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"The Seasons"
2.30pm Sunday
20 November 2011
at St Andrews on the Terrace, Wellington
Featuring:
Lesley Graham - Soprano
James Adams - Tenor
Roger Wilson - Bass
with members of:
The Wellington Chamber Orchestra
This is Haydn’s last major composition, describing the four seasons with all their delights.
A wonderfully lyrical and inventive work with a lot of imagery depicting scenes of rustic country living, The Seasons is not often performed, due in part to the rather quaint English libretto which has been adapted for this performance. The three soloists represent a farmer, his daughter and another young farmer. The choruses on themes such as the sun, a storm, sleep, toil, spinning, the hunt and a wily young girl are great fun.
We are delighted to give you the opportunity to hear this delightful work, and would love to welcome you to our concert!
You can buy tickets from choir members or at the door
.
"Singing Folk"
7.30pm Saturday
9 July 2011
at Salvation Army Citadel, Vivian Street
An exciting programme of folk songs and music from around the world.
Guest Artists: Chilli Jam
Ticket sales at the door
$25 waged, $20 unwaged
Includes supper!
difference.
The Festival Singers presents 20 folk songs from around the world…a great variety of styles, accompaniments and arrangements….from the favourite Shenandoah to the unusual New Zealand Gumdigger, the crazy Mexican Hat Dance to Sweden’s jazzy Domardansen…new and old, fast and slow.
But wait there’s more…to add to the foot tapping night, the folk band Chilli Jam will surprise and delight with celtic, klezmer and other folk pieces with a lovely mix of instruments in several sets during the evening.
And…. you are invited to an international food supper afterwards…fancy some Scottish shortbread or Spanish olives?
Come to the
Salvation Army Citadel on Saturday 9 July at 7.30pm.
Bring your children… under 12 free. Invite your friends.
The Third Day
In 2009 we commissioned Jonathan Berkahn, our accompanist and also a fine organist and accordion player, to write a Cantata, The Third Day, for the choir.
At 7.30pm on Saturday 21 May 2011 in Palmerston North at St Andrew’s Church and at 2.30 pm on Sunday 22 May 2011 at the Presbyterian Church in Waikanae, we performed The Third Day again.
In the period after Easter, it is timely to bring this work to people, as unlike the classical Passions of Bach and others, the text of Jonathan’s cantata focuses on the days after Jesus’ crucifixion and on the events surrounding his resurrection.
The first half of this concert was an exciting adventure through folk music from many countries. Beginning in the Appalachian mountains of America, songs from Europe, United Kingdom, South America and New Zealand are presented. Folk songs are often memories of wonderful moments of sadness or joy in people’s lives, captured often in lament or dance form.
Proceeds went to Presbyterian Support Central www.psc.org.nz
Most of our members took part in the NZ Choral Federation workshop on 28 & 29 April 2011 to learn and sing Haydn’s Creation.
Combined Choirs with Orchestra - Music of Antonio Salieri
Festival Singers & Wainuiomata Choir
with members of the Wellington Chamber Orchestra
presented
Antonio Salieri - Mass in D and other works
2:30pm Sunday 15 August 2010
at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Hill Street, WellingtonWorks:
Mass in D 'Hofkapellmeister-Messe' (1788)
Overture - La tempesta di mare (1778)
Overture - Armida (1771)
Coronation Te Deum (1790).
Antonio Salieri was a fine musician and, according to those who knew him (including Mozart!) a decent person. During his lifetime he enjoyed great success as a composer (particularly of operas and church music), a performer (stepping in on more than one occasion to conduct premieres of Mozart's music when Mozart was unwell) and a teacher – of Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt, among others.
His personal and professional reputation took a dive a few years after his death, when Pushkin published a poem fabricating the idea that Salieri poisoned Mozart. This was the 1830 equivalent of today's celebrity gossip columnists interviewing their word processors to create juicy copy to sell magazines, and was at least as destructive. This sorry nonsense was carried on by several 19th-century composers of operas based on the Pushkin piece, and has continued into our own time thanks to Schaeffer's play, also rendered as a film, Amadeus.
The Festival Singers and the Wainuiomata Choir, along with members of the Wellington Chamber Orchestra offered Wellington concert-goers a chance to enjoy a selection of Salieri's music, both sacred and secular.
When appointed Kapellmeister of the Imperial Court in Vienna in 1788, Salieri wrote his Mass in D, which is lovely, tuneful, appropriately dramatic in places, with imaginative use of varied orchestral and choral textures. This opened the concert and was being performed from an authentic edition with the full orchestral forces, including four trumpets. It seems almost certain that this was a NZ premiere.
The concert concluded with another sacred work, rather different in character, the Te Deum composed for the coronation of the new Emperor in 1790 – it is altogether grander, befitting such an occasion.
In between, the Orchestra played two of Salieri's opera overtures; firstly La tempesta di mare ('The storm at sea') which he used for two different operas, and Armida, which is specific to the opera of that title, as it sets up the opening scene with a musically descriptive depiction of events.
David Beattie, the Musical Director of the Wainuiomata Choir who conducted this performance, says “Antonio Salieri was the boy from the town of Legnago in Northern Italy who came to the Viennese Imperial Court and made himself an outstanding career there, retaining his Chapel appointment until 1824 – the longest tenure in the centuries this position existed. As someone who, a few years ago, discovered his own North Italian ancestry, I feel privileged to present this beautiful, expressive music.”
Click the thumbnails below to see bigger images
(photos by Alexander Garside)
Other events in 2010
Helen Brechin’s 100th birthday concert in Palmerston North: Saturday 17 July and/or Sunday 18 July
Singing at the Police College, Porirua - 6 December 2009
Festival Singers performed a selection of Christmas pieces at the annual dinner for people from the Porirua area hosted by the local Lions Club at the Police College.
Here we are in the warm-up room just before going out to sing. Please click the photo to see a larger image. [Photo by Christine Wong.]
Copyright Festival Singers 2009-2011