Haydn Te Deum in C
Mozart Sancta Maria, Mater Dei
Exsultate, Jubilate
Schubert Magnificat in C
Mass in G
Saturday 3rd December 2011
St. Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill
London NW3 3DJ at 7.45pm
FINCHLEY CHORAL SOCIETY
Soprano Emma Tring
Mezzo-Soprano Lucy Goddard
Tenor Robert Johnston
Bass Philip Tebb
Organ Richard Harvey
Conductor Patrick Russill
Tickets: £13.00, Students £7.00, Children £1.00
Available from FCS Box Office: 0207 263 3358
FCS Members, on the door, or from
Les Aldrich Music, 98 Fortis Green Road
London N10 3HN, 0208 883 5631
Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire
From Britten’s Hymn for St Cecilia
Finchley Choral Society’s spring concert will feature a selection of unaccompanied choral works by Britten, Tippett, Verdi, Bruckner and Purcell.
Britten’s Hymn for St Cecilia sets words of a three part ode by WH Auden. Britten was born on St Cecilia’s day (22 November) and had long wanted to write a piece dedicated to St Cecilia – the patron saint of music and musicians. Britten's music to the Hymn embraces this idea of celebration. The piece was first performed on St. Cecilia's Day in 1942 – Britten's twenty-ninth birthday.
Tippett, a contemporary of Britten, composed the oratorio A Child of our Time between 1939 and 1941. The piece responds to the events in Europe at that time and the Negro Spirituals, which the Finchley Choral Society will perform, appear in the oratorio as the songs of victims of oppression. The set of spirituals features popular songs including Steel Away and Deep River and the work encapsulates Tippett’s own style, recognisably English, coloured with jazz and folk influences.
Verdi’s Hymn to the Virgin is a loving hymn of praise to the Virgin Mary scored for a cappella female voices. The concert will also include sacred setting by Bruckner and Purcell and will be conducted by the choir’s Music Director Grace Rossiter.
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 2 April 2011 at 7.45pm
Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church
Central Square, London, NW11 7AG
Benjamin Britten Hymn to St Cecilia
Michael Tippett Five Negro Spiritual from A Child of our Time
Giuseppe Verdi Hymn to the Virgin
And choral settings by Anton Bruckner and Henry Purcell
Grace Rossiter conductor
Tickets £13.00 | £1 students/children
Tickets are available from the FCS box office (020 7263 3358) FCS members or at the door. Tickets can also be purchased from Les Aldrich Music, 98 Fortis Green Road, N10 3HN or call 020 8883 5631.
Finchley Choral Society
Christmas Oratorio
J S Bach
Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church
Saturday 4th December 2010
Just hours before the start of this concert, the last traces of snow melted away from the Hampstead slopes. Had the magic of Christmas disappeared with the thaw? Not if the Finchley Choral Society had anything to do with it!
They, with the wonderful Florian Chamber Orchestra and a clutch of soloists, really kicked off the festive season with this performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio.
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
Music Director: Grace Rossiter
Registered Charity No. 265563
Press Release: 8 February 2010
A celebration of French choral favourites
Finchley Choral Society’s Spring concert will feature an all French programme. Duruflé’s Requiem and Poulenc’s Litanies á la Vierge Noire will form the central part of the concert.
Undoubtedly the more performed of the French composer’s choral works, Maurice Duruflé composed his Requiem in 1947. Known mainly as a composer of organ music, Duruflé was writing an organ piece at the time based on Gregorian chants. He incorporated many of the same elements into the Requiem. The use of plainchant provides the music with a meditative spirituality, making it stand out as a work of sublime beauty and peace.
FINCHLEY CHORAL SOCIETY
ST. BRIAVELS. WYE VALLEY
Sat 22nd MAY 2010 @ 7.30PM
PROGRAMME
Durufle - Introit, Kyrie, Agnus Dei, Lux Eterna, In Paradisio
Poulenc - Litanies a la Vierge Noire
Laloux - O Salutaris; Tantum Ergo
INTERVAL
Scarlatti - Stabat Mater [excerpts]
The Teddy Bears’ Picnic
FINCHLEY CHORAL SOCIETY
Finchley Choral Society, based in North London, has been making music for more than a century. Our choir includes approximately 80 members from a range of age groups and backgrounds, who all enjoy coming together to make music. The choir’s repertoire is large and varied, including Rachmaninov’s Vespers (in Russian), a cappella pieces by Mendelssohn and Benjamin Britten, and Bach Masses. It is always a great moment when, after weeks of rehearsals, the choir reaches the final performance - and this is a very special performance for us, in this beautiful church in the Wye Valley.
If you find yourself in North London in the future, look us up and come and see one of our concerts or join us. For more information, please see our website www.finchleychoral.org.uk
THANKS
We owe many people thanks for organising, arranging and rehearsing this concert. But a particularly big thank you should go Judy Craven, one of our past members who moved to Wye and initiated the whole project, offered hospitality and generally enthused all of us to take part.
Sacred offering is powerful and tender.
FINCHLEY CHORAL SOCIETY
St.Pancras Parish Church
Saturday 21st November 2009
St. Pancras Parish Church, opposite the Arts and Crafts inspired fire station on the Euston Road,
is a beautiful venue for a sacred concert.
The weather was dreadful but, for the several hundred souls who braved the rain, wind and pulped leaves coating the streets, the rewards were great.
The 70 or so members of the choir (sporting lipstick red roses pinned on austere black) and the excellent Florian Chamber Orchestra were arranged under the six massive black stone pillars behind the altar.
Under the fluid and focussed direction of Grace Rossiter, Finchley chose to throw themselves in the musical deep-end with four a capella partsongs of Mendelssohn's sacred music. They were beautiful pieces, beautifully performed and a perfect opening for the evening.
Then on to Mendelssohns Psalm 115. This really gave the choir the opportunity to show what it is capable of. After the powerful opening fugue and an amazing soprano (Emma Tring) and tenor (Stephen Jeffes), the misery of Eustons pavements was forgotten. The choir offered just the right amount of measured, contemplative support to the soloists and started to beam with pleasure at the beauty of the sound they were making. The finale of the piece was powerful, measured, relentless, but tender.
Following the interval (which included a particularly exciting visit to a dark and rocking Portaloo in the graveyard), we were on to Beethoven's Mass in C.
The opening gave an opportunity for more inter-play between soloists and choir as well as the chance to relish the range and control of Tring's lovely voice.
The almost "belted" Glopia reverberated through the church to produce a magical effect - Rossiter
seemed to be holding the choir back by a few milliseconds to fully exploit the echo.
A little disconcertingly, extra accompaniment for the Misere Nobis came from the car sirens of the lads of Met's EK Division.
Finchley has clearly been on a recruitment drive with several more male voices to balance the excellent contribution made by the women. Encouragingly, there were several new young faces peering over the folders of the libretto.
This concert will have done much to confirm Finchleys deserved and growing reputation. Rossiter is giving them the confidence to grow and the opportunity to take risks.
David Winskill. The Ham and High Newspaper.
Review of Handel/Vivaldi Concert. Ham and High.
Written by David Winskill
Saturday 4th July 2009
Finchley choral Society
St John-at-Hampstead
Handel – Dixit Dominus; Vivaldi- Gloria
What a beautiful place for beautiful music. The Chorus and the Florian Chamber Orchestra were arranged under the colourful stained glass of the west window as it let in the rays from the setting sun of a perfect summer’s day.
The two hundred or so souls that had struggled to park in the crowded Hampstead streets were rewarded with some marvellously performed heavenly music. Luckily, because of a relatively low turn out, we all got central aisle seats.
Handel’s Dixit Dominus was launched with great enthusiasm and joy by the choir. The second movement (Virgam virtutis) gave alto Tom Williams the opportunity to shine in a duet with the organ. This was followed by a magnificent, flowing soprano solo from the excellent Tara Bungard. By the end of the gymnastic Tu es sacerdos the whole choir was beaming with delight at the beauty they had just helped to create.
The final three movement were amazing. After the crochet working of the “conquassabit” the two soprano’s, with beautifully complimentary voices, gave the De Torrente. In the finale – the Gloria Patri - there was so much going on here that it was difficult to keep track of the ebbs and flows of the different parts of the choir – an amazing and uplifting experience.
After an lengthy interval (and educational trip round the graveyard) we reassembled for Vivaldi’s Gloria. Like his Four seasons, this must be one of the most quoted pieces in the classical music canon. Bits are always popping up in films, documentaries and TV ads. Hearing the piece in its entirety is a reminder of what a work of genius and beauty it is.
And, having it performed in a building whose construction started only thirty years after it was written (1715), added to the wonder of the piece.
The choir and orchestra gave the audience the wonderfully energetic start that they were anticipating – the sopranos were brilliant in the Handel and we were not disappointed as they offered a breathtaking Laudamus Te.
And so the rest of the performance continued – joyous, uplifting and beautiful All from a chorus and orchestra inspired by the beauty of the music and the sheer joy of performance.
David Winskill. Ham and High.
Music Director: Grace Rossiter
Registered Charity No. 265563
Press Release: 4 May 2010
Italian splendour
Finchley Choral Society’s summer concert will feature an all Italian programme with works by Monteverdi, Vivaldi and Domenico Scarlatti’s masterpiece Stabat Mater.
Domenico Scarlatti, son of Alessandro Scarlatti, was a contemporary of Handel and Bach. The Stabat Mater is perhaps Scarlatti’s best-known choral work and was written in 1715 before he left Rome. An extensive work, the Stabat Mater is written for ten voice parts and reflects the late Venetian polyphonic style. The austerity and reflective quality of the work stand out against the bel canto mode prevalent at the time and convey the composer’s spiritual intentions to the full.
Without doubt, Monteverdi was the greatest of the Italian Renaissance composers. He revolutionised the music of the theatre and the church with his dramatic and imaginative use of instruments and voices. Beatus Vir, a setting of Psalm 112, was probably composed in 1630 and is a superb example of Monteverdi’s dramatic style.
Grace Rossiter will conduct Finchley Choral Society. They will be joined by members of the Florian Chamber Orchestra and the choir’s accompanist Richard Harvey on the organ.
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 firmly established part of the musical life in North London. The choir will be singing for the first time at St Anne’s Church, Highgate.
END
Saturday 19th June 2010 at 7.45pm
St. Anne's, Highgate West Hill, London N6 6AP
Scarlatti Stabat Mater
Monteverdi Beatus vir
Vivaldi Beatus vir
L'estro harmonico Op.3 No.4
Members of the Florian Chamber Orchestra
Richard Harvey organ
Grace Rossiter conductor
Tickets £13.00 | £1 students/children
Tickets are available from the FCS box office (020 7263 3358) FCS members or at the door. Tickets can also be purchased from Les Aldrich Music, 98 Fortis Green Road, N10 3HN or call 020 8883 5631.
