Sunday 10th March 2013 at 7.30pm

 

St John's Smith Square

 

London SW1P 3HA

 

 

 

Finchley Choral Society

Finchley Children's Music Group

Grace Rossiter - conductor

 

 

 Marking the centenary of FCMG's founding President, Benjamin Britten,

 London's much loved childrens choir, Finchley Children's Music Group

 joins Finchley Choral Society in this all British Choral Programme.

 

Finzi God is gone Up

Britten Hymn to the Virgin

Richard J. Harvey On the Beach at Night

Britten Te Deum in C

James MacMillan The Gallant Weaver

 Elgar The Snow

Britten Fancie

Britten Three 2-part songs

Britten Missa Brevis in D

 Trad. arr. Andrew Carter Dashing away with a Smoothing Iron

Trad. arr. Andrew Carter Two for the price of one

Vaughan Williams 5 English Folk Songs

 Parry I was Glad

 

 Tickets: £20 / £15 / £12 / £8   Phone: 020 7222 1061 (£2 booking fee. £1.50 to friends of St John's)

Online: www.sjss.org.uk (£1.50 booking fee).  Post: St John's Smith Square, London SW1P 3HA. (Please enclose S.A.E, cheques made payable to St Johns Smith Square). In person: Monday - Saturday 10 am - 5 pm. (Box Office opens one hour prior to weekend concerts). Smith Square Restaurant & Cafe (open from 5.30 pm for pre-concert meals): 020 7222 2779.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Press Release 29^th October 2012

 

 

 Bach Komm, Jesu, Komm!

 

Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland

 

and settings by Vaughan Williams, Howells and Grainger

 

 

Saturday 1^st December 2012, at 7.45pm Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church, Central Square, London NW11 7AG

 

 

 

Finchley Choral Society’s Autumn concert will feature a selection of works by Vaughan Williams, Howells, Grainger and Bach including the double-chorus motet “Komm, Jesu, Komm!”

 

 Johann Sebastian Bach composed this motet, a choral work for church use, around 1725 from a setting of hymnbook poetry by Paul Thymich. The choir is also singing Bach’s Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV61 which is a church cantata composed in Weimar for the first Sunday in Advent and first performed on 2^nd December 1714.

 

 Ralph Vaughan Williams discovered English folk songs and carols in 1904 were fast becoming extinct. He travelled the countryside, transcribing and preserving many himself, incorporating some songs and melodies into his own music. He was fascinated by the beauty of the music and its anonymous history in the working lives of ordinary people. 5 English Folk Songs and Fantasia on Christmas Carols are regularly performed today, this year marking 100 years since the latter was composed.

 

 A Spotless Rose is one of Howell’s most well-known and enduring works – an unaccompanied choral piece composed whilst he was sitting in Gloucester train station in 1919! It is one of the Three Carol-Anthems.

 

 Our concert theme of folk songs continues with Percy Grainger’s Brigg Fair which is one of his songs inspired whilst he was staying at Brigg in Lincolnshire in 1905. Grainger gathered and transcribed more than 300 original folk songs from all over the country.

 

 FCS’s musical director, Grace Rossiter will conduct the programme, with the Florian Chamber Orchestra and organ accompaniment from the choir’s accompanist, Richard Harvey. FCS will be joined by soloists Olivia Clarke (soprano), Christopher Bowen (tenor) and Edward Price (baritone).

 

 Finchley Choral Society was founded over one hundred years ago to give local people the opportunity to take part in high quality music making. It is now a thriving community choir presenting 3-4 concerts a year. The choir will be returning to the Free Church, Hampstead Garden Suburb. This impressive Grade 1 listed building, built by architect Edwin Lutyens in a similar style to St Jude’s, is one of the choir’s regular concert venues.

 

 Tickets: £13.00, students £7.00, children £1.00. Available from FCS Box Office: 020 7263 3358, FCS members, on the door or from Les Aldrich Music, 98 Fortis Green Rd, London N10 3HN. Tel: 020 8883 5631.

St Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill

 Brahms  Ein deutsches Requiem                                                     

Piano Duet

 Soprano & Baritone Soloists 

Summer 2013 Term Dates

 Standard Rehearsals:

15th April

22nd April

29th April

8th May (Wednesday)

13th May

20th May

3rd June

10th June

17th June

24th June

1st July

5th July (Friday - final rehearsal)

- 10 Standard rehearsals (1 Wednesday)

 

Summer Concert:

Saturday 6th July,  St Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill at 7.45pm

 

Quiz Night:

Saturday 11th May

 

Saturday 3 December 2011

 

Finchley Choral Society

 

St Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill

 

Haydn                        Mozart            Schubert

 

 

St Mary the Virgin is a strangely down at heel building of chipped paint, age settled dust on whitewashed pillars ... and a broken organ. But it has the feel of a congregation that puts its ministry before appearance.

 

Scheduled to provide accompaniment, the organ failure meant that Richard Harvey was instead given a wonderful Bechstein piano. There was also a last-minute substitution as the brilliant Elizabeth Poole took over the soprano roles. And, following a gloriously Happy Event on the eve of the concert, the regular conductor Grace Rossiter handed her baton to the multi-talented Patrick Russil.

 

In the first piece, the wonderful Amens of Mozart's Sancta Maria, mater dei had the audience's hairs standing on the back of our collective necks. His much better known Ave Verum Corpus managed in just 46 bars to delight everyone in St Mary’s. So much so that we forgot to applaud!

 

The two Mendelssohn works were welcome. The choir's rendition of his Prayer for Peace supported Robert Schuman's description of the work as ' a uniquely beautiful composition .. this little piece deserves to be known the world over.'

 

By Schubert's Mass in G, the choir was clearly fully recovered, in great voice and thoroughly enjoying the noises they were making. Their whispered Kyrie was soon joined by Elizabeth's remarkable soprano voice. Hayden's Te Deum was delivered with a fine, animated start - crystal clear and with strong purpose.

 

The lack of orchestra placed Finchley Choral society firmly centre stage. They worked hard and delivered all that the stand in conductor asked. But it was hard to avoid the conclusion that the presence of an orchestra, however small, would have added greatly to the enjoyment of the evening. Despite all this the choir really lifted itself to deliver a memorable series of performances demanded by this well-chosen programme.

 

For details of their concert on 24th March in Hampstead Garden Suburb, www.finchleychoral.org.uk

David Winskill. Ham and High. 

 

FCS Summer Concert 2012

Handel

Jephtha

St. Pancras Church, Euston Road/Upper Woburn Place, London. NW1 2BA

Soprano          Natalie Clifton-Griffith

Mezzo-soprano   Margaret Cameron

Counter-tenor      Tim Travers-Brown

Tenor                            Stephen Jeffes

Bass                              Michael Bundy

Florian Chamber Orchestra

Finchley Choral  Society

Conductor      Grace Rossiter

Tickets: £15.00 / £7.00 Students / £1.00 Children.
Available from FCS Box Office: 0207 263 3358

FCS Members, on the door, or from Les Aldrich Music,
98 Fortis Green Rd. N10 3HN. 0208 883 5631 

 

 

FINCHLEY CHORAL SOCIETY

Spring Concert  Saturday 24th March 2012

Finchley Choral Society’s spring concert will feature a selection of ‘British Choral Classics’ including  ‘The Blue Bird’ by Stanford, ‘I Was Glad’ by Parry (which was sung at The Royal Wedding in 2011), partsongs by Vaughan Williams and Finzi and ‘Old Joe has gone fishing’ by Britten.

 This is from Act 1 Scene 2 of Britten’s opera Peter Grimes. The scene is set in the village pub, the Boar, while a violent storm rages outside. Grimes the fisherman, regarded as an outsider and object of suspicion by the villagers, enters and sings a visionary and mystifying aria “Now the Great Bear and Pleiades”.He is attacked by one of the villagers, but another villager, to calm the tension, starts up the sea-shanty “Old Joe has gone fishing”, which takes on the form of a round as the others join in.

 FCS will also perform ‘The Gallant Weaver’, a setting of the Burns poem by MacMillan, which echoes the wistful dreamlike nature of the country side evoked in the poem, and another partsong (a style related to madrigals) - ‘As Torrents in Summer’ by Elgar.  The text is by Longfellow and the gentle harmonies evoke the soft fall of summer rain , building up like the rush of strong water before gently receding.

 An evening of beautiful and lyrical choral music conducted by Finchley Choral Society’s Musical Director Grace Rossiter, accompanied by Organist Richard Harvey.

 FCS was founded over one hundred years ago to give local people the opportunity to take part in high quality music making. It is now a thriving community choir presenting 3-4 concerts a year. The choir will be returning to the Free Church, Hampstead Garden Suburb. This impressive Grade I listed building, built by architect Edwin Lutyens in a similar style to St Jude’s, is one of the choir’s regular concert venues.

 ‘This concert will have done much to confirm Finchley’s deserved and growing reputation. Rossiter is giving them the confidence to grow and the opportunity to take risks...’

David Winskill (Ham & High) on Beethoven’s Mass in C

 
Saturday 24th March 2012

Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church,
Central Square, London NW11 7AG at 7.45pm 



Stanford                               The Blue Bird 

 

Parry                                     I was Glad

                                              Blest Pair of Sirens

MacMillan                           The Gallant Weaver

Vaughan Williams            Three Elizabethan Songs

 

 

For more photos of the FCS/FCMG Carmina Burana/ On the beach at night concert at St. Mary the Virgin Primrose Hill click on Gallery...Carmina photos.

FINCHLEY CHORAL SOCIETY
Musical Director  Grace Rossiter

"...This concert will have done much to confirm Finchley's deserved and growing reputation.
Rossiter is giving them the confidence to grow and the opportunity to take risks..."
David Winskill (Ham & High) on Beethoven's Mass in C

FCS is a thriving community choir, performing 3 - 4 concerts a year.
We are 90 strong, and welcome singers of all ages. Entry is by a simple voice test.

Recent highlights include a "Breathtaking" (Ham and High) Carmina Burana
and the world premiere of On the Beach at Night by Richard James Harvey.

This season features 'Classical Elegance': Haydn, Mozart and Schubert in December,
'British Choral Classics': Parry, Elgar, Britten & Finzi part-songs in the spring,
and Handel Jeptha in June 2012.

Future attractions include Christmas Carol singing in aid of the North London Hospice,
Spring and Summer workshops, and a tour to Holland in November 2012.

Rehearsals - Mondays 7.45 - 9.45pm Moss Hall Junior School, Nether Street, West Finchley.
London N3 1NR.  For more information please visit:   www.finchleychoral.org.uk
or call the Membership Secretary on 020 8449 8135

It was with much sadness that we learned of the recent  death of Alan Barlow,
FCS Musical Director 1957- 1983

Press Release: 11 October 2010

Bach’s Christmas Oratorio – the perfect way to start the festive season

Finchley Choral Society’s winter concert will feature JS Bach’s masterpiece – Christmas Oratorio – a retelling of the nativity tale.

 Written in six parts, originally intended for performance on each of the six feast days around Christmas, Finchley Choral Society will perform the first three parts on Saturday 4 December.