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Wednesday 12th November 2008, 7:30 pm

Joseph Haydn – ‘Autumn’ and ‘Winter’ from The Seasons

Carl Orff – Carmina Burana

Colosseum

 

Preview  -  Soloists  -  Poster

Preview

The Choir and Orchestra of the Watford Philharmonic Society, conducted by Terry Edwards, will be opening their 74th season on Wednesday, 12th November, at 7.30pm, at the Watford Colosseum.

The main work will be a rousing performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana when members of the choir from the Watford Grammar School for Girls will be joining the Watford Philharmonic choir.

Dating from the 12th and 13th centuries these songs were written by a diverse group of wandering monks known as the Goliards who lived by performing their songs and poems.  As the Goliards were free thinkers dedicated to wine, women and song they were condemned by the Church.  About 200 songs were discovered in a monastery in Southern Bavaria by a German language scholar and musicologist, Johann Andreas Schmeller, in the early part of the 19th century.  These were published in 1847 with the title Carmina Burana (Latin for Songs of Beuern).  The frontispiece of the book was illustrated with a Wheel of Fortune, a popular motif in medieval times, depicting how life travels in a cycle from birth to death.  The German composer Carl Orff discovered this book in 1935 and was inspired to turn it into a major work for choir and orchestra.  Selecting two dozen songs he then arranged them into three main groups, Springtime, In the Tavern and Courtly Love.   To emphasise the deeper meaning of the Wheel of Fortune, he began and finished the work with Fortune, Empress of the World, whose song O Fortuna is widely known from being featured in many television programmes and advertisements.

In keeping with the time of year the programme begins with the final two parts from Haydn’s masterpiece, The Seasons, Autumn and WinterThe Seasons was written at the very end of the 18thC and was inspired by a popular poem published in 1730 by the Scottish poet, James Thomson.  Autumn opens with a short introduction moving onto a trio and chorus in praise of industry, this is followed by a love duet.  The scene changes to a series of hunts where Haydn evokes a musical interpretation of a bird shoot leading into a spectacular hunting chorus.  The movement erupts into a glorious drunken revel celebrating the grape harvest.  The mood changes with Winter, a season of thick mists, dismal and dark stormy nights and a desolate frozen landscape.  A traveller appears, lost in the bleak, snowy landscape, when he sees the gleam of light and thankfully finds refuge in a village tavern.  The villagers are assembled entertaining each other with songs and tales to while away the long, cold evening.  The movement draws to a close with an allegory of winter depicted as the declining years of life and finishing with a glorious fugue celebrating the certainty of salvation after death.



KIERA LYNESS (Soprano)

Keira LynessKiera studied the violin at Trinity College of Music, and on a scholarship at Utrecht Conservatorium, Holland. Her operatic roles thus far have included; Pamina, Despina, Gretel, Serpina in La Serva Padrona, Miss Silverpeal in The Impresario, Miss Wordsworth and Berta, for The Opera Project. For the Royal Opera House she has sung Charmeuse in Thais, covered the roles of Papagena, Despinio in The Greek Passion and First Flowermaiden in Parsifal, and has also sung the solo melisma in “1984”.

As an oratorio soprano and recitalist, Kiera has performed with City of London Sinfonia at Thaxted, Paxton in Northumberland, at Birmingham Symphony Hall, St Martins-in-the-Fields London, Music Festivals in the Midlands, Cotswolds, Wales, Surrey, The Holywell Rooms in Oxford, St George’s Hall in Bristol and in Paris. Her performances have included; Haydn’s Creation, Petit Messe Solonnelle, Bach’s St John Passion, St Matthew Passion and Magnificat, Mozart’s Requiem and Exultate Jubilate, Brahms’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Finzi’s Et In Terra Pax.

She is the soprano for the chamber group “The Holywell Ensemble” who specialise in the performance of English Music. She is also a member of “Hous8”, an octet from the Royal Opera House chorus who perform works ranging from a capella church music to romantic and jazz pieces.
  
She is now a member of the Royal Opera House Chorus. Prior to this she sang with the BBC Singers, London Voices and D’Oyly Carte.


HENRY MOSS (Tenor)

Henry MossAfter working as a solicitor Henry Moss joined the Royal Academy of Music where he studied from 1993 to 1997 with Kenneth Bowen.

His concert repertoire includes the popular oratorios of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Rossini and Verdi, as well as Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte and many other Lieder and songs of the English, French and Russian repertoire.

In 1997, he made his Royal Opera debut as The Western Union Boy and Hot Biscuit Slim in Britten's Paul Bunyan at the Snape Maltings. Other roles have included Tchaplitzky in Pique Dame at the Royal Opera House, First Spirit/Echo in Orfeo for English National Opera, General Konovnitsin/Gerard/1st Russian Staff Officer in Prokofiev's War and Peace for the Spoleto Festival, Moser in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg for Theatre de Geneve, Flamand in Capriccio at the Opera de Nantes, Goro in Madama Butterfly, Cecco in Il Mondo della Luna and Gonzalve in L’Heure Espagnole, all with Opera Zuid in the Netherlands, Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Copenhagen, Fracasso in Mozart's La Finta Semplice at the Buxton Festival, Varo in Arminio for the London Handel Society, Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro for Iford Arts and the leading roles in two American one-acters I can't stand Wagner and The Music Shop for Jigsaw Opera. He sang Second Jew in Salome under Zubin Mehta in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and several roles in the world premiere of Casken’s God’s Liar for the Almeida Theatre in London and the Theatre de la Monnaie, Brussels.

Other work has included the title role in Albert Herring, Marco in The Gondoliers and Slender in Sir John in Love all for British Youth Opera, of which he has been a director.


PETER SNIPP (Baritone)

Peter SnippPeter Snipp was born in London and studied singing with Johanna Peters at the Guildhall School of Music. His opera roles have included Masetto in Don Giovanni for Opera North and New Israeli Opera, the title role in a joint National Youth Music Theatre and Royal Opera House production of Douglas Young's The Taylor of Gloucester and the title role in Judith Weir’s The Vanishing Bridegroom for Scottish Opera (also seen in London and on BBC Television). He has sung Eugene Onegin for Kentish Opera, The English Clerk in Death in Venice for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Malatesta in Don Pasquale and Fiorello in The Barber of Seville (also for Chandos Records) for English National Opera.

His concert career has included appearances with the Bournemouth Symphony and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, Britten's War Requiem in Finland, Carmina Burana and Haydn’s Theresenmesse with the Huddersfield Choral Society and the Steersman in Tristan and Isolde with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1994 he joined English National Opera as a principal artist where his roles included Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos, Guglielmo in Cosi fan Tutte, Marullo in Rigoletto, Papageno in The Magic Flute and Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro. He made his Flemish Opera debut in Antwerp with Patroclus in King Priam and his Opera National de Paris debut at the Opera Bastille with Marullo.


Poster

Poster for November 2008 Concert