Saturday 10th September 2011

SEPTEMBER SUN - David Conte
Ten years ago we witnessed the tragic events of 9/11 unfolding before our eyes; in commemoration we give the European première of Californian composer David Conte's September Sun, written in response to the attacks and in memory of those who perished on September 11th 2001. One of the last students of legendary teacher Nadia Boulanger, David Conte has been Professor of Composition and Conductor of the Conservatory Chorus at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1985. In 2008 he was commissioned to write a work for the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama on January 20th 2009. September Sun has a text by the modern American poet John Stirling Walker that forms an acrostic on the line "God dwells in joy in the midst of sorrow." A prelude and postlude for string orchestra frames the comfortably tonal score. The choral writing is accomplished and telling, especially in the repeated invocations to the sun that shone all that dreadful day when "so many of your dynamic sons and daughters" went to their deaths.

This is a link to a PDF which has more information on David Conte's Choral Works

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 14 - W. A. Mozart, K 449
As the Conte moves from darkness to light, from despair to hope, so we move to a work of beauty and great lyricism: Mozart's Piano Concerto No.14 in E-flat major, K.449. Written in 1784 this is regarded as being the first of the mature series of concerti that Mozart wrote. It is also the first composition Mozart entered into a notebook of his music he then kept for the next seven years, marking down main themes, dates of completion, and other important information. In the same year in succession he wrote several concertos, and in a letter to his father that May, wrote of the 15th and 16th concertos that he "could not choose between them" but that "the one in E flat does not belong at all to the same category. It is one of a quite peculiar kind...". We are delighted that our regular accompanist, Stephen Meakins, a recent graduate and piano scholar at the Royal College of Music will perform the concerto.

REQUIEM - W. A. Mozart, K 626
The concert concludes with Mozart's solemn setting of the Requiem, K 626. The mysterious circumstances of the Requiem's commission, and the fact that it was left incomplete by a dying Mozart, have ensured a continuing fascination with his last composition. Shortly after Mozart accepted the commission from Count Walsegg-Stuppach in the summer of 1791 to compose a setting of this highly spiritual subject, long-term illness finally overpowered his mortal body. He died before the year's end and never fully completed the work. The mass was realised by one of his pupils at the invitation of Mozart's wife Constanze. And whilst there are compositional elements that are academically dubious, Franz Xaver Sussmayr's dedication to "complete" the work enabled the mass to become one of the most performed pieces in Mozart's catalogue. Why is this work considered to be so profound? Maybe because every note of every chord, of every bar of this powerfully elegiac masterpiece, penetrates deep inside and overwhelms the emotional core of anyone who hears it, and whatever your race and beliefs, you cannot fail to be moved by the tragic and yet awesome power of this music.

Audience Comments

Not knowing what to expect with the new Conte piece, I liked the string writing sandwiching the choral passages, which the Choir handled with authority and sincerity. The Mozart piano concerto was also unfamiliar, but Stephen Meakins' performance showed his empathy with the composer with some excellent variation in tempi and colour. The Requiem, of course, is very well-known, but the Choir attacked the dynamic passages with good intensity, and the quieter parts also came over with confidence. I thought the orchestra, Queen's Park Sinfonia, supported all three pieces very well.

EL, Lincolnshire

September Sun, the new piece by David Conte in memory of those who died on 9/11, was very moving. I particularly liked the blending of the orchestral parts in the prelude which created a wonderful atmosphere. The performance of Mozart’s Requiem was very full and powerful in the main choruses, and the same composer’s little know piano concert was beautifully played.

SH, Kingsthorpe

The build-up in the media of the events of 9/11 prior to the concert rekindled and awakened the scale of the tragedy and its emotional impact on us all, which was echoed in the orchestral Prelude to September Sun, and the contemporary idiom of the music seemed to match the events musically. With its rhythms and structures closer in some ways to Bernstein and some musicals, the impact of September Sun was both emotionally touching and novel. We should congratulate Lee Dunleavy, the Queens Park Sinfonia and the Northampton Bach Choir for their choice and their artistic triumph.

BD, Weston Favell

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