CHICHESTER PSALMS
l e o n a r d
b e r n s t e i n
Welcome
Good evening and a very warm welcome to St John-at-Hampstead for tonight’s joint concert, given by The Cantus Ensemble and Hampstead Chamber Choir. It is a particular pleasure to unite both of the choirs I direct in this programme of music by two New York composers; Leonard Bernstein, a giant of Twentieth Century music who needs no introduction, and Caroline Shaw, the Grammy and Pulitzer Prize for Music winning contemporary composer whose choral works create such impact.
Joined by the searingly talented treble Malakai Bayoh, harpist Natalie Lurie, percussionist Craig Apps and organist George de Voil, the first half sees the ensembles perform the reduced forces version of Bernstein’s epic Chichester Psalms
Commissioned in 1965 by the then Organist and Dean of Chichester Cathedral, John Birch and Walter Hussey, it makes use of harp, organ and drums, the most frequently discussed group of instruments in the Psalms, a real stroke of genius by Bernstein. The middle movement features unused and recycled material from two of the composer’s other works; the treble solo a theme originating in the unfinished musical The Skin of our Teeth, and the tenor and bass outburst which was similarly unused material from West Side Story.
After the interval the choirs and Craig Apps on vibraphone and bass drum perform the European Premiere of Caroline Shaw’s Ochre, commissioned by Cantori New York, The Crossing, Notre Dame Vocale and Volti in 2022. Fragments of poetry of the 16th and 19th centuries emerge and recede absent of their contexts, as if only partially visible – etchings in a broken piece of marble, the rest lost. We understand the words, but not their full meanings. We can deduce that words are missing:
"Contemplate all this work of Time; As dying Nature’s earth and lime. Within oneself from more to more, Life is not as idle ore".
We sense that Ochre is an elegy from an imperilled civilization, told mostly through sounds and colours; there is mystery in the absence of text, and in the words we sense are absent. We can piece together a story of “humans walking upon the earth.” In Caroline’s words, Ochre “is about soil…how we consider and care for the ground beneath our feet – our Earth, ourselves, our histories, our sense of the scale of our lives in the context of geological history” with text communicating a “subtle hint at the sense of regret about the state of climate policy over the last century in the U.S.”
This concert is the final engagement of both The Cantus Ensemble and Hampstead Chamber Choir’s 2024/25 seasons, which have seen the ensembles scale works by Bach, Scarlatti, Macmillan, Poulenc, Duruflé and Villette, and so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank both sets of singers and both committees for their work throughout such an excellent year.
We all look forward to welcoming you back for our respective 2025/26 seasons and I wish you and your families a very happy summer.
Dominic Brennan, June 2025
Chichester Psalms
I. Urah, hanevel, v’chinor!
II. Adonai ro-i, le ehsar
III. Adonai, Adonai, logavah libi
Treble - Malakai Bayoh
Percussion - Craig Apps
Harp - Natalie Lurie
Organ - George de Voil
INTERVAL
Ochre
I. Siderite
II. Limonite
III. Maghemite
IV. Magnetite
V. Hematite
VI. Vivianite
VII. Geothite
Percussion - Craig Apps
Programme
The Cantus Ensemble
Hampstead Chamber Choir Conductor: Dominic Brennan
Leonard Bernstein (1918 - 1990)
Caroline Shaw (b. 1982)
The Cantus Ensemble
Honarary patron: Sir James MacMillan
Founded in 2011, the Cantus Ensemble is one of London’s leading non-professional chamber choirs. We thrive on passionate, precise, and gripping performances of works - large and small - from across the choral spectrum. The choir’s membership is comprised of some of the capital’s finest amateur singers, with day jobs ranging from teaching and accounting to fine wine and television production.
Cantus separates itself from its peers not only by often tackling fiercely challenging contemporary repertoire, but in its approach to programming – often juxtaposing the ancient and modern together with distinct narrative threads and immersive staging. We also give emerging young soloists a platform, have commissioned several new pieces from living composers, and have given the world and UK premieres of numerous contemporary works.
Founded by Dominic Brennan in 2011 and recorded by the Decca label on Rebecca Dale’s debut album Requiem for my Mother / When Music Sounds, the choir has featured on radio; on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, Scala Radio; on TV on ITV’s Live at the Palladium and in worldwide ad campaigns for brands including Dassault Systèmes. We have developed an excellent relationship with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, whom we have now performed alongside in eight concerts at both the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall.
The choir has won admiration from composer Sir James MacMillan, now the choir’s honorary patron, conductor Nigel Short and choral luminaries such as Ghislaine Morgan and Will Todd.
More information on the choir’s upcoming concerts can be found at www.thecantusensembe.com
Singers
Sopranos
Fern Ashby
Harriet Caddick
Irene Carter
Anna Chapman
Abigail Ellison
Angela Waters
Altos
Margarethe Grupp
Grace Hewett
Alycia Jewes
Ellie McCowan
Sabrina Rodriguez
Eleanor Schranz
Emma Smellie
Tenors
Jamie Ellis
Tim Round
Chris Scholtens
Illias Thoms
www.thecantusensemble.com
Basses
Kevin Brau
Max Cockerill
Tristan Fanning
Tom Hansell
Jonathan McNaul
Daniel Trott
Singers
HAMPSTEAD CHAMBER CHOIR
For more than 40 years Hampstead Chamber Choir has offered varied, appealing and challenging programmes, performed to a high standard of musicianship in Hampstead venues. Our repertoire ranges from plainchant and a cappella polyphony, via classical and romantic masterworks, to contemporary music.
Recent performances include Durufle Requiem, Kodály Missa Brevis, Ola Gjeilo Sunrise Mass, Bach Magnificat and Langlais Messe Solennelle.
In 2019 we set up a scholarship scheme, thanks to generous funding from a charitable trust, which provides opportunities for young professional musicians to gain experience in choral and solo singing, whilst also providing valuable support to our singers in each voice part. Our current scholars are all taking part in tonight’s concert.
If you sing yourself and might be interested in joining Hampstead Chamber Choir, you can find all the details on our website: hampsteadchamberchoir.org. Or come and talk to us tonight! Follow us on Facebook for news and future events.
Singers
Sopranos
Helena Beddoe
Alexa Brummer
Ros Charles
Solrun Fluge Faull
Ros Franey
Elizabeth de Friend
Lesley Gould
Hannah Gruenbaum
Christina Harrison
Catherine Liddell
Olivia Muccio
Nicola Pittam
Alison Rooper
Aisling Sheehan
Katya Shipster
Cornelia Thomas
Liz Tucker
Altos
Jayne Barr
Nancy Biggs
Jennie Christian
Meg Fisher
Millie Hooper
Gwen Hughes
Lauren Hulstedt
Jessica Mackney
Liz Mills
Christine Muller
Alexandra Vainshtok
Celia Walser
Jane Williams
Tenors
Anne Kollar
Andrew Lobbenberg
Steve Muller
Andrew Tucker
Nick Walser
John Whitehead
Basses
Richard Harris
Greg Hodder
Pascal Johnstone
Drew Vincent
Soprano scholar: Beatrice Tinsley
Mezzo scholar: Lucy Anne Fletcher
Tenor scholar: Alex Ledsham
We are grateful for financial support from the Hampstead Church Music Trust 5 www.hampsteadchamberchoir.org
Dominic Brennan
Dominic Brennan graduated with an MA in Music from Durham University in 2010, having previously completed his BA (Hons) in the same subject. Dominic was a first study percussionist, studying percussion and timpani under Daniel Ellis and Markus Gruett. He studied conducting with Peter Stark.
Dominic founded the Cantus Ensemble in 2011 and, now in his fourteenth season as Director, has taken the choir on tour to sing at prominent venues around Europe, steadily building up a reputation for innovative programming, multi-sensory concert experiences & engaging outreach projects. Under Dominic the choir has evolved into London’s finest non-professional choir with a reputation for musical excellence.
Since 2014, Dominic has been the Director of Hampstead Chamber Choir, one of North London’s finest chamber choirs, and in that time has developed the ensemble into one which performs challenging repertorie and works with leading intstrumental groups. Under his guidance HCC began a scholarship scheme which supports emerging young singers.
When not holding a score, he can can be found with a glass of wine in hand as a member of the Fine Wine trade and Managing Director of Clos Fine WIne.
NATALIE
LURIE
Natalie Lurie is a London-based harpist whose classical career spans solo, orchestral, and chamber performance.
A former harp fellow with the London Philharmonia, she has performed at venues including Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, and Queen Elizabeth Hall, and has appeared with ensembles such as The Choir of King’s College, the Corinthian Chamber Orchestra, and the London Contemporary Music Festival Orchestra. Her orchestral experience includes playing under the baton of conductors Oliver Knussen and Leonard Slatkin, as well as training at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and Interlochen Arts Camp in the United States.
An advocate for chamber music, Natalie recently presented a recital at Burgh House featuring original arrangements for harp and cello. She is a graduate of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where she graduated with honours and won the harp concerto competition. While studying at Indiana, she was awarded a grant to study in France with Germaine Lorenzini. She later earned a Master’s with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music and has trained with leading harpists including Isabelle Moretti, Isabelle Perrin, Karen Vaughan, and Susann McDonald.
In addition to her performing career, Natalie also composes, and her original music has been featured on television. Dedicated to teaching, she co-founded the Hampstead Harp Centre, which offers ensemble opportunities for young harpists, and teaches at South Hampstead High School for Girls, Channing School, and Dragon School.
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CRAIG APPS
Craig Apps studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He plays with a range of ensembles specialising in contemporary and chamber music.
He regularly performs and recordings with London Contemporary Orchestra (Stranger Things, Deadpool, Matrix Resurrections, One Life, Cyrano, FOALS, Thom Yorke, Sigur Rós) and New Adventures (Romeo + Juliet, The Midnight Bell, The Car Man).
Other ensembles he has performed with include Riot Ensemble, 12 Ensemble, Sinfonia Viva, BBCCO, RNS, CBSO and West End/Touring theatre productions. Craig is also a company member of the Olivier Award winning ‘Showstopper! The Improvised Musical’.
GEORGE DE VOIL
George de Voil is a prizewinning Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, with a first class degree from Oxford University. In demand as an accompanist, on New Year’s Day in 2025 he broadcast on Radio 3 alongside the Rodolfus Choir, with music by Schubert, Haydn and David Briggs alongside a new commission by Roderick Williams. He has also been heard on Radio 4 and Classic FM, and given organ concerts in Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, as well as across the UK and Europe.
This year George marks a decade as Director of Music at St James’s, Sussex Gardens, in London, with its fine professional choir. Under his leadership, the distinguished musical tradition of this church has been revitalised, with an exciting concerts programme and a major rebuild by Mander Organs of the 1882 Hill instrument. George also maintains a busy conducting schedule, as Musical Director of Wokingham and Godalming Choral Societies, in succession to Edward Gardner, Paul Daniel, and Stephen Layton. Highlights of 2024-25 have included directing Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in Guildford Cathedral, Britten’s St Nicholas with the choir of St George’s School, Windsor Castle, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Charterhouse. In September, George takes up the post of Director of Music at The West London Free School.
The Music
A man of phenomenal and wide-ranging musical gifts, Leonard Bernstein is one of the great figures of twentieth-century American music. Following his time at Harvard University he entered the celebrated Curtis Institute in 1941 where a friend said, (apropos his outstanding talent), ‘Lenny is doomed to success’. It was a true prophecy in that Bernstein’s many-faceted career has inevitably restricted the number of works he has composed and it was, therefore, most fortunate that the Very Reverend Walter Hussey, Dean of Chichester, chose such a propitious time to approach the composer to write a work for the 1965 Chichester Festival. Bernstein had decided to take a sabbatical year, free from busy conducting schedules, to meditate on the current state of music and his own attitude towards it. This freedom also allowed him to take up whatever creative venture appealed to him.
The text of Chichester Psalms is in Hebrew and the work opens with a brilliant clarion call: ‘Awake, psaltery and harp: I will rouse the dawn’. Thus the party begins, with the most festive of settings of Psalm 100, better known to all mattins-goers as the Jubilate. The orchestration of organ, harp and percussion, the most frequently-discussed parley of instruments in the Psalms, is a stroke of genius. Unsurprisingly, the composer of West Side Story brings to the piece colourful word painting and vivid orchestration. Psalm 100 is set in an agitated and almost dance-like seven-four rhythm that contrasts fittingly with the opening of the second movement, a lyrical setting of Psalm 23 for upper voices and treble soloist. The treble solo is affectingly accompanied by the harp but when this attractive melody is taken up by the upper voices, it is interrupted
by fierce outbursts from the men’s choir: ‘Why do the nations rage?’ (Psalm 2). Although the sopranos and altos resume their pastoral melody and the disturbance moves into the background the disquiet remains in evidence even until the end.
The main theme, given memorably to the treble soloist (as ‘David’), actually originated in an unfinished musical, The Skin of our Teeth, and the central section’s outburst was unused material from West Side Story: recycling at its best.
The last movement continues the lyrical vein, being a setting of Psalm 131, a song of repose in the Lord. In the coda, which brings back the opening motifs of the piece, Bernstein makes absolutely plain his agenda with the words ‘Behold how good and how pleasant it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity.’ These pacifist sentiments surface in a number of other works by Bernstein, including the Kaddish Symphony and the Mass. In notes he made while writing the Mass, Bernstein wrote, ‘You scream for peace, you won’t get it that way…only peacefulness can engender peace’. The Chichester Psalms certainly echo this theme in their own way.
INTERVAL
As a composer, Caroline Shaw cut her teeth with Roomful of Teeth, the choral group she sings with and for which she composed her 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning Partita. It is of no surprise that the stylistic preferences she showed there still animate her writing. As she wrote in a program note, she often composes whole movements without text, and when she does turn to words to get meaning across, she often com-
The Music
piles fragments from several sources into a single movement.
Shaw’s choral works are fluid, melodic, and deeply emotional and expressive, and Ochre is gorgeous, although technically treacherous for the chorus. To take one example, the score requires a vocal glissando down through several chords that have to remain precisely tuned.
Ochre is a meditation on earth, the colours of earth, and our connection to it. The piece is inspired by Heidi Gustafson’s Dust to Dust: A Geology of Color. Shaw’s interest in science has appeared in a number of her compositions. In Ochre, earth tones provide connections to Alfred Tennyson’s “In Memoriam A.H.H.” (“The solid earth whereon we tread / in tracts of fluent heat began”), to Goethe’s “Wandrers Nachtlied” (Wanderer’s nightsong), and even to Josquin des Prez’s “Mille regretz” (A thousand regrets), alluding gently to human-driven climate change.
From the kaleidoscopic vocal sounds of the first movement, to the alarm bell accompaniment in the second movement and the rhythmic, driven third movement, accompanied by bass drum, the opening half of the work requires a multifaceted approach from both our choirs this evening.
The fourth movement begins with vocal fry and tightrope-esque vocal glissandi, giving way to a rock ’n’ roll fifth movement which is the formula for hematite (Fe203) and H20 for the hydrated version, with half the choir on the beat and the other half off, requiring masterful precision from every singer.
The last two movements are wistful, contemplative choral moments, with only the final movement giving us the first time we hear chords on the vibraphone which are accompanied by audible exhales. It is a great privilege to be able to give the European premiere of this work and I thank Caroline for allowing us to do so, continuing an ongoing working relationship with one of the finest living composers of choral music in the world.
From the composer:
I like to write music for voices without text, because it allows the voice to be a colourful instrument independent of language. And I like to combine different kinds of text, fragments from various eras and sources, to build a nuanced frame for thinking about a subject. Ochre lives more in vowels and timbres than in text, but I’ve woven in fragments of Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” (which frames human existence with metaphors of geologic time, iron ore, rock), as well as a partial setting of Goethe’s “Wanderers Nachtlied” in Longfellow’s translation. (Goethe was a geologist, and goethite — a common mineral in ochres — is named for him.) In general, there is both a mournful quality to this material, but also a sense of joy and wonder about the planet, and really about music and the voice.
The fifth movement contains the formula for the iron oxide compound hematite — Fe2O3 in its unhydrated form, resulting in red ochre — and Fe2O3 · H2O for the yellow ochre of hydrated hematite.
www.hampsteadchamberchoir.org
The Text
Chichester Psalms
I. Psalm 108:2 – Psalm 100, Urah, hanevel, v’chinor!
Urah, hanevel, v’chinor! A-irah shahar!
Hariu l’Adonai kol haarets. Iv’du et Adonai b’simcha.
Bo-u l’fanav bir’nanah. D’u ki Adonai Hu Elohim. Hu asanu, v’lo anahnu. Amo v’tson marito.
Bo-u sh’arav b’todah, Hatseirotav bit’hilah, Hodo lo, bar’ chu sh’mo. Ki tov Adonai, l’olam has, do, V’ad dor vador emunato.
Adonai ro-i, le ehsar.
Bin’ot desche yarbitseini, Al mei m’nuhot y’nahalini, Naf’ shi y’shovev, Van ’heini b’ma’ aglei tsedek, l’ma’ an sh’mo.
Gam ki eilech b’gei tsalmavet, Lo ira ra, ki Atah imadi.
Shiv’t’cha umishan’ techa hemah y’nahamuni.
Lama, rag’shu goyim ul’umim yeh’gu rik?
Yit’yats’vu malchei erets, V’roznim nos’du yahad Al Adonai v’al m’shilho. N’natkah et mos’roteimo, V’nashlichah mimenu avoteimo. Yoshev bashamayim yis’hak, Adonai yil’ag lamo!
Ta’aroch l’fanai shulchan neged tsor’rai
Dishanta vashemen roshi cosi r’vayah. Ach tov vahesed yird’ funi kol y’mei hayai
V’shav’ti b’veit Adonai l’orech yamim.
Awake, psaltery and harp! I will rouse the dawn! Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting,
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters, He restoreth my soul,
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.
Why do the nations rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His annointed, saying, let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, and the Lord shall have them in derision!
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, Thou annointost my head with oil, my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
II. Psalm 23:1-4 – Psalm 2:1-4 – Psalm 23:5-6 Adonai ro-i, lo ehsar
The Text
III. Psalm 131 – Psalm 133:1 Adonai, Adonai
Adonai, Adonai, logavah libi, V’lo ramu einai, v’lo hilachti Big’dolot uv’niflaot mimeni. Im lo shiviti v’domam’ti, Naf’shi k’gamul alei imo. Kagamul alai naf’shi.
Yahel Yis’rael el Adonai me’atah v’ad olam.
Hineh mah tov, umah nayim, Shevet ahim gam yahad.
I. Siderite
Wordless
II. Limonite
Overall quiet now hearest thou a breath
Lord, Lord, my heart is not haughty, Nor mine eyes lofty, neither do I exercise myself In great matters or in things too wonderful for me. Surely I have calmed and quieted myself, As a child that is weaned of his mother.
My soul is even as a weaned child.
Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and forever.
Behold how good, and how pleasant it is,
–fragments from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wandrers Nachtlied 2
The solid earth whereon we tread.
In tracts of the fluent heat began And grew to seeming random forms
The seeming prey of cyclic storms Till at last arose the man.
–Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam, Canto 118
III. Maghemite
Scarpèd cliff and quarried stone
–Tennyson, In Memoriam, Canto 56
IV. Magnetite
Wordless
V. Hematite
Mille regretz, que vous abandonner Et d’eslonger… Qu’on me verra [brief mes jours definer.]
My brief days…so soon
–fragment from a 15th-c. chansons att. to Josquin des Prez A thousand regrets at deserting you and leaving behind…
That it seems [soon my days will dwindle away.]
www.hampsteadchamberchoir.org
Ochre
The Text
VI. Vivianite
Contemplate all this work of Time,
As dying Nature’s earth and lime; Within oneself, from more to more;
Life is not as idle ore.
–Tennyson, In Memoriam, Canto 118
VII. Geothite hear hush still quiet sleep now you all wait soon
