ETON COLLEGE
MUSICAL SOCIETY
SCHOOL HALL
SUNDAY 22nd JUNE 2008
8.15pm
SCHOOL CONCERT
String Coaches:
Ralph Allwood, Sue Lowe, Matthew O’Donovan,
Claire Parkin, Jack Rozman
Wind Coach:
Thea Cramp
Brass Coach:
Jim Wortley
PLEASE DO NOT TAKE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHS
DURING THE MUSIC
The National Anthem will be played in the original
version written by Thomas Arne (1710-1778). He was at
Eton c.1725.
A DVD of the concert will be available at a cost of
£13.50. Please email your order to:
[email protected]
Crisantemi
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
The Chamber Orchestra
Conductor: Jack Rozman
Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums, the Italian flower of death)
was composed in 1890 in memory of the recently demised
Duke Amadeo of Savoy, second son of Victor Emmanuel
II. In a letter to his brother, Puccini wrote that he
composed the work in a single night on hearing of the
Duke’s death. Originally written for string quartet, it is
more often heard with a bass part added and performed in
the string orchestra version which is being played tonight.
The two themes of the work are laid out in a simple
ABA form. The first theme is constantly held back in
anguish to resolve into a beautiful melody of
remembrance and contemplation. The second, with a
more flowing accompaniment, suggests more a feeling
of acceptance. This leads back to the faltering emotions
of the first theme.
Puccini’s instrumental output is extremely small. A
large part of this is for string quartet, mostly juvenile
work. Crisantemi is a much more mature piece and
both themes from it are used extensively in Manon
Lescaut.
Jack Rozman
Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor Op 18
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Moderato
Adagio sostenuto
Allegro scherzando
Soloist: Benjamin Sheen
Conductor: David Goode
Rachmaninov was born in 1943, and became one of
Russia’s finest pianists of his day. He was also a
conductor, and as a composer he was the last great
representative of Russian late Romanticism in classical
music. Rachmaninov absorbed the early influences of
Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov into a thoroughly
personal idiom, which included a pronounced lyricism,
expressive breadth and a tonal palette of rich, distinctive
colours, both for solo piano and orchestra. However in
1900, Rachmaninov’s life was at a low ebb, both
professionally and emotionally. His 1st Symphony had
been premiered three years before, under the baton of
Glazunov, and was met with dismal reviews.
Rachmaninov slipped into a deep depression, which led
him to threaten that he would never compose again. In his
Memoirs he recounts; “I did nothing and found no
pleasure in anything. Half my days were spent lying on a
couch and sighing over my ruined life”. In his
desperation, he sought help from a hypnotist and fellow
musician, Dr. Nikolay Dahl, who encouraged him to pick
up his pen again, and compose a second piano concerto.
With Dahl’s help, Rachmaninov set about writing the 2nd
Concerto, and when it was premiered in October 1901, it
was met with approval, contrary to Rachmaninov’s
expectation. It was performed by the Moscow
Philharmonic Orchestra, and the soloist was the composer
himself. A year later, when the Concerto was published
the composer showed his gratitude to Dahl by dedicating
the work to him.
The concerto opens with a series of bell-like chords for
the solo piano, growing in volume and intensity; the
strings then join the piano with the main theme, while the
piano executes rippling arpeggios underneath. The piano
is largely heard as an accompanying instrument in the first
movement, until the second theme in the relative major is
heard, one of Rachmaninov’s most familiar and beloved
melodies. The development is first lyrical then heroic,
leading to a rousing march on the piano, the opening
quaver rhythm being the basis of a subsidiary theme,
which also opens the third movement. This march is
underpinned by a recapitulation of the first theme. This
dissolves into a reiteration of the second theme by the
horn, signalling a lyrical coda, and the movement
concludes with a gradual accelerando to the end.
The sensual beauty of the Adagio sostenuto creates an
atmosphere of enchantment, even otherworldliness. The
main theme is heard in the flute, followed by the clarinet,
once again accompanied by the soloist. The piano then
takes over the melody, one of serene romanticism, and it
is developed with strings and woodwind accompanying.
The movement incorporates a brisk scherzo, where the
piano is finally allowed its cadenza, before all returns to
the serenity of the opening.
In the final movement, Allegro scherzando, the lower
strings murmur a brief introduction (based on the
subsidiary march theme) to the opening virtuosic cadenza,
which leads into the staccato pulsing rhythm of the
opening theme. All too quickly, we arrive at the second
theme, the famous arch-like melody first heard in the oboe
and violas, which is echoed by the piano. The mood of the
movement shifts abruptly from a mood of jittery
excitement to one of ecstatic rhapsody, with frequent
tempo changes. The stirring final climax combines a
maestoso restatement of the arch-like melody (this time
for the full orchestra) and pianistic fireworks in the coda.
Rachmaninov, as in so many of his works, ends with his
rhythmic signature, heard as the last four notes of the
work on a unison tonic.
There is no doubt that this is one of Rachmaninov’s
greatest works, and it has found fame and popularity with
performers and audiences worldwide. The musical world
is indebted to Dahl, who helped the composer bring this
work to life.
Ben Sheen
INTERVAL
Song Cycle ‘Let us Garlands Bring’ Op 18
Finzi (1901-1956)
1 Come away death
2 Who is Sylvia
3 Fear no more the heat o’ the sun
4 O mistress mine
5 It was a lover and his lass
Soloist: Alexander Jones (baritone)
Conductor: Jack Rozman
Completed in 1942 but in the process of composition
since 1929, ‘Let us garlands bring’ is Finzi's most wellknown song series. Through the use of five texts from
Shakespeare, it deals with two of the most common
themes in music - Love and Death. Though first
performed in a version for baritone and piano on the
12th of October 1942, the version with string orchestral
accompaniment was first performed a mere six days
later on the 18th.
The sombre opening song, ‘Come away, come away,
death’ is taken from Twelfth Night and is sung from the
perspective of a dead man who has been "slain by a fair
cruel maid". The singer's desire that "not a friend greet
my poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown," aptly
sums up the mood of the whole song. His body should
simply be forgotten so as not to cause any more pain to
those who had loved him in life. The opening theme,
alternating crotchets in lower and upper strings, which
returns throughout the piece, creates a sense of trudging
inevitability, possibly reflecting the inexorable march of
time and ultimately death.
The second song ‘Who is Silvia?’ taken from Two
Gentlemen of Verona is decidedly more upbeat, and
provides some much needed light relief, sandwiched as
it is between the two darkest songs in the series. The
song expresses with youthful exuberance how
wonderful the singer finds Silvia to be ("holy fair and
wise is she") before asserting that due to her perfection
"to her let us garlands bring."
The third song ‘Fear no more the heat o' the sun’ is
taken from Cymbeline and carries the greatest emotional
depth of all the songs. Like the opening song, it deals
with death, but this time it is the death of the singer's
love, not the singer himself. It is given additional
pathos, coming as it does immediately after ‘Who is
Silvia’, as the juxtaposition of the two conflicting
emotions suffered by essentially the same person
brings them into stark relief. ‘Fear no more...’ is not,
however, a song railing against the injustices of death,
but rather a song for the comfort of the dead, reminding
his lover of all the care and trials that face the living
each day, "fear not slander, censure rash". It makes
death out to be the bringer of rest and peace rather than
the thief of life.
The fourth and fifth songs express much the same
sentiments. ‘O Mistress Mine’ and ‘It was a lover and
his lass’. Taken from Twelfth Night and As you Like It
respectively, both extol the joys of youthful love and the
importance of enjoying the present rather than being
concerned with the future ("present mirth hath present
laughter"). The main difference between the two is the
perspective from which they are sung. ‘O Mistress
Mine’ is sung by a young man trying to woo his love,
"then come kiss me sweet and twenty," trying to
persuade her by any means necessary whether it be
impressing her by showing that he "can sing both high
and low" or by telling her that time is running out
"youth's a stuff will not endure". ‘It was a lover and his
lass’ is less personal, telling from a narrator's
perspective about a lover and his lass. In this respect it
is a perfect finish to the series. Where all the other songs
have been sung in the first person and are about
personal experience, be it good or bad, the final song
takes a step back from the action and pulls all the other
songs together. It is almost as if the singer, having been
in all these different situations can finally round up his
thoughts and consider all that has gone before, coming
to the final conclusion that "sweet lovers love the
Alex Jones
spring!"
1. Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid;
Fly away, fly away, breath;
I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
O, prepare it!
My part of death, no one so true
Did share it.
Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
On my black coffin let there be strown;
Not a friend, not a friend to greet
My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown:
A thousand thousand sighs to save,
Lay me, O, where
Sad true lover never find my grave,
To weep there!
2. Who is Silvia? What is she,
That all our swains commend her?
Holy, fair, and wise is she;
The heaven such grace did lend her,
That she might admired be.
Is she kind as she is fair?
For beauty lives with kindness.
Love doth to her eyes repair,
To help him of his blindness;
And, being helped, inhabits there.
Then to Silvia let us sing,
That Silvia is excelling;
She excels each mortal thing
Upon the dull earth dwelling:
To her let us garlands bring.
3. Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Fear no more the frown o’ the great;
Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke:
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.
Fear no more the lightning-flash,
Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou has finished joy and moan:
All lovers young all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.
No exorciser harm thee!
Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
Nothing ill come near thee!
Quiet consummation have;
And renowned be thy grave!
4. O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love’s coming,
That can sing both high and low:
Trip no further pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers’ meeting,
Every wise man’s son doth know.
What is love? ‘tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What’s to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies no plenty,
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.
5. It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o’er the green cornfield did pass
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
These pretty country folks would lie,
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring
This carol they began that hour,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
How that life was but a flower
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
And therefore take the present time,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
For love is crowned with the prime
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring
Capriccio Espagnol Op 34
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Alborada
Variazioni
Alborada
Scena e canto gitano
Fandango asturiano
Conductor: Jim Wortley
Among the group of Russian composers known as ‘The
Five’ or ‘The Mighty Handful’ (Borodin, Balakirev,
Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Cui), RimskyKorsakov is most noted for his ability to orchestrate, and
his Capriccio Espagnol is a spectacular showpiece. After
the first performance in 1887 Tchaikovsky wrote that the
work was “a colossal masterpiece of orchestration”.
However, Rimsky-Korsakov’s belief that orchestration
“constitutes the very essence of the composition, not just
its clothing” led him to suggest that “the opinion formed
by both critics and the public that the Capriccio is a
magnificently orchestrated piece is wrong. The Capriccio
is a brilliant composition for orchestra”.
Rimsky-Korsakov was an officer in the Imperial Russian
Navy from 1862 to 1865, during which time he visited
England (where he wrote the slow movement of his First
Symphony in an East London pub!), New York, Rio de
Janeiro and Cádiz. The Capriccio Espagnol is a prime
example of the interest in foreign folk music which
Rimsky-Korsakov developed during his extensive travels.
Capriccio Espagnol was originally a ‘Fantasy on Spanish
Themes’ for violin and orchestra, drawing upon a volume
of folk songs and dances that had been compiled by José
Inzenga, but Rimsky-Korsakov soon found that “the
Spanish themes . . . furnished me with rich material for
employing colourful orchestral effects” and completed the
piece as a purely orchestral work. The first violin still has
a prominent solo, along with the clarinet and harp.
Rimsky-Korsakov himself conceded that “the Capriccio is
undoubtedly a purely superficial piece, but vividly
brilliant for all that”.
The piece consists of five linked movements. The brief
and rhythmic Alborada is a traditional Spanish morning
dance in praise of the rising sun, and alternates between
blazing fortissimo tutti sections, and two thinner-scored
sections featuring clarinet and violin solos. The ensuing
Variazioni form a suitably contrasting interlude: they
take an evening dance with a gentle theme, first modestly
stated by a quartet of horns, as the basis of a series of five
increasingly passionate variations, which take the theme
through the orchestra and a variety of keys. The opening
Alborada returns, but now transposed up a semitone and
re-orchestrated completely. It still features two solo
passages, alternated with orchestral tutti sections, but the
solo instruments (clarinet and violin) have swapped roles.
The movement ends with a crescendo which leads to the
next movement. The Scena is made up of a group of
cadenza-like variations, each accompanied by background
percussion. The first is a fanfare-like trumpet section with
side-drum, which leads into a violin solo. A brief
appearance of the Canto Gitano (gypsy song) follows,
with wind accompanied by rhythmic ostinato percussion,
before a flute cadenza, a short clarinet solo, and finally a
magnificent harp cadenza. This leads, with the aid of
shouting low brass, to the vivacious Canto Gitano main
theme in the violins with pizzicato accompaniment. The
final Fandango theme is announced by three trombones,
then continued n the wind and strings. This Andalusian
dance is traditionally played on guitar with castanet
accompaniment, and although the guitar is lacking here,
frequent use of pizzicato strings perhaps implies its
presence, and the castanets are prominent. The Fandango
theme is heard in a variety of orchestrations, and hastens
onwards with increasing intensity, until the Canto Gitano
briefly reappears. The Alborada returns, and with a
dizzying accelerando, the piece comes to a suitably
brilliant tutti finish.
Matthew Knight
Vale
School Song
Boating Song
ETON COLLEGE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
lst Violins:
Julian Gregory (Leader)
Nicholas Daly
Samuel Sereda
Timothy Shields
Benjamin Durrant
Matthew Chambers
Alexander Koo
Yeachan Park
Matthew Hay
Thomas Norrington
Daniel Chaplin
2nd Violins:
Daryl Cheng
Samuel Landman
Oliver Rodigan
Alexander Blakeney
Charles Davis
Georgiy Grigorev
Maxime de Hennin
Simon Goldring
Malcolm Hamilton
Oscar Higgott
Alexander Robarts
Andrew Barakat
Violas:
Benjamin van Nieuwenhuizen
Samuel Ellison
Marcus Roberts
Hugh Cooper
Chang Park
Cellos:
Michael Heighway
Lawrence Koo
George Cooke
Fergus Thirlwell
Alexander Ryan
Hugo Popplewell
Benjamin Fuller
Anatole Sloan
George Howard
James Sharp
Rubin Patel
Double Basses:
Benjamin Sheen
Jonathan Astle
Flutes:
Ben-San Lau
Henry Seabright
Piccolo:
Hector Miller-Bakewell
Oboes:
John Park
Adam Berman
Benjamin Patel
Clarinets:
Christopher Potts
Frederick Fuller
Robert Jeffrey
Hee-Won Cho
Bassoons:
James Spicer
Thomas Harris
Horns:
Lorenzo Bassano
James Poston
Cem Hurrell
Quintin Beer
Alexander Chance
Trumpets:
Alexander Dance
James Eager
James Prothero
Alexander Eager
Trombones:
Joshua Cooter
Luke Birch
John Hewlett
Tubas:
Frederick Alliott
George Birch
Timpani:
Frederick Clark
Percussion:
Ashley Cooper
Benjamin Cooper
Gibson Fahnestock
Matthew Underhill
Harp:
Tomós Xerri