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Details
SJE Arts - St John the Evangelist Church
109A Iffley Road
Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX4 1EH
England
Programme
Harry Diack Johnstone – A Prayer in Memory of Andrew Fathers
Herbert Kennedy Andrews – He is the Lonely Greatness of this world
John Duggan – In paradisum
Colin Mawby – Reproaches
Jon Mostad – The Lord is my Shepherd
Philip Moore – Three Prayers of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Hans Gál – Motette
Herbert Howells – Requiem
Performers
Matthew Berry – choral director
Commotio
Programme Note
Commotio return to SJE Arts with a Lenten programme centred on reflection and remembrance. True to its mission to bring to the fore lesser known contemporary works, and to rediscover the overlooked works of more establish composers, this programme includes works rarely performed in the UK. Although now a staple of unaccompanied choral repertoire, Howells’ Requiem was unperformed for nearly 50 years, written in 1932 and rediscovered by a librarian at Royal College of Music facilitating its first performance in 1980.
Complementing Howells’ setting of Psalm 23 within the Requiem, Commotio with also sing Norwegian composer Jon Mostad’s setting of the same psalm.
German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was vociferous in his criticism of the Nazi regime, denounced as an Enemy of the state in 1936, arrested for his involvement with the German Resistance in 1943 and subsequently executed in 1945, just weeks before the concentration camp where he was held was liberated. Former director of Music at York Minster Philip Moore sets three prayers by Bonhoeffer: for morning , times of distress, and evening. Evening Prayer includes references to Bonhoeffer’s favourite hymn Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland.
Born in Austria, Hans Gál’s work was banned in Germany on Hitler's accession to power in 1933. He fled the annexation of Austria in 1938, settling for the rest of his life in Edinburgh. Written in 1924, Motette sets of the text Der Säemann säet den Samen by the poet Matthias Claudius (1740–1815). Beautifully wrought, and yet rarely performed in the UK, this is a work that Commotio and director Matthew Berry feel should be much better known.
