26 Jan 13 - LPO programme notes

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI* Principal Guest Conductor YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN Leader pieter schoeman Composer in Residence JULIAN ANDERSON Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM

SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Saturday 26 January 2013 | 7.30pm

SIR MARK ELDER conductor SARAH CONNOLLY mezzo soprano paul groves tenor BRINDLEY SHERRATT bass london philharmonic choir choir of clare college, cambridge

elgar The Dream of Gerontius (95’) Please note there will be no interval.

* supported by the Tsukanov Family and one anonymous donor CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

PROGRAMME £3 CONTENTS 2 Welcome 3 Tonight’s work in context 4 About the Orchestra 6 On stage tonight 7 Sir Mark Elder 8 Sarah Connolly / Paul Groves 9 Brindley Sherratt /

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge 10 London Philharmonic Choir 11 Programme note and text 19 Supporters 20 LPO administration The timing shown is not precise and is given only as a guide.

Welcome

WELCOME TO SOUTHBANK CENTRE We hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance.

Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, YO! Sushi, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffè Vergnano 1882, Skylon, Concrete and Feng Sushi, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery.

If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact the Visitor Experience Team at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, phone 020 7960 4250, or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk We look forward to seeing you again soon.

A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment: PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium.

LATECOMERS will only be admitted to the auditorium if there is a suitable break in the performance.

RECORDING is not permitted in the auditorium without the prior consent of Southbank Centre.

Southbank Centre reserves the right to confiscate video or sound equipment and hold it in safekeeping until the performance has ended.

MOBILES, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before the performance begins.

Southbank Centre’s The Rest Is Noise, inspired by Alex Ross’s book The Rest Is Noise Presented by Southbank Centre in partnership with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. southbankcentre.co.uk/therestisnoise The Rest Is Noise is a year-long festival that digs deep into 20th-century history to reveal the influences on art in general and classical music in particular. Inspired by Alex Ross’s book The Rest Is Noise, we use film, debate, talks and a vast range of concerts to reveal the fascinating stories behind the century’s wonderful and often controversial music.

We have brought together the world’s finest orchestras and soloists to perform many of the most significant works of the 20th century. We reveal why these pieces were written and how they transformed the musical language of the modern world.

Over the year, The Rest Is Noise focuses on 12 different parts. The music is set in context with talks from a fascinating team of historians, scientists, philosophers, political theorists and musical experts as well as films, online content and other special programmes.

If you’re new to 20th-century music, then this is your time to start exploring with us as your tour guide. There has never been a festival like this.

Jude Kelly Artistic Director, Southbank Centre

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Tonight’s work in context

1850 1854 Britain and France declare war on Russia and the Crimean War begins 1857 Edward Elgar born in Lower Broadheath, outside Worcester, England

1860 1870

1859 Darwin’s On the Origin of Species published 1861–65 American Civil War

1869 Tolstoy’s War and Peace published. Suez Canal opens.

1874 Arnold Schoenberg born in Vienna 1876 Prototype telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell

1880

1880 Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov published. Elgar’s first trip abroad, to Paris 1882 Premiere of Wagner’s opera Parsifal in Bayreuth, Germany 1886 First sales of Coca-Cola in the USA, originally marketed as a patent medicinal remedy

1890

1889 Elgar marries his former piano pupil, Caroline (Alice) Roberts at Brompton Oratory

1897 Marconi awarded a patent for radio communication

1900 1910 1920

1899 Premiere of Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme (‘Enigma’) at St James’s Hall, London

1900 Premiere of The Dream of Gerontius in Birmingham 1901 Death of Queen Victoria 1908 Olympic Games open at White City, London 1910 1912 1913 1914

Death of King Edward VII Sinking of the RMS Titanic. Premiere of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire in Berlin.

Benjamin Britten born in Lowestoft, England Outbreak of World War I

1918 End of World War I. Women’s suffrage movement leads to the vote for women aged 30 and over in the UK 1922 Creation of the Soviet Union (USSR) 1925 Premiere of Berg’s opera Wozzeck in Berlin

1930 1940

1929 Wall Street Crash 1932 London Philharmonic Orchestra founded by Sir Thomas Beecham 1934 Death of Edward Elgar 1936 Death of King George V

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

The LPO were on exceptional form, and the performance had a real edge-of-yourseat excitement. The Guardian (29 September 2012, Royal Festival Hall: Rachmaninoff, Shchedrin, Denisov & Miaskovsky)

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK’s most adventurous and forward-looking orchestras. As well as giving classical concerts, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, has its own record label, and reaches thousands of Londoners every year through activities for schools and local communities.

The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, and since then its Principal Conductors have included Sir Adrian Boult, Sir John Pritchard, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur.

The current Principal Conductor is Vladimir Jurowski, appointed in 2007, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin is Principal Guest Conductor.

The Orchestra is Resident Orchestra at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has performed since it opened in 1951, giving around 40 concerts there each season. 2012/13 highlights include three concerts with Vladimir Jurowski based around

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

the theme of War and Peace in collaboration with the Russian National Orchestra; Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, also conducted by Jurowski; 20th-century American works with Marin Alsop; Haydn and Strauss with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and the UK premiere of Carl Vine’s Second Piano Concerto with pianist Piers Lane under Vassily Sinaisky. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra will collaborate with Southbank Centre on The Rest Is Noise festival, based on Alex Ross’s book of the same name and charting the 20th century’s key musical works and historical events.

The Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Every summer, the Orchestra leaves London for four months and takes up its annual residency accompanying the famous Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing concerts to sell-out audiences worldwide.

Tours in the 2012/13 season include visits to Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, the USA and Austria.

© Patrick Harrison

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vesselin Gellev

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded many blockbuster scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, East is East, Hugo, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now nearly 70 releases available on CD and to download.

Recent additions include Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 with Vladimir Jurowski; Brahms’s Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 with Klaus Tennstedt; a disc of orchestral works by Mark-Anthony Turnage; and the world premiere of the late Ravi Shankar’s First Symphony conducted by David Murphy.

In summer 2012 the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed as part of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, and was also chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra maintains an energetic programme of activities for young people and local communities. Highlights include the Deutsche Bank BrightSparks Series; the Leverhulme Young Composers project; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Over recent years, developments in technology and social networks have enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel, news blog, iPhone app and regular podcasts, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Find out more and get involved! lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra

© Fran Collin

leader

Vesselin Gellev was born in Bulgaria and has been a featured soloist with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

As violinist of the Antares Quartet, he won First Prize at the 2002 Concert Artists Guild competition in New York. As Concertmaster of Kristjan Järvi’s Absolute Ensemble, a Grammy-nominated, genre-blending ‘classical band’, he has recorded several CDs; appeared in venues such as the Sydney Opera House, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Vienna Konzerthaus; and collaborated with many world-renowned artists as diverse as Paquito D’Rivera, Goran Bregovic, L. Subramaniam and the late Joe Zawinul. He has also performed as Guest Leader with orchestras including the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

Vesselin received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School in New York and, prior to joining the LPO as Sub-Leader in 2007, held the position of Concertmaster with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Italy.

He has led the LPO in numerous concerts and several recordings for the Orchestra’s own record label, most recently on the Official Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant CD in 2012. An avid chamber musician, Vesselin also performs regularly in the LPO’s Chamber Contrasts series at Wigmore Hall.

Vesselin’s chair in the London Philharmonic Orchestra is supported by John and Angela Kessler.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

On stage tonight

First Violins Vesselin Gellev Leader Chair supported by John & Angela Kessler

Ilyoung Chae Chair supported by Moya Greene

Ji-Hyun Lee Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler

Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Tina Gruenberg Geoffrey Lynn Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Rebecca Shorrock Alina Petrenko Galina Tanney Peter Nall Ishani Bhoola Caroline Sharp Second Violins Matthew Scrivener Guest Principal Jeongmin Kim Joseph Maher Fiona Higham Ashley Stevens Marie-Anne Mairesse Nancy Elan Floortje Gerritsen Eugene Lee Helena Nicholls Imogen Williamson Sioni Williams Alison Strange Stephen Stewart

Violas Vicci Wardman Guest Principal Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Susanne Martens Michelle Bruil Naomi Holt Daniel Cornford Alistair Scahill Claudio Cavalletti Sarah Malcolm Cellos Alexander Somov Guest Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Jonathan Ayling Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Gregory Walmsley Santiago Carvalho†Elisabeth Wiklander Helen Rathbone Tae-Mi Song Sibylle Hentschel Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Richard Lewis Kenneth Knussen Helen Rowlands Catherine Ricketts Charlotte Kerbegian

Flutes Juliette Bausor Guest Principal Sue Thomas Chair supported by the Sharp Family

Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Nicholas Betts Co-Principal

Julia Crowell Piccolo Julia Crowell Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Angela Tennick Cor Anglais Sue Bohling Principal Chair supported by Julian & Gill Simmonds

Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Emily Meredith Bass Clarinet Paul Richards Principal Bassoons Bernardo Verde Guest Principal Gareth Newman* Contrabassoon Simon Estell Principal Horns John Ryan* Principal David Pyatt Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison

Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal David Whitehouse Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal Percussion Keith Millar Principal Jeremy Cornes Eddy Hackett Ignacio Molins Harps Rachel Masters* Principal Lucy Haslar Organ Catherine Edwards

* Holds a professorial appointment in London †Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Andrew Davenport David & Victoria Graham Fuller

6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Sir Mark Elder

© Simon Dodd

conductor

Sir Mark Elder has been Music Director of the Hallé since September 2000. He was Music Director of English National Opera from 1979–93, Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1992–95, and Music Director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in the USA from 1989–94. He has also held positions as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Mozart Players.

He has worked with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin and Munich Philharmonic orchestras; the London, Chicago and Boston symphony orchestras; the Orchestre de Paris; and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In the UK he enjoys close associations with both the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, of which he is a Principal Artist.

Sir Mark Elder has appeared annually at the BBC Proms in London for many years, including, in 1987 and 2006, the internationally televised Last Night of the Proms.

In 2012 he conducted four Proms, including the First Night, with the Hallé, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Aldeburgh World Orchestra.

Elder works regularly in the most prominent international opera houses including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; the Metropolitan Opera, New York; the Opéra National de Paris; the Lyric Opera of Chicago; and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Other guest engagements have taken him to the Bayreuth Festival (where he was the first English conductor to conduct a new production), Munich, Amsterdam, Zürich, Geneva, Berlin, and the Bregenz Festival.

During his years at ENO, Elder brought international acclaim to the company for its work in London, as well as leading tours to the USA (including the Met in New York) and Russia (including the Bolshoi in Moscow and the Mariinsky in St Petersburg).

Sir Mark Elder has made many recordings with orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as with English National Opera, in repertoire ranging from Verdi, Strauss and Wagner to contemporary music. In 2003 the Hallé launched its own CD label and releases have met with universal critical acclaim, culminating in Gramophone Awards for The Dream of Gerontius in 2009 and Götterdämmerung and Elgar’s Violin Concerto in 2010.

In collaboration with the director Barrie Gavin, Sir Mark Elder made a two-part film on the life and music of Verdi for BBC TV in 1994, which was followed by a similar project on Donizetti for German television in 1996.

In 2011 he co-presented the four-part BBC TV series ‘Symphony’, and in 2012 fronted BBC2’s series ‘Maestro at the Opera’.

Recent opera recordings include Donizetti’s Dom Sebastien, Imelda di Lambertazzi, Linda di Chamounix and most recently Maria di Rohan for Opera Rara, and Die Walküre with the Hallé. In April 2011 he took up the position of Artistic Director of Opera Rara, with whom he is planning several recording projects over the next few years.

Recent and forthcoming symphonic engagements include the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Russian National, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Budapest Festival, Gothenburg Symphony, Gürzenich and Australian Youth orchestras; the Britten Sinfonia; the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich; and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Sir Mark Elder was knighted in 2008, and was awarded the CBE in 1989. He won an Olivier Award in 1991 for his outstanding work at ENO, and in 2006 he was named Conductor of the Year by the Royal Philharmonic Society.

He was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2011.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

Paul Groves

mezzo soprano

tenor

© Peter Warren

Born in County Durham, mezzo soprano Sarah Connolly studied piano and singing at the Royal College of Music, of which she is now a Fellow. She was made a CBE in the 2010 New Year Honours List.

In opera, her appearances include Fricka in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre at Covent Garden; Purcell’s Dido at La Scala; Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos and Clairon in Capriccio at the Metropolitan Opera; Gluck’s Orfeo at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; the title role in Giulio Cesare and Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at the Glyndebourne Festival; Sesto in La clemenza di Tito at the Aix-en-Provence Festival; Phèdre in Hippolyte et Aricie at the Paris Opera; and Nerone in L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Maggio Musicale in Florence and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. She has also sung Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier for Scottish Opera; Komponist for Welsh National Opera; the title role in Maria Stuarda and Roméo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Opera North; and Octavian, Romeo, Sesto, Agrippina, Xerxes, Ariodante, Ruggiero, Alcina, the title role in The Rape of Lucretia and Didon in Les Troyens at English National Opera.

Her future engagements include the title role in a new production of Charpentier’s Medea at English National Opera; Phèdre in a new production of Hippolyte et Aricie at Glyndebourne Festival Opera; and returns to the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Her many concert engagements include appearances at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Salzburg, Tanglewood and Three Choirs festivals and at the BBC Proms where, in 2009, she was a memorable guest soloist at the Last Night. She has also appeared in recital at Wigmore Hall, the Cheltenham Festival and in New York’s Alice Tully Hall with Malcolm Martineau; at the Edinburgh Festival with John Horler; and at Wigmore Hall, the Oxford Lieder and Cheltenham festivals and in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall with Eugene Asti.

She has recorded prolifically and twice been nominated for a Grammy Award.

8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

© J Henry Fair

Sarah Connolly

American tenor Paul Groves enjoys an international career, performing on the stages of the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls. He made his debut at La Scala in 1995 as Tamino in The Magic Flute under Riccardo Muti, and has returned in several roles including Renaud in Gluck’s Armide and Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore – the first American tenor invited to La Scala for this role.

Audiences in Paris have seen him often since his debut in 1996, when he appeared as Tom Rakewell at the Théâtre du Châtelet in a new Sellers/Salonen production of The Rake’s Progress. He has returned to the Châtelet as Admète in Alceste, led by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and as Bénédict in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict.

Paul Groves made his debut with the Opéra de Paris as Fenton in a new production of Falstaff, later returning for performances as Tamino; Berlioz’s Faust; Nemorino; Julian in a new production of Charpentier’s Louise; and his role debut as Mozart’s Idomeneo. The role of Tamino was also the vehicle for his debut at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He has since returned to perform the role of Pylade in Iphigénie en Tauride opposite Simon Keenlyside and Susan Graham.

Groves appeared at the 2011 BBC Proms in a performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis, followed by tours to other European capitals and Avery Fisher Hall in New York. He then appeared in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing with Charles Dutoit, followed by his debut as Albert Gregor in Janáček’s The Makropulos Case with Oper Frankfurt.

As well as two appearances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, other concert performances this season include performances of Berlioz’s Te Deum with the San Francisco Symphony. Operatic appearances this season include performances of Don Giovanni at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Teatro Real in Madrid.

Brindley Sherratt bass

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge

© Sussie Ahlberg

Born in Lancashire, Brindley Sherratt studied at the Royal Academy of Music.

At the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, his roles have included Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Sparafucile (Rigoletto), Narbal (Les Troyens) and Ramfis (Aida). In Salzburg he has sung Balducci (Benvenuto Cellini) with Valery Gergiev, Hobson (Peter Grimes) with Sir Simon Rattle, and Bartolo (The Marriage of Figaro) on tour to Japan. At Glyndebourne Festival Opera he has appeared as Rocco (Fidelio) and Il Commendatore (Don Giovanni). A regular at English National Opera, his roles there have included Sarastro (The Magic Flute), Pimen (Boris Godunov) and Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra).

Other operatic engagements include Il Commendatore in Santa Fe; Pimen for the Opéra de Nice; Rocco in Seville; Sarastro at the Hamburg State Opera and Netherlands Opera; Banco (Macbeth) for the Opéra de Bordeaux; Pogner (Die Meistersinger von Nürnburg) for Welsh National Opera; and Fasolt (Das Rheingold) and Filippo (Don Carlo) for Opera North.

Future plans include Sarastro at Covent Garden and in a new production at the Vienna State Opera; Claggart (Billy Budd) at Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Créon in a new production of Charpentier’s Medea at English National Opera; Pimen at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; and his debuts at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera, New York.

In concert he has sung at the BBC Proms and at the Bregenz, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Salzburg and Three Choirs festivals, and his engagements include appearances with the Swedish Radio Orchestra and Daniel Harding; the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Harry Bicket; the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and John Nelson; the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and Antonio Pappano; the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin; the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Louis Langrée; the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder; and the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Sir Andrew Davis.

Sopranos: Rachael Darlison, Janneke Dupre, Gabrielle Haigh, Alice Halstead, Sophie Horrocks, Helen Lilley, Caroline Meinhardt, Madeleine Seale Altos: Clara Betts-Dean, Abigail Gostick, Emma Simmons, Eva Smith-Leggatt, Eleanor Warner Tenors: Laurence Booth-Clibborn, Nils Greenhow, Peter Harrison, Christopher Loyn, Alexander Peter Basses: Adam Cigman-Mark, William Cole, Elliot Fitzgerald, Matthew Jorysz, Charles Littlewood, Alexander McBride, Magnus Maharg, Hugo Popplewell, James Proctor

Since the founding of a mixed voice choir in 1971, the Choir of Clare College has gained an international reputation as one of the leading university choral groups in the world. In addition to its primary function of leading services three times a week in the College chapel, the choir keeps an active schedule recording, broadcasting and performing throughout the UK and the world. The choir has been fortunate to have had four very fine directors: Peter Dennison; John Rutter; Timothy Brown and, since 2010, Graham Ross.

The choir has toured widely including in Europe, the USA, Japan, China, Russia and the Middle East. In 2000 it became the first Oxbridge mixed choir to perform at the BBC Proms, singing Bach’s St John Passion.

In addition to live performances, the choir has produced an impressive catalogue of recordings. Recent releases include Imogen Holst’s Choral Works, hailed

by Gramophone as ‘thrilling ... A tribute to the superb ensemble singing of the Choir of Clare College under Graham Ross’. The Choir has also recorded two more discs for Harmonia Mundi to be released in 2013/14.

The Choir has also regularly contributed to the Choral Evensong broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, alongside regular appearances on In Tune.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

London Philharmonic Choir Patron HRH Princess Alexandra | President Sir Roger Norrington | Artistic Director Neville Creed Accompanist Jonathan Beatty | Chairman Mary Moore | Choir Manager Kevin Darnell

Founded in 1947, the London Philharmonic Choir is widely regarded as one of Britain’s finest choirs, consistently meeting with great critical acclaim. It has performed under leading international conductors throughout the last 65 years and made numerous recordings for CD, radio and television.

Enjoying a close relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Choir frequently joins it for concerts in the UK and abroad. In 2011/12, engagements included Scriabin’s Prometheus, Poem of Fire, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Prokofiev’s Ivan the Terrible, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3, Zemlinsky’s Psalm 23, Delius’s Sea Drift and Suk’s Ripening. This season, concerts with the LPO have included Rachmaninoff’s The Bells, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem. Future engagements include Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Tippett’s A Child of our Time. Recently released CDs with the London Philharmonic Orchestra include Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with Yannick NézetSéguin, Holst’s The Planets and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 under Vladimir Jurowski, and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Christoph Eschenbach.

Sopranos Annette Argent, Tessa Bartley, Laura Buntine, Gemma Chance, Esther Chiang, Alana Clark, Sally Cottam, Sheila Cox, Lucy Doig, Sally Donegani, Philippa Drinkwater, Rosha Fitzhowle, Alison Flood, Rachel Gibbon, Jane Hanson, Francesca Harris, Sally Harrison, Elizabeth Hicks, Laura Hunt, Georgina Kaim, Mai Kikkawa, Jenni Kilvert, Judith Kistner, Olivia Knibbs, Katelyn Krajenka, Frances Lake, Natasha Maslava, Janey Maxwell, Marj McDaid, Sophie Mearing-Smith, Katie Milton, Eileen Morgan, Megan Oldmeadow, Linda Park, Lydia Pearson, Diana Richards, Stacy Sauppe, Rebecca Schendel, Victoria Smith, Louisa Sullivan, Tracey Szwagrzak, Susan Thomas, Agnes Tisza, Jenny Torniainen, Susan Watts, Rebecca Wilson Altos Jenny Adam, Joanna Arnold, Deirdre Ashton, Phye Bell, Sally Brien, Isabelle Cheetham, Noel Chow, Yvonne Cohen, Liz Cole, Alice Conway, Margaret Driver, Moira Duckworth, Fiona Duffy-Farrell, Carmel Edmonds, Regina Frank, Henrietta Hammonds, Sophy Holland, Marjana Jovanovic Morrison, Charlotte Kingston, Claire Lawrence, Lisa MacDonald, Mary Moore,

10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

The Choir appears regularly at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, and performances have included the UK premieres of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s A Relic of Memory and Goldie’s Sine Tempore in the Evolution!

Prom. The Choir performed at the Doctor Who Proms in 2008 and 2010, and in 2011 appeared in Verdi’s Requiem, Liszt’s A Faust Symphony and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. Last year it performed Elgar’s The Apostles with Sir Mark Elder and Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi under Martyn Brabbins.

The Choir has visited numerous European countries and performed in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Perth, Australia. The Choir also works with other leading orchestras, and last June joined forces with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus to perform Berlioz’s Grande Messe des Morts with Sir Colin Davis at St Paul’s Cathedral. The Choir also sings in Raymond Gubbay’s Classical Spectacular and Christmas concerts, and has appeared in gala concerts with Russell Watson and Katherine Jenkins.

The Choir prides itself on achieving first-class performances from its members, who are volunteers from all walks of life. For more information, including details about how to join, please visit www.lpc.org.uk Rachel Murray, Linnea Olsson, Angela Pascoe, Sheila Rowland, Carolyn Saunders, Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg, Mayuko Tanno, Susi Underwood, Libby Vannet Tenors Scott Addison, Geir Andreassen, Nick Arratoon, Chris Beynon, Lorne Cuthbert, Kevin Darnell, Michael Delany, Aloysius Fekete, Oliver Firth, Fred Fisher, Colin Fleming, Iain Handyside, Stephen Hodges, Geoff Hodgkins, Jesse Hollister, Rob Home, Patrick Hughes, Andrew Mackie, Owen Toller, Brad Warburton, Tony Wren Basses Jonathon Bird, Gordon Buky-Webster, Adam Bunzl, Geoff Clare, David Clark, Bill Cumber, Phillip Dangerfield, Marcus Daniels, Benjamin Fingerhut, Ian Frost, Paul Gittens, John Graham, Nigel Grieve, Mark Hillier, Stephen Hines, Rylan Holey, Yaron Hollander, Martin Hudson, John Luff, Richard Miller, John G Morris, John D Morris, Ashley Morrison, Robert Northcott, Will Parsons, Johan Pieters, Tony Piper, David Regan, Fraser Riddell, John Salmon, Daniel Snowman, Peter Sollich, Peter Taylor, Alex Thomas, James Torniainen, Matthew Ward, James Wilson, Hin-Yan Wong, John Wood

Programme note

Edward Elgar (1857–1934) The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38 Angel Gerontius / Soul of Gerontius Priest / Angel of the Agony Assistants, Demons, Angelicals and Souls

Sarah Connolly (mezzo soprano) Paul Groves (tenor) Brindley Sherratt (bass) London Philharmonic Choir & Choir of Clare College, Cambridge

The Dream of Gerontius is one of the most imaginative choral works in the repertoire. It charts a soul’s final moments on earth and the long journey to paradise, which Elgar describes in decidedly dramatic terms.

Testament to Elgar’s own faith, The Dream of Gerontius equally ponders fundamental questions confronting people as they left behind the Victorian era and gazed into the 20th century.

For all the high incensed faith of Elgar’s religious masterpiece, the composer came from humble but musical stock. Elgar’s father William established a piano tuning business and a music shop in Worcester.

He and his wife lived just outside the cathedral city in Broadheath, on the way to Malvern, and it was there that their fourth child Edward was born in 1857. The Elgars moved into the city shortly thereafter and the young composer was brought up over the shop. With the cathedral nearby, as well as the Catholic parish church of St George’s (where Elgar’s father played the organ and his mother was a parishioner), Elgar was immersed in religion and music from a young age.

Responding to local demand, Elgar focussed much of his energy during the 1890s on creating choral works.

In 1893, he finished The Black Knight, which the Worcester Festival Choral Society performed later that year. He followed this success with the 1896 premiere of The Light of Life (Lux Christi) at the Worcester Three Choirs Festival, as well as the first performance of Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf in Hanley that year.

The latter was also performed at the Crystal Palace, the site of the first performance of Elgar’s Imperial March, which marked the beginning of his long and lucrative association with patriotic music. The success of these and other works led Queen Victoria to accept Elgar’s dedication of his cantata Caractacus, which he conducted at the Leeds Festival in 1898.

During this time the idea for The Dream of Gerontius emerged. Such a bold statement of Catholic faith in a still fervently Protestant society was a daring choice for a composer just entering the public eye. But Elgar was resolute. The author of the original poem, John Henry Newman, had begun life in the Anglican Church, but he eventually entered the Church of Rome. Wavering between initial distrust of idolatry and an admiration for the Church’s rigour and ritual, Newman was accepted into the faith in 1845 and founded the first oratory in the English-speaking world in Birmingham in 1848.

The road to conversion had been difficult for Newman and he often wrote of its conflicts. But even after becoming a member of the Catholic Church, he remained a prolific writer and completed his epic poem The Dream of Gerontius in 1865. Conceived in a high language, which even his most ardent supporters found difficult to palate, Newman’s vision of a soul passing into the afterlife remains one of the most passionate demonstrations of faith in poetry. In a period dominated by philosophical pessimism and socio-political instability, Newman’s faith offered its readers a hopeful alternative.

Elgar’s setting is no less subjective. Coming after his wholly English cantatas and patriotic marches, The Dream of Gerontius is much more mysterious.

Alongside its homophonic purgatorial hymns, appears the melancholic, lingering lyricism of the Soul and his Angel. Their plangent passages together recall the yearning chromaticism of Wagner’s Parsifal (1882).

Bringing these strands together, Elgar created a work that bridged native oratorio traditions and the world of European modernism. Despite a substandard premiere in Birmingham in 1900, The Dream of Gerontius was triumphant in Germany, after which Strauss described Elgar as ‘the first English progressive musician’.

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Programme note and text

Part I The Dream of Gerontius opens with a grave prelude.

Violas introduce a hushed theme (reminiscent of the plainsong ‘Dies irae’), which then reveals a shifting soundscape, winging through time. The prelude rises to a terrifying climax, with thundering drums and organ underpinning particularly thick orchestral textures.

That aggression abates and we find Gerontius – the eponymous soul – on his deathbed. His prayers are passionate but resigned, and Elgar follows his every beat and breath with surging emotion. The attendant chorus sings ‘Kyrie eleison’ followed by prayers to Mary.

Gerontius is agitated; death is imminent. Huge arpeggios sweep through the orchestra, reinforced by a rumble of timpani, organ and the steady tread of the lower strings. The chorus’s mantra, ‘be merciful’, grows to a bold unison, to which Gerontius responds with a

Gerontius Jesu, Maria – I am near to death, And Thou art calling me: I know it now.

Not by the token of this faltering breath, This chill at heart, this dampness on my brow, – (Jesu have mercy! Mary, pray for me!)

‘Tis this new feeling, never felt before, (Be with me, Lord, in my extremity!)

That I am going, that I am no more.

‘Tis this strange innermost abandonment, (Lover of souls! great God! I look to Thee), This emptying out of each constituent And natural force, by which I come to be.

Pray for me, O my friends; a visitant Is knocking his dire summons at my door, The like of whom, to scare me and to daunt, Has never, never come to me before; So pray for me, my friends, who have not strength to pray.

Assistants Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison.

Holy Mary, pray for him.

All holy Angels, pray for him.

Choirs of the righteous, pray for him.

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swooning ‘Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus’. Although he states ‘Firmly I believe and truly’, the ever-changing textures leave doubt in our minds. Insistent fanfares introduce the impending journey, while a more chilling note sounds at Gerontius’s ‘masterful negation and collapse of all that makes me man’. Against this we hear a pre-echo of the Demons’ music from Part II, before the chorus pleads once more for Gerontius’s rescue.

An organ and chanted psalms can be heard as if in the distance (evoking Elgar’s own liturgical musical past).

Themes from the prelude return and Gerontius dies, prayed for by a sombre Priest. As Elgar moves into D major (the overriding tonic of the work), the Priest bids farewell. A chorus shouts ‘Go in the name of Angels and Archangels’ and points Gerontius on his way. The journey into the afterlife has begun.

All Apostles, all Evangelists, pray for him.

All holy Disciples of the Lord, pray for him.

All holy Innocents, pray for him.

All holy Martyrs, all holy Confessors, All holy Hermits, all holy Virgins, All ye Saints of God, pray for him.

Gerontius Rouse thee, my fainting soul, and play the man; And through each waning span Of life and thought as still has to be trod, Prepare to meet thy God. And while the storm of that bewilderment Is for a season spent, And ere afresh the ruin on me fall, Use well the interval.

Assistants Be merciful, be gracious; spare him, Lord.

Be merciful, be gracious; Lord, deliver him.

From the sins that are past; From Thy frown and Thine ire; From the perils of dying; From any complying With sin, or denying His God, or relying

On self, at the last; From the nethermost fire; From all that is evil; From power of the devil; Thy servant deliver, For once and for ever.

By Thy birth, and by Thy Cross, Rescue him from endless loss;

By Thy death and burial, Save him from a final fall;

By Thy rising from the tomb,

By Thy mounting up above, By the Spirit’s gracious love, Save him in the day of doom.

Gerontius Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus, De profundis oro te, Miserere, Judex meus, Parce mihi, Domine.

Firmly I believe and truly God is Three, and God is One; And I next acknowledge duly Manhood taken by the Son. And I trust and hope most fully In that Manhood crucified; And each thought and deed unruly Do to death, as He has died.

Simply to His grace and wholly Light and life and strength belong.

And I love, supremely, solely, Him the holy, Him the strong.

Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus, De profundis oro te, Miserere, Judex meus, Parce mihi, Domine.

And I hold in veneration, For the love of Him alone, Holy Church, as His creation, And her teachings, as His own.

And I take with joy whatever Now besets me, pain or fear, And with a strong will I sever All the ties which bind me here.

Adoration aye be given, With and through the angelic host, To the God of earth and heaven, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,

De profundis, oro te, Miserere, Judex meus, Mortis in discrimine.

I can no more; for now it comes again, That sense of ruin, which is worse than pain, That masterful negation and collapse Of all that makes me man ... ... And, crueller still, A fierce and restless fright begins to fill The mansion of my soul. And, worse and worse, Some bodily form of ill Floats on the wind, with many a loathsome curse Tainting the hallowed air, and laughs, and flaps Its hideous wings And makes me wild with horror and dismay.

O Jesu, help! pray for me, Mary, pray!

Some Angel, Jesu! such as came to Thee In Thine own agony ...

Mary, pray for me. Joseph, pray for me.

Mary, pray for me.

Assistants Rescue him, O Lord, in this his evil hour, As of old, so many by Thy gracious power – Noe from the waters in a saving home; (Amen) Job from all his multi-form and fell distress; (Amen) Moses from the land of bondage and despair; (Amen) David from Golia and the wrath of Saul; (Amen) – So, to show Thy power, Rescue this Thy servant in his evil hour.

Gerontius Novissima hora est; and I fain would sleep, The pain has wearied me ... Into Thy hands, O Lord, into Thy hands ...

The Priest and Assistants Proficiscere, anima Christiana, de hoc mundo!

Go forth upon thy journey, Christian soul!

Go from this world! Go, in the name of God The Omnipotent Father, who created thee!

Go, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Son of the living God, who bled for thee!

Go, in the name of the Holy Spirit, Who Hath been poured out on thee!

Go in the name Of Angels and Archangels; in the name Of Thrones and Dominations; in the name Of Princedoms and of Powers; and in the name Of Cherubim and Seraphim, go forth!

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Programme note and text

Go, in the name of Patriarchs and Prophets; And of Apostles and Evangelists, Of Martyrs and Confessors, in the name Of holy Monks and Hermits; in the name Of holy Virgins; and all Saints of God, Both men and women, go! Go on thy course; And may thy place today be found in peace, And may thy dwelling be the Holy Mount Of Sion: – through the Same, through Christ our Lord.

Part II Rather than a seraphic haven, Part II begins in another uncertain world. The Soul of Gerontius tells us of his freedom, before an Angel appears (a luscious mezzo soprano), blessing him with ‘Alleluias’. The Soul is amazed by his new guardian presence. But more demonic scenes await. ‘A fierce hubbub’ (first heard during Gerontius’s death scene) whips through the orchestra as the Angel and the Soul meet the Demons of the Judgement Hall.

With a ferocity more akin to Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring, composed some 13 years later, Elgar unleashes the Demons’ malevolent chorus. They describe the heavenly world they used to inhabit before the fall, told in a violent double fugue (‘Dispossessed, Aside thrust, Chuck’d down’). After the hushed fervour of Gerontius’s farewell and the music of his beneficent Angel, this contemptible group appears all the more shocking.

Mocked and scorned, Gerontius is taken away, but his wish to see his creator elicits a stern warning from the Angel. The sight of God has its own terrors.

Before he has a chance to digest the Angel’s prophecy, the Soul is ‘with extremest speed […] hurrying to the Just and Holy Judge.’ Harp and crossing strings push him towards that awesome goal. Chants of ‘Praise to the Holiest’, heard against ever-shifting tonalities, brew in the choir as the Angel and the Soul pass into the House of Judgement. The Soul remarks that ‘the sound is like the rushing of the wind’ and Elgar responds with an exhilarating surge. Having asked to see God, spirits warn of the agony that lies ahead. ‘I have no fear’, says the Soul, and Elgar conjures ‘a grand mysterious harmony’.

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The Angel and her charge cross the threshold and are greeted by a breathtaking shout in C major. The hymn ‘Praise to the Holiest’ continues triumphantly boosting the Soul’s confidence.

Yet as soon as that glorious song has ended, a brass growl suggests the terrifying vision ahead. The Soul hears prayers on earth, but they are cut short by the appearance of the Angel of the Agony. His music recalls the Priest who tended Gerontius’s bedside, but his warnings are yet more severe. The chorus restates its plea of ‘be merciful’ before the guardian Angel takes the Soul to see God. Elgar was initially going to leave out this crucial moment in the story, but his friend Augustus Jaeger persuaded him to continue. As with the Demons’ chorus, Elgar’s imagination was clearly fired by Newman’s description, and his instruction for the orchestra to play with all its might unleashes a truly terrifying explosion.

The Soul is horrified and asks the Angel to take him away. His faith has been confirmed, but his journey will continue for a great time yet and the Angel sings a radiant lullaby (‘Softly and gently’), accompanied by the chorus’s psalms. Having described God through an atonal point of crisis within the score, Elgar brings us back to the home key of D major. The chorus and the Angel place the Soul on the purgatorial lake. A chromatic strand works its way through the texture, as the Soul drifts quietly over the lake.

Programme note © Gavin Plumley

Soul of Gerontius I went to sleep; and now I am refreshed.

A strange refreshment: for I feel in me An inexpressive lightness, and a sense Of freedom, as I were at length myself, And ne’er had been before. How still it is!

I hear no more the busy beat of time, No, nor my fluttering breath, nor struggling pulse; Nor does one moment differ from the next.

This silence pours a solitariness Into the very essence of my soul; And the deep rest, so soothing and so sweet, Hath something too of sternness and of pain.

Another marvel: someone has me fast Within his ample palm; ... ... A uniform And gentle pressure tells me I am not Self moving, but borne forward on my way.

And hark! I hear a singing; yet in sooth I cannot of that music rightly say Whether I hear, or touch, or taste the tones.

Oh, what a heart-subduing melody!

Angel My work is done, My task is o’er, And so I come, Taking it home, For the crown is won, Alleluia, For evermore.

My Father gave In charge to me This child of earth E’en from its birth, To serve and save, Alleluia, And saved is he.

Millions of ages back, have stood around The throne of God. I will address him. Mighty one, my Lord, My Guardian Spirit, all hail!

Angel All hail!

My child and brother, hail! what wouldest thou?

Soul I would have nothing but to speak with thee For speaking’s sake. I wish to hold with thee Conscious communion; though I fain would know A maze of things, were it but meet to ask, And not a curiousness.

Angel You cannot now Cherish a wish which ought not to be wished.

Soul Then I will speak: I ever had believed That on the moment when the struggling soul Quitted its mortal case, forthwith it fell Under the awful Presence of its God, There to be judged and sent to its own place.

What lets me now from going to my Lord?

Angel Thou art not let; but with extremest speed Art hurrying to the Just and Holy Judge.

Soul Dear Angel, say, Why have I now no fear of meeting Him? Along my earthly life, the thought of death And judgement was to me most terrible.

This child of clay To me was given, To rear and train By sorrow and pain In the narrow way, Alleluia, From earth to heaven.

Angel It is because Then thou didst fear; that now thou dost not fear.

Thou hast forestalled the agony, and so For thee bitterness of death is passed.

Also, because already in thy soul The judgement is begun.

A presage falls upon thee, as a ray Straight from the Judge, expressive of thy lot.

That calm and joy uprising in thy soul Is first-fruit to thee of thy recompense, And heaven begun.

Soul It is a member of that family Of wond’rous beings, who, ere the world were made,

Soul Now that the hour is come, my fear is fled; And at this balance of my destiny, London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

Programme note and text

Now close upon me, I can forward look With a serenest joy.

But hark! upon my sense Comes a fierce hubbub, which would make me fear Could I be frighted.

Angel We are now arrived Close on the judgement-court; that sullen howl Is from the demons who assemble there, Hungry and wild, to claim their property, And gather souls for hell. Hist to their cry!

Soul How sour and how uncouth a dissonance!

Demons Low born clods Of brute earth, They aspire To become gods, By a new birth, And an extra grace, And a score of merits, As if aught Could stand in place Of the high thought, And the glance of fire Of the great spirits, The powers blest; The lords by right, The primal owners Of the proud dwelling And realm of light – Dispossessed, Aside thrust, Chucked down, By the sheer might Of a despot’s will, Of a tyrant’s frown, Who after expelling Their hosts, gave, Triumphant still, And still unjust, Each forfeit crown To psalm-droners, And canting groaners, To every slave, And pious cheat, And crawling knave,

16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Who licked the dust Under his feet.

Angel It is the restless panting of their being; Like beasts of prey, who, caged within their bars, In a deep hideous purring have their life, And an incessant pacing to and fro.

Demons The mind bold And independent, The purpose free, So we are told, Must not think To have the ascendant.

What’s a saint?

One whose breath Doth the air taint Before his death; Ha! Ha! A bundle of bones, Which fools adore, When life is o’er.

Ha! Ha! Virtue and vice, A knave’s pretence.

‘Tis all the same, Ha! Ha! Dread of hell-fire, Of the venomous flame, Ha! Ha! A coward’s plea.

Give him his price, Saint though he be, From shrewd good sense He’ll slave for hire, Ha! Ha! And does but aspire To the heaven above With sordid aim, And not from love.

Ha! Ha! Soul I see not those false spirits; shall I see My dearest Master, when I reach His throne?

Angel Yes – for one moment thou shalt see thy Lord, One moment; but thou knowest not, my child,

What thou dost ask; that sight of the Most Fair Will gladden thee, but it will pierce thee too.

Soul Thou speakest darkly, Angel! and an awe Falls on me, and a fear lest I be rash.

Angel There was a mortal, who is now above In the mid-glory: he, when near to die, Was given communion with the Crucified – Such that the Master’s very wounds were stamped Upon his flesh; and, from the agony Which thrilled through body and soul in that embrace, Learn that the flame of the Everlasting Love Doth burn ere it transform ...

Choir of Angelicals Praise to the Holiest in the height, And in the depth be praise: Angel Hark to those sounds!

They come of tender beings angelical, Least and most childlike of the sons of God. Choir of Angelicals Praise to the Holiest in the height, And in the depth be praise; In all His words most wonderful; Most sure in all His ways!

To us His elder race He gave To battle and to win, Without the chastisement of pain, Without the soil of sin.

The younger son He willed to be A marvel in His birth: Spirit and flesh His parents were; His home was heaven and earth.

The eternal blessed His child, and armed, And sent Him hence afar, To serve as champion in the field Of elemental war.

To be His Viceroy in the world Of matter, and of sense; Upon the frontier, towards the foe, A resolute defence.

Angel We now have passed the gate, and are within The House of Judgement ...

Soul The sound is like the rushing of the wind – The summer wind – among the lofty pines.

Choir of Angelicals Glory to Him, who evermore By truth and justice reigns; Who tears the soul from out its case, And burns away its stains!

Angel They sing of thy approaching agony, Which thou so eagerly didst question of.

Soul My soul is in my hand: I have no fear – But hark! a grand mysterious harmony: It floods me, like the deep and solemn sound Of many waters.

Angel And now the threshold, as we traverse it, Utters aloud its glad responsive chant.

Choir of Angelicals Praise to the Holiest in the height, And in the depth be praise: In all His words most wonderful; Most sure in all His ways!

O loving wisdom of our God! When all was sin and shame, A second Adam to the fight And to the rescue came.

O Wisest love! that flesh and blood Which did in Adam fail, Should strive afresh against the foe, Should strive and should prevail.

And that a higher gift than grace Should flesh and blood refine, God’s Presence and His very Self, And Essence all divine.

O generous love! that He who smote In man for man the foe, The double agony in man For man should undergo; And in the garden secretly, And on the cross on high, Should teach His brethren and inspire To suffer and to die.

Praise to the Holiest in the height, And in the depth be praise:

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Programme note and text

In all His words most wonderful, Most sure in all His ways!

Angel Thy judgement now is near, for we are come Into the veiled presence of our God. Soul I hear the voices that I left on earth.

Angel It is the voice of friends around thy bed, Who say the ‘Subvenite’ with the priest.

Hither the echoes come; before the Throne Stands the great Angel of the Agony, The same who strengthened Him, what time He knelt Lone in the garden shade; bedewed with blood.

That Angel best can plead with Him for all Tormented souls, the dying and the dead.

Angel of the Agony Jesu! by that shuddering dread which fell on Thee; Jesu! by that cold dismay which sickened Thee; Jesu! by that pang of heart which thrilled in Thee; Jesu! by that mount of sins which crippled Thee; Jesu! by that sense of guilt which stifled Thee; Jesu! by that innocence which girdled Thee; Jesu! by that sanctity which reigned in Thee; Jesu! by that Godhead which was one with Thee; Jesu! spare these souls which are so dear to Thee; Souls, who in prison, calm and patient, wait for Thee; Hasten, Lord, their hour, and bid them come to Thee, To that glorious Home, where they shall ever gaze on Thee.

Jesu! spare these souls which are so dear to Thee.

Soul I go before my Judge ...

Voices on Earth Be merciful, be gracious; spare him, Lord Be merciful, be gracious; Lord, deliver him.

Angel ... Praise to His Name!

O happy, suffering soul! for it is safe, Consumed, yet quickened, by the glance of God. Alleluia! Praise to His Name.

Soul Take me away, and in the lowest deep There let me be, And there in hope the lone night-watches keep, 18 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Told out for me.

There, motionless and happy in my pain, Lone, not forlorn – There will I sing my sad perpetual strain, Until the morn, There will I sing, and soothe my stricken breast, Which ne’er can cease To throb, and pine, and languish, till possessed Of its Sole Peace.

There will I sing my absent Lord and Love: Take me away, That sooner I may rise, and go above, And see Him in the truth of everlasting day.

Take me away, and in the lowest deep There let me be.

Souls in Purgatory Lord, Thou hast been our refuge: in every generation; Before the hills were born, and the world was: from age to age Thou art God. Angel Softly and gently, dearly-ransomed soul, In my most loving arms I now enfold thee, And o’er the penal waters, as they roll, I poise thee, and I lower thee, and hold thee.

And carefully I dip thee in the lake, And thou, without a sob or a resistance, Dost through the flood thy rapid passage take, Sinking deep, deeper, into the dim distance.

Angels, to whom the willing task is given, Shall tend, and nurse, and lull thee, as thou liest; And Masses on the earth, and prayers in heaven, Shall aid thee at the Throne of the Most Highest.

Farewell, but not for ever! brother dear, Be brave and patient on thy bed of sorrow; Swiftly shall pass thy night of trial here, And I will come and wake thee on the morrow.

Farewell! Farewell!

Souls Lord, Thou hast been our refuge: in every generation; Come back, O Lord! how long: and be entreated for Thy servants.

Bring us not, Lord, very low: for Thou hast said, Come back again, ye sons of Adam. Amen.

Choir of Angelicals Praise to the Holiest, Amen.

Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801–90)

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