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Concert Archive |
Saturday, 15th November 2008, 8pm James Bowman - Countertenor with Liedertafel Lamentations of Jeremiah Part I - Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)
In the year 587 BC the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the warmongering Babylonian leader King Nebuchadrezzar. This offensive from Mesopotamia (now Iraq) was harrowingly recorded in a cave outside Jerusalem by the prophet Jeremiah and famously set to music by Thomas Tallis. "Ne Irascaris Domine" is one of William Byrd's finest motets and the siege of Jerusalem is said to be used as a metaphor for the Catholic Church under Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. Quintessentially Elizabethan, the lute also originated in Mesopotamia. Al Oud dates back to the 3rd millenium BC but its final, exquisite flowering was in 16th century English Lutesong, particularly in the unsurpassed music of John Dowland. After a choral scolarship at New College, Oxford, James Bowman became a layclerk and a prep. school master before Benjamin Britten launched his extraordinary career as a countertenor by selecting him to play Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1967. Forty-one years later at a concert last January in St. Martin-in-the-Fields, The Independent wrote; Tickets £10: Reservation recommended: tickets@liedertafel.org |
Friday August 22nd 8:00pm (ends approx. 9:15) St John's College, St. Giles, Oxford Stephen Burrows - countertenor F. Schubert (1797-1828) Salve Regina A selection of traditional English part-songs Music will be performed on the new organ at St. John’s Imagine a boy born one of 16 children to a father of peasant stock and a mother who was a housemaid before becoming a housewife. He reluctantly became a teacher but loved to compose. He had few commissions, very little of his music was published in his lifetime and he was always short of cash. His 2 attempts at opera were unsuccessful and he was neither an outstanding conductor nor performer. He frequented cafés and taverns and died at the age of 31. His “estate” of old clothes and music barely covered a modest funeral. This man was Franz Schubert, one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition with an unsurpassed gift for melody. Of his 600 songs, “Who is Sylvia”, for example, was quickly written in a tavern and “Erlkönig” was instantly rejected by the publisher Breitkopf and Härtel. His “Salve Regina” D 811 for 4 male voices is written in a deceptively simple and jolly style for such a sacred text. As the piece progress however, Schubert’s genius and wit begin to shine brightly. The Frenchman Antoine Brumel was compared favourably to Josquin des Prez, and Palestrina ordered his music to be performed in The Sistine Chapel. His exquisite “Lamentations of Jeremiah” follow the unusual convention of setting letters from the Hebrew alphabet (e.g. Aleph, Beth, Teth etc) to elaborate abstract music. Like illuminated initials in a medieval manuscript, they contrast with the more syllabic narrative of Jeremiah’s bitterness on the destruction of Jerusalem. William Byrd was a Catholic under the Protestant reign of Elizabeth I: he was tolerated because of the sheer quality of his music. His “Mass for 4 Voyces” was written for the intimate, even secretive atmosphere of domestic worship. During the anti-Catholic frenzy of the Gunpowder plot in 1605 it was banned under penalty of imprisonment. Tickets £10 on the door. Reservations . Discounted rates for group bookings - please enquire. |
Sunday, December 9th 2007, 8pm A Christmas Concert LIEDERTAFEL Helen Ashby - soprano COLIN DEXTER (creator of Inspector Morse) - reader O beata et gloriosa Trinitas - Palestrina
This Christmas Liedertafel is joined by the sopranos Helen and Kate Ashby, both members of the outstanding award winning vocal ensemble Stile Antico. In the exquisite Chapel of Trinity College, Liedertafel will perform one of Palestrina's finest motets "O Beata et Gloriosa Trinitas", seasonal music by Victoria, Guerrero, Tavener, Berkeley, Burgon and Warlock as well as a selection of traditional Christmas carols. |
Saturday, 29th September 2007, 8pm James Bowman - Countertenor Dorothy Linell - Lute with Liedertafel Stephen Burrows - countertenor James Bowman will perform lute songs by Dowland, Campion and Rosseter in the candlelit setting of Wadham College Chapel. A true "renaissance man", Campion was a medical doctor by profession as well as a poet and musician. Dowland, one of the greatest songwriters in the English language, and Rosseter were both lutenists to King James I under whose reign Wadham College was built. It therefore provides the perfect historical setting for English lutesong at the start of the 17th century. To contrast, the Oxford based male voice ensemble "Liedertafel" will perform Missa "O Quam Gloriosum est" by Tomas Luis de Victoria, a Spanish contemporary of the English lute song composers, as well as neglected English gems such as Stanford's "Hush, sweet lute" and Macfarren's "Orpheus, with his lute". James Bowman is still receiving reviews that would be envied by many younger singers:- Opera Today enthuses about "the continuing vitality and beauty of Bowman's voice" in a review of his new solo disc recorded last year. After a London concert earlier this year, Anthony Holden wrote in The Guardian; "This was also a masterpiece in vocal control, the holding of a musical line and above all, enunciation. So I hope some of the next generation of singers made the short pilgrimage from nearby English National Opera, which would not need cotroversial surtitles if all the company's diction were as clear as Bowman's". His name even appears regularly in other countertenor reviews such as in The Times this Spring; "We're so used to the counter-tenor super heroes - the liquid amber of an Andreas Scholl, the soprano seduction of a David Daniels, the eternal splendour of James Bowman....." Dorothy Linell is one of the country's top lutenists. She regularly tours all over the world and has performed with Nigel Kennedy, Simon Rattle, Glyndebourne Opera and The Deller Consort. Tickets £10: Reservations: tickets@liedertafel.org |
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Thursday 2nd August, 2007 8:00pm. (end approx.9:15pm) New College Chapel, Holywell Street, Oxford In the 14th century grandeur of New College Chapel take a musical journey with Liedertafel through life and from Spring to Winter and morn to night. In between there's hunting, smoking, comedy, love and of course tax, all under the watchful eyes of El Greco's St. James, Epstein's Lazarus and Sir Joshua Reynolds's controversial 18th century stained glass "Virtues"; society beauties of the day famously described by Lord Torrington as "half dressed languishing harlots". Hail, smiling morn - R. Spofforth
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St. John's College Chapel, St. Giles, Oxford. NIGHT MUSIC Poetry by the St John's poets A.E.Housman and Philip Larkin and partsongs by Dowland, Purcell, Schubert, Brahms, Elgar, Sullivan and Vaughan Williams. English wine tasting with award-winning wines from Brightwell Vineyard. LIEDERTAFEL with COLIN DEXTER (creator of Inspector Morse) - reader Colin Dexter and his novels; A.E.Housman (St. John's, Oxford 1877-81) is one of England's finest and most popular lyric poets. His most famous work "A Shropshire Lad" paints a nostalgic and moving picture of brave English soldiers on the front in the "Great" war. Philip Larkin CBE (St. John's, Oxford 1940-43) is the greatest poet of his generation. He declined the offer to succeed Sir John Betjeman as Poet Laureate due to the high public profile, preferring the uneventful life of a librarian in Hull. ....and in their blazing solitude |
Wednesday, 17th May 2006, 8pm Solo lute songs by John Dowland (1563-1626) Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen - Heinrich Issak James Bowman - Countertenor Dorothy Linell - Lute Stephen Burrows - countertenor James Bowman has been one of the world's leading countertenors for almost forty years. In 1967 as a modest Oxford prep. schoolmaster and cathedral singer he was asked by Benjamin Britten to take the lead role in his "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Covent Garden. Since then, whether spearheading David Munrow's legendary "Early Music Consort of London", terrorising Janet Baker on DVD in "Julius Ceasar" from ENO, appearing in almost every major opera house in the world or making solo discs with The King's Consort he has charmed audiences with his unique timbre, charismatic performing presence and unbeatable vocal projection. One broadsheet reviewer recently wrote that his voice could be heard on the moon during a performance of "The St. John Passion" in London! Andreas Scholl has beat him last year, in being the first countertenor to sing at The Last Night of the Proms (looking like Superman might've helped......). However, even this leading young countertenor acknowledged a real grandmaster in last August's BBC Music Magazine; "After his (Andreas Scholl) voice broke he continued singing falsetto in the choir...'at that time their were few people who knew what countertenors were. Then an uncle of mine gave me recordings of James Bowman and I thought, yeah, this sounds good, maybe I can do it.'" |
Friday December 16th 2005, 7.30pm Nicholas Clapton - countertenor with Harry Sever - treble and Colin Dexter OBE - reader Harry Sever was born in 1991 and has become one of the country's most outstanding trebles. He was Head Quirister of Winchester College Chapel Choir (est.1382) and in 2003 he was BBC Radio Two's Young Chorister of the Year. Since then he has been much in demand as a soloist and has made several broadcasts for the BBC. In 2005 he sang at the Royal Albert Hall with Russell Watson, the Opera Babes, G4, Aled Jones and a host of other celebrities in aid of child victims of the tsunami. Michael Church of The Independent said of his performance: "The best came last, in the form of the 13-year-old treble Harry Sever, who brought real artistry to a difficult song. Here was a singer who really inhabited the music he sang". He has released a solo CD of English Song "My Own Country" and has just recorded Schubert's "Die Schöne Müllerin". Harry is the first treble to record a complete song cycle. He is currently an academic and a music scholar at Winchester College. As one of the country's most popular and successful detective authors Colin Dexter needs little introduction. With the recent filming of "Sergeant Lewis", the late Inspector Morse's sidekick, there is still a voracious appetite for Oxford murder, Dexter style. With Liedertafel he has entertained a number of audiences with his choice selection of readings delivered in his cerebral, witty and inimitable style. Liedertafel will perform Christmas favourites alongside some lesser known seasonal music by Heinrich Isaak (1450 - 1517) and Geoffrey Burgon who is best known for his haunting "Nunc Dimittis" used as the theme tune to "Tinker Tailor, Soldier Spy". |
Thursday August 18th 2005, 8pm When Evening's Twilight Gathers Round Vocal music from the court of King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. Victorian and Edwardian partsongs and settings of Shakespeare and A.E.Housman sung in the college where he was an undergraduate. Stephen Burrows - countertenor |
Friday 5 August 2005, 8pm An Evening of Reminiscence in Words and Music music by Purcell, Mozart, Fauré, Chopin, R. Strauss, Schubert,Wagner and song settings of AE.Housman performed in the college where Housman and Morse were undergraduates. Colin Dexter and his novels; Julie Cooper - Soprano |
Monday, 21st March 2005, 8 pm Parce mihi domine - Cristóbal Morales (1500-1553) Details of Robledo's life are sketchy but he was organist at the cathedrals of Tarragona and Saragossa in Spain. It is thought he was for a time a member of The Sistine Chapel Choir in Rome and that his reputation at Saragossa Cathedral was such that his music was the only music allowed to be sung alongside Morales, Desprez, Palestrina and Victoria, all of whom were members of The Sistine Chapel Choir. The papal choir was for more than a millennium the foremost musical body of Christendom and by 1600 castrati had almost entirely replaced falsettists on the soprano line. In what might have been seen as heresy in the 16th century, we will use female voices! Palestrina's O Beata (O blessed, holy and glorious Trinity) for Trinity Sunday is, according to Hugh Keyte, considered to be Palestrina's finest motet... in a context of over 300. We end with "Versa est in luctum" (My harp is tuned to mourning and my organ into the voice of those that weep) by the composer and priest Victoria. This passionate motet, originally sung alongside his great Requiem, makes a fitting start to Holy Week. Penelope Martin-Smith - Soprano |
