JS Bach St John Passion – Southern Voices concert 23 March

Southern Voices is returning to the nave of Winchester Cathedral this month to perform this choral masterpiece with renowned period orchestra Florilegium. This promises to be an exciting and authentic performance with a smaller chamber choir and a superb orchestra. The concert is on Friday 23 March at 7.30.

Directed as usual by Katherine Dienes-Williams, the soloists consist of

• Mark Wilde (Evangelist)
• Jamie W Hall (Christus)
• Ruth Provost (soprano)
• Tom Lliburn (countertenor)
• Joel Williams (tenor)
• Thomas Humphreys (bass)

Tickets £12.50 to £29 (£1 for children 18 and under) are available via the Cathedral Box Office (01962 857275 – booking fees apply).

Hope to see you there!

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In the company of Angels

Join Southern Voices for our next concert in Winchester Cathedral Quire on Friday 4 November for a choral collection on the theme of angels.

Angels and archangels have inspired some fine music through the ages, and this concert will includes examples from the 15th and 16th centuries (Isaac, Palestrina), the 17th and 18th (Dering, Borthiansky) and the 20th (Chesnokov, Tippett, Tavener, Drayton) as well as examples from notable current composers (Patrick Hawes, David Hamilton). In a first for Southern Voices, we will be singing the Hamilton and one of the pieces by Patrick Hawes ‘in the round’ to get an ethereal effect as befits the music!

The choir will be directed as usual by our musical director Katherine Dienes-Williams, who will be joined by Paul Provost at the organ and cello, and daughter Hannah Dienes-Williams on the violin.

Tickets are on sale at the Cathedral Box office. £16 full price, concessions £14 and children 16 and under £5. It will be a great concert and we would love to see you there!

The programme includes:

Factum est silentium – Richard Dering
Ige Herouvimy – Bortniansky
Prayer to a guardian angel – Patrick Hawes (cello – Paul Provost)
Angelus Domini – Patrick Hawes

St. Bride, assisted by angels – Judith Bingham (organ)

Angelus Domini – Palestrina
Angeli, archangeli – Heinrich Isaacs

INTERVAL

Plebs angelica – Michael Tippett
How like an angel – Paul Drayton
Angels – John Tavener

Les anges – Olivier Messiaen (organ)

Factum est silentium – Patrick Hawes (violin – Hannah Dienes-Williams)

Ige Herouvimy – Chesnokov
Angele Dei – David Hamilton

Not n-ice skating in Winchester

December brings the excellent Christmas market and ice rink in Winchester – and the opportunity for some father/daughter bonding. The ice rink did slightly resemble a swimming pool, but the weather was sunny and the hot chocolate beckoning. Suffice it to say, we both had ‘incidents’; mine involved a quick swim to the side and no cycling for a week, whilst Livi’s involved two separate trips in an ambulance, mild concussion and a chipped neck vertebrae.

So roll on December 2016.

Reflections – Southern Voices’ November concert

Southern Voices’ upcoming concert on Friday 6 November is called ‘Reflections’ noting the time of year and the choice of music. The programme consists of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem and Frank Martin’s Mass for unaccompanied double choir.

Duruflé’s Requiem was published in 1947 by the French music publisher Durand. Commissioned in 1941 by the collaborationist Vichy regime, Duruflé was still working on the piece at the time of the regime’s collapse in 1944, and completed it in 1947, dedicating it to the memory of his father.

Frank Martin was a Swiss composer, who lived a large part of his life in the Netherlands. Of the mass it has been said *, “It was written back in 1922, well before Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms made it fashionable for French‐speaking composers to strike a monkish pose. It sounds like a Renaissance mass lost in time, aware nonetheless of long centuries passing and new horrors unfolding.” (Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise)

For the concert (this time on a Friday evening at 8.00pm) Southern Voices will be joined by Alexandra Stevenson (Mezzo-soprano) and Timothy Parsons (Organ). The concert will take place in Winchester Cathedral Quire. Tickets will be available from 28 September, online and from the Cathedral Box Office (01962 857275) priced £16 (concessions £14; children 17 and under £5). You can also contact me for tickets.

* It has also been said on this blog back in 2010, “Frank Martin completed his a cappella mass for double choir in 1926 yet the work did not receive its world premiere until the 1960s. A rich, exciting composition well suited to the acoustic of Winchester Cathedral Quire…”

Spem in Alium, Winchester style

Huge shout out to James and Elizabeth Montgomery for their very generous invitation to sing Spem in Alium to celebrate James’s 70th birthday. Taking much of Saturday 12 September to put together, most of that time seemed to be spent drinking, eating and socialising. There were separate choir practices in the morning before coming together for a final full rehearsal in the Cathedral Quire just prior to a performance in front of invited guests.

This time I sang tenor in choir 4, slowly working my way down the choir having sung tenor in choirs 1 and 2 previously. I think it fair to say that the final performance held together very well under the expert direction of Tom Seligman.

A very self-indulgent way to spend a Saturday (for me and my 70 fellows singers!).

Full copies for every singer

Gathering in the Paul Woodhouse Suite first thing

Lunch!

Getting the 8 choirs into a horseshoe

Addressing invited guests

Would you believe James thanked us for attending!

Southern Voices to open Winchester Festival 2015 with Rachmaninov Vespers

Sergei Rachmaninov composed the Vespers (‘All Night Vigil’ ) early in 1915, the same year in which it was premiered. Originally conceived as part of the Orthodox all-night liturgy, and based on ancient chants, this sequence of music works very well in its concert form.

Southern Voices is honoured to be opening the 2015 Winchester Festival with a performance of such a wonderful choral work, marking it’s centenary year and look forward to welcoming our followers, old and new! The Cathedral is an ideal setting, as it has resonated for centuries with rich choral colours.

Winchester Cathedral, Friday July 3rd, 8pm with pre-concert drinks from 7.15pm in the Deanery Garden.

Tickets are available from the Cathedral Box Office
http://www.tickets.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/

Ice skating at Winchester Cathedral

A sunny but cold day for an annual visit to the ice skating rink at Winchester Cathedral. The market was extremely busy and as ever, best to go to the Cathedral refectory visit for munchies. One year we will wear cassocks but need to ensure no falling over is guaranteed…

Richard & Livi skating December 2014

Overjoyed to be here…

The stunning backdrop of the cathedral

Everyone is welcome here

Market busy at the weekend

Songs and Sonnets of Shakespeare – Winchester Cathedral

Come and join Southern Voices for our next concert, part of the Winchester Festival, for a little late night music on Thursday 10 July at 8.30 pm in Winchester Cathedral Quire.

In this Shakespeare anniversary year, this concert showcases three very different composers and their approach to the rich resource of poetry from several dramas. Coming at the verse from groundings in English folksong, Swiss art music and jazz, variety will be everything. Noted actor Gabriel Woolf will let more of the Bard’s genius shine out in readings from the sonnets and plays. The choir, as ever, will be conducted by our excellent Katherine Dienes-Williams.

The three different interpretations consist of:

Vaughan Williams Three Shakespeare Songs
Frank Martin Songs of Ariel
George Shearing Songs & Sonnets of Shakespeare

Tickets cost £15 and are available from the Cathedral Box Office.

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The running order has been confirmed as follows:

1. Gabriel Woolf – Opening Readings:

a)            O for a Muse of Fire (Chorus Act 1 Scene 1 Henry V)

b)            Where should this music be (Act 1 Scene 2 The Tempest)

2. CHOIR – Vaughan Williams ‘Three Shakespeare Songs’

3. Gabriel Woolf – Readings:

a)            My gentle Puck come hither (Act 1 Scene 1 A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream)

b)            Aspects of Love – from the Sonnets ( 5 short readings)

4. CHOIR – Frank Martin ‘Songs of Ariel’

5. Gabriel Woolf – Readings:

a)            Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves (Act 5 Scene 1 The Tempest)

b)            Speak the speech I pray you (Advice to the Players Act 3 Scene 2 Hamlet)

c)            ‘Tis but fortune (Malvolio finds the letter – Act 2 Scene 5 Twelfth Night)

6. CHOIR – G. Shearing ‘Songs & Sonnets’ Song 1 – Live with me and be my love (NB Song 1 ONLY!)

7. Gabriel Woolf – Reading –

a)            The Nymph’s Reply (Sir Walter Raleigh 1800)

8. CHOIR – Shearing ‘Songs & Sonnets’ Songs 2 – 7

 

Ice skating with Livi 2013

For the record, a quick late visit to the excellent Winchester Cathedral ice rink. As we were late the Christmas market had gone leading to a slightly calmer atmosphere in the Cathedral close. Still working up the courage to wear a cassock on the ice. Perhaps next year…

Taking a break

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giving advice to the old man

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Busy despite the absence of the market

 

 

Between Darkness and Light – upcoming Southern Voices concert

The next Southern Voices concert in November features some fantastic but little known music from the Baltic and Scandinavia. The concert is on Saturday 9 November at 7:30 in Winchester Cathedral Quire.

Times and seasons pass; landscapes change and diversify around us. Many Scandinavian and Baltic composers have been affected by both nature and the landscapes which surround them, and have responded in kind in their music.

These compositions – together with other pieces of choral music from Hungary, the UK and the USA – form the programme for our concert on Saturday 9th November in Winchester Cathedral Quire.

From the rising of the sun in Latvian composer Peteris Vasks’ ‘Mate saule’ (written in 1977) to the final ‘Plainscapes’ – also written by Vasks in 2002 and which he himself describes as’ nature’s awakening’ – our programme seeks to explore the soundscapes of the 20th and 21st centuries through which composers have endeavoured to portray the beauty of nature, earth and heaven.

Three of the words feature strings. Two of them – by O’Regan and Whitacre – make use of the intimate yet colourful medium of the string quartet, while Vasks’ ‘Plainscapes’ uses the bareness of violin and ‘cello to convey ‘the natural beauty of Latvia’ – but manages, nonetheless, to depict a vast sonority using this intimate instrumentation.

Tickets prices: £17.50. Concessions: £14.50. Children 17 and under: £5.

Available from the Cathedral Box Office.

The programme is as follows:

Tariq O’Regan – The Ecstasies Above
Eric Whitacre – 5 Hebrew Love Songs
Kodaly – Nights on the Mountain
Hugo Alfvén – Aftonen (Evenings)
Pēteris Vasks – Mate saule (Mother Sun)
Pēteris Vasks – Plainscapes
Hugo Alfvén – Dawn over the sea
Eriks Esenvalds – Evening

You can also order tickets direct from me using the form below:

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