Bach: Magnificat Roth: A Time to Dance

Our 90th ANNIVERSARY SEASON continues with a performance of Bach’s much-loved Magnificat, and Alec Roth’s A Time To Dance, a joyous celebration of times and seasons, and composed as a companion piece to the Magnificat.

Georgie Malcolm Soprano

Patrick Craig Alto

Chris Willoughby Tenor

Alex Bower-Brown Baritone

Goldsmiths Choral Union

Imperial College Chamber Choir

Affinity 415 Chamber Orchestra, featuring period instruments

Jack Apperley Conductor

INTERVAL – 25 MINUTES

Georgie Malcolm soprano

Georgie Malcolm studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, gaining both her MMus and PGDip with distinction under Susan Roper and Elizabeth Ritchie. She received second prize at the National Mozart Singing Competition 2022, also winning their Schubert prize, and is fast establishing herself as a versatile singer of opera, oratorio and song.

Her operatic roles include La Contessa Di Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro at the RNCM (for which she was called ‘superb’ and praised for her ‘confident legato’), Venus in Blow’s Venus and Adonis in a touring production in Italy with L’Offerta Musicale di Venezia, and Monica in Menotti’s The Medium also at the RNCM. In 2022 she appeared as an emergency cover in Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park for Waterperry Opera, having learnt the role (Aunt Norris) previously at the RNCM. She was also a Young Artist at Buxton International Festival last summer, singing in the chorus of Rossini’s La Donna Del Lago and covering the role of Cleopatra in Antonio e Cleopatra by Hasse. In the Autumn of 2022 she joined the chorus of Opera North for a tour of Verdi’s La Traviata.

Georgie is gaining recognition on the concert platform, regularly performing as a soloist in oratorios and other concert works throughout the UK. Recent highlights include her Royal Albert Hall debut in Handel’s Messiah with The Really Big Chorus, conducted by Brian Kay, Handel’s Athalia (singing Josabeth) at Dartington Festival conducted by Laurence Cummings, Haydn’s Creation at Buxton International Festival, and Haydn’s Harmoniemesse with the BBC Philharmonic at the Bridgewater Hall under Ben Gernon, which was later broadcast on Radio 3. This evening marks her debut at Cadogan Hall.

Patrick Craig alto

Patrick Craig has had a varied and unique career combining singing, conducting and lecturing. He has sung countertenor with St Paul’s Cathedral Choir for over twenty-five years and is also a member of the award-winning group The Cardinall’s Musick. For twenty years he also toured the world singing a thousand concerts with The Tallis Scholars.

Patrick studied at the Royal College of Music with Ashley Stafford, where he sang lead roles in two Handel operas. He regularly sings Messiah, St John Passion and Nelson Mass solos in St Paul’s Cathedral, and has enjoyed recent solo opportunities singing Bach’s B minor Mass in St John’s Smith Square alongside Mary Bevan and Messiah solos in Etchingham alongside Emma Kirkby. He has also performed regular Passiontide recitals with Lucy Winkett in St James’ Piccadilly including performances of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. He founded and directs this country’s foremost professional all-female choir Aurora Nova, who have led worship at St Paul’s Cathedral for the past 25 years, commissioning new music from many of this country’s leading choral composers.

He has guest conducted the City of London Sinfonia in St Paul’s, The Tallis Scholars at the BBC Proms in the Royal

Albert Hall, and The Cardinall’s Musick at the Brighton, Aldeburgh and Lichfield Festivals. He also leads workshops for amateur singers across the world and lectures on sacred choral music in its historical and cultural context.

Christopher Willoughby tenor

Christopher Willoughby was born in the UK where he began his musical training as a chorister at Westminster Abbey. He is currently completing his studies at the MDW in Vienna under the tutelage of Florian Boesch and Margit Klaushofer before beginning a new contract in the International Opera Studio at Zürich Opera House for the 2023-24 season. With a passion for both lied and oratorio Christopher has a varied schedule exploring multiple disciplines.

The 2021-22 season saw appearances as Grimoaldo in Handel’s Rodelinda, Osmida in Holzbauer’s Der Tod der Dido in the Schlosstheater, Schönbrunn Palace and First Sailor in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in Stift Melk. Oratorio highlights included performances as the Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion in Bristol and the Brandenburg Festival in London.

Christopher won the Charles Wood Song Competition in Northern Ireland and was a finalist in the Marilyn Horne Song Competition in California. The 2022-23 season will see him performing the title role in Mozart’s Idomeneo at Schlosstheater, Schönbrunn Palace, Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, and oratorio appearances include tenor soloist in Die Schöpfung by Haydn in Vienna, and the Bach St Matthew Passion in the Netherlands.

Alex Bower-Brown baritone

Alex Bower-Brown is a British baritone, currently studying with a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. Alex studies with the professors Glenville Hargreaves and Iain Ledingham. Whilst at the Academy, Alex has been a regular performer in the Royal Academy Bach consort, performing with some of the best conductors of our age including Philippe Herreweghe, John Butt and Jane Glover. A highlight of the series was singing ‘Pilate’ in a production of Bach’s great work, the St John Passion, conducted by Philippe Herreweghe. He has also performed in the Royal Academy operas production of Massenet’s Cherubin. In 2020 Alex performed the title role in Michael Finnissy’s new opera Mankind in a series of premiere performances around Norfolk.

Alex has a wealth of experience singing both as a soloist and in choirs. He has performed as a soloist in a wide variety of works including Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Brahms’ Requiem and Die Sprecher in Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte (Cavatina Opera Company). As a member of professional choirs Alex has toured much of the USA and Europe, singing in some of the most illustrious venues in the world including the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, the Sheldonian Theatre, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and St Thomas’ 5th Avenue in New York.

Jack Apperley conductor

Jack graduated from the Royal Academy of Music where, under the tutelage of Patrick Russill, he obtained a Masters in Choral Conducting. He was awarded a Distinction and received the Sir Thomas Armstrong Choral Leadership Prize. He studied Music at the University of Birmingham where he was mentored by Simon Halsey CBE.

Since taking up his position as Music Director of Goldsmiths Choral Union, he has conducted the choir in performances of Haydn’s The Creation, McDowall’s Da Vinci Requiem, Haydn’s Mass in Time of War, Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs, Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine, and Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass.

He is the Music Director and Conductor of the Imperial College Chamber Choir and Concordia Voices. He is also the conductor of University Upper Voices at the University of Birmingham. He is an assistant Chorus Director of the London Symphony Chorus where he has helped prepare the chorus for conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Antonio Pappano and John Adams.

Affinity 415 Chamber Orchestra

The Affinity Chamber Orchestra is a professional Londonbased orchestra working in partnership with choirs, composers and event organisers. Founded in early 2022 by its current musical director, Matthew Down, it performed its successful debut concert with Goldsmiths Choral Union at Cadogan Hall, the programme consisting of Cecilia McDowall’s Da Vinci Requiem (2019), Joseph Haydn’s Mass in Time of War and Peter Warlock’s Capriol Suite.

The orchestra’s players are highly skilled musicians, many of whom are respected teachers of their instruments, who perform with leading London and international orchestras, seasoned chamber groups and as soloists. The orchestra aims to showcase its musicians, bringing life to creative ideas and projects in all styles of music.

Matthew Down musical director

In addition to being the founder and musical director of the Affinity 415 Chamber Orchestra, Matthew has many years’ experience as a conductor, trumpetplayer and teacher. He has a broad range of musical tastes, ranging from baroque to pop, performing music with great musicians and friends being at the heart of his musical life.

Hello and welcome to this evening’s concert - two uplifting and inspiring compositions written 300 years apart, both bursting with dancing, energetic rhythms, stimulating texts and vibrant musical images.

This is a programme that I have wanted to perform for a long time. Familiar with Bach, I was introduced to Alec Roth’s music at the Association of British Choral Directors summer convention several years ago. Since then, I have performed and recorded his music with the Imperial College Chamber Choir, and it was this that made me think it was a wonderful opportunity to establish a collaboration between ICCC and GCU.

A Time to Dance was originally commissioned to share a concert with Bach’s Magnificat. Both works use the same orchestral forces and can be performed at either modern pitch A440, or Baroque pitch which is a little lower at A415. We have chosen Baroque pitch which enables the contemporary piece to take on a different sound quality. Roth substitutes the timpanist for an elaborate percussion section that includes a washboard, a desk-bell and a fly swat.

There is a further connection between the two pieces. Bach was a contemporary of Vivaldi’s and often copied down scores of his concertos. The opening chorus of Magnificat with its intricate and rhythmic energy is reminiscent of Vivaldi’s influence. So, too, in Roth’s A Time to Dance, with its whole structure taken from the seasons of the year, there are four occasions when hints of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons have worked their way into the music.

Both works are incredibly rhythmically demanding for the choir. The long baroque runs of semi-quavers in the Bach require great agility from the singers and the persistent syncopations in the Roth need great mental concentration and panache. However, there are also great moments of poise and grandeur in both pieces.

It gives me great pleasure to share the stage with Goldsmiths Choral Union, the Imperial College Chamber Choir, the Affinity Chamber Orchestra and a stellar line-up of soloists to present this glorious programme of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat and Alec Roth’s A Time to Dance.

Jack Apperley music director

Bach transformed from

Orphaned at ten, Bach had lived in several German towns earning a living playing the violin and organ. By 1721 he had buried his first wife Marie and several of their seven children, married Anna Magdalena and together they had begun a second family. In 1723 the family moved to Leipzig where Bach took up a position as organist and teacher at St. Thomas’s Church, where he remained for the rest of his life.

His Lutheran faith had a profound effect on his music. He was expected to write sacred music for every Sunday and feast-day of the year. Magnificat in D performed in 1733 was a revision of his earlier work Magnificat in E flat, but transposed downwards to a brighter key better suited to the trumpets with an extra pair of flutes and two oboes d’amore. Vespers was the platform for this jewel amongst Bach’s sacred works.

Bach chose as his text the uplifting Latin verses from the Gospel of Luke, 1:46-56 the hymn of praise that came straight from Mary’s heart, in which she expresses her jubilation in telling her cousin Elizabeth that she is to be the mother of the Son of God.

Magnificat is one of the most thrilling and technically demanding pieces Bach wrote for a chorus. It is very concise; it had to fit into the Vespers service. Each line of text is treated as a complete, self-standing idea. He was a master at repeating a melody with slight variations to invoke a different mood.

The rhythmic energy of the opening chorus is evidence of Vivaldi’s influence and the whole work is full of Bach’s delightful word painting.

The rising notes of the soprano’s Et exultavit depict rejoicing, and the tenor’s violent descending scale of Deposuit (He hath put down the mighty) plunge us into the depths. In the chorus Fecit potentiam, the choral texture fragments at the word dispersit (He hath scattered).

Bach highlights his supreme mastery of composition by reintroducing the music of the work’s opening bars at the end Sicut erat in principio (Thus it was in the beginning) where he brings back the music from the beginning of the work with a wonderfully symmetric sense of balance.

Of his twenty children, he had buried ten. Struggling with failing eyesight but continuing to compose for his last ten years, in 1750 he had surgery, but the operation left him completely blind and later that year he died of a stroke.