BACH: MASS IN B MINOR
Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner
Choir & Orchestras
Choir & Orchestras
BACH: MASS IN B MINOR
Thursday 6 April 2023, 7.30pm
Sage Gateshead, Gateshead, UK
Saturday 8 April 2023, 7.00pm
Chapelle Royale, Château de Versailles, France
Tuesday 11 April 2023, 8.00pm
Palau de la Música, Barcelona, Spain
Thursday 13 April 2023, 8.00pm
Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany
Saturday 15 April 2023, 8.00pm
Bozar, Brussels, Belgium
Monday 17 April 2023, 8.00pm
Philharmonie, Luxembourg
Tuesday 18 April 2023, 8.00pm
Alte Oper, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Monday 24 April 2023, 7.30pm*
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, UK
Friday 20 October 2023, 7.30pm
Harris Theatre, Chicago, US
Wednesday 25 October 2023, 8.00pm
Carnegie Hall, New York, US
*Broadcast live on BBC Radio 3
This page: © Slawek Przerwa Cover: © Chris ChristodoulouHAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN ELIOT!
John Eliot Gardiner’s sixty-year career has encompassed an exceptionally wide range of music. His performances, fuelled by scholarship and passion, have breathed new life into familiar music, and brought lesser-known repertoire the international attention it deserves.
Our 2023 season showcases particularly three composers whose reputation in concert halls and opera stages has been irrevocably shaped by John Eliot Gardiner’s work. The Mass in B minor, which can be regarded as a summation of Bach’s musical and theological thought, will be performed during our European tour in April and in America in October.
In June, solo singers and instrumentalists will join the Choir in an exploration of the work of our namesake, Claudio Monteverdi, for performances in evocative venues associated with the composer’s career in Italy, which will be filmed as a documentary investigating his life.
Later in the summer the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, alongside outstanding soloists, will bring Berlioz’s opera Les Troyens to some of Europe’s most prestigious festivals.
We do hope you will be able to join us for our landmark 2023 season celebrating John Eliot Gardiner’s 80th birthday.
© A
Bofill
© Paul Marc Mitchell
Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras presents
BACH: MASS IN B MINOR
Monteverdi Choir
English Baroque Soloists
John Eliot Gardiner — conductor
Hilary Cronin — soprano
Bethany Horak-Hallett — mezzo-soprano
Sarah Denbee — mezzo-soprano
Reginald Mobley — countertenor
Jonathan Hanley — tenor
Nick Pritchard — tenor
Alex Ashworth — bass-baritone
Dingle Yandell — bass-baritone
James Halliday — assistant conductor
Oscar Holch assistant conductor
All information in this brochure was correct at the time of going to print.
THE HABIT OF PERFECTION
John Eliot GardinerPerfection is achieved, it seems, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Terre des Hommes (1939)Welcome to one of the most epic of all journeys in music: Bach’s setting of the Latin Mass – unprecedented in scale, in majesty and pathos. In a sequence lasting just under two hours it encompasses a kaleidoscopic span of moods and emotions. Opening with four majestic, urgently assertive bars as though chiselled out of granite, Bach presents them to us as a succession of imploring gestures – as graphic as in a colossal altar-tableau by Titian or Rubens. From the downbeat of that first massive B minor chord our expectations are alerted. An immense, solemn fugue now begins to open out, bearing with it a measured sense of prayer. We travel from penitential sorrow to urgent pleas for forgiveness before a dramatic switch to the Gloria in excelsis Deo which erupts in radiant splendour and with an infectious dance-like swagger. Bach achieves both exceptional variety and, paradoxically, a sense of unity in these twin building blocks of his Missa brevis. He traces the vagaries of life’s bumpy passage, the impact of Christ’s time on Earth, and insists on the need for us to be grateful for the blessings of creation. Experiencing those monumental opening bars it is perhaps difficult for us now to hear them as anything other than the harbingers of his complete Mass. Such a
strong sense of inexorable unfolding seems to imply an uninterrupted, start-to-finish sequence in the composer’s mind. But the facts, and what we can glean from Bach’s interrupted steps in constructing his great Mass, suggest otherwise. The B minor Mass did not spring complete and fully armed from the imaginative brain of its creator: it required at least sixteen years of gestation and assimilation before it grew into the Missa tota we are performing this evening.
Bach’s first attempt occurred in his fortyninth year, in 1733. Around this time his professional situation as Thomascantor in Leipzig – never secure at the best of times ever since his nomination ten years earlier – had deteriorated still further. The new burgomaster, Jacob Born, having rapped him over the knuckles for not taking his teaching duties at St Thomas’s school seriously, then reported to the town council that the Cantor ‘shows little inclination to work.’ Born tried to have Bach disqualified from continuing in office. For his part Bach was facing what he described as ‘odd authorities with little interest in music.’ Besides a hostile mayor, these included a bevy of nit-picking councillors and fractious clerics jealous of being upstaged and who showed scant understanding or support for Bach’s commitment to providing ‘a well-regulated church music to the glory of God.’ It is hardly surprising that he began to look for a way out from Leipzig.
Just then, a vacancy for organist presented itself in Dresden at the Sophienkirche
where he had previously given acclaimed organ recitals. He set his sights on this prestigious opening – not for himself, but for his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann. With thinly disguised paternal help Friedemann applied and was offered the position, receiving warm commendation from within the Dresden Court Capelle. His father now had a valid excuse to travel to Dresden. Soon after arriving, he presented a petition to the new Elector of Saxony, Friedrich August II, requesting a court title – ‘a Predicate... in your HoffCapelle’ – accompanied by a beautifully written set of parts of his new Missa brevis, comprising the Kyrie and Gloria.
Tracing the varied provenance of the remaining movements of his great Mass and uncovering signs of its having been recycled from earlier church cantatas carries the danger of diminishing Bach’s music to a bundle of influences – to a collection of parts that are less than the whole – whereas it is precisely his ability to transform dissimilar material and weld it into new patterns that is so impressive. Two such contrasted movements as his setting of the Et incarnatus (the last portion to be composed in the year of his death) and the Crucifixus (emanating from a cantata composed thirty-five years earlier) flow from one to the other without any stylistic disparity. Bach’s willingness and courage to strike out on his own, regardless of fashion, is one of the more inspiring features of the B minor Mass. Without this realisation we run the risk of missing the driving force behind it: Bach’s resolve on the one hand to illumine and expound biblical doctrine and on the other to expose and overcome human doubts and tussles of faith. In the process which culminates in a festive celebration of life’s victory over death, he extended the very range of music’s possibilities and through such explorations helps us to make sense of the world in which we live. His art
celebrates the fundamental sanctity of life, an awareness of the divine and a transcendent dimension as a true condition of human existence.
His piecing together of the Mass took place during one of the recurring turbulent periods in the history of the German-speaking lands and the music that emerged from his pen could have given solace and inspirative provision for his listeners coping with the fallout of warfare and deprivation. Therein lies one compelling reason for people to return to his great Mass at regular intervals and to drink at its well. Never more so than now. Yet most probably Bach himself never had the satisfaction of experiencing his completed Mass in performance, nor the opportunity to put it to the test as a summation of his compositional skills.
Bach’s B Minor Mass has been central to my development as a musician. If you are a mountaineer, you long to climb the highest mountain in the world – and not just once in a lifetime. Himalayan climbers seem always in search of ways to blaze new trails to test their mountaineering skills beyond the well-worn south col or the northeast ridge routes. It’s much the same for any musician or a conductor eager to have periodic goes at scaling the hazardous challenges of Bach’s magnum opus. Even after living inside this great work for most of my adult life, I still find it as compelling and awe-inspiring as when I conducted it for the first time aged thirty. Simply to contemplate its scale and scope, let alone to be responsible for setting this colossus of a work in motion, can be both exhilarating and overwhelming. Bach’s Mass first registered with me as a ten-yearold when my parents bought a set of LPs – Karajan’s unnerving and intimidating first recording (1950) – and played it again and again. I was twenty when I first heard a live performance. It was given by The
Bach Choir at the Royal Festival Hall: impressive in its sense of grandeur and ritual, I remember feeling it was imbued with a faint whiff of Victorian sanctimony.
My first experience of conducting the Mass came exactly fifty years ago at a BBC Prom in the Royal Albert Hall with a dazzling line-up of soloists including Elly Ameling, Janet Baker, Alexander Young and Thomas Allen – each of them wonderful oratorio singers – seated in front of the orchestra in their evening frocks and tails. Then in the late 1970s I became spellbound by the timbal contrasts of period instruments and how Bach’s often experimental textures could create fruitful admixtures with a tightly knit choir from whom individual soloists could emerge and establish a complicit rapport with obbligato players before retreating back into the ranks. Such an approach led to focussing on Bach’s handling of the text in every one of the Mass’s 27 separate movements – even in those joyous danceimpelled numbers. Then in 1985, the year of Bach’s tercentenary, I was invited by Deutsche Grammophon to plant my feet in the space that the famous Bach interpreter Karl Richter had vacated with his early death four years earlier, he who had recorded all the major choral works for the label. l was uncomfortable with the idea that one could only perform Bach in one of two polarised ways –the old school choral society approach that held sway in Germany and Britain unchallenged from the mid-19th century onwards, or its diametrical opposite – the newly trumpeted minimalist approach that was just then coming into fashion with its one-per-part (or at most two-voices-perpart) apparatus. Both felt foreign to me. We know for example that Bach himself used forty-four of the fifty-five boarders at the Thomasschule for the music for which he was responsible and apportioned them variously between the four churches
in Leipzig each Sunday, and how he went to extraordinary lengths to expand his core ensemble for the music he wrote for high feasts and holidays. I couldn’t see why a well-trained chamber choir acting as a multi-voiced story-teller should not achieve a comparable level of transparency and soloistic expression to a single-voiced ensemble while avoiding some of the intractable problems inherent in trying to balance, say, three trumpets and drums against a miniature vocal consort of five singers.
Thirty more years went by before I made a second attempt at scaling the Mass’s heights, this time for our own SDG label. With far more bachian miles on the clock in interpreting the whole gamut of his church music I was fortunate to be able to draw on the collective experience of many of the loyal musicians who had taken part in the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, that year-long immersion in his complete church cantatas we undertook at the start of the new millennium, some of whom you may recognise playing tonight alongside a new generation of fresh-faced, talented recruits. Prior to this European tour only seven of tonight’s choir had performed the Mass with the Monteverdi Choir, and they are joined by all ten of this year’s handpicked apprentices.
Fifty years since I first conducted it, I am conscious that this of all Bach’s sacred works demands the utmost of its performers – technically, musically and spiritually. It requires an exceptional complicity and reactivity between singers and instrumentalists – one that includes the ability to meld words and notes seamlessly and to bring a springing, dancing vitality to Bach’s joyous dance-propelled numbers. Our rehearsals are always directed at forging a tight-knit ensemble and towards honing our interpretative approach to the music. Despite the Mass’s chequered
provenance one is constantly reminded of how miraculously perfect it is, and how our job in this moment is to do justice to Bach’s vision in every way available to us.
To conduct the Mass is to be filled with an overwhelming sense of anticipation and trepidation. From the moment one embarks on that voyage with and through his music one can expect to be exposed to a heightened sense of consciousness –of the fundamental role of music, of its capacity to affect and change one’s life –people’s lives – and of its power to reflect and even to mitigate the way we respond to contemporary events. Then, as you round the corner and enter the final straight of this great adventure and the trumpets sound out one last time to announce the homecoming, you realise that Bach’s final prayer for peace, Dona nobis pacem, is both an invocation –which could hardly be more urgent than it is at this juncture in our history – and
a resounding confirmation of its immanence. Yet he was composing at a time when the breakdown of social unity was well advanced, and the old structures of religion were fast being eroded by Enlightenment thinkers. In the breadth of his vision Bach grasped and went on to reveal to us his conception of the universe as a harmonious whole. Interpreting his Mass is all about rediscovering those revelations – the nuggets of truth which he inscribes in each movement. They are indissolubly linked to his personal style – the inner poet hiding in the recesses of his dense counterpoint. About the worst crime you can commit as an interpreter is to allow the music to remain earthbound – for it to plod, in other words. As musicians interpreting Bach’s rapturous music above all we need to dance with our voices and instruments – and to inspire others to dance too. Ultimately Bach’s style is also his vision. Misjudge the style and you miss the vision.
© Bruno MoussierLIBRETTO
KYRIE
CORO
Kyrie eleison.
DUETTO (soprano/mezzosoprano)
Christe eleison.
CORO
Kyrie eleison
GLORIA
CORO
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
CORO
Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.
ARIA (soprano)
Laudamus te. Benedicimus te Adoramus te. Glorificamus te.
CORO
Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.
DUETTO (soprano/tenore)
Domine Deus, Rex coelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens.
Domine Fili unigenite
Jesu Christe altissime, Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris
KYRIE
CHORUS
Lord, have mercy upon us.
DUET (soprano/mezzo-soprano)
Christ, have mercy upon us.
CHORUS
Lord, have mercy upon us.
GLORIA
CHORUS
Glory to God in the highest.
CHORUS
And on earth peace to men of good will.
ARIA (soprano)
We praise Thee. We bless Thee. We adore Thee. We glorify Thee.
CHORUS
We give Thee thanks for Thy great glory.
DUET (soprano/tenor)
O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.
O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son,
O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father
CORO
Qui tollis peccata mundi, misere nobis.
Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram.
ARIA (alto)
Qui sedes ad desteram Patris, miserere nobis.
ARIA (basso)
Quoniam tu solus Sanctus. Tu solus Dominus.
Tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe.
CORO
Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris.
Amen CREDO
(Symbolum Nicenum)
CORO
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, factorem coeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium.
DUETTO
(soprano/mezzosoprano)
Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei ingenitum
Et ex Patre natum ante omnia secula. Deum de Deo, Lumen de lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero, Genitum non factum consubstantialem Patri, per quem omni facta sunt.
Qui, propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem, descendit de coelis.
CHORUS
Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Who takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer.
ARIA (alto)
Who sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us.
ARIA (bass)
For Thou alone art holy. Thou only art Lord. Thou alone, Jesus Christ, art most high.
CHORUS
Together with the Holy Ghost in the glory of God the Father. Amen. CREDO (Symbolum Nicenum)
CHORUS
I believe in one God, The Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
DUET
(soprano/mezzo-soprano)
And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God born of the Father before all ages. God of God, Light of light, True God of true God, Begotten, not made consubstantial with the Father, by Whom all things were made. Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven.
CORO
Et incarnates est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, Et homo factus est.
CORO
Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, Passus et sepultus est.
CORO
Et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas. Et ascendit in coelum. Sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris. Et iterum venturus est cum gloria judicare vivos et mortuos, cujus regni non erit finis.
ARIA (basso)
Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem, qui ex Patre, Filioque procedit. Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur, et conglorificatur, qui locutus est per Prophetas
Et unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam.
CORO
Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum.
CORO
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.
CHORUS
And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man.
CHORUS
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, He suffered and was buried.
CHORUS
And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures. And ascended into heaven. He sitteth at the right hand of the Father. And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, His Kingdom shall have no end
ARIA (bass)
And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son. Who, together with the Father and the Son Is adored and glorified, Who spoke by the Prophets, And I believe in one catholic and apostolic Church.
CHORUS
I confess one Baptism for the remission of sins.
CHORUS
And I await the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
SANCTUS
CORO
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria ejus.
CORO
Osanna in excelsis.
ARIA (tenore) Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
CORO
Osanna in excelsis.
AGNUS DEI
ARIA (alto)
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
CORO
Dona nobis pacem..
SANCTUS
CHORUS
Holy, Holy, Holy, Is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.
CHORUS
Hosanna in the highest.
ARIA (tenor)
Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord.
CHORUS
Hosanna in the highest.
AGNUS DEI
ARIA (alto)
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
CHORUS
Grant us peace.
JOHN ELIOT GARDINER
Conductor / Artistic Director
John Eliot Gardiner is celebrated as one of the world’s most innovative and dynamic musicians. His work as Founder and Artistic Director of the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras has marked him out as a key figure both in the early music revival and as a revelatory conductor of an exceptionally broad range of music.
Gardiner is a regular guest of the world’s leading symphony orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, conducting repertoire from the 16th to the 20th centuries.
Recent achievements with the Monteverdi ensembles include critically acclaimed performances of Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, cycles of Beethoven’s symphonies on both sides of the Atlantic, a GRAMMY-nominated live-streamed performance of Bach’s St John Passion from Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, new productions of Handel’s Semele and Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini and the RPS award-winning Monteverdi 450 project.
His wide-ranging repertoire is illustrated by his extensive catalogue of awardwinning recordings with the Monteverdi ensembles and other leading orchestras. He holds two GRAMMY awards and has received more Gramophone Awards than any other living artist.
An authority on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Gardiner’s book, Music in the Castle of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach, was published in October 2013 by Allen Lane, leading to the Prix des Muses award (SingerPolignac). Amongst his numerous awards and honours he is an Honorary Fellow of King’s College London, King’s College Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the British Academy. He was awarded a knighthood for his services to music in the 1998 Queen’s Birthday Honours List and in 2022 he received the Italian honour of ‘Cavaliere di Gran Croce’ of the order of ‘Stella d’Italia’.
©
Paul Marc Mitchell
HILARY CRONIN
soprano
Hilary trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and Royal Holloway University of London. Selected by BBC Music Magazine as a Rising Star of 2022, Hilary won both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2021 London Handel International Singing Competition.
Recent engagements include Poppea Agrippina with English Touring Opera, Télaïre Castor et Pollux with The Rameau Project, J.S. Bach St John Passion with VOCES8 and St Matthew Passion with the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Beethoven Choral Fantasia with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Messiah with the English Chamber Orchestra, Handel Silete venti for the London Handel Festival, Ode to Purcell on tour with Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Blow and Purcell with The English Concert at Wigmore Hall, a recording for La Nuova Musica as Second Woman Dido and Aeneas and Vaughan Williams Benedicite with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Upcoming engagements include Fauré Requiem at Teatro La Fenice, Handel Chandos Anthems with Arcangelo, Messiah with the London Handel Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, The Sixteen, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Liverpool Welsh Choral and Cambridge University Symphony Chorus, Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Haydn Nelson Mass with The Really Big Chorus in Faro Cathedral, a recital at the Halle Handel Festival and Christmas with King’s College Choir at the Barbican.
BETHANY HORAK-HALLETT
mezzo soprano
British mezzo-soprano Bethany Horak-Hallett gained a Masters in Music Performance followed by a Masters in Vocal Studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. She is a Rising Star of the Enlightenment and a Samling Artist. Bethany was a finalist in the 2020 Cesti Competition and won Second Prize in the 2021 Handel Singing Competition.
Opera engagements have included Kitchen Boy Rusalka for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester conducted by Robin Ticciati, Woman Katya Kabanova for Glyndebourne; Cupid Venus and Adonis, Venere Il Ballo delle Ingrate and Enchanted Lady in Caccini La Liberazione di Ruggiero at the Brighton Early Music Festival; Cherubino Le Nozze di Figaro with the Merry Opera Company, Dorabella Cosi fan Tutte with London Young Sinfonia and Second Witch Dido & Aeneas at the Milton Abbey International Music Festival.
On the concert platform, Bethany has appeared with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as Galatea in Handel Aci, Galatea e Polifemo directed by Steven Devine; Elijah with Masaaki Suzuki and a film of the St John Passion. She has performed and recorded Cupid in John Eccles Semele with the Academy of Ancient Music conducted by Julian Perkins; Dixit Dominus with The Monteverdi Choir conducted by John Eliot Gardiner at The Proms.
© Helena Cooke © Emma JaneSARAH DENBEE
mezzo soprano
Sarah gained a First in Music and Italian from the Universities of Bristol and Bologna, and a Masters with Distinction from Trinity Laban Conservatoire.
She was a member of the Glyndebourne Opera Chorus for a number of years, and previous highlights have been singing in the 1 to a part semi-chorus in the world premiere of Brett Dean’s Hamlet, as well as covering several roles at Glyndebourne.
She has worked at the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera and The Grange Festival, and has sung with the Monteverdi Choir since 2012. She has been a step-out soloist with the English Baroque Soloists, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music and London Symphony Orchestra. She is proud to be a previous recipient of the Elizabeth Eagle-Bott Award for visually impaired musicians from the RNIB.
REGINALD MOBLEY countertenor
GRAMMY-nominated American countertenor Reginald Mobley leads a prolific career on both sides of the Atlantic.
An advocate for diversity in music and its programming, Reginald became the first ever Programming Consultant for the Handel & Haydn Society and is also leading a research project in the UK funded by the AHRC to uncover music by composers from diverse backgrounds. His American 2022/2023 season starts with a solo recital at the Miller Theatre, Carmina Burana with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and concerts with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver and Seraphic Fire. Future highlights include his debuts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Festival, conducted by Andris Nelsons, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and with Orchestre Métropolitain de Montreal conducted by Masaaki Suzuki.
In Europe, Reginald performs with ensembles including the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Balthasar Neumann Chor & Ensemble, and Holland Baroque Orchestra. In 2022, Reginald debuted with the Dutch Bach Society and I Barocchisti at Opéra de Lausanne under the baton of Diego Fasolis as Disinganno in Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, as well as at the Barbican Centre with Academy of Ancient Music and Laurence Cummings. In autumn 2021, he performed Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea in a European tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra.
JONATHAN HANLEY tenor NICK PRITCHARD tenor
Jonathan is a British tenor working as both a soloist and ensemble singer, with a particular interest in Baroque vocal music. A history graduate from the University of York, Jonathan has since been a member of the Genesis Sixteen (2016/2017) and a Monteverdi Choir Apprentice (2018/2019).
He has recently performed as a soloist in Bach Cantata 106, Schütz Musikalsiche
Exequien, Carissimi Jepthe and Mendelssohn
Die Erste Walpurgisnacht (Haus für Mozart, Salzburg), with the Monteverdi Choir; Bach St Matthew Passion (Cadogan Hall); and Britten St Nicolas (York Minster). Jonathan also enjoys performing English song and lieder, most recently performing recitals of song devoted to the music of Finzi, Britten and Raymond Yui, and Schumann Liederkreis (Op. 39) interspersed with Britten folksongs, both accompanied by pianist Gavin Roberts. Jonathan is a member of the awardwinning vocal ensemble Stile Antico, as well as Sansara and the Monteverdi Choir, and performs regularly with other vocal ensembles such as Tenebrae, the English Concert and the Sixteen. He has appeared on discs with Stile Antico, the Monteverdi Choir, Sansara and the Sixteen.
Highlights in 2023 include tours of B minor Mass with the Monteverdi Choir, and Buxtehude Jesu Membra Nostri in the York Early Music Festival with Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, alongside a busy international schedule with Stile Antico.
Nick Pritchard was an inaugural member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s (OAE) ’Rising Stars’ scheme and is a Samling artist. Described as a ‘Masterly Evangelist’ in The Guardian he has sung the role in Bach’s St John and Matthew Passions around the world. His recording of the St John Passion on Deutsche Gramophon was recently nominated for a Grammy Award. He has appeared with groups including Concerto Köln, Les Talens Lyriques, Les Violons du Roy, English Concert, Early Opera Company, Philharmonia Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, La Nuova Musica at the BBC Proms, L’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Academy of Ancient Music.
Operatic roles include Oronte Alcina at Opera North, Lysander A Midsummer Night’s Dream Aldeburgh Festival, Tamino Die Zauberflöte Glyndebourne on Tour, Amphinomus The Return of Ulysses Royal Opera House and Purcell’s The Indian Queen at Opéra de Lille and Théâtre de Caen, Opera Vlaandern and Grand Theatre Luxembourg (under Emmanuelle Haïm).
© Ben Davies © N ick JamesALEX ASHWORTH
bass-baritone
Bass-baritone Alex Ashworth studied at the Royal Academy of Music and has sung with opera houses including Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera. Abroad he has performed for the Opéra Comique in Paris, Opéra de Lille and the Icelandic Opera.
Alex sings regularly on the concert platform and has worked as a soloist for conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Colin Davis and Paul McCreesh. Recent appearances include the UK première, with the Classical Opera Company, of Telemann’s Orfeo as Pluto, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem with the Hallé Orchestra, Messiah with the CBSO and City of Birmingham Choir in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, a tour of Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and performances of Brahms’ Requiem in China.
Alex’s recordings include Œdipus Rex, Stravinsky, with the London Symphony Orchestra, Monteverdi Vespers with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Bach’s B Minor Mass for Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists and Handel’s Giulio Cesare for Glyndebourne Festival Opera (DVD).
Recent engagements include Œdipus Rex with the Berlin Philharmonic, St Matthew Passion on tour across Europe and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem for the Three Choirs Festival.
DINGLE YANDELL
bass-baritone
British bass-baritone Dingle Yandell studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. He was a founder member of the award-winning British vocal ensemble Voces8, with whom he toured internationally for ten years, and was one of the inaugural ‘Rising Stars’ of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Recent and upcoming highlights include André Thorel Thérèse for Scottish Opera and Theseus A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Glyndebourne Opera. Barokkanerne Norwegian Baroque Ensemble, Mozart Mass in C Minor with Royal Northern Sinfonia, Bach Christmas Oratorio with Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra and Handel’s Messiah with Huddersfield Choral Society. Don Pizarro Fidelio (Glyndebourne tour); Colline La bohème and Commendatore Don Giovanni (Nevill Holt Opera); cover Sparafucile Rigoletto (Scottish Opera); his role debut as Fafner Das Rheingold (Grimeborn); Angelotti Tosca, Sarastro and Speaker of the Temple Die Zauberflöte, Count Ceprano and Immigration Officer Flight (Scottish Opera); The Doctor Pelléas et Mélisande (Garsington Opera); Plutone in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (L’Arpeggiata); Seneca L’incoronazione di Poppea (Bach Collegium Japan); and Cold Genius/Aeolus King Arthur (Gabrieli Consort).
© Michal NovakMONTEVERDI CHOIR
Ever since its founding in the 1960s, the Monteverdi Choir has been a leading force in the world of choral music. Through a combination of consummate technique, historically informed performance practice and a strong appreciation for visual impact, the Choir constantly strives to bring fresh perspectives, immediacy and drama to its performances across the world.
In 2022, the Monteverdi Choir performed works by Mendelsohn and Brahms with the Berlin Philharmonic, music by Bach, Schütz and Schein at prestigious festivals across Europe and Beethoven’s late masterpiece: Missa solemnis at the BBC Proms, Berliner Festspiele and Wratislavia Cantans. The year culminated in a tour of J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Chapelle Royale, Château de Versailles, Versailles and at our London home, St Martinin-the-Fields, which was livestreamed on Deutsche Grammophon’s new digital platform – Stage+.
In 2021, the Choir performed its first live streamed concert; Bach’s St John Passion with the English Baroque Soloists, filmed in Oxford’s historic Sheldonian Theatre. The ensemble returned to live performing in the summer with a programme of Handel and Bach at the BBC Proms and Berliner Festspiele, ending the year with a tour of Berlioz’s sacred oratorio L’enfance du Christ
The Monteverdi Choir accompanied the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
in performances of Beethoven’s 9th symphony in Barcelona, New York and Chicago in 2020 celebrating the 250th anniversary of the composer.
The Monteverdi Choir has taken part in a variety of projects across different repertoires, ranging from a tour of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the English Baroque Soloists (EBS) to Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust and Verdi’s Requiem with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (ORR). It has also performed in several staged opera productions, including Orphée et Eurydice at the Royal Opera House (2015), Der Freischütz (2010), Carmen (2009) at the Opéra Comique, and Les Troyens at the Théâtre du Châtelet (2003). In 2017 the Choir took part in the RPS award-winning Monteverdi 450 project, performing all three of Monteverdi’s surviving operas with Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists across Europe and the United States. Amongst its many trailblazing tours was the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, during which the Choir performed all 198 of Johann Sebastian Bach’s sacred cantatas in over 60 churches throughout Europe and North America. The entire project was recorded and released by the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra’s record label, Soli Deo Gloria, with Gramophone hailing the venture as ‘one of the most ambitious musical projects of all time’. The Monteverdi Choir has over 150 recordings to its name and has won numerous prizes.
BACH: MASS IN B MINOR MONTEVERDI CHOIR PERSONNEL LIST
Soprano 1
Sam Cobb
Hilary Cronin *
Charlotte La Thrope
Alison Ponsford-Hill
Daisy Walford
Amy Wood
Theano Papadaki ^
Billie Robson ^
Soprano 2
Bethany Horak-Hallett **
Emily Armour
Rebekah Jones
Emily Owen
Angharad Rowlands
Lorna Price ^
Claire Ward ^
Alto
Reginald Mobley **
Sarah Denbee *
Iris Korfker
Hamish McLaren
Simon Ponsford
Matthias Dähling ^
Avalon Summerfield ^
Tenor
Nick Pritchard **
Ben Alden
Jacob Ewens
Jonathan Hanley *
Graham Neal
Gareth Treseder
Jack Harberd ^
Joseph Taylor ^
Bass
Dingle Yandell **
Alex Ashworth *
Jack Comerford
Tom Herring
Michael Lafferty
Alistair Ollerenshaw
Henry Saywell ^
George Vines ^
* Monteverdi Choir soloist ** Guest soloist ^ Monteverdi Apprentice
© Paul Marc Mitchell
ENGLISH BAROQUE SOLOISTS
Founded in 1978 by John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists seeks to challenge preconceptions of 200 years of music ranging from Monteverdi to Mozart and Haydn. Equally at home in chamber, symphonic and operatic performances, their distinctively warm and incisive playing is instantly recognisable. One of the world’s leading period instrument orchestras, the ensemble has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious venues including Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Sydney Opera House.
At the beginning of 2023, the English Baroque Soloists were joined by Isabelle Faust and Antoine Tamestit for a programme of orchestral works by Haydn and Mozart in performances throughout Europe.
In 2022, the ensemble toured Symphonies by Haydn and Mozart across Europe and the United States and works by Bach, Schütz and Schein in collaboration with the Monteverdi Choir at prestigious festivals across Europe. The year culminated in a tour of J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Chapelle Royale, Château de Versailles, Versailles and at our London home, St Martin-in-theFields, which was live-streamed on Deutsche Grammophon’s new digital platform – Stage+.
In 2021, the ensemble performed its first live-streamed concert; Bach’s St John Passion, filmed in Oxford’s historic Sheldonian Theatre and
streamed on Deutsche Grammophon’s online platform ‘DG Stage’. It also gave critically acclaimed performances of Handel and Bach at two of Europe’s most prestigious music festivals; the BBC Proms and the Berliner Festspiele.
In 2019 the EBS made its inaugural visit to South America for the Cartagena International Music Festival followed by a tour of Handel’s dramatic oratorio Semele with the Monteverdi Choir, visiting a series of iconic venues including Barcelona’s Palau de la Música and Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. The ensemble then gave its debut performances in Russia alongside the Monteverdi Choir with a programme of works by Monteverdi, Carissimi, Scarlatti and Purcell, before returning to South America for concerts in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile.
2017 saw the EBS take part in the celebrated Monteverdi 450 tour, performing all three of Monteverdi’s surviving operas across Europe and in the USA, a project that was recognised by a Royal Philharmonic Society award in the Opera and Music Theatre category.
The ensemble famously took part in the iconic Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000 alongside the Monteverdi Choir, performing all of Bach’s sacred cantatas throughout Europe. The EBS has also participated in major opera productions alongside the Choir in works by Handel, Purcell and Monteverdi, and recorded Mozart’s greatest operas for Deutsche Grammophon in the 1990s.
BACH: MASS IN B MINOR ENGLISH BAROQUE SOLOISTS
Violin 1
Kati Debretzeni
Jane Gordon
Madeleine Easton
Davina Clarke
Beatrice Scaldini
Dominika Fehér
Violin 2
Anne Schumann
Oliver Webber
Henrietta Wayne
Jean Paterson
Håkan Wikström
Sophie Simpson
Viola
Fanny Paccoud
Monika Grimm
Annette Isserlis
Lisa Cochrane
Cellos
Kinga Gáborjáni *
Catherine Rimer
Ruth Alford
Poppy Walshaw
Basses
Valerie Botwright *
Cecelia Bruggemeyer
Flute
Rachel Beckett
Christine Garrett
Oboes
Michael Niesemann
Rachel Chaplin
Leo Duarte
Bassoon
Györgyi Farkas *
Philip Turbett
Horns
Anneke Scott
Trumpets
Neil Brough
Robert Vanryne
Michael Harrison
Timpani
Robert Kendell
Organ
James Johnstone *
Harpsichord
Paolo Zanzu *
*continuo
© Slawek Przerwa
SUPPORT THE MONTEVERDI ENSEMBLES
The three Monteverdi ensembles –the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique – are a leading force on the international music scene. World-class instrumentalists and singers of many different nationalities come together to share in the distinctive vision of our Founder and Artistic Director, John Eliot Gardiner, in ground-breaking projects that span eight centuries of musical masterpieces.
As a registered charity without public subsidy, Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras rely on the generosity of our supporters to continue planning our ambitious, historically inspired artistic programme, and regularly perform world-class concerts at our new central London home, St Martin-in-the-Fields. This support also allows us to share our concerts with music lovers around the world through top-quality film and audio content and helps us nurture and develop the next generation of musical talent.
© Renato MangolinHere are the ways in which you can support us:
JOIN OUR MEMBERSHIP SCHEME
Our membership schemes start from £250 per year. Members enjoy a range of benefits including a personalised priority booking service for all our concerts, monthly e-bulletins, and invitations to post-concert receptions. At higher levels, additional benefits include invitations to exclusive open rehearsals, backstage access after our performances, and an Annual Conductor’s Dinner.
JOIN AS A BENEFACTOR
By supporting our charity at this highest level, you will contribute substantially towards our landmark projects, allow us to perform regularly in our new London home at St Martinin-the-Fields, and share our music globally via our filmed concerts.
CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
We can offer creative and collaborative sponsorship packages that enable you to align your business with our work. There are opportunities to sponsor individual performances, or an entire season of concerts at our new London home, St Martin-in-the-Fields.
LEAVE A LEGACY
By choosing to leave a Legacy Gift to the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, you will play a crucial role in ensuring that the performers and listeners of the future will continue to be enthralled by the power of our music-making.
JOIN OUR AMERICAN FRIENDS
Our American Friends play a valuable part in supporting and championing the work of the Monteverdi ensembles both in the US and beyond. The American Friends of the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, Inc is a registered 501(c)(3) and donations to the AFMCO are tax deductible for US taxpayers.
CONTACT US
On our website, you will find the facility to make a donation (which we warmly welcome at any level), purchase one of our memberships for yourself, or treat a friend via a Gift Membership. If you would like to discuss how you could support us by becoming a Benefactor, or how your organisation could partner with us, please contact us to arrange a discussion with our General Director, Rosa Solinas.
development@monteverdi.org.uk
+44 (0)20 7719 0120
Monday to Friday 9:30am to 5.30pm
www.monteverdi.co.uk
MONTEVERDI APPRENTICES PROGRAMME
The Monteverdi Apprentices Programme is a training scheme for young musicians that seeks to bridge the gap between university or conservatoire education and the world of the professional musician. Participants in this longestablished artist development programme take part in projects ranging from workshops and masterclasses to paid performances with the Monteverdi ensembles. With John Eliot Gardiner and a team of dedicated mentors, we hope to nurture and showcase the development of all our Apprentices by providing challenging and rewarding performance opportunities and exposing them to world-class coaching from experts in a range of fields.
JOHN ELIOT GARDINER’S INTRODUCTION TO THE MONTEVERDI APPRENTICES PROGRAMME
The Apprentices Programme was set up in 2007 – the first of its kind in the UK – its aim being to nurture exceptional musical talent and an aptitude for ensemble performing. We felt there was a pressing need to create a safe environment and opportunity for gifted young singers and instrumentalists to dip their toes in the waters of professional music-making while still exploring their own musical potential – simply plunging into the professional world straight out of college can be a daunting prospect at the best of times.
The Apprentices Programme follows the age-old apprenticeship principle of learning a craft on the job from older hands. At the start of the year, each Apprentice is assigned a mentor – an experienced musician within the Monteverdi Choir, EBS or ORR – on hand to give encouragement and one-to-one advice on the multiple challenges that arise from ensemble singing and playing at the highest professional level. Furthermore, over the course of their Apprentice year, these young musicians are integrated with the Monteverdi ensembles, rehearsing and performing in concerts at home and on tour overseas. Our aim is to round out their musical education and to help equip them for future challenges by giving them the opportunity to work alongside some of the best and most experienced musicians in the business.
By the end of the year, a Monteverdi Apprentice should be able to gauge his or her individual worth as a singer or instrumentalist with greater objectivity. They will have been given a taste of the life of a professional musician and be in a better position to weigh up if this is genuinely the path that they wish to pursue either as a soloist, an ensemble musician, or both. And if they have shown that they can meet the requisite musical, technical and stylistic standards that define the Monteverdi Choir, EBS or ORR, they may be offered a place whenever there is a vacancy. The Programme now has over 70 alumni, and many Apprentices still perform regularly with the Monteverdi ensembles.
MONTEVERDI APPRENTICES PROGRAMME
2023–24
We are delighted to welcome our 2023-24 Choral Apprentices: Billie Robson, Theano Papadaki, Claire Ward, Lorna Price, Avalon Summerfield, Matthias Daehling, Joseph Taylor, Jack Harberd, Henry Saywell and George Vines. These ten young singers were selected from over a hundred applicants, and all appear alongside the Monteverdi Choir in this project. Their year-long programme began in earnest at the end of March when they travelled to the Springhead Trust in Dorset – formerly John Eliot’s childhood home – for four days of intense rehearsals and coaching with Maestro Gardiner. Interspersed with replenishing yoga classes; home cooked meals and country walks, these workshops culminated in an informal,
intimate recital to a warm, invited audience of MCO supporters and local friends. This rigorous training was a taste of things to come: just two days later they were sitting amongst the ranks of Monteverdi Choir rehearsing Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the English Baroque Soloists before heading off on our two-week tour of Europe. We wish them the best of luck for what promises to be an incredibly exciting twelve months.
MONTEVERDI SUPPORTERS
The Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the following individuals, organisations and Trusts & Foundations:
PATRON
HM King Charles III
PRESIDENT
Carol Grigor
PRINCIPAL FUNDER
Dunard Fund
BENEFACTORS
Michael L. Cioffi – Monteverdi Tuscany
Judith McCartin Scheide
MEMBERSHIP SCHEME
PLATINUM
David Best
Michael Beverley
David & Sandra Brierwood
Morny Davison
Lord & Lady Deben
Lady Virginia Fraser
Andrey Kidel
William Lock
Francis Norton
Christian & Myrto Rochat
Helen Skinner
Sir David Walker
Clare Woodman CBE
GOLD
Lord Burns
Gordon Gullan
Stephen & Victoria Swift
SILVER
Julia & Martin Albrecht
Geoffrey Barnett
Donald & Corrine Brydon
Roger & Rosemary Chadder
Peter & Stephanie Chapman
Sir Stephen Gomersall
Sir Henry Keswick
Jake Donovan & Gracia Lafuente
Yi-Peng Li
Lady Nixon
Professor Richard Portes CBE FBA
Anthony C. Shoults
Professor John Smyth
Captain Brian Woodford CBE RN
BRONZE
Tania Bader
Mary Bernard
Donald D. Campbell
John Canady
Peter J. Chapman
Vanessa Claypole
Dr Carol Cobb
Anthony de Grey
Peter Dunkerley
Steve Edge
Lady Caroline Egremont
Alison & Mark Hesketh
János & Dietlinde Hidasi
Jenny Hill
Richard Jacques
Gareth & Charlotte Keene
Mollie Norwich
Nicholas & Christylle Phillips
Mary Pinnell
Daan Posthuma
Meghan Purvis
Thomas Richter
Dr Paul A. Sackin
Steven & Olivia Schaefer
Christopher J. H. Thornhill
Andrew Tusa
Andrew Wales
CORPORATE PARTNERS
Morgan Stanley
TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS
Dunard Fund
The Kirby Laing Foundation
Mrs F B Laurence Charitable Trust
The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation
IN MEMORIAM
Donald Gorman
Ian Hay Davison CBE
Nicholas Snowman OBE
Christopher Stewart
LEGACIES
The Estate of Howard Hodgkin
The Estate of Kevin Lavery
We are grateful for the donations made in memory of our supporters
AMERICAN FRIENDS
The Negaunee Foundation
The New York Community Trust – The Scheide Fund
Neil Graham
Seth Levi
With grateful thanks to those who wish to remain anonymous and to the other individuals who give regular donations in support of our work.
MCO TEAM
Rosa Solinas General Director & Chief Executive
Martin Wheeler Finance & Administration Manager
Matthew Broom Planning & Casting Manager
James Halliday Artistic Advisor & Librarian
Emily Parker Artistic Operations Manager
Margot Moseley Tours & Concerts Manager
Bryony Benstead Fundraising Manager
Andrew Softley Artistic Projects & Choir Manager
Sharon Kelly Communications Manager
Hannah Bostock Partnerships Coordinator
Dinis Sousa Associate Conductor
Philip Turbett Orchestra Fixer
Matthew Muller Stage Manager
Bonzo’s Consultancy Ltd Instrument Transport
Robin Jennings Keyboard Technician (keyboards provided by Jennings Organs)
MCO BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Sir David Walker (Chairman)
David Best
Lady Deben
Virginia Fraser
Sir Stephen Gomersall
Andrey Kidel
Francis Norton
Christian Rochat
Clare Woodman CBE
THE MONTEVERDI CHOIR & ORCHESTRAS
Level 12, 20 Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London E14 4AD, UK +44 (0)20 7719 0120
info@monteverdi.org.uk
Registered in England & Wales Company No. 01277513
Charity No. 272279
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©
Przerwa
Slawek
Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras
©
2023 Morgan Stanley
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