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CANTORUM CHOIR

Patron Sponsor Ralph Allwood MBE Aspen Worldwide

C antorum Choir is a dedicated and talented choir of approximately forty voices, based in Cookham, Berkshire. Under the directorship of Elisabeth Croft, the

ensemble continues to earn itself a reputation as one of the leading chamber choirs in the area. Cantorum boasts a wide-ranging repertoire and performs professional-quality concerts throughout the year. Following an excellent placing in the Choir of the Year 2014 competition (including full marks for Technical Achievement and Musicality in ‘A truly beautiful performance’), sights are now set on competing again in June—in addition to our regular schedule of four major concerts during the year.

Soprano 1 Julia Bentley-Dawkes, Kirsty Janusz Jenny Knight, Julia Millard Deborah Templing, Philippa Wallace Soprano 2 Kate Cromar, Louise Evans Hilary Monaghan, Louise Smyth Joy Strzelecki Tenor Anthony Dowlatshahi, Philip Martineau, Peter Roe, Malcolm Stork John Timewell

Alto Celia Armstrong, Jill Burton Sarah Evans, Anne Glover Anna Jacobs, Sandy Johnstone Angela Plant, Elspeth Scott Chiu Sung, Lorna Sykes Gill Tucker Bass Derek Beaven, John Buck Arthur Creswell, Gordon Donkin David Hazeldine, Ed Millard Paul Seddon

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Elisabeth Croft (née Toye)—Music Director

E lisabeth is a graduate of Birmingham University and also of the Royal Academy of Music, where she won the 2004

Michael Head Prize for English Song and the 2005 Arthur Bliss Prize for twentieth Century music. In 2008, she won the A.E.S.S. Patricia Routledge National Prize for English Song and has subsequently built a busy and successful career as a professional soprano, vocal coach and choral trainer. She has for some years been working with Berkshire Maestros (The Young Musicians Trust) and is currently director of Berkshire Young Voices, the county training choir. She is also a regular tutor for the National Youth Choirs of Wales.

Jozef Janik (Piano)—Asst. Music Director

J ozef has a BA in music from Zilina Conservatoire, and a Postgraduate Diploma with MA in Music from the Royal

Academy, where he studied with Patsy Toh. He has given concerts in Austria, Sweden, France, Poland, England, Japan, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. His list of awards includes First Prize in the International Piano Competition in Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. Recent concert venues have been The Forge in Camden, St. James Piccadilly and The Paris Conservatoire.

CANTORUM ORCHESTRA

Violin

Katie Sharp (Leader), Minor Atabeck

Victoria Stapleton, Ayako Yamazaki

Michiko Negami, Haru Sekiya

Viola

Rebekah Brown, Sue Black

Cello

Ana Borzone, Anna Wagstaff

Double Bass

Sean Law

Flute

Sophie Clayton, Benjamin Cope

Oboe

Hazel Todd, Alison Bowen-Davies

Trumpet

Paul Speed, Adam Denman

Horn

Alex Stead

Timpani

Nathan Cole

Keyboard Continuo Jozef Janik

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K atherine Walker (Soprano 1) performs regularly in oratorio and has a special interest in early music. As a recitalist, she has worked

on the Live Music Now! scheme, founded by Yehudi Menuhin, giving concerts in schools and healthcare establishments throughout the UK. Katherine performs frequently as part of the vibrant upper voices trio that she co-founded, Vox Angelica, and is currently preparing to record a second CD with them. She is passionate about working with young voices and directs children’s choirs for the publishing company ‘Out of the Ark’ as well as for Berkshire Maestros.

J enny Bacon (Soprano 2) studied at Oxford and the Royal Academy of Music. Her operatic roles include Yniold in Debussy’s Pelias et

Melisande and the title role of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. She has also worked widely in oratorio. In 2009, she reached the semi-final of The Thelma King Award and the final of The Patricia Routledge National English Song Competition. Concert highlights of recent years range from solo recitals in the UK, vocals for 2001: A Space Odyssey in Shanghai, and backing vocals for a concert performance of Goldie’s Timeless album.

S imon Ponsford (Countertenor) is an established soloist and recitalist throughout the UK and is a well-respected member of several

international ensembles, notably the Monteverdi Choir. He has sung oratorio solos with choral societies and chamber choirs in venues including St John’s Smith Square, Gloucester Cathedral, King’s Place and Westminster Abbey. He was also Choral Scholar at King’s Cambridge. Recent performance highlights include Covent Garden Chorus in Glück’s Orphée et Euridice, Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium in Gloucester Cathedral and recitals of Schubert’s Winterreise in Gloucester, Windsor and Edinburgh.

J onathan Wood (Baritone) previously sang the solo for us in Fauré’s Requiem. Born locally, he made his professional opera debut in Opera

Holland Park’s 2007 season and has remained busy in the operatic field ever since, including work with Covent Garden, ENO and WNO. He is an experienced oratorio soloist with repertoire including most of the major works. As a recital singer, he has worked across the UK and Europe with highlights including recording previously unpublished Ivor Gurney songs with tenor Ian Partridge. He also sings with London Voices and has featured on several motion picture soundtracks including most recently The Hunger Games films and Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy.

S tephen Anthony Brown (Tenor) sang the role of Evangelist recently for us in the Bach St John Passion. He studied at Trinity

College London and at the Royal College of Music. An experienced concert artist, his highlights include Handel’s Messiah in Romania, Rossini’s Stabat Mater in Norway, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Barbican, Stradella’s San Giovanni Battista in Jerusalem, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in Spain, gala concerts for Raymond Gubbay at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Symphony Hall, Birmingham and the Barbican, London and as the Evangelist in Bach’s Matthäus Passion and Johannes Passion in Iceland and London with Peter Schreier.

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Johann Sebastian Bach Title page of the Benedictus

The Town Square, Leipzig

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JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

MASS IN B MINOR Missa 1) Kyrie eleison Chorus

Lord have mercy

2) Christe eleison Soprano 1, Soprano 2

Christ have mercy

3) Kyrie eleison Chorus

Lord have mercy

4) Gloria in excelsis Deo Chorus

Glory to God in the highest

5) Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis Chorus

And on earth peace to men of good will

6) Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te Soprano 2

We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you

7) Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam Chorus

We thank you, on account of your great glory

8) Domine Deus, Rex coelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens. Soprano 1, Tenor

Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe altissime, Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris…

Lord God, heavenly King, God the omnipotent Father. God the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ the most high, Lord God, the Lamb of God, the Son of the Father...

9) Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis; Chorus

qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram.

You who bear the sins of the world, have mercy upon us; you who bear the sins of the world, receive our prayer.

10) Qui sedes ad dextram Patris, miserere nobis. Alto

You who sit at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us.

11) Quoniam tu solus sanctus, tu solus Dominus, Bass

tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe,

Since only you are holy, only you are the Lord, only you are the most high, Jesus Christ,

12) Cum sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris, Amen. Chorus

With the holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father, Amen.

INTERVAL

Symbolum Nicenum 13) Credo in unum Deum… Chorus

I believe in one God...

14) Patrem omnipotentem factorem coeli et terrae, visibilium omnium Chorus

et invisibilium

The Father omnipotent, maker of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible

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15) Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei Soprano 1, Alto

unigenitum et ex Patre natum ante omnia secula. Deum verum de Deo vero, genitum non factum, consubstantialem Patri per quem omnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salute descendit de coelis...

And in one God, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God and born from the Father before all ages. True God out of true God, born not made, consubstantial with the Father through whom all things were made. Who for us and for our salvation came down from the heavens...

16) Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine et homo factus est. Chorus

And was incarnate by the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary and was made man.

17) Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, passus et sepultus est Chorus

He was crucified even for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried

18) Et resurrexit tertia die secundum scripturas. Et ascendit in coelum, Chorus

sedet ad dexteram Patris. Et iterum venturus est cum gloria, iudicare vivos et mortuos, cujus regni non erit finis.

And rose again from the dead in fulfilment of the scriptures. And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. And shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead—of whose reign there shall be no end.

19) Et in Spiritum Sanctum Dominum et vivificantem qui ex Patre Bass

Filioque procedit. Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur, qui locutus est per prophetas. Et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified and who spoke through the prophets. And (I believe in) one holy catholic and apostolic church.

20) Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum Chorus

I confess one baptism for the remission of sins

21) Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturi seculi, Amen. Chorus

And I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come, Amen.

Sanctus 22) Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth Chorus

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts

23) Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria ejus Chorus

The heavens and the earth are full of his glory

Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei et Dona Nobis Pacem 24) Osanna in excelsis Chorus

Hosanna in the highest

25) Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini Tenor

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord

26) Osanna in excelsis (repeated) Chorus

27) Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis Alto

Lamb of God, you who bear the sins of the world, have mercy upon us

28) Dona nobis pacem Chorus

Give us peace

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T he Mass in B Minor (1749) is an astonishing work. In a flood of pure music, it explores every human emotion and demonstrates Bach’s absolute mastery of

his medium. Yet why he wrote it remains unclear. Nor did he ever hear it performed.

We are familiar today with the idea of the mass as a concert item—Cantorum has several in its repertoire, including Mozart’s Coronation Mass and, very recently, Haydn’s Nelson Mass. And, of course, the ‘Requiem’ is also a form of the mass: as in the extremely well-known settings by Mozart, Fauré and Duruflé. We have also recently performed innovative contemporary masses, such as John Rutter’s Mass of the Children and Bob Chilcott’s A Little Jazz Mass.

Before the nineteenth century, by contrast, masses with musical ornamentation were still seen as part of a ‘live’ Catholic service. From the very earliest times, it had been the custom for certain sections of the mass to be chanted, and it was these sung moments that subsequently prompted the development of European polyphony, once church choirs were established and maintained. In due course, the richest Catholic courts and most ambitious composers were drawn to embellish the music of the mass still further, deploying orchestral forces and—hand in hand with the development of opera—professional soloists. The mass, in fact, can be seen as an important original source for what we now think of as ‘classical music’.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685—1750) was born into the protestant Lutheran tradition, however, and so grew up isolated from Catholic extravagance. Lutheran administrations in the fragmented German states were suspicious both of priestly Latin and costly elaboration. As a fiercely experimental career composer, Bach was drawn not so much to elaboration for its own sake as to musical feeling and an intensity of psychological involvement with the sacred texts which his work required him to set. The result was that he frequently found himself torn between his own needs and the plainer tastes of his Lutheran employers. But although he is thought to have been influenced by the controversial ‘Pietist’ thread of Lutheranism, in which we might find at least a hint of sympathy with the emotionality of Catholicism, there is no evidence that he was ever moved in the direction of the Roman church itself. As much as he grew to love Italian composers such as Vivaldi and Pergolesi, he seems to have remained overwhelmingly committed to the Protestant practice of setting sacred texts in the vernacular, so that they could be directly understood by ordinary people. The triumphs of his labour in this cause are shown in the body of cantatas he wrote for the church year, and, of course, in his great Easter Passions of St Matthew, St John and St Mark (now lost, but partly reconstructed).

In Leipzig, where he settled for the latter part of his life, the church authorities did offer a degree of religious leeway, and it is true that shortly after his arrival in post as Cantor at St Thomas’s he wrote four short Latin ‘masses’, the so-called ‘Lutheran masses’, together with a setting of the Magnificat (which Cantorum last performed in 2013) and a slightly larger ‘mass’ for the Catholic court in Dresden. Yet placed alongside the literally hundreds of sacred works he wrote in German, it is hard to accord them particular significance, or to see them as indicating any alteration in Bach’s religious thinking. The plain fact of the matter is that nothing in his previous work or background really prepares us for the extraordinary change of tack that Carl Philip Emanuel Bach would describe as his father’s ‘Great Catholic Mass’—and which we now know as the Mass in B Minor.

A fully formed masterpiece, it is intricately and mysteriously structured by its subject matter, rather like a cathedral. But the next surprise in store for us is that it contains almost no new music: analysis reveals that Bach had written nearly every movement for some earlier context (the Kyrie and Gloria sections, for example, are imported wholesale from the Dresden ‘mass’).

We should not jump to conclusions. No shame was attached during the period to recycling one’s own compositions—Handel’s Messiah is a familiar case in point. We should also consider that the large scale rearrangement of material to fit the text of the new project would have been as much an act of composition as generating fresh

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themes. But what of the project itself? As far as the evidence suggests, the Mass is a personal idea, undertaken ‘for love’ rather than money and not as part of Bach’s regular employment. And so it would seem to be the case that here he was deliberately making a summation of his life’s achievement across the whole spectrum of his sacred music—a reading that appears to align with the focus of his late keyboard collections, such as the Art of Fugue and the Goldberg Variations. Perhaps another telling similarity to these works is the fact that the score of the Mass is overwhelmingly choral, with quite limited attention to the solo voice, thus permitting an almost total concentration on counterpoint, Bach’s preeminent skill.

To see the Mass as self-publicity, though, would be completely to mistake the man. Bach signed off each of his works with S. D. G.—Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be the glory), clearly to guard against such temptations. Yet no one so phenomenally talented could have failed at times to ask himself, in all humility, why such a gift had been given him; and how far it would impose a special religious duty. With this in mind, it is not too impossible to imagine that he saw this Missa Tota (full mass) as perhaps a personal bid to heal Christianity: perhaps even as a prophetic vision of the New Jerusalem—in which the Catholic original could be ‘restored’ through what he might have believed to be the Protestant ‘dynamism’ of counterpoint. The Mass in B Minor certainly suggests the universe as it could be, a glimpse of heaven, indeed.

It was a glimpse caught tragically and ironically in the failing eyesight of this master musician. Bach died in the year after its composition from complications following eye surgery. Incomprehensibly to us, his music almost died with him, and the Mass in B Minor was not performed in its entirety until 1859—over a century later. Even then, nobody knew quite how to approach it. The ‘...in B Minor’ title was fastened on for its first publication in 1845, but gives a misleading impression: the majority key is D Major. Bach himself gave the work no overall name, but divided it under the four headings listed in tonight’s programme.

The word ‘Mass’ (Missa) applies, of course, to the Roman Catholic celebration of Eucharist, or Communion. The text of the Latin service prescribes in detail the interaction of priest and congregation by means of a centuries-old ritual dialogue. Confusingly, it begins not in Latin at all, but with a formula in New Testament Greek: Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison—Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. The remainder of the first part of the sung text is doctrinal, setting out the nature of God as agreed at the council of Nicaea in 325 AD.

There follows the Creed (Symbolum Nicenum), which is the statement of belief, also from Nicaea. The Sanctus and Osanna sections are striking evocations of heaven taken from the Old Testament; while the final moving prayer ‘Dona nobis pacem’ is for peace after absolution—as the congregation is dismissed with the phrase both in Catholicism and Lutheranism Ite, Missa est (’Go, the assembly is dismissed’ or ‘Go, the service is accomplished’).

Certainly, the Mass in B Minor is very intricate and includes complex structural symbolism; but perhaps the delight of singing and hearing it can best be summed up in two quite simple points. The first is that it is strikingly democratic. No one part is privileged, and the roles of choral singers, soloists and instrumentalists are all equally demanding. The second is to be found in its incredible variety. Bach gives monumental weight to the opening appeal for mercy, for example, but then the Gloria is a French dance! We are lulled to the soulful thanksgiving of ‘Gratias Agimus tibi’, but shortly stirred out of our seats by the thrilling ‘Cum Sancto Spiritu’. In the Creed, he paints particularly the mystery of the Incarnation, with the gentle descending notes of the Holy Spirit coming down to Mary, but all too soon we hear the hammering nails of the Crucifixion. These are immediately followed by surprise and happiness at the Resurrection—portrayed in a triumphal dance called a réjouissance. And in the later movements there are so many equally subtle emotions and so many more dance rhythms that the angels are almost unstoppable as they swirl and stamp and sing Osanna in Excelsis! And so, when it comes down to it, there is really no other way to describe this than as a concert full of joy!

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Bach’s head reconstructed from his skull Title page of Et incarnatus est

St Thomas’s Church, Leipzig—Bach’s place of work

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Help Cantorum Choir just by shopping online. Give as you Live is an award-winning fundraising platform for charities. Shop with your favourite stores, and a donation from the retailer will be made to Cantorum Choir without costing you a penny extra. Compare prices and shop at thousands of leading stores like Amazon, Expedia and John Lewis. www.giveasyoulive.com/charity/cantorumchoir

SPONSORSHIP

C antorum Choir has been delighted to gain a sponsorship arrangement with

Aspen Worldwide

This sponsorship will enable the choir to take on yet more demanding pieces of work and also to move forward in a variety of other ways.

CHARITIES

C antorum was extremely pleased to have been able to donate a total of £1,000 to our two chosen charities as a result of our recent Christmas Concert.

Our two supported charities this year:

T he Sepsis Trust was proposed by Pippa Wallace in memory of her mother, Marianne Stork, who was a founder member of Cantorum Choir. ‘The illness known as the silent killer affects 150,000 people

every year in Britain and kills 44,000—considerably more than breast and bowel cancer combined. In fact, Sepsis kills approximately 30% of those taken into hospital for intensive care. But, despite the fatal consequences, it often goes undetected until it is far too late for treatment to be effective.’

sepsistrust.org www.justgiving.com/uksepsistrust

T he Navakiran Orphanage, Nepal was proposed by Bridget Bentley, whose friends in Marlow Rotary Club

are collecting on behalf of the children. Contributions from Cantorum’s Christmas Concert collection have been sent early and are already making a difference to the children’s welfare.

navakiranorphanage.org

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Future Cantorum Concerts:

Date: Saturday 25th June 2016

Event: Summer Concert

Venue: Holy Trinity Church, Cookham SL6 9SP

Date: Saturday 8th October 2016

Event: Autumn Concert with Orchestra

Venue: All Saints Church, Marlow SL7 2AA

Date: Saturday 10th December 2016

Event: Christmas Concert

Venue: Holy Trinity Church, Cookham SL6 9SP

www.cantorumchoir.org.uk

info@cantorumchoir.org.uk

Grateful thanks are due to:

Robert Jones (pianist); Laraine Brown (pianist)

The Stationery Depot, Cookham Rise Parade

All others who have helped in the production of this concert

And thanks to you, our audience, for your continued support!

If you would like to be on our mailing list, please email us:

info@cantorumchoir.org.uk

If you or your organisation would like to consider sponsoring

Cantorum Choir in some way, then please call us

on 07711 056661 to discuss the various options

You can also follow us

on Facebook: www.facebook.com/cantorumchoir

on Twitter: @CantorumChoir

This year supporting

THE SEPSIS TRUST

&

THE NAVAKIRAN ORPHANAGE, NEPAL