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Details
St Peter's Church
Southfield Road
Acton Green, Chiswick
London
W4 1BB
England
Programme
Charles Giffen – Hymn for St Cecilia
Franz Schubert – Mass no.2 in G major, D.167
Joseph Haydn – Te Deum no.2 in C major 'Grosse', Hob XXIIIc:2
Arthur Bliss – Sing, Mortals!
Herbert Howells – A Hymn For St. Cecilia
Performers
Matthew Thomas Morgan – Conductor
Addison Oratorio Choir
Addison Chamber Choir
Programme Note
The Addison Singers Classical Choirs embark on a joint concert programme encompassing a wide range of repertoire dedicated to the making and performing of music. In May, we will take this programme to Seville, Andalucia, where we look forward to basking in the warmth of the sun and extolling the joys of Spanish and English choral repertory to our audience.
Our concert will open with a command to ‘Sing, Mortals!’ by Arthur Bliss. Bliss’s music has a unique harmonic pallet, synonymous with mid twentieth century English styles. It is a challenging, rousing opening to our concert programme. Our attention then turns to celebrating the Patron Saint of Music and Musicians, St. Cecilia, the first of which is by Charles Giffen, an American, who amongst other interests is a mathematician and early music editor. We contrast this later in our programme with the more famous setting by Herbert Howells. The Chamber Choir provide an interlude of Spanish works between these settings, presenting two Marian works by Morales (born in Seville), and a short but ravishingly beautiful setting of ‘Ave Maria’ by Rodrigo.
After the interval, the Oratorio Choir will perform two well-loved works. Haydn’s ‘Te Deum in C’ was composed for Empress Marie Therese, the wife of Franz I of Austria. They were well known to each other with Haydn having accompanied Marie Therese, who, by all accounts, had a good singing voice. The composition is in a tripartite form, with a short, slow middle section. For the keen eared, there are references to eighth psalm-tone, which gives source material for the composition. Schubert’s ‘Mass in G’ (Mass No. 2) is notable for its brevity of composition (and its brevity in performance length), taking less than one week in the compositional stage and around twenty-two minutes to perform. Originally scored for strings and organ, it later received further orchestration with additional brass and timpani courtesy of Schubert’s brother, Ferdinand, due to its popularity upon publication after the composer’s death. We welcome soloists from within the choir in our performance, showcasing our depth of talent within the Addison Singers.
M. T. Morgan
09.xii.2023
