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To kick off our season – Wond’rous Machine – celebrating the
great wealth of music for large chorus and symphonic organ, we start
on the grandest scale imaginable … a ninety-minute symphony with a
chorus of 250 voices! Originally composed for large chorus and
orchestra of over 100 players, we perform Mahler’s masterpiece in a
transcription made and performed by David Briggs, where all the
orchestral parts are performed by the two hands and two feet of one
organist! David is known across the globe for his brilliant organ
transcriptions of symphonic music by composers such as Bach,
Bruckner, Elgar, Ravel, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and – of course –
Mahler. He has transcribed (and recorded) both of Elgar’s Symphonies
and five of Mahler’s Symphonies (Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8; his
transcription of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 will be premièred at King’s
College, Cambridge, in February 2018). He is currently
Artist-in-Residence at the Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York
City, and is Organist Emeritus of Gloucester Cathedral, and former
Director of Music of Truro Cathedral.
We are delighted to be joined once again by the Daventry Choral
Society and the Chapel Choir of the Malcolm Arnold Academy, and for
the first time in recent years by the Wellingborough Singers. Our
soprano soloist, Alison Roddy, is an international opera and concert
soprano. Born in Dublin, she has sung over a dozen leading roles as
a principal soprano at English National Opera, as well as singing at
other leading opera houses all over the world, from Vienna to Ottawa
to New Zealand.
Because of the nature of this Symphony, there will be a large video
screen, visible from all the central seats and many of the side
aisle seats, which will enable the audience to see as well as hear
the organist at work. The Symphony is performed without an interval,
and light refreshments will be available at the end of the concert,
at approximately 9:00pm.
Programme:
Northampton Bach Choir
… with guest choirs …
Daventry Choral Society
The Wellingborough Singers
The Chapel Choir of the Malcolm Arnold Academy
Soprano – Alison Roddy
Mezzo Soprano – Jeanette Ager
Organ – David Briggs
Conductor – Lee Dunleavy
Mahler – Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” |
