park, she has sung the title role Zanetto Laura Iolanta, Varvara Kat’a Kabanova, Beppe L'Amico Fritz and Maddalena Rigoletto. Other operatic roles include SorceressDido and Aeneas, Orimeno Erismena, 2nd Lady Die Zauberflöte, for English Touring Opera and Hippolyta A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Garsington Opera. For the RCM, she has sung Enfant L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Bianca The Rape of Lucretia and Prince Orlovsky Die Fledermaus. She sung the title role in Handel’s Tolomeo in association with the London Handel Festival and Yolande in Maconchy’s The Sofa with Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells.

In concert, Patricia has worked with the Bach Choir, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players, the English Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Edinburgh Quartet in venues such as St John’s Smith Square, the Cadogan Hall, St Martin in the Fields and the Snape Maltings Concert Hall. Patricia recently recorded the role of Brangwain The Queen of Cornwall by Rutland Boughton, with the New London Orchestra (released in 2011).

Current and future engagements include Cherubino Le Nozze di Figaro for WNO, Haydn Nelson Mass at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and a return to WNO to sing Wardrobe Mistress, Schoolboy and Groom in a new production of Lulu directed by David Pountney. She will cover the role of Fox in Cunning Little Vixen for WNO in the

same season, and returns to OHP to sing Suzuki in Madame Butterfly.

Tom Raskin TenorBorn in Bath, Tom studied at the RNCM in Manchester and New College, Oxford, before going on to become a Britten-Pears Young Artist, studying with both Andreas Scholl and Richard Egarr during his time at Aldeburgh. In 2000 he was awarded the Anne Ziegler Prize, followed by the Freckleton Prize in 2001, and has been the recipient of a major Scholarship from the Peter Moores Foundation since 2000 which has funded study both in Italy and London.

Highlights of his operatic career so far have included L’Athelète Castor et Pollux, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner at the Salle Pleyel, Conte Conte d’Ory and Appolonia in Haydn’s La Canterina for New Chamber Opera, Fenton Falstaff at the Belle-Ile Festival, Bullfighter in Golitsov’s Ainadamar with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Truffaldino in L'Amour des Trois Oranges, Roderick in Philip Glass’ The Fall of the House of Usher in Oxford, and Patacha in Chabrier’s L’Etoile for Opéra de Nimes, Don Ramiro Cenerentola for the Mananan International Festival, Ralph Rackstraw in Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore for Opera della Luna and Lionel in Flotow’s Martha for Opera South.

Other roles include Almaviva Barbiere di Siviglia, Oebalus in Mozart’s Apollo e Hyacinth, and Silango in Gluck’s Le Cinesi at the Wigmore Hall and Cheltenham Festival in 2009. He sang Kaherdin Le Vin Herbé (Frank Martin) for OT Theatre, Rotterdam, and Sir George Weinberg's Lady Magnesia with The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Ensemble 10/10, and returned to Liverpool and Huddersfield for Gary Carpenter's Closing Time in 2010; highlights of his engagements in 2011 included Postillon Postillon de Longjumeau for Opera de Baugé in July, Marquis De Chat Zar und Zimmermann for Opera South and Amalekite in Saul conducted by Harry Christophers with The Sixteen in the Barbican Nov 2011, which he then recorded in Jan 2012.

In 2012 he returned to Opera de Baugé for Almaviva Barbiere di Siviglia, and sang Agenore Il Re Pastore for New Chamber Opera, a role he repeated in January 2013. He will play Patrick in Tales from Babel: Musical Adventures in the Science of Hearing throughout the UK during 2013.

His international concert appearances have included St Mark's Basilica, Venice for Monteverdi Vespers, Lille for B Minor Mass, and Siberia for Messiah in the

Novisibirsk Festival, in addition to Malta for an Opera Gala. In the UK he has sung regularly for the London Handel Festival at St George’s, Hanover Square, Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle, Handel’s L’Allegro in Cambridge and Monteverdi Vespers, Bath Abbey and Chichester Cathedral July. Recent (2012) appearances are Dee Palmer’s Nuremberg Cantata in Hove, Christmas Oratorio in Dedham, Messiah for Harpenden Choral Society, Monteverdi Vespers in Dorking and Rossini Stabat Mater and Puccini Messa di Gloria in Colchester.

In 2013 Tom will sing Handel’s Susanna, Britten’s Serenade and St Nicholas, Rossini Stabat Mater and Mozart Requiem in the UK, and Jonathan in Saul in Holland.

Ed Ballard BassBorn in London, Ed graduated from the Preparatory Opera Course at the Royal Academy of Music this summer and will take up a full scholarship onto the Royal College of Music International Opera School in September, studying with Russell Smythe.

Ed’s operatic roles include Count Almaviva, Guglielmo, Demetrius, Aeneas, Marquis de la Force in Poulenc’s ‘Dialogues des Carmélites’ and John the Butcher in Vaughan William’s ‘Hugh

the Drover’. He covered the lead role, Chao Lin, in Judith Weir’s ‘A Night at the Chinese Opera’ for British Youth Opera in Summer 2012 and in Summer 2013 he joins the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus for their production of ‘Billy Budd’.

In concert he has appeared with the Britten Sinfonia and the Orchestra of St Paul’s in St John’s, Smith Square, the Orchestra of St John’s in King’s Place and with the Brandenburg Sinfonia in St James' Piccadilly as well as appearing as a soloist in the acclaimed Kohn Foundation/Royal Academy of Music ‘Bach Cantata Series’. A keen recitalist, Ed won the Marjorie Thomas Art of Song Prize in 2012 and was a member of the prestigious ‘Song Circle’ at the Royal Academy of Music. Ed began singing as a Chorister at the Temple Church in London before attending the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Junior Department as a young baritone.

Ed was subsequently a Choral Scholar in Clare College Choir and King’s College Choir in Cambridge, with whom he was a featured soloist on the BBC television broadcast of ‘Carols from Kings’, gaining a BA and MPhil History. Ed gratefully acknowledges the support of a Maidment Scholarship administered by the Musician’s Benevolent

Fund, a Clumber Studio Scholarship administered by the Royal Academy of Music, The Kathleen Trust, The John Wates Charitable Trust and The Josephine Baker Trust.

Sinclair SinfoniaViolinAnn HubblePaula TysallPeter NewmanPam White

Annmarie McDadeCaroline CrouchIva Fleischhansova

ViolaDeborah KempLiz MelvilleSusan Appel

Double BassRichard Dalling

CelloClaire ConstableClaire McConnellAnn Lines

ContinuoDerek Carden

NorthcoteMusic Shop

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The Festival ChorusThe Festival Chorus would like to thank those local businesses which provide generous support through sponsorship, advertising and by displaying our concert posters and flyers.

Sopranos

Belinda ArthurSue BlackmoreElisabeth BrayneHonor BroganJenny CockburnHilary ColeLesley ConnorsSheila de BellaigneFelicity EllacombeMary EllisLiz FreemanLinda HawthornKaren HickmanFerelith HordonFenella HuckleCatharine InfieldDebra JohnsonQamar MacleanNadia MicaliLoucinda MidgleyPhilippa Milnes-SmithClaire NeilsonKaty NewmanLiz OveySarah RackhamCharlotte RichardsJudith RoscoeLaura SandfordAnn SheppardCharlotte SimonLaura TingleKarine WigginJane Wonham

Altos

Joanna ArmandiasSusan BarrettFrances BarronSarah BrimelowPenny BrookeDominique CardleAngie CoghlanAlison CohenJudith ColesJennie CremerAlice EnglishJane EyresPauline FarrowStella FlemingJudith GartrellGill GraySally HaslamDorothy HintzeFiona HoffmanKirstie HowardAndrea KolkaSally LangPippa McDonaldAnja MyrsepUna OggCatherine O'NeillMelanie PurnellVal ShepherdLibby SpurrierEileen ThomasAnna WechsbergJane WestlandJan Williams

Tenors

Oladele CraigCharles EllisRichard HarriesMick JubbJohn MairAndrew PurkisJon ReddingRichard WilliamsRobert Wood

Basses

Will AndersonChris BirchallTony BrookAlistair CheethamPeter DannheisserTrevor D'CruzSimon FosterMartin HaddonPaul InfieldAntony Lewis-CrosbyIan McDonaldDonald PeckHugh RichardsRoland SmithJohn Spencer

Accompanist

Elspeth Wyllie

Sarah Wood

Some material for this programme was excerpted from Wikipedia and other public domain Internet websites.