Gala Concert Viva Italia! Tuesday 28 November 2023 at the Cathedral of St Thomas, Old Portsmouth at 7.00pm Musical Directors: George Tinsley and Fiona Morris Accompanist: Karen Kingsley
Front cover artwork is a photo of Cretto di Burri taken by George Tinsley 2
Programme Autumn from The Four Seasons............................................ Flute Choir by Antonio Vivaldi Directed by Cathy Wall arr. Paul Harris and Sally Adams Torna a Surriento..........................................................................Ukuladies by Ernesto De Curtis, arr. Neil Worley Directed by Neil Worley O sole mio by Eduardo di Capua, arr. Neil Worley Allegro affettuoso from Opus 11, No. 4..............................Ting Yu and by G.G. Cambini Josephine Hopper (flutes) ........................................................................................................... Mambo Italiano by Bob Merrill,................................................. Harmony arr. Alan Billingsley Don’t Look Back in Anger.....................................................Rock Group by Noel Gallagher Directed by Russ Tarley Time to Say Goodbye (Con Te Partirò)................................. Cantabile by Francesco Sartori, Lucio Quarantotto and Frank Peterson, arr. Mac Huff Sicilienne from Pelléas et Melisande.....................................Orchestra by Gabriel Fauré, arr. David Stone Bella Ciao Traditional, arr. Bert van Haagen
INTERVAL 3
Ex-Wives from Six.....................................................Musical Theatre Club by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss Fantasia in D minor, K.397/385g.............................Florence Dempster by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (piano) Agnus Dei.......................................................................... Anna Irvine-Capel by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (voice) Juin: Barcarolle, Op. 37b No. 6..................................... Sophie Kellagher by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (piano) Fly, Fly Away from Catch Me If You Can....................... Amélie Morris by Marc Shaiman with lyrics by (voice) Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman Voices from the Past (world premiere)........................................... Choir by George Tinsley I - La Vuccirìa II – New Beginnings III – Siciliana IV – Voices from the Past
4
Musical Theatre Club
Biographies
Florence Dempster Florence Dempster started playing the piano when she was five years old and later, at the age of seven, also took up the violin. She passed Grade 8 on the piano when she was in Year 10 and now continues to play for her own enjoyment, with plans to complete a music performance diploma in the near future. After joining Portsmouth High School in 2016, she took part in the Young Musician competition at the Prep School, winning the piano category in Years 5 and 6, and was named the overall Young Musician Winner in Year 6. In the same year she competed in the Portsmouth Schools’ Music Festival and was a finalist, performing a piano solo at Portsmouth Guildhall. She also volunteers at her local care home, entertaining the residents at weekends by playing the piano. Since Year 7, Florence has enjoyed playing her violin in the school’s Symphonic Orchestra, taking part in many school performances, including previous Gala Concerts. She is currently working towards Grade 7 on the violin, which she plans to take in early 2024. Florence is excited to have the opportunity to perform for the first time as a soloist in a Gala Concert. 5
Anna Irvine-Capel Anna Irvine-Capel is a music scholar at Portsmouth High School and has been taking singing lessons from seven years old, as well as violin lessons from age six. She has achieved Grade 7 singing certification, and Grade 5 violin and is currently working towards the next grades. Since joining Portsmouth High School towards the end of Year 7, Anna has been involved with the musical life of the school. She has sung in both Harmony and Cantabile, as well as playing in Symphonic Orchestra. In Year 9, she founded a singing group for Year 7 pupils called Phoenix. She has performed as a soloist in numerous concerts throughout her time at the school and is looking forward to attending GDST sing at the Royal Academy of Music in February. Outside of school, Anna is a Senior Chorister at Portsmouth Cathedral which has involved many exciting experiences, such as broadcasting on the radio multiple times, D-day commemorations, and singing at the annual Royal Marines Remembrance Service. She is looking forward to an upcoming tour to Belgium as well as broadcasting Midnight Mass live on BBC One this Christmas. This past year, Anna was awarded the Rosemary Cup for String Players, as well her music half colours and the Miss Jewell’s Music Award. Throughout her time at both the cathedral and school, Anna has enjoyed the opportunities given to her and is excited to continue getting involved in all that music has to offer in the future.
6
Sophie Kellagher Sophie Kellagher is a music scholar in Year 12. She has played the piano since age five, for which she achieved a Grade 7 certification last year. She is now working towards her Grade 8 piano examination. She also had lessons in the clarinet from age nine until last year, reaching Grade 6 standard. Within the school, Sophie has been involved in many concerts and events, either through playing with the orchestra or playing the piano. She performed one of her Grade 8 piano pieces in the Senior Awards Evening at the start of term, and she is delighted to be able to perform tonight. Upon entering the sixth form, Sophie has joined Cantabile. She has had singing lessons in the past and achieved Grade 5 when she was in Year 10. She is looking forward to performing with the group in the approaching Christmas concert, as well as this evening. Sophie is keen to remain involved in the school’s music department as a scholar, whilst continuing to develop her skills and confidence as a pianist.
7
Amélie Morris Amélie Morris is both a music and drama scholar at Portsmouth High School. She has had singing lessons since aged seven and has completed her Grade 8 musical theatre certification. Since joining the school, she has taken part in many musical activities such as Harmony and Cantabile and has performed in numerous concerts, including Gala Concerts, Scholars and Leavers Concerts, and autumn and summer concerts. She has performed in the school’s musical productions, playing Chip in Beauty and the Beast in Year 7, Sister Mary Robert in Sister Act in Year 9, and Oz in We Will Rock You in Year 12. Outside of school, Amélie is very much involved in musical theatre, most recently playing Anna in Frozen Jr and Roxie in Chicago with Titchfield Festival Theatre. Amélie is currently rehearsing for Six, playing Anne Boleyn, to be seen at The Point Theatre Eastleigh in February. Amélie is auditioning for multiple drama schools this winter to study musical theatre at degree level next year.
8
George Tinsley George Tinsley is in his eleventh year as Director of Music at Portsmouth High School. He grew up in Texas, USA, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in music education. He earned a master’s degree in music performance from Manhattan School of Music and continued soloist studies in Freiburg, Germany. He played principal horn for the National Orchestral Association at Carnegie Hall and has been featured on Russian television and Swiss radio. In musical theatre, he has played roles including Mr Snow in Carousel, Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd, Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast, and Daddy Warbucks in Annie. Tonight is Mr Tinsley’s debut as a composer, having spent five weeks in Sicily last summer researching the ideas behind Voices from the Past. He dedicates the work to PHS pupils past and present.
Voices from the Past Programme Notes by George Tinsley Voices from the Past is a work for chorus and piano, written in the summer of 2023. The work is inspired by my visits to Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean. Although now part of Italy, Sicily was colonised by Phoenicians, Greeks, the Byzantine Empire, the Normans, and others, giving it a particularly rich and unique culture, especially regarding the Arts, literature, cuisine, and architecture. Voices from the Past is intended to capture flavour of Sicily and its history and bring a bit of Mediterranean sunshine to tonight’s concert.
9
Movement I – La Vuccirìa This movement is based on reflections by painter Renato Guttuso and his admirers, about his most famous work, La Vuccirìa. The 1974 painting expresses the colours and Arabic clamour of the “vanniaturi” of the famous Palermo market and evokes the scents of typical products, fruit and vegetables, displayed on the stalls. The first half of the song is Guttoso’s remembrances of childhood, told mostly in his own words. The latter half of the song is Guttoso as the artist, commenting on the dark content of his painting, including the vertical Line of Life that crosses with the horizontal Line of Death between the fish and cheese sellers’ rivalrous glares. •
•
•
The movement opens at dawn with a statement of Immaculate Mary, a popular tune played by church bells across Italy. Part of the tune is reprised by the bells at the end of the movement. I heard and recorded it in Cefalù on my travels in June, 2023. Chef and food writer Antonio Carluccio used the same melody as the theme tune for his 1996 series, Italian Feasts. After the introduction on the chimes, lively market sellers are heard shouting to advertise their wares: Formaggio! (cheese), Spada fresca! (fresh swordfish), Cucuzze (very long, green Sicilian squashes). About the piano melody - There is a street food focacceria called Antica Focacceria San Francisco, which has been running since 1834. Its recent owner,Vincenzo Conticello, was forced into exile because of his outspoken objection to the Mafia. On the day I was there, two buskers, a guitarist and an accordionist, were playing a lively Sicilian dance in the shadow of foccaceria’s umbrellas. I recorded them and transcribed their music as the piano part which lies beneath the new melody of this movement.
10
Hey! Hey! (then calls from the various sellers) I remember the Vuccirìa From Bagheria, I would come To Palermo for adventure Via Roma began to hum. Through Piazza Caracciolo, The excitement began to grow I emerged into the bustle Into Palazzo San Domenico. All of the voices The baskets The banquets of fish on the slab So many choices Look! Look at the meats The colours And all the cheese The splendid arrays of the fruit That you can find Great semicircles Sounds! Taste! It was enough of silver Lights! For me to Flash on the route The folksy blast change the tune in my La Vuccirìa Noise! mind. The market Fights! See! La Vuccirìa Long may she live! Long may she live! Long may she live! Ev’ry day is Market day At La Vuccirìa. Try! Try! If you please. Make a wish Choose your fish At La Vuccirìa. Buy! Buy! Fresh sheep’s cheese
11
La Vucciria, by Renato Guttuso
Olives here, Chaos there, At La Vuccirìa. Sigh, Sigh, Squeeze right through. Bursts of heat Figs to eat At La Vuccirìa. Why, Why, Go elsewhere? Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! I have painted the Vuccirìa, Jumbled, hectic, flecked with brown, Plump green olives in the shadows, Naked light bulbs dangling down. ‘Vuccirìa’ means confusion Black nostalgia, crimson loss Through the angles of the painting Life and death meet at the Cross. All of the voices, the baskets, etc.
12
Movement II – New Beginnings In January 1968, an earthquake struck the Belìce Valley in Western Sicily, demolishing several small towns in the area, including Gibellina, whose survivors relocated and created Gibellina Nuova, where the gleaming, spherical new church still uses the old church bell. Gibellina Nuova has become an inspirational open-air museum, which draws visitors from around the world. This movement references Gibellina’s new church with these works of art, including Pietro old bell Consagra’s 26-metre high star-shaped Stella del Belìce, through which visitors drive to enter the area, and Mario Schifano’s sand and oil painting, Solare, dedicated to the vitality of the children of Gibellina.
Stella del Belice
Solare
The old, demolished town of Gibellina has itself been turned into the world’s largest land-artwork by Alberto Burri, who gathered up and incorporated the rubble of the ancient town into 122 blocks of concrete called Il Grande Cretto. The cracks are pedestrian paths that trace the streets of the former city, forming a path of lost memory. 13
Cretto di Burri
After visiting the Cretto, I was surprised by a flock of sheep grazing on a hillside outside the town. The sheep were tended by a shepherd and attentive sheepdogs, including two that were positioned up the road to guard against passing cars. Reflections of these images and experiences have been distilled into this simple lullaby, which ends with the sound of authentic Italian sheep bells. Huddled unharmed by the roadside, Shepherded As cars pass,
Art revives the Losses, crosses, shepherds, Bells.
Great ancient flocks on the roadside, Grazing on Sun-scorched grass,
Sand paintings, Forged star, New dwellings, So far
Standing on Bricks and glass. New towns need creating. Salvaged rubble and farewells. Flocks relocate Downstream, dreaming stories no-one Tells.
14
From ruins. New life, Old knells, Art, photos, shepherds, Bells.
Movement III – Siciliana •
• •
The Siciliana is a musical style or genre often included as a movement within larger pieces of music starting in the Baroque period. It is in a slow 6/8 or 12/8 time with lilting rhythms, making it somewhat resemble a slow jig or tarantella, and is usually in a minor key. The melody came to me on the train into Southsea one day. I sang it into my phone’s recorder app before I forgot it! I set myself a challenge in this movement to create lyrics based upon mottos collected from Italian Baci chocolates. Meaning ‘kisses’ in English, Baci were created in 1922 in Perugia, Italy by Luisa Spagnoli, a pioneering confectionary entrepreneur. Each chocolate comes wrapped with a love note, a bit like a romantic Christmas cracker. During my stay in Sicily, I unwrapped an entire box of Baci chocolates (suffering for my art) and collected all the love notes, selecting the most suitable for my theme. As a result, this movement weaves together quotes from Virgil, Kalil Gibran, Edgar Allen Poe, Jeremy Taylor, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Wolfgang Goethe, and Rabi’a alAdawiyya to form a story about love lost and regained. The skies are turning grey again. Before you turn away again, There’s something I must say and then I pray again You’ll stay: “Omnia vincit amor” Love conquers all, that’s what it’s for. Our friendship is a temple on the shore; Let’s try to explore The way. 15
Life without love is like a tree Without its blossom canopy. No fruit upon its limbs to see Or taste: to be Alone. And you, my breath, my hope, my friend, My wealth, my soul, my gentle wind, Were we to ever part, our paths to wend, We will have sinned To end. No dream on my mind will ever erase A dream (a dream) upon my heart. I without you or you without me, no “We”: Something that never should be. No rancour or wrath, together we’ll mend. Restoring our love is our great duty. Even the stone placed in one’s path Can be made into something of beauty. “Omnia vincit amor” Love conquers all, that’s what it’s for. Our temple reaches to the sky. Let’s climb up even higher, Above the ocean’s sapphire spray. Great dreamers never sleep, they say. Winged sandals on our feet will guide the way. Love is a friendship That is set on fire!
16
Movement IV – Voices from the Past •
•
•
This movement begins with a direct quote in the piano from Ottorino Respighi’s 1924 orchestral tone poem, The Pines of Rome. In the original work, the piano heralded the start of a nocturne set on Janiculum Hill, with a full moon shining on the pines that grow on it. I played The Pines of Rome when I was in high school in Texas and later with the Midland-Odessa Symphony. It has special memories for me. Driving into work in May, 2023, I was struck by the idea of inviting alumnae who have sung in Cantabile over the past ten years to participate in this project. I was delighted when 25 familiar Voices from the Past agreed. Some of their voices are pre-recorded from far-flung locations, and others are here, live, tonight. By joining with current Portsmouth High School students, they form an unbreakable bond between past and present. The lyrics for this movement are taken from a poem I saw posted on a wall in Palermo, Panormus XVI, by David Carrigan. They match perfectly my idea of bringing back Voices from the Past to comfort and guide the present generation: Although far, I am here I never left. I haven’t been anywhere Except the closest I have been with you. The globe may be divided Latitude, Borders, Oceans and seas. Longitude, Time zones, Walls and barriers. You say you miss me Don’t look over the fence Look within and you’ll find your little boy (child) there. I can’t be lost when I am at home.
•
During my time in Sicily, I had the incredible good fortune of meeting the world’s leading expert on Sicilian folk music, Girolamo ‘Gigi’ Garofalo. I met with him at his apartment and 17
listened to hours of music he had collected and transcribed, including songs by carrettieri, the horse-and-cart drivers from the town of Bagheria. Some of these ideas have found their way into this movement: • Typically, each cart driver’s song starts on the highest note of a Greek mode, shown here, and moves to its lowest note, the ‘final’. Halfway through, the cart-drivers’ songs always rest on the middle note, La (A). • Each cart driver has a unique and recognisable style, some quite simple and some elaborately decorative, but they always follow the structure described above. • When one cart driver has told his story, he then challenges the next cart driver to have his turn. In this piece, the melody is first heard by pre-recorded alumna, who then passes on to the next (live) singer, and finally to the whole group. • An ‘Easter egg’: the notes sung to ‘aah’ by the off-stage Voices in this movement are the first four notes of Mykola Leontovych’s Carol of the Bells, which is traditionally sung by Cantabile at the start of each PHS carol service. • The final section on this movement is inspired by Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday from Sunday in the Park with George. This moving song has been performed many times by PHS students over the years and has become the traditional piece to end concerts on school tours to places such as New York, Amsterdam, Belgium, and Italy.
18
Exciting things our music department is doing soon… Year 7 choir carolling at the Christmas Fair Saturday 2 December 2023 Members of Cantabile singing to veterans at Agamemnon House Wednesday 6 December 2023 Carol Service Friday 15 December 2023 Performing Arts trip to New York 12 – 17 February 2024 GDST Sing! In London Sunday 25 February 2024 Lunchtime recital Thursday 7 March 2024 Scholars and Leavers Concert Tuesday 23 Arpil 2024 19
Portsmouth High School
Kent Road, Southsea, Hampshire PO5 3EQ 023 9282 6714 admissions@por.gdst.net www.portsmouthhigh.co.uk Facebook.com/portsmouthhigh Twitter.com/Portsmouthhigh Instagram: Portsmouthhighuk