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English Musical Splendor-- The Bach Choir, London, Yale Schola Cantorum, and Yale Philharmonia to Tour Five East Coast Cities March 8-14, 2020
Concert Program Features William Walton's Arresting Oratorio Belshazzar's Feast
In celebration of the Yale School of Music’s 125th anniversary, the Yale Philharmonia and Yale Schola Cantorum will join The Bach Choir, London for a five-city East Coast tour March 8 – 14, 2020, performing a program entitled English Musical Splendor. David Hill, music director of The Bach Choir, London and principal conductor of the Yale Schola Cantorum, will lead the ensembles in a selection of English choral masterpieces. William Walton’s magnificent oratorio Belshazzar’s Feast highlights the program, which also features works by Charles Villiers Stanford, Arnold Bax, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, with baritone and Yale School of Music alumnus David Pershall and Yale School of Music dean and faculty pianist Robert Blocker.
The English Musical Splendor tour begins with a concert at Yale’s Woolsey Hall on Sunday afternoon, March 8 at 4 p.m. in New Haven, and continues with performances at Symphony Hall in Boston on Monday evening, March 9 at 7:30 p.m.; the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City on Wednesday evening, March 11 at 7:30 p.m.; Irvine Auditorium at the University of Philadelphia on Thursday evening, March 12 at 7:30 p.m.; and the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. on Saturday evening, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to the National Cathedral concert start at $25; admission to the other concerts is free and open to the public. The complete program is as follows:
Charles Villiers Stanford Song to the Soul, Op. 97b
Arnold Edward Trevor Bax Mater ora filium, GP 246
Ralph Vaughan Williams Fantasia on the ‘Old 104th Psalm’
—Intermission—
William Walton Belshazzar’s Feast
The subject matter of Belshazzar’s Feast—the fall of Babylon and the story of the killing of Belshazzar, who, unlike his father, Nebuchadnezzar, before him, commits a sacrilege but does not repent—couldn’t be more dramatic. During the feast, an indecipherable message suddenly appears, but Belshazzar ignores the literal “handwriting on the wall.” The tale of Belshazzar’s Feast has fascinated poets and painters throughout the centuries. One of the most famous
depictions is by Rembrandt. Another is by 18th-century English painter John Martin. Walton’s oratorio tells the story of the Jews in exile based on Psalm 137 and The Book of Daniel.
Though not performed frequently in the United States, Belshazzar’s Feast has maintained its position as a choral work of seminal importance. Having been premiered at the Leeds Festival by Malcolm Sargent in 1931, the oratorio was subsequently performed on three continents by ensembles conducted by Sargent. Other notable conductors who have been drawn to the work include Adrian Boult, Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy, Simon Rattle, André Previn, Maurice Abravanel, Leonard Slatkin, and Robert Shaw. When Herbert von Karajan conducted Belshazzar’s Feast in post-war Vienna, he said it was the “best choral music that’s been written in the last 50 years.”
Renowned for his sophisticated musicianship, David Hill, who has been on the Yale faculty since 2013, is widely respected as both a choral and orchestral conductor and currently holds the positions of music director of The Bach Choir, London, music director of the Leeds Philharmonic Society, associate guest conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and principal conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum. He was chief conductor of the BBC Singers from September 2007 to September 2017 and is a former music director of the Southern Sinfonia.
Born in Carlisle and educated at Chetham’s School of Music, Hill was made a fellow of the Royal College of Organists at the remarkably young age of 17. Having been an organ scholar at St. John’s College, Cambridge, Hill returned to hold the post of director of music from 2004 to 2007. He has served as master of the music at Winchester Cathedral, master of the music at Westminster Cathedral, and artistic director of the Philharmonia Chorus. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Southampton for his services to music, and the MBE for services to music in the New Year Honours 2019.
Hill’s discography covers a range of repertoire, from performances of music by Thomas Tallis to a number of world-premiere recordings. In addition to earning Grammy and Gramophone awards, many of Hill’s recordings have been recommended as critics’ choices. His Naxos recordings of English choral music have received particular acclaim and his disc of Vaughan Williams’ Sancta Civitas and Dona nobis pacem was shortlisted for the 2010 Gramophone awards.
Hill has appeared with the BBC Symphony and BBC Philharmonic orchestras, London Philharmonic, City of London Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North, Ulster Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and Omaha Symphony, as well as the Netherlands Radio Choir and RIAS Chamber Choir, Berlin.
The Yale Philharmonia is one of America’s foremost music school ensembles. The largest performing group at the Yale School of Music, the Yale Philharmonia offers superb training in orchestral playing and repertoire. Performances include an annual series of concerts in Woolsey Hall, as well as Yale Opera productions in New Haven’s Shubert Theatre.
The Yale Philharmonia has performed on numerous occasions in Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. In 2008 the Yale Philharmonia
undertook its first tour of Asia, with acclaimed performances in the Seoul Arts Center, the Forbidden City Concert Hall and National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing), and the Shanghai Grand Theatre.
Each year, the Yale Philharmonia’s concert series in Woolsey Hall offers a broad range of repertoire under Principal Conductor Peter Oundjian and such distinguished guest conductors as John Adams, Krzysztof Penderecki, William Christie, Marin Alsop, and James Conlon. The orchestra performs music from the symphonic canon, concertos, new music, and choral works.
The orchestra’s 2019-2020 repertoire includes Debussy’s Nocturnes, Haydn’s Eighth Symphony, “Le soir”, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Beethoven’s Third Symphony, “Eroica,” Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, and Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, amongst other works. Guest conductors include Ludovic Morlot, David Hill, and Carlos Kalmar.
The Yale Schola Cantorum is a chamber choir that performs sacred music from the 16th century to the present day in concert settings and choral services around the world. It is sponsored by Yale Institute of Sacred Music and conducted by David Hill. Masaaki Suzuki is the ensemble’s principal guest conductor. Open by audition to students from all departments and professional schools across Yale University, the choir has a special interest in historically informed performance practice, often in collaboration with instrumentalists from Juilliard415.
The Yale Schola Cantorum was founded in 2003 by Simon Carrington. In recent years, the choir has sung under the direction of such internationally renowned conductors as Matthew Halls, Simon Halsey, Paul Hillier, Stephen Layton, Neville Marriner, Nicholas McGegan, James O’Donnell, Stefan Parkman, Krzysztof Penderecki, Helmuth Rilling, and Dale Warland. In addition to performing regularly in New Haven and New York, the ensemble records and tours nationally and internationally. The Cantorum ensemble’s 2018 recording of Palestrina’s Missa Confitebor tibi Domine (Hyperion Records) has garnered enthusiastic reviews. A live recording of Heinrich Biber’s 1693 Vesperae longiores ac breviores with Robert Mealy and the Yale Collegium Musicum received international acclaim from the early music press, as have subsequent recordings of J. S. Bach’s rarely heard 1725 version of the St. John Passion and Antonio Bertali’s Missa resurrectionis. A recording on the Naxos label of Mendelssohn and Bach Magnificats was released in 2009, and recent years have seen the releases of two CDs by Delos Records. More recently, Hyperion released a recording of the Schola Cantorum performing a chamber version of Brahms’ Requiem. Two new recordings, New England Choirworks and Schütz’s The Christmas Story, are scheduled for release in November 2019. On tour, the Schola Cantorum has given performances in England, Hungary, France, China, South Korea, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Japan, Singapore, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, India, Spain, and Scandinavia.
The Schola Cantorum’s choir’s 2019–2020 repertoire includes Bingham’s Evening Canticles and Spirit of Truth, Brahms’ Schicksalslied and Alto Rhapsodie, Mozart’s Requiem, Telemann’s Der Tag des Gerichts, Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden, Poulenc’s Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël, selections from Schütz’s Geistliche Chormusik, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, and Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on the Old 104th Psalm Tune.
Founded in 1876, The Bach Choir, London is recognized as one of the world’s leading choruses, building upon a tradition that combines musical excellence with creativity and innovation. From the first performance in Britain of Bach’s Mass in B minor to the soundtracks for Ridley Scott’s 2012 epic Prometheus, and the 2019 Star Wars game Jedi: Fallen Order, its musical heritage is as rich as its diversity. The group—directed by eminent British conductor David Hill—regularly performs and records across London and the UK in prestigious venues, from the Royal Albert Hall to Abbey Road Studios.
Described by the London Evening Standard as “probably the finest independent choir in the world,” The Bach Choir, London boasts more than 220 singers from all walks of life, an international touring schedule, and an outreach program taking music to London’s inner-city schools. To date, the ensemble has performed more than 400 works in more than 120 venues internationally.
Previous international tours have taken The Bach Choir to China and Hong Kong, Australia, and venues all over Europe. The Choir last toured the US in 1996, with its previous Music Director Sir David Willcocks, giving concerts of music for choir and organ in Somerville New Jersey, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, and Washington National Cathedral.
From oratorio to film scores, the ensemble’s repertoire covers works from the 16th century to the present day. The choir frequently presents world premieres, the most recent being Roxanna Panufnik’s Four Choral Seasons in October 2019 and James MacMillan’s Blow the trumpet in the new moon in June 2017, both of which were commissioned in whole or in part by The Bach Choir.
The Bach Choir has built up an impressive discography, most recently focusing on English music with recordings of Stanford, Howells, Dyson and Will Todd, and including both Stanford’s Song to the Soul (Naxos) and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast (Chandos).
The Bach Choir, London is led by music director David Hill and accompanist/assistant conductor Philip Scriven. Among the eminent musicians who have led the ensemble are Charles Villiers Stanford, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and David Willcocks. HRH The Prince of Wales is the Choir’s patron, and John Rutter is its president.
For more information, please contact Hemsing Associates at 212-772-1132 or visit www.hemsingpr.com.
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