Events Diary and Details for
Winter Concert Series 2009 - 2010

6.00 pm

St James's Church, Nayland

Bach at Christmas

6.00 pm

For concert details click links or scroll down

SUNDAY 13 DECEMBER 2009, 6.00 p.m.

St James's Church, Nayland

Bach at Christmas
The Christmas Oratorio: Cantatas nos 1 and 3, BWV248
'Gloria in excelsis Deo', BWV191

Claire Tomlin (soprano) - Janet Bullard (alto) - Tom Raskin (tenor) - Andrew Kidd (bass)
Psalmody
Essex Baroque Orchestra
directed by Peter Holman

Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio, written for the Christmas festivities in Leipzig in 1734, is a set of six self-contained but linked cantatas rather than a conventional oratorio. Nos. 1 and 3, 'Jauchzet, frohlocket!' and 'Herrscher des Himmels', were performed on Christmas Day and on 27 December respectively, and concern the Nativity and the journey of the shepherds to Bethlehem. As befits the festive occasion, they are richly scored with trumpets, drums, flutes, oboes, bassoon, strings and continuo. Bach's cantata 'Gloria in excelsis Deo' may have been performed in Leipzig on Christmas Day 1745 to mark the signing of a peace treaty between Prussia and Saxony. It is a shortened and rewritten version of the Gloria of the B minor Mass, and is scored for the same large orchestra as the 1734 cantatas. The programme is completed by Telemann's delightful concerto in E minor for recorder and flute, played by Maggie Bruce and William Summers.

SUNDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2010, 6.00 p.m.

St Mary's Church, Boxford

The Purcell Legacy

Philippa Hyde (soprano)
THE PARLEY OF INSTRUMENTS
Judy Tarling & Oliver Webber (violin)
Mark Caudle (bass viol & violoncello)
Peter Holman (chamber organ)

This fascinating programme explores music written in England between about 1680, when Henry Purcell was in his prime, and 1720, when Handel was well established in London. It contrasts songs, cantatas, sonatas and suites by Purcell (including his great dramatic scene 'The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation') and his followers William Croft, Raphael Courteville, and John Weldon with music in the Italian style by immigrant composers, including Handel (the rarely performed cantata Venus & Adonis), Giovanni Battista Draghi, Nicola Matteis, J.C. Pepusch and Nicola Haym (his Chandos anthem 'Have mercy on me, O God').

Philippa Hyde and The Parley of Instruments need no introduction to Suffolk Villages Festival audiences; following the concert this programme will be recorded for Chandos for future release on CD.

SUNDAY 14 MARCH 2010, 6.00 p.m.

St Mary’s Church, Boxford

Veiled: Music for Holy Week

LE JARDIN SECRET
Elizabeth Dobbin (soprano), Romina Lischka (bass viol), Sophie Vanden Eynde (theorbo), David Blunden (harpsichord)

In seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century France sacred music came to the fore during Holy Week, partly because opera and other secular musical entertainments were suspended, and partly because the veiling of paintings and other objects in churches meant that music played a primary role in the expression of the liturgy. In this programme elaborate and expressive motets for Holy Week by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, François Couperin and Michel de Lalande are contrasted with pieces for harpsichord, theorbo and bass viol by Louis Couperin, Robert de Visée, Johann Jacob Froberger and Marin Marais.

Le Jardin Secret is one of the most exciting young groups specialising in Baroque music, and won the 2007 International Young Artists Competition in York. Its first recording has been greeted with enthusiastic reviews: 'first-class debut disc.... Le Jardin Secret have a very bright future indeed... the performances are superb.'
(Daily Telegraph)

MONDAY 31 MAY 2010, 6.00 p.m.

St Mary’s Church, Hadleigh

Handel: Israel in Egypt (1739)

Psalmody & Friends
Essex Baroque Orchestra
directed by Peter Holman

Handel wrote Israel in Egypt in the autumn of 1738, and performed it for the first time at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket on 4 April 1739. The work broke new ground in several respects. Charles Jennens compiled the vivid text - concerning the plagues of Egypt, the exodus of the Israelites and the Song of Moses - directly from the Bible, and Handel matched it with music of unparalleled splendour: the choir is the main protagonist, often divided into two for dramatic effect, and is accompanied by a large orchestra, including trumpets, timpani, trombones, flutes, oboes, bassoons, strings and two organs. This is rare opportunity to hear a historically informed live performance of this masterpiece.