Say It With MusicSay It With Music

Saturday 26 November 2005

St Michael's Church, Abingdon

The rather corny title belies the modestly serious exploration of celebration through music over the last four centuries or so. At the time of Allegri's Miserere, most celebratory music was written either directly for the church or had a religious theme. We included this piece to represent the glories, perhaps excesses of the Roman church which were lost to us when, as Flanders and Swann put it, Henry VIII 'nationalised the monasteries'. Of course, despite the attempts of the puritans, church and other music flourished and by the eighteenth century Handel was able to travel and work across Europe, bringing the essentials of the Italian Style which dominated music at the time to England. Rather than choose the very public Music for the Royal Fireworks, we are playing some of the more private Water Music, written expressly for a man who could afford it (the King) to have a good time.

By Verdi's time, music was still a great tool for state occasions and the opening of the Suez canal is certainly an occasion. Nonetheless, the seeds of popular music's eventual dominance in the celebration business were already sown, and by the middle of the twentieth century we had popular music for every occasion and we feature selections from film, stage and popular music in general to bring us up to the evening's finale, the full version of Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia (including the bugle calls usually omitted) written to celebrate the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar and played tonight in celebration of its bicentenary.

Miserere mei, Deus – GREGORIO ALLEGRI (1582–1652) arr. by PHILIP BURDITT
Movements from the Water Music – GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685–1759)
Andante from Symphony no. 4 (the 'Italian') – FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847)
Grand March from 'Aida' (Finale of Act II) – GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901)
Miserere mei, Deus – GREGORIO ALLEGRI (1582–1652) arr. by PHILIP BURDITT
Movements from the Water Music – GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685–1759)
Andante from Symphony no. 4 (the 'Italian') – FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847)
Grand March from 'Aida' (Finale of Act II) – GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901)

 

The Directors ChoiceThe Director's Choice

Saturday 19 March 2005

Abingdon Baptist Church

This year we present a programme of classic works for wind. Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy, ever a favourite for wind orchestra, contrasts with Gounod's elegant and charming Petite Symphonie for just nine players. Woolfenden's SPQR adds a Shakespearean twist to a concert opening with Saint-Saens' over-the-top Orient et Occident march and Potter's Finnegan's Wake. Be prepared for some [lollipops] too!

Orient et Occident – CAMILLE SAINT-SAÄNS (1835–1921)
SPQR – GUY WOOLFENDEN (b. 1937)
Petite Symphonie for wind instruments – CHARLES GOUNOD (1818–1893)
A Lincolnshire Posy – PERCY GRAINGER (1882–1961)
Finnegans Wake – ARCHIE POTTER (1918–1980)