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Our second concert in the season – Wond’rous Machine –
celebrating the great wealth of music for large chorus and symphonic
organ, focuses on the great musical commissions of the
Northampton-born Priest, Walter Hussey (Vicar of St Matthew’s
Northampton (1937-55) and Dean of Chichester Cathedral (1955-77)).
Here in Northampton he commissioned poetry, art, and music for St
Matthew’s, and from that legacy we perform three works – two
large-scale works by Finzi and Britten, and his Prelude and Fugue
for organ. Using the medium of Fantasia and Fugue, Northampton-born
composer Robert Walker later wrote a piece (for the organist of St
Paul’s Cathedral, Simon Johnson, who was for a number of years our
own Musical Director) based on themes by Britten, which is also
performed.
Leonard Bernstein with Walter Hussey
Alongside this we perform his major commission from Chichester, a
three-movement Cantata by Leonard Bernstein called Chichester
Psalms (which we are happy to be performing in the centenary
year of Bernstein’s birth). The final work in the programme is the
world première of a new scoring of Bryan Kelly’s Magnificat and
Nunc dimittis in C major, first performed during the same
Southern Cathedrals Festival as the première of Bernstein’s
Chichester Psalms (in Chichester Cathedral, 1965). We are
delighted that Professor Kelly has added harp, timpani, and
percussion parts to his setting of the two evening Canticles, the
same additional instruments that Bernstein employs in Chichester
Psalms.
Finzi’s work contains some of his finest music, portraying the
liturgical drama of the Eucharist in a series of characterful
sections commencing with a solemn, almost improvisatory,
introduction. The expressive lines, colourful accompaniment and
dramatic choral writing make this a great favourite with choirs and
audiences alike. The closing eight-part Amen is one of the most
remarkable and poignant pieces of choral writing of its period.
Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, takes its text from a poem –
Jubilate Agno – by the supposedly mad Christopher Smart (1722-71),
written in a mental asylum where he had been committed by his
father-in-law for apparent religious mania. It is easy to see this
piece has retained its popularity over the years: it has great
colour, drama, bizarre imagery, and the central issue of the
individual against the crowd, or against authority, was one to which
Britten was to return repeatedly in his works.
Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms sets verses from Psalms 23,
100, 108, 131, and 133, in Hebrew – the beloved language of this
composer, whose Jewish faith was integral to his life. In it,
Bernstein exploits grand gestures and vibrant, rhythmic singing, as
well as decidedly romantic melodies. Indeed, some of the music was
refashioned from material cut from his musical West Side Story.
This ties superbly with Bryan Kelly’s remarkable Magnificat and
Nunc dimittis in C, which is founded upon Latin American
rhythms. Both of these works are performed with not only organ
accompaniment, but also with the added sparkle of harp and
percussion.
Programme:
Northampton Bach Choir
The Choristers of St Matthew’s Church, Northampton
The Choristers of All Saints’ Church, Northampton
Percussion –
Keith Crompton & Matt Butler
Harp –
Elizabeth Bass
Organ –
Justin Miller
Conductor –
Lee Dunleavy
Britten – Rejoice in the Lamb (18’)
Walker – Fantasia and Fugue on Themes of Britten (7’)
Finzi – Lo, the full, final sacrifice (16’)
… Interval of 15 minutes …
Bernstein – Chichester Psalms (23’)
Britten – Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria (7’)
Kelly – Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in C (7’)*
* world première of new instrumentation |
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