Bar Choral Society Programme May 2016

S P R I N G

nition has n rewards

CONCE RT

TEMPLE CHURCH

ponsor the Bar Choral ring Concert 2016

12 MAY 2016

e with important and often complex out their investments and financial plans. who have little time to spare.

rmation about our services, dential meeting to discuss your requirements, please contact:

THIS CONCERT IS GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY

andais and Business Development Director 15 6500 .landais@saundersonhouse.co.uk ndersonhouse.co.uk

Your wealth matters

Programme Ralph Vaughan Williams O clap your hands

Johannes Brahms Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen from Ein Deutsches Requiem

WE ACKNOWLEDGE AND OFFER OUR WARM THANKS FOR SUPPORT FOR THIS EVENING’S CONCERT

SPONSORED BY DR VANESSA DAVIES IN MEMORY OF HER FATHER PETER

Corporate sponsors Saunderson House

Franz Schubert Psalm 23

Piece Sponsors Dr Vanessa Davies

Josef Rheinberger

Patrons Rachel Avery and Richard Coleman QC Anthony Boswood QC Sappho Dias and Timothy Dutton CBE QC Caroline Hutton and Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP

Organ Solo: Introduction & Passacaglia from Sonata No. 8

Johannes Brahms Alto Rhapsody

Supporters HH Judge Toby Hooper QC

Edward Elgar Give unto the Lord

Associate David Wurtzel

Johannes Brahms

President: John Rutter CBE Music Director: Greg Morris Trustee: Anthony Boswood QC (Programme) Timothy Dutton CBE QC (Chairman) Kate Lumsdon (Choir) Stuart Ritchie QC (Marketing) Mark Trafford QC (Treasurer) Temple Church Robin Griffith-Jones (Master of the Temple) Secretary: Kay Matthews (kam@fountaincourt.co.uk)

Geistliches Lied Help and Administration Kay Matthews (Choir Secretary) Lucy Scutt (Administration) Caroline Phillips (Fundraising) Jacquelyn Bell (Media and Publicity) Temple Music Foundation (Box Office) Master of the Temple and the Temple Church Committee David Wurtzel (Programme Editor) Robert Cooper (Library Recording) Registered Charity Number 1163229

Hubert Parry I was glad Mezzo-soprano soloist Jennifer Johnston Organ soloist Roger Sayer Conductor and Music Director Greg Morris A reception in The Round Church will follow to which everyone is welcome GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY SAUNDERSON HOUSE 3

A SNAPSHOT When putting together the programme for the first Bar Choral Society concert nearly two years ago, I decided to find out who the 108 members were. Googling my way through the list led me to dozens of chambers websites and individual profiles. The full range of work practised by the Bar was represented. The choir also included pupils, a judge, relations and chambers staff, but the key word was, the Bar. Two Silks and three busy juniors made up the first set of choir biographies. Since then the programme has featured a mother and son (the barrister member of that family was the non-participant), a father and daughter, sisters and two sets of husbands and wives.

Now the net has been cast further. The backbone of the choir remains the Bar, but it is joined by solicitors, an American lawyer and Tim’s neighbour. What unites them is a passion for music and for singing which has played a huge part in their lives, going back to university if not before. Because they have practised law all over the world, they have sung all over the world—Brussels, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Scandinavia and the United States.

Two further themes emerge, both of which also have to do with choice. One is how much music has meant to the choir members, even if many have had to put it to one side for years because of the demands of their practices. The Bar Choral Society has given them the chance to sing in a choir again. The second theme is the choice—or perhaps the uneasy compromise— between pursuing the law and pursuing music. Earlier this year I attended a private performance of a ‘cut down’ version of The Marriage of Figaro. I had last seen the Count in his parallel career at the Bar, and if he can deal with judges as briskly as he dealt with Cherubino he will be a success both as a barrister and as a baritone. The Countess read law and joined an Inn, but while studying further in Rome she underwent a non-religious conversion, to become a singer.

There is a splendid precedent for such changes in careers. Last November, Tim Dutton wrote about tonight’s soloist, Jennifer Johnston. He first met her during the Keble Advanced Advocacy course, which he also founded. Jennifer told him that she was trying to decide between staying at the Bar and becoming a professional singer. Fortunately she made the right choice and tonight we reap the benefit.

Lawyers of all kind, lawyers-turned-singers, families and friends perform this evening. The two concerts last year coincided with ‘Magna Carta Year’, celebrating the 800th anniversary of the events some which took place right here. The centenary of the Great War is still being commemorated. Temple Church is one of those places which are forever in the hearts of the Bar, just as music is in the hearts of those who sing here tonight.

DAVID WURTZEL 4

With Passion

S

pring has finally overcome the challenges of unseasonal low pressures as we the choir must overcome the challenges presented by this evening’s pieces! Brahms, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Parry and Schubert; all in one evening, and none of it easy.

The choir started the year with an inspiring masterclass given to us in late January by Elin Manahan Thomas and Tom Guthrie. Elin sang the soprano solo in our performance of the Nelson Mass brilliantly last summer. She made the sopranos and altos feel as if they too could compete to be the BBC Voice of the Year, at least if the BBC had been good enough to drop into Temple Church at the end of an inspiring couple of hours. Tom Guthrie made the tenors and basses appreciate the importance of passion in how we express ourselves. By the end of our session, and if only he had asked, we were ready to join him on the stage of the Royal Opera House where he has just been Young Artist Stage Director to sing anything in Italian which might speak of death, love, or glory without distracting ourselves too much about note precision and tuning. The music, he said, sorts itself out if your head and feelings

are in the right place. And so it was: at the end of the masterclass we all joined together and spontaneously sang Deep River which was also one of our concert pieces from last summer.

This time it had conviction, passion, and we were in tune. The bass solo then was sung by DeAndre Simmons, in a stunning performance.

He has agreed to fly over from the States to join us again to sing the bass solo at our next concert...

Lord Justice Clarke who is this year’s Treasurer of Middle Temple has invited the choir to sing in Middle Temple Hall. We have taken up the invitation and will be singing The Creation on 16th November under Greg’s baton. Middle Temple Hall has a different acoustic from the Church but it lends itself perfectly to baroque orchestral and choral music. We are looking forward to our next challenge. Details of this and our other activities will be available on our website at www.barchoralsociety.co.uk and tickets will be at www.templemusic.org.uk

TIMOTHY DUTTON QC www.barchoralsociety.co.uk

Please join us at Middle Temple Hall on Wednesday November 16 when we will be performing Haydn’s THE CREATION with Greg Morris conducting.

The Temple Players and a superb line-up of soloists 5

SUPPORTING THE BAR CHORAL SOCIETY

Programme notes

There are a number of ways in which you can support the Bar Choral Society.

Join our mailing list Be the first to find out about our forthcoming concerts and other events at www. barchoralsociety.co.uk

Become an Associate

£100-249

Receive acknowledgement in the programme book and on the BCS website alongside other Associates, priority booking for future events

Become a Supporter

£250-£499

Receive acknowledgement in the programme book and on the BCS website alongside other Supporters, priority booking for future events

Become a Benefactor

£500-£999

Receive acknowledgement in the programme book and on the BCS website alongside other Benefactors, priority booking for future events

Become a Patron

£1,000 plus

Receive acknowledgement in the programme book and on the BCS website alongside other Patrons, priority booking for future events.

Sponsor a performer Support us by sponsoring the orchestra, conductor or individual soloists

Sponsor a piece

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS In a fashion similar to Elgar, and in complete contrast to Schubert, Ralph Vaughan Williams struggled to make his mark as a composer.

Although drawn to composition as a schoolboy, it was relatively late in his life that he made his mark in this area. He studied widely during the 1890s at Trinity College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music, where Parry was a very important influence and source of encouragement.

He later also had periods of study with Bruch in Berlin and Ravel in Paris. Nevertheless, Vaughan Williams had to overcome critics such as Charles Wood, who did not believe he would ever become a composer, and it was not until 1909-10, when he was in his late thirties, that a truly personal voice emerged in his music with works such as the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Much of his inspiration came from English folksong, and the golden period of English polyphonic music of the 16th and early 17th centuries, and once he had established his musical voice, he displayed a remarkable aptitude for renewal and reinvigoration within his music. O clap your hands, written in 1920, was originally scored for organ and brass ensemble, and the effect of the latter is clearly heard in the vocal writing throughout.

Support us by sponsoring particular choruses, arias or other items from our concert programmes.

Corporate Sponsors We can tailor a selection of benefits for Corporate Sponsors which can include: l Promoting your brand through our literature and media l Client entertainment at our concert venues l Networking opportunities l Opportunities to meet soloists and guest artists For more information about how you can support us please contact Caroline Phillips, Fundraising Consultant cphillips@caroline-phillips Tel 01249 716 716 Registered Charity Number 1163299 6

JOHANNES BRAHMS The composer featured most prominently in tonight’s programme is Johannes Brahms. Born in Hamburg in 1833, Brahms was a hugely talented pianist, but was to make his mark on history as a composer. Perhaps the most important single influence on his complex personality was his relationship with the Schumann family. Brahms

had first appeared in the Schumann household in 1854, a shy diffident young man whom Robert Schumann promptly declared, in a highly public fashion, to be the ‘saviour’ of German music.

Only a few months later, Robert attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Rhine, and was subsequently placed in an asylum which he never left until his death two years later. Brahms’ relationship with Robert’s wife, Clara, herself an internationally acclaimed pianist, was therefore forged in the fiercest of crucibles; to Johannes, Clara was a complicated mixture of surrogate mother, forbidden lover, close confidante, and a constant reminder of the huge expectation heaped on him by Robert. Their relationship was always close, but with periods of intense misunderstanding and difficulty. How much more complicated must it have been for Brahms when he began to develop a romantic interest in their daughter, Julie, in the 1860s. However he never made his feelings clear, and in 1869 she became engaged to a count. Brahms’ response to this has left posterity with one of the composer’s most heartfelt works, the Alto Rhapsody.

Brahms ironically described the work as his ‘Bridal Song’. He chose to set three stanzas from Goethe’s ode Harzreise im Winter. The first stanza depicts a young man seeking solitude in a desolate landscape, devastated in love. The second stanza forms an examination of his mental anguish, while the third is a prayer that he may find a melody to ‘restore his heart’. Brahms’ music reflects this tripartite structure in sections that can be loosely seen as analogous to a recit-aria-chorale sequence from a Baroque cantata. The rootless wandering around the home tonality of C minor in the opening section depicts the lover’s search for solitude in a pathless landscape. The heart of the work is the ‘aria’, with its impassioned rhetoric, the ambiguity of the rhythm (is it 6/4 or 3/2?) creating internal drama reflecting the anguished mental state of the protagonist. But this music 7

leads into a broad chorale-like melody in a warm C major, the young man’s fervent prayer to ‘restore his heart’ repeated three times at the end.

A week after Julie’s wedding, Brahms played the Alto Rhapsody to Clara. She wrote in her journal: ‘It is long since I remember being so moved by a depth of pain in words and music….

This piece seems to me neither more nor less than the expression of his own heart’s anguish. If only he would for once speak as tenderly!’

Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen comes from the largest work Brahms ever composed, Ein Deutsches Requiem, composed at least in part as a memorial to his beloved mother. Premiered in 1868, the year before the Alto Rhapsody, it was the first large-scale and unqualified success Brahms had as a composer. Wie lieblich is the central movement of seven, and sets words from Psalm 84 – in composing the Requiem, Brahms made his own selection of passages from the Lutheran Bible. It is a heartfelt expression of longing for the ‘courts of the Lord’.

If the Alto Rhapsody reflects the emotional turmoil Brahms was undergoing in the late 1860s, the Geistliche Lied encapsulates many important facets of his musical personality in a perfectly crafted miniature. Brahms was a rather unusual musician for his era in his love, study and performance of music from the Renaissance and Baroque eras. While many composers of his day were concerned with forging a ‘new’ music, often abandoning purely musical forms in favour of inspiration from extra-musical sources, Brahms was studying intensively older forms such as canon, fugue, variation technique and sonata form, the effects of which are clearly seen in the Geistliche Lied. Technically speaking, it is a double canon at the 7th – meaning the tenors and basses sing exactly the same music as the sopranos and altos, but one bar later and a tone lower. But while it may be a technical tour-de-force, it is 8

far from a dry academic exercise - indeed, the expression in the music is purely Romantic.

Combining these two facets of composition in quite this way was Brahms’ unique genius.

FRANZ SCHUBERT Born in Vienna in 1797 and the son of a schoolmaster, Franz Schubert studied the piano and violin at a young age. He also served as a chorister at the church of Lichtental, until he came to the attention of Antonio Salieri, who urged him to apply for the choir of the Imperial Chapel, which he joined in 1808. His immersion in the culture of the musical capital of Europe resulted in 1815 in a quite astonishing musical awakening. Schubert began composing a few works to escape the boredom of his teaching job, but in 1815 the trickle abruptly became a torrent – about 20,000 bars of music that year alone, a compositional awakening without parallel in Western music. The works composed during this time include the completion of his second symphony and the entirety of his third, a string quartet, four Singspiele, several substantial works for piano, various church works involving orchestra, and more than 140 songs, the incomparable Erlkönig among them.

By 1820, Schubert was beginning to establish a reputation in Vienna as master of song and he composed his setting of Psalm 23 for a musical soirée in December of that year. The first performance was given by four musical sisters, Barbara, Kathi, Josefine and Anna Fröhlich, and it soon became a public favourite. Indeed, unusually for Schubert’s works, it was published relatively quickly, in 1832.

JOSEF RHEINBERGER The son of the treasurer of the Prince of Liechtenstein, Josef Rheinberger was born in Vaduz in 1839. A talented young musician, he became organist there at the age of only seven. In 1851, he went to Munich to study, and it became his permanent home. Having studied at the conservatory there, he became a member of staff in 1859, a professor in 1867 and a much soughtafter and highly revered teacher. The conductor Hans Bülow said, ‘Rheinberger is a truly ideal teacher of composition, unrivalled in the whole of Germany and beyond in skill, refinement and devotion to his subject; in short, one of the worthiest musicians and human beings in the world.’ Rheinberger was a prolific composer in a wide variety of genres, and his music is notable for its superb craftsmanship and polyphonic coherence – very much in the spirit of Brahms.

His twenty Organ Sonatas lie at the heart of his compositional output and contain some of his finest music. The eighth was written in October 1882, and Rheinberger also made arrangements of the Passacaglia heard tonight for piano and for orchestra.

HUBERT PARRY Charles Hubert Parry was a prominent figure in the renaissance of English music towards the end of the nineteenth century, whose forceful personality and high aesthetic standards had a great influence on his students and the general artistic life of his time. He joined the staff of the Royal College of Music at its inception in 1883, becoming its director in 1894, and as such was an important influence on later generations. He himself was heavily influenced by the music of

Brahms, writing an Elegy for Brahms on the death of the older composer in 1897. I was glad was composed for the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, and has been sung at every coronation since during the monarch’s entry into Westminster Abbey.

EDWARD ELGAR Born in Worcester in 1857, for many years Elgar struggled to make his mark as a composer. For a long while he made his living as a violinist, teacher and in other local musical capacities. His first big break in London came in 1899, with the first performance of his Enigma Variations, and the Dream of Gerontius followed a year later. The following years leading up to the outbreak of the First World War saw the composition of some of Elgar’s finest works, including the First Symphony and two oratorios, The Apostles and The Kingdom.

Give unto the Lord dates from the very end of this period, composed for the 200th anniversary service of the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1914. It displays a grandeur suited to the vast spaces of St Paul’s, and was first heard with orchestral accompaniment, though simultaneously published for organ. Elgar responds to the words of Psalm 29 with vigorous and powerfully contrapuntal choral writing, but with a gentle central interlude providing contrast, and an exquisite prayer for peace to close the work.

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Programme O clap your hands

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) Organ Solo: Introduction & Passacaglia from Sonata no. 8

PSALM 47

Alto Rhapsody

O clap your hands, all ye people : shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

For the Lord most high is terrible : He is a great King over all the earth.

God is gone up with a shout : the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

Sing praises to God, sing praises : sing praises to our King; sing praises.

For God is the King of all the earth : sing ye praises with understanding.

God reigneth over the heathen : God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness.

Sing praises unto our King.

Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen PSALM 84 1-4

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herre Zebaoth!

Mein’ Seel’ verlanget und sehnet sich nach den Vorhöfen des Herren; mein Leib und Seele freuet sich in dem lebendigen Gott.

How lovely are thy dwelling places, O Lord of Hosts!

My soul requires and yearns for the courts of the Lord; My body and soul rejoice in the living God.

Wohl denen, die in deinem Hause wohnen, die loben dich immerdar

Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they praise you forever

PSALM 23 Franz Schubert (1797-1828) The Lord is my shepherd : therefore can I lack nothing.

He shall feed me in a green pasture : and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort.

He shall convert my soul : and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness, for his Name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil :

for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me.

Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me :

thou hast anointed my head with oil, and my cup shall be full.

But thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life :

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

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Johannes Brahms from Harzreise im Winter by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Aber abseits wer ist’s?

Im Gebüsch verliert sich sein Pfad; hinter ihm schlagen die Sträuche zusammen, das Gras steht wieder auf, die Öde verschlingt ihn.

But who is that apart?

His path disappears in the bushes; behind him the branches spring together; the grass stands up again; the wasteland engulfs him.

Ach, wer heilet die Schmerzen dess, dem Balsam zu Gift ward?

Der sich Menschenhaß aus der Fülle der Liebe trank!

Erst verachtet, nun ein Verächter, zehrt er heimlich auf seinen eigenen Wert In ungenügender Selbstsucht.

Ah, who heals the pains of him for whom balsam turned to poison?

Who drank hatred of man from the abundance of love?

First scorned, now a scorner, he secretly feeds on his own merit, in unsatisfying selfishness.

Ist auf deinem Psalter, Vater der Liebe, ein Ton seinem Ohre vernehmlich, so erquicke sein Herz! Öffne den umwölkten Blick über die tausend Quellen neben dem Durstenden in der Wüste!

If there is on your psaltery,[ Father of love, one note his ear can hear, then refresh his heart!

Open his clouded gaze to the thousand springs next to him who thirsts in the wilderness!

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Give unto the Lord Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

PSALM 29 Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty : give unto the Lord glory and strength.

Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name : worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters : the God of glory thundereth.

It is the Lord that ruleth the sea; the voice of the Lord is mighty in operation :

the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars : yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.

Yea, the voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire :

yea, the voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness and strippeth the forests bare.

In his temple doth everyone speak of his glory.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

The Lord sitteth above the water-flood : and the Lord remaineth a King for ever; The Lord shall give strength unto his people : the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.

Geistliches Lied Johannes Brahms Laß dich nur nichts nicht dauren mit Trauren, Do not be sorrowful or regretful; sei stille, wie Gott es fügt, Be calm, as God has ordained, so sei vergnügt mein Wille! and thus my will shall be content.

Was willst du heute sorgen auf morgen?

Der Eine steht allem für, der gibt auch dir das Deine.

Sei nur in allem Handel ohn Wandel, steh feste, was Gott beschleußt, das ist und heißt das Beste.

Amen.

What do you want to worry about from day to day?

There is One who stands above all who gives you, too, what is yours.

Only be steadfast in all you do, stand firm; what God has decided, that is and must be the best.

I was glad

GREG MORRIS (Conductor and Music Director) reg Morris is Associate Organist of the Temple Church in London, Musical Director of Collegium Musicum of London, and founding Musical Director of the Bar Choral Society.

An acclaimed solo recitalist, Greg has performed widely throughout the UK and Europe. He gave the world premiere of David Briggs’ Organ Concerto, and subsequently recorded the work with the Northern Chamber Orchestra. His three solo CDs have received widespread critical acclaim; the most recent, the first to be recorded on the newly restored organ of the Temple Church, was released by Signum in 2014, and has been described by Gramophone as ‘a singularly impressive release’. His recital last year commemorating the 150th anniversary of Nielsen’s birth, including the composer’s final work Commotio, was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and forthcoming recitals include performances in the ‘Münchner Orgelsommer’, and in Rosenheim, Germany.

Since 2006, Greg has accompanied the acclaimed Temple Church Choir. He has performed with them on BBC Radio 3, in CD recordings, and in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen, as well as on tours to Washington D.C. and Holland. He has appeared at the BBC Proms with the BBC Singers, and is in demand as a freelance accompanist and ensemble player.

G

Greg also works extensively as a conductor.

Recent highlights have included directing the Temple Singers and Players in Purcell’s magnificent ode, Hail! Bright Cecilia in Middle Temple Hall, and conducting Collegium Musicum of London in Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem in a new chamber version at St James’ Piccadilly. Plans for this year include Arion and the Dolphin, a new work by Jonathan Dove, and Haydn’s Creation.

Greg held scholarships at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, Jesus College, Cambridge and St Martin-in-the-Fields. He was awarded the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians for his prize-winning performance in the FRCO diploma, and was subsequently Assistant Director of Music at Blackburn Cathedral.

Hubert Parry (1848-1918)

PSALM 122. 1-3, 6-7 I was glad when they said unto me: We will go into the house of the Lord.

Our feet shall stand in thy gates: O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is built as a city: that is at unity in itself.

O pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

Peace be within thy walls: and plenteousness within thy palaces.

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BIOGRAPHIES JENNIFER JOHNSTON (Guest Mezzo-Soprano) ennifer Johnston, the dramatic mezzosoprano, was named by both BBC Music Magazine and the Observer as ‘a rising star’, and the Financial Times as the ‘Face to Watch in Opera’. A former BBC New Generation Artist, she is a graduate of Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music, and is the recipient of numerous awards. She has appeared in opera at the Teatro alla Scala, Salzburg Festival, Bayerische Staatsoper, Festival d’Aix en Provence, Opera de Lille, Beijing Festival, Baltic Sea Festival, Scottish Opera and Opera North. Her roles include Fricka, Waltraute, Second Norn, Wellgunde, Gaia, Lady de Hautdesert, Jocasta, Hedwige, Lucretia, Margret, Dido, Hänsel, Mrs Noye, Third Lady, Mrs Herring, Mrs Sedley, Giovanna Seymour and Agrippina.

She has performed with many of the world’s greatest orchestras in repertoire spanning the centuries, from Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Dallas Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, both under Jaap Van Zweden, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the National Youth Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko at the BBC Proms, Mahler’s Second Symphony with the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra under Alondra de la Parra, Schumann’s Faustszenen with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester under Daniel Harding, and as Lady de Hautdesert in Birtwistle’s Gawain with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins.

She has appeared under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner as Jocasta in Oedipus Rex with the London Symphony Orchestra (released as an LSO Live disc), in Bruckner’s Mass No.1 with the Bayerische Rundfunks Sinfonieorchester, in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Orchestra Revolutionnaire et Romantique in Lucerne, and at the BBC Proms broadcast on BBC4, Carnegie

J

Jennifer Johnston 14

Hall and on an extended tour around Europe and the USA in both Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis with the ORR (released on disc by SDG). She has also worked with Kirill Petrenko, Sir Andrew Davis, Kent Nagano, Ingo Metzmacher, Bernard Labadie, Kiril Karabits, Dan Ettinger, Thomas Søndergård, David Atherton, Alexander Shelley, Cornelius Meister, David Hill, Thomas Dausgaard, Thierry Fischer, Leonard Slatkin, Harry Bicket and Laurence Cummings.

A noted singer of contemporary music, she has performed and recorded a number of world premieres, including Anthony Payne’s orchestration of Vaughan Williams’ Four Last Songs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä at the BBC Proms, Copland’s In The Beginning with the BBC Singers broadcast live on Radio 3, Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen at the London Song Festival and two song cycles by Cheryl Frances Hoad recorded for Champs Hill Records. She made her solo recital debut at the Wigmore Hall broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and has appeared in recital at the Cheltenham, City of London, Brighton, Perth and Aldeburgh festivals and at the Sage in Gateshead.

Jennifer’s engagements in the 2015-6 Season include Leda in Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae at the Salzburg Festival (Hermanis/Welser-Möst), Jocasta in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Mahler’s Third Symphony and Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Möst, Mahler’s Second Symphony with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under de la Parra, Schumann’s Faustszenen with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Harding, Berio’s Folksongs, Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne, Shostakovitch’s Jewish Songs, Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied and Tippett’s Child of our Time with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Petrenko, Mozart’s Requiem with both the 15

PROGRAMME

Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra under Delfs and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Søndergård, Mahler’s Second Symphony with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Mena, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius at Saffron Hall under Cleobury, and she will record Anthony Payne’s arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ Four Last Songs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Brabbins for Albion Records.

ROGER SAYER (organist)

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oger Sayer is Organist and Director of Music at The Temple Church, London, having previously held the same position at Rochester Cathedral. He is also Deputy Chorus Director and Accompanist to the London Symphony Chorus.

In his early years Roger was an organ student at St Paul’s Cathedral and also won many prizes for organ playing as a student at the Royal College of Music. Notably his success as a prize winner in the 1989 St Albans International Organ Competition led to a career of international recital tours which take him all over the world. He has made many recordings both as organist and conductor which have received wide critical acclaim. In 2005 he completed the complete organ works of Bach.

Roger’s first recording with the Temple Church Choir, A Knight’s Progress, was released earlier this year, which features Our Present Charter, by the American Composer, Nico Muhly, written for the Choir to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta. The CD includes 16

additional music by Haydn, Parry, Walton and Vaughan Williams.

Under his direction the Temple Church Choir has performed live on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, the Cadogan Hall, in Washington DC and, more recently, Holland, and the Far East and Australia this July. Roger is organ soloist on the soundtrack of the blockbuster film Interstellar and, in May this year, will perform the score live at the Royal Albert Hall. His organ performances and recordings are numerous and, will have soon completed the twenty sonatas of Rheinberger.

GILES ADAMS (bass)

I

am a solicitor and after twenty years of litigating in private practice, in 2004 I changed my spots and moved in house to do commercial and regulatory work in an insurance company.

When I started practice, back in the early 1980s, I gained the impression that fraternisation between the Bar and my profession was frowned upon. One day at court, by chance I met a barrister who had supplemented his early income by supervising first years at Cambridge. He remembered me and invited me to lunch in Inner Temple Hall. However, having arrived, I had to make a hasty withdrawal under questioning by his fellow barristers as to what I was doing there.

Fortunately, it seems no such obstacles remain and I am delighted to have the opportunity to sing with the Bar Choral Society, at the suggestion of my old friend Derrick Dale QC. Music has always been part of my life, though active music-making has ebbed and flowed with

professional and family commitments. I have been fortunate to sing a wide repertoire, in all sorts of choirs and in every part. However, having descended fairly rapidly through the registers in adolescence I have been a baritone for most of my singing career.

I started serious singing in the 13th century chapel of my (and Shakespeare’s) school and with the local choral society in my home town of Stratford-upon-Avon. At university, I became a choral exhibitioner in Emmanuel College Chapel Choir and enjoyed singing Evensong in many wonderful cathedrals. In my year at the College of Law, I sang with Guildford Choral Society – but drank with the cathedral choir, who encouraged me to join Horniman Singers, under Sebastian Forbes, when I went to London to start work.

In the late 1980s, my firm seconded me to Hong Kong where I sang with the Hong Kong Bach Choir (including one concert broadcast on BFBS) and took part in Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony in one of the first performances in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Following my return to London I have sung with various groups – most recently, with the Financial Times Choir and Walbrook Singers.

DAVID CLASEN (tenor)

M

y only formal musical education is Grade VIII violin, Grade V theory and Grade IV piano but I was lucky enough to spend my second and third years at Magdalen College as an Academical Clerk (a ‘choral scholar’ elsewhere) and picked up a few

tricks. This led to many happy years singing close harmony with Robin Hodson, Paul Agnew and Roderick Williams, first as ‘Balfour Chorus’ and then as ‘Voice Traffic.’ The BBC hired us for radio and TV; we toured the UK, France, Luxembourg, and Scandinavia; and we had a jingle playing in Sweden for a long time. Our first album ‘Greatest Hits Vol.III’ sold modestly. Our second album, produced by the great Mike Vernon and paid for

by Polygram, did worse: it was never released.

More recently, I have ‘depped’ in various professional choirs, with an extended stint at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Sydney, but mostly in London churches. These include the Temple Church Choir, which might be my connexion with the Bar Choral Society. It isn’t and neither is the fact that ¬– very flatteringly – I am often mistaken for a lawyer. Instead, I have the pleasure of living next door to the Bar Choral Society’s illustrious Chairman and he is a very persuasive man.

TOM COCKCROFT (bass)

M

uch as my work at the criminal Bar should be perfect preparation for it, I’m absolutely hopeless at sightreading. I was delighted, therefore, to discover a choir nearby where I could give it a go without an audition, surrounded by excellent singers and under a choirmaster as patient as Greg. Music, in particular choral music, is one of my greatest passions but, aside from the occasional foray in the shower, I haven’t sung since school so it’s been a real pleasure to get to know the pieces 17

BIOGRAPHIES

first hand I look forward to plenty more concerts to come.

DIANA GOOD (Alto)

I

’ve always loved singing in choirs and have sung alto in Oxford, Brussels and London. So it was a great pleasure when Tim Dutton (who I first met when we were students in Oxford) invited me to join the choir even though I’m not a barrister. I was a litigation partner with Linklaters and retired from the City after 30 years there. I was also a Recorder for 11 years sitting at Wood Green and Snaresbrook Crown Courts. I now work in international development and was a Commissioner with the UK aid watchdog (ICAI, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact) for the last 4 years and am now a specialist adviser to the International Development Committee in the House of Commons. Both roles involve scrutinising the £12 billion per annum of UK taxpayers’ money which is spent on international aid to see whether it is well spent and making the difference it should. It’s been fascinating work calling on my experience of investigations and report writing. ICAI has published 46 reports in 4 years) and has required a lot of travel including to Pakistan, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Rwanda, and Ethiopia.

I’ve always loved singing since I watched my mother singing in choirs when I was a little girl growing up in Bolton. I’ve sung with the Brussels Choral Society (when I was the partner in charge of Linklaters’ Brussels office) which performed in the Brussels equivalent of the Festival Hall which 18

I’ve also performed in with the 350 voices of Barts Choir. It’s a great experience to sing with a huge choir but I prefer the size of this choir. I’m trying to improve my sight singing skills by doing a sight singing class at the Mary Ward Centre. Singing out loud unaccompanied in front of the class is one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. but it seems to help!

It’s such a great idea of Tim’s to get this choir going. It’s a real privilege to sing in such beautiful surroundings under the excellent and efficient guidance of Greg Morris. Thank you!

AMANDA SAVAGE (soprano)

M

usic has always been close to my heart. As a child and teenager I played the piano and cello, and sang.

At university I was a soloist with, and Musical Director of, the Gilbert and Sullivan Society (thus learning the ‘art’ of conducting and singing whilst less than sober). I then sang with the Oxford Bach Choir, which was followed by several years singing with a very good chamber choir based at St. Bartholomew the Great.

Music took a back seat for a number of years, as two small boys and a very busy practice intervened. In early 2014, perhaps coinciding with reaching the age at which, apparently, life begins, I decided it was high time I got back to music. As serendipity would have it, at around that time a colleague in chambers had lunch with one Mr Timothy Dutton QC, who told her that he was starting a choir. He inquired whether she could sing. She answered that she could not, but that

she knew someone who could. At least one of those answers was (mostly) true. The stars were aligned.

The choir is partly responsible for my reawakened love of all things musical. I hadn’t realised how much I missed it. I have started playing the piano again, and have had a few singing lessons (with Grace Davidson, our soloist for the first BCS concert. I thought she was brilliant and was inspired to contact her and ask if she’d give me a few lessons. If you don’t ask, you don’t get). I have been enjoying some of the fantastic music concerts London has to offer. I have even started ‘composing’ again: something I have not done since I was a teenager, although I don’t think I will give up the day job just yet.

In day to day life I am a barrister at 4 New Square, where I practise in insurance, professional negligence and general commercial work. I also sit as a judge on the Bar Tribunal panel. Work can be all consuming, and stressful, so Monday night rehearsals are a great antidote. Notwithstanding its demands, the Bar remains a fantastic profession and I consider it a privilege to be a member of it, and to work with the people I do.

It is an utter delight to sing in the BCS choir. It contains some talented singers and we have (so far!) given some great concerts even if, to the despair of our amazing and ever patient conductor, Greg, we do not always pull it out of the bag until the last minute. Above all it is a lot of fun. It is, frankly, life affirming and good for the soul. I hope you get, and take away with you, a sense of that joy tonight.

JEFF TRINKLEIN (tenor)

I

am a new joiner and appreciate the warm welcome into the Bar Choral Society. I am a little unusual in that I am (a) American and (b) neither a solicitor nor a barrister, but rather

a New York-, Texasand Californiaqualified lawyer.

When a barrister friend mentioned a lawyer’s choir located just three minutes from the offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, I decided to learn more, and have been delighted with the music and the spirit of our tenor section.

A lawyer’s professional life is rarely harmonious and on the beat, so escaping to the Bar Choral Society practices has been a delightful change of pace. I have been singing for far longer than I have been a lawyer, as I grew up the son of a Lutheran pastor who always had the loudest singing voice in the congregation. During my many years I have been a member of more choirs in more churches than I care to count, but I am very pleased to add the Bar Choral Society and the Temple Church to the list.

NAOMI ELLENBOGEN QC

I

grew up in Liverpool and had the joy and privilege of attending King David Primary and High Schools, which encouraged musicality from the earliest of ages. I have very fond memories of singing in the primary school choir, under the patient (usually) tutelage of Jon Stringfellow, and of lustily belting out ‘If you cross a mouse with an elephant, you get big holes in the skirting board’ as a round. Of such things was a love of singing born.

As a child, I 19

CHOIR MEMBERS learned to play the violin, viola and piano and enjoyed playing duets with each of my two sisters and participating in school orchestras, choirs and chamber groups. My father passed on his love of opera and of Gilbert and Sullivan to me and my mother her love of jazz. There was the memorable afternoon on which I split my head open, dancing enthusiastically to Bucks Fizz’s ‘Making Your Mind Up’, the year they won the Eurovision Song Contest. On that occasion, my father’s role was to stitch me back together again. (I should, perhaps, note that he was a GP!) I continue to enjoy an eclectic mix of highbrow and decidedly lowbrow music.

Inevitably, a career at the Bar gradually eroded the time available to practise my scales. When I could find time, I found myself frustrated that I could no longer play or sing at the levels I had previously achieved and my violin, viola and vocal chords gathered rather a lot of dust. The Bar Choral Society and its terrific musical director, Greg Morris, have reawakened my joy in singing and playing music, rather than confining myself to listening to it and frightening fellow road-users as I draw up to a set of traffic lights singing my heart out. The music is challenging, varied and joyous and it has been a delight to rediscover how mentally and physically uplifting rehearsals and concerts are. My husband has recently encouraged me to take up the piano again, which has also been life-enriching (at least, for me!).

After twenty-four happy and fulfilling years at the Bar, I am proud to be Joint Head of Littleton Chambers; a set I joined as a pupil. I specialise in employment and commercial law. Since January, I have been Vice-Chairman of the Bar Standards Board. It can all get terribly serious. Music - and the Bar Choral Society in particular - provides the perfect way to unwind and recharge batteries.

It is a long time since I crossed a mouse with an elephant, but it makes me feel the same age.

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SOPRANOS

ALTOS

TENORS

Helen Barlow Emily Barritt Amanda Bostock Cecily Crampin Felicity Davies Laura Deuxberry Pia Dutton Nina Goolimali Elizabeth Grace Harriet Green Sophia Hurst Hannah Jones Ruth Jones Paola Kovacz von Csaky Harriet Lavis Kate Lumsdon Jennifer MacLeod Jennifer McBride Natalie McNamee Kate Merz Gay Moon Lesley Neenan Lucinda Orr Mary Page Erica Power Jane Reeves Faye Rolfe Amanda Savage Philippa Scott Rosie Scott Nicola Shannon Anne Smallwood Julie Pritchard-Wall Christina White Jenny White

Catherine Callaghan Victoria Clarke Diana Cotton QC Martha Cover Camilla Darling Lyndsey de Mestre Naomi Ellenbogen QC Diana Good Caroline Hutton Linden Ife Maggie Jones Julia Krish Daphne Perry Lucy Scutt Stephanie Talbot Victoria von Wachter

Anthony Boswood QC Michael Chapman David Clasen Matthew Hardwick QC Matthew Knowles Paolo Sidoli Patrick Talbot QC Jeffrey Trinklein Christopher Walter Mirka Zemanova

BASS/BARITONES Giles Adams Francis Barlow QC Mark Bryant-Heron QC Tom Cockroft Derrick Dale QC Timothy Dutton CBE QC David Green Francis Hoar Marc Maitland Alex Milner Ashitey Ollennu Andrew Peebles Stuart Ritchie QC Chris Russell John Schmitt Gavin Smith Robin Tam QC Mark Trafford QC Edmund Vickers Sam Wallace

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Legal Harmony and City Music Services presents a

REHEARSAL PROGRAMME Autumn 2016

Musical Gala Charity

Rehearsals take place from 6.00 pm to 7.30 pm in Temple Church. Music will include The Creation, with soloists Andrew Tortise (tenor) and De Andre Simmons (bass) The concert will be on Wednesday, 16th November 2016 at 7.00 pm in Temple Church. The music will be provided ahead of rehearsals starting. Please make sure you bring the music with you All the rehearsal dates are Mondays

SEPTEMBER 12th (Monday) 19th (Monday) 26th (Monday)

Sopranos and Altos Tenors and Basses Sopranos and Altos

OCTOBER 3rd (Monday) 10th (Monday) 17th (Monday) 24th (Monday) 31st (Monday)

Tenors and Basses Full Choir Full Choir Full Choir Full Choir

the n o t u o s is m Don’t 2016 legal event of

8th June 2016 Start time 7.30pm

CENTRAL HALL WESTMINSTER

NOVEMBER 7th (Monday) 14th (Monday) 16th (Wednesday)

Full Choir Full Choir 5.00pm Rehearsal 7.00pm Concert

rchestra O y n o h p m y S l t h e N a t io nioaus legal firms and chambers in London , t t e r r a G restig L e s le y of the most p e ers from som

@musicalgala2016 #JustSing2016

and 180 sing

Tickets

available online from

ÂŁ15.00

Raising awareness of and funds for:

22

www.legalmusicalgala.co.uk

Recognition has its own rewards Proud to Sponsor the Bar Choral Society Spring Concert 2016 Our clients are people with important and often complex decisions to make about their investments and financial plans.

They are busy people who have little time to spare.

Ring any bells?

If you would like information about our services, or to arrange a confidential meeting to discuss your own asset or wealth requirements, please contact:

Beverly Landais Marketing and Business Development Director T: 020 7315 6500 E: beverly.landais@saundersonhouse.co.uk www.saundersonhouse.co.uk

Your wealth matters 24Saunderson House is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.