In an inscription to God on the last page of the score of his
Petite Messe Solennelle, Rossini described it as “the last
mortal sin of my old age. Have I written music that is blessed, or
just blessed music? Little knowledge and a little heart is all here.
Be blest and grant me Paradise.”
Rossini always thought on the grandest scale and this Mass is
neither “petite” (being some 80 minutes in length), nor “solemn” –
as throughout it bubbles with wit and good humour. Its only “petite”
feature lies in the forces which he demands for the accompaniment –
piano and harmonium, that instrument so peculiar to France. “Solemn”
to our taste it may not be, but serious it certainly is in its way.
Indeed it may well be that it was Rossini who was first to pose the
question “Why should the devil have all the best tunes?”
Rossini arranged a first performance on the 24th April 1865 in a
private house with just twelve singers, the four soloists also
singing in the choruses, and the composer “turned over” for the
keyboard players. In our performance the piano will be played by
Northampton born David Owen Norris, virtuoso pianist, broadcaster
and composer and one of the most iconic personalities in present day
English music. He will be playing on his own Pleyel Grand Piano made
in 1887, almost exactly contemporaneous with Rossini’s composition.Programme:
Northampton Bach Choir
Conductor: Lee Dunleavy
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Adrian
Moore
Harmonium |
Adrian Moore studied music
at Bristol University, where he was Organ Scholar, and at
the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He is
based in Leamington Spa, where he teaches piano and organ
privately and at Princethorpe College. He is organist of
Holy Trinity church in Leamington Spa and is very active as
a solo performer, continuo player and accompanist on organ,
piano and harpsichord and he is President of the Coventry
and Warwickshire Organists’ Association.
Adrian is the rehearsal pianist for Collegium, the
parish choir of St. Mary’s Collegiate Church, Warwick and
for the Daventry Choral Society and plays regularly for the
St. James’s Singers. He accompanies choirs in concerts and
services in churches and cathedrals in this country and
abroad and recent engagements have included playing organ
for a choir in St Vitus cathedral and St Nicholas church
Prague, for the Daventry Choral Society in Jersey and for
the services at Truro cathedral when Sine Nomine Rugby – a
choir in which he also sings – sang the services there for a
week last summer and at Birmingham and Worcester cathedrals. |
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David Owen
Norris
Piano |
David Owen Norris, was born in Northampton and grew up in the
village of Long Buckby. He was the first winner of the Gilmore
Artist Award and as a result he has played concertos all over North
America and Australia and in the BBC Proms. He broadcasts regularly
and a programme entirely devoted to his work on the Elgar Piano
Concerto, ending with a spectacular live performance of the whole
work, has been shown several times on BBC2. Norris began his career
by accompanying such artists as Dame Janet Baker, Sir Peter Pears &
Jean-Pierre Rampal, and has enjoyed long-standing partnerships with
Ernst Kovacic, Sir John Tomlinson, and the late Philip Langridge.
Besides this work on the modern piano, David Owen Norris is an
acknowledged expert on early pianos. His discovery that the World’s
First Piano Concertos were written around 1770 in London for the
tiny square piano led to a complete reconsideration of that
instrument, with an epoch-making recording, and concerto tours of
Britain, Europe and America. His current early-piano recording
projects range from Mozart to Mendelssohn, Sterndale Bennett and
Brahms.
David Owen Norris’s rise as a composer is more recent. Audiences
have been discovering his music through a series of major works: the
oratorio Prayerbook, the Piano Concerto in C, both recorded
commercially, and the Symphony; as well as smaller works, already
much loved, like the song-cycles Think only this and Tomorrow nor
Yesterday, the cantata STERNE, was THE MAN and the much-toured and
frequently broadcast radio-opera The Jolly Roger, or Pugwash Walks
the Plank, the last-named a BBC commission. Two large-scale works
appeared in the autumn of 2015: Turning Points, a celebration of
democracy supported financially by the Agincourt600 Committee, and
HengeMusic, a multi-media piece for organ and saxophone quartet with
film and poetry, supported by Arts Council England.
David Owen Norris is Professor of Musical Performance at the
University of Southampton, Visiting Professor at the Royal College
of Music and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
His regular monthly columns in the BBC Music Magazine give rise to a
steady flow of thoughtful correspondence. |
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Una
Barry
Soprano |
Una Barry has enjoyed a busy career whereby her extensive repertoire
from the baroque to the present day and her outstanding musical
ability have enabled her to accept solo engagements and broadcasts
not only in Britain but in many parts of the world.
Una studied initially with Eileen Poulter and then won a
post-graduate scholarship to the Royal Northern College of Music to
study with, amongst others, Pamela Cook and Alexander Young. With a
recent move to live in West Yorkshire she continues to be coached by
the retired international baritone Neil Howlett. She is an active
recitalist and has sung a large range of oratorio with many of the
leading choral societies and conductors in the UK and overseas.
Of her Manchester Midday Concert, the Daily Telegraph
wrote...
Una Barry possesses a
strong true soprano voice
which is the expression of a
marked intelligence and a
vivid response
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Eleanor
Minney
Mezzo-soprano
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Eleanor was born and educated in Kettering and studied at Trinity
Laban Conservatoire of Music, London. On graduating she was awarded
the Wilfred Greenhouse Allt Prize for Cantata and Oratorio for her
performance in J S Bach’s St John Passion. She sang with the English
Baroque Soloists for Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s documentary for BBCtv
Bach: A Passionate Life. Other highlights include Bach’s Mass in B
Minor with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Kodaly Missa Brevis at the Royal
Festival Hall, and Tavener The Beautiful Names in Istanbul’s Hagia
Sofia with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Eleanor is a busy consort singer, with regular performances on radio
and in major concert venues worldwide. She is a permanent member of
the BBC Singers and performs regularly with the Monteverdi Choir, I
Fagiolini, The Sixteen and Tenebrae.
She currently studies with Alison Wells. |
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Joseph
Cornwell
Tenor
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Joseph Cornwell studied music at the University of York and singing
at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He began his career with
The Consort of Musicke, the Tallis Scholars and the Taverner Consort
and has sung under such conductors as William Christie, Harry
Christophers, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Trevor Pinnock and Sir Roger
Norrington.
He is well known for his portrayal of roles in baroque operas, and
his recordings include J S Bach St Matthew Passion, Mozart Mass in C
Minor with Les Arts Florissants, Montiverdi Vespers of 1610 with the Gabrieli Consort, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle
with Jos van
Immerseel (BBC Radio 3 Building a Library Choice).
Recent engagements include Monteverdi Vespers in the Bath Mozart
Festival with the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh. Joseph
Cornwell’s previous appearances alongside the Northampton Bach Choir
included performances of Handel Dixit Dominus and Charpentier Te
Deum in 1989, and Bach Mass in B Minor in March 2015. |
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Andrew
Mayor
Baritone
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Andrew Mayor was born in
Manchester and educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford
where he sang as a chorister in the College choir. He
subsequently made the small move across Magdalen Bridge to
continue his studies and singing as a choral scholar at
Magdalen College, singing once again in the College choir,
this time as a bass.
Whilst still a treble, Andrew was asked to sing the “Angel”
In Handel Jeptha with several well known singers,
including John Noble and Kenneth Bowen in the Sheldonian
Theatre, Oxford. It was that formative experience that
kindled his love of music and oratorio in particular. After
Oxford and time spent in London qualifying as a solicitor,
Andrew went on to study singing at the Royal Academy of
Music where he received various prizes.
Andrew has performed oratorio and concerts with choral
societies and groups around the UK and abroad. An early and
formative experience was as the bass soloist in a
performance of “Messiah from Scratch”, a popular annual
event sung by numerous visiting choirs from around the UK at
the Royal Albert Hall and conducted by Sir David Willcocks.
Another milestone, later in his career, were performances in
the Festspielhaus in Salzburg as bass soloist in Beethoven
Choral Fantasia played by Maurizio Pollini with the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Andrew enjoys singing a wide range of oratorio repertoire, a
particular favourite is the title role in Elijah
which he has sung in several venues, including the “Dukes
Hall” at his alma mater: the Royal Academy of Music.
Andrew also has a busy operatic career. Internationally, he
has taken part in a nationwide tour of the USA performing
Danilo in Lehar Die lustige Witwe for Columbia
Artists and toured throughout Europe singing Sharpless in
Puccini Madama Butterfly and the title role in Verdi
Rigoletto for Compagnia d’Opera Italiana di Milano.
At the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden he sang Starveling
in Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream conducted by
Richard Hickox.
Andrew has a number of other interests in addition to his
singing activities. He has a CELTA qualification to teach
English as a foreign language, and is a member of the
British Association of Ski Instructors.
The Northampton Bach Choir are most grateful to Andrew for
returning to Northampton – after his superb performance in
Verdi’s Requiem earlier in the year – at short-notice
as our advertised soloist, Ian Caddy, has had to withdraw on
health grounds. We wish Ian a speedy recovery, and hope to
see and hear him again in the future. |
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