Katie Coventry Videos
Letzte Aktualisierung
2024-06-15
Aktualisieren
Percy Whitlock Briggs Vaughan Williams Charles Hylton Stewart Stiff Barber Brahms Elgar Parry Delius Rachmaninoff Quilter Warlock Bedford Coventry Cathedral 1903 1936 1979 1993
Percy Whitlock +••.••(...)): Organ Sonata in C minor (1936) - David Briggs at the Cathedral of St John the Divine, NYC In the immediate aftermath of the passing of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, it seems appropriate to present an organ piece which really couldn’t be more English! I have always loved the music of Percy Whitlock +••.••(...)) and am more than delighted to act as his musical ambassador today. Next Saturday is the 75th anniversary of PW's premature passing: Whitlock was evidently a sensitive character, quite fragile in health, leading to his early death from complications of hereditary hypertension at the age of only 42. But, in my experience, sensitive people often make the best musicians. Percy Whitlock studied at the RCM under Stanford and Vaughan Williams, and was for some years Assistant Organist at Rochester Cathedral, under Charles Hylton-Stewart. Later he took positions at St Stephen’s, Bournemouth (a wondrous John Loughborough Pearson anglo catholic church, where sadly he fell out with the plainsong choir director and resigned after only 3 years) and at the Bournemouth Pavilion, where he presided over (and largely maintained) the great Compton Organ. When he married his wife, Edna, rather amusingly he planned their three-day honeymoon centered on the Compton organ works, in London. She said in a 1979 interview that she was ‘bored stiff’! Whitlock was very mechanically-minded and made clocks out of Meccano. During their courtship, much of their time was spent train spotting, perched high up on a railway bridge near Rochester. Percy would assiduously write down the numbers of the steam locomotives. They were clearly very happily married, though. Edna lived on until 1993 and never remarried. Like many teenage organists of my generation, I grew up listening to the iconic LP of the Whitlock Sonata (1936) played by Graham Barber at Coventry Cathedral (which sadly never quite made it to CD format). I’ve played the first three movements quite frequently, since then. Several years ago, a close musical confidante said to me that they thought the last movement was far too long, and lets the Sonata down. One of several silver linings of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, has been to have the time to learn new repertoire - and the last movement of the Whitlock was a very welcome addition to the list. I have actually come to the conclusion that it makes a gloriously uplifting, varied and kaleidoscopic culmination to the Sonata - and isn't too long at all! You can certainly hear the influences of Brahms, Elgar, Parry, Delius - but one of the endearing facets of Whitlock’s music is his generously ripe harmonic language, somehow all his own. The sweeping Rachmaninoff-inspired tune in the last five minutes is so moving, with its inevitable and driving crescendo upwards, and the wonderful distillation of energy and complete calmness of the final bars certainly pulls at the heart strings. Technically it’s really quite demanding at times - PW must certainly have been a very good pianist! Sadly no Whitlock manuscripts are thought to exist, as he destroyed them all directly after OUP had received the final copy. This Sonata is such a passionate, dramatic and emotional piece - it feels like looking right into his eyes, sometimes. After the bold, rhapsodic introduction, the first movement oscillates between an enticingly stormy, almost Brahmsian first subject group and a second subject of ravishing lushness and warmth. The Canzona follows, with an apparent simplicity perhaps rather reminiscent of the English song composers Quilter and Warlock, but developed in a way to further showcase Whitlock's voluptuous harmonies. The Scherzo, with its irregular metre, is very joyful and reminds me of the lightweight, enthusiastic jingle of a vintage Bedford Ice Cream van, parading merrily along the crowded Bournemouth seafront, with the jovial, childlike innocence you associate with a large dollop of vanilla ice cream, dangerously careering down the poor unsuspecting cone underneath, all mysteriously held together by a delicious and inevitable Cadbury's Flake . The last movement, named 'Chorale' is a real musical smorgasbord. It boasts everything from a traditional hymn tune through to an Allegro of truly Elgarian military bombast and swagger, a Bachian fugato (in 2 parts!), a high-voltage, extremely virtuosic Scherzo (again with Brahmsian cross rhythms), and a big tune which almost beats Rachmaninoff at his own game. I’m very happy to share my love for this music with you, and I hope you will be moved and nourished by its colossally wide-ranging multitude of emotions.
Arana Beethoven Cortés Pierpont Calvo Carbajo Ramos Reinagle Bartók Burgmüller Samuel Arnold Scarlatti Rubio Campana
Iker Espinosa Espada 1º EE - Himno de la Alegría…………………………………..L. van Beethoven Deck the Halls…………………………………………….. Tradicional Martín Cortés Ramiro 1º EE Ringel, Rongel, Reite…………………………………Tradicional Infantil Jingle Bells………………………………………………………..J. Pierpont Colectiva 1º EE Ángel Rioja Gómez, Alberto Stocker Gurría, Isabella Stocker Gurría Despertar navideño…………………………………..Tradicional francesa Unai González Díez 2º EE - The Coventry Carol……………………………………………………Tradicional Colectiva 3º E.E. Diego Calvo Carbajo, Ariadna Grandival Maiso Canon de Navidad…………………………………………Anónimo s. XVIII Ángel Rioja Gómez 1ª EE. El agente secreto……………………………………………………Joan Alfarás El mono y el tucán………………………………………………….Joan Alfarás Fabio Bejarano Ramos 1º EE. Space Surfing………………………………………………………….Joan Alfarás Minuet …………………………………………………………………..A. Reinagle Jaime Ijalba Zorzano 2º EE. Triplets in LydianMode …………………………………………..B. Bartók - Bourreé…………………………………………………………………..Maaghdalena Dakkert Miguel Martínez Alonso 2º EE. Hungarian Dance…………………………………………………….B. Bartók - Musette………………………………………………………………….L. Mozart. Eduardo Pola Llerena 2º/3º EE. Estudio nº 4 op. 100………………………………………………….J.F. Burgmüller Gavotte and Gigue……………………………………………………Samuel Arnold Diego Calvo Carbajo 3ª EE. La Folia ……………………………………………………………………..A. Scarlatti Transilvania………………………………………………………………..J. Sifford Colectiva 2ºEEa Irati Rubio Rubio y Jaime Ijalba Zorzano 7ª Sinfonia (2º mov.)………………………………………..L. V. Beethoven Colectiva 2º EEb Miguel Martínez Alonso, Unai González Díez y Eduardo Pola Llerena 5ª Sinfonía (1º mov.)…………………………………………………..L. V. Beethoven Alberto Stocker Gurría 1º EE “Good king Wenceslas” “Killer fox” “Campanita”…………………………………………..Villancico popular Isabella Stocker Gurría 1º EE “Cathedral bells” “Old World melody” “Jingle bells” (con Irati Rubio)………………………….J. Pierpont Irati Ariadna Grandival Maiso 3º EE “La princesa y la rueca”…………………………………………… P.Hall “Deck the halls”……………………………………….Villancico popular Rubio Rubio 1º EE “El candor” …………………………………………………..H. Burgmüller “Blue moon” “Campana sobre campana”………………………….Villancico popular
City Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Benjamin Britten Coventry Cathedral 2012
On Wednesday 30 May 2012, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra performed Benjamin Britten's iconic War Requiem in Coventry Cathedral, on the 50th anniversary of its premiere. The concert was recorded for television broadcast and DVD by Unitel Classica, in co-production with ZDF/arte and NHK and with support from Arts Council England. We hope you enjoy this excerpt; please visit www.unitelclassica.com for information on the DVD release, scheduled for October 2012.
oder
- Zeitleiste: Lyrische Sänger.
- Indizes (in alphabetischer Reihenfolge): C...