For the concert on 2 June 2018:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a privilege to welcome you to our final concert of the 2017\/18 season: \u2018The Music of Eastern Europe\u2019. After the disappointment of having to cancel the St Matthew Passion due to snow back in March, the members have responded brilliantly and tonight\u2019s repertoire has been an exciting new challenge which has refreshed us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I first came across the choral music of Eastern Europe as a teenager in the Taplow Youth Choir on a tour to Tallinn, Estonia. It was only the second choir tour I had been on and the choir took part in an international choral competition. Whilst we didn\u2019t end up winning, the experience was life changing. To hear the choirs of Latvia, Estonia and Russia singing challenging 20th century repertoire by composers such as Arvo P\u00e4rt, Vaclovas Augustinas and P\u0113teris Plakidis changed my perception of what choral music was and how it can sound. There is a specific sound associated with choirs from these countries which many English choirs have tried to capture and replicate when singing this repertoire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2018 is the 90th anniversary of the death of Czech composer Leo\u0161 Jan\u00e1\u010dek and I particularly wanted to celebrate some of his lesser known masterpieces. We are all familiar with his seminal work \u2013 the gargantuan Glagolitic Mass \u2013 and we will hear the Postludium organ solo from this tonight. However, his output of chamber music was immense and includes some lesser known gems. He sets the text of The Lord\u2019s Prayer (Ot\u010de n\u00e1\u0161) in an intriguing compartmental way and this interesting compositional style turns out to be due to the nature of the commission; surprisingly this setting was not written for the church but instead for what was essentially an amateur theatre group that wished to perform a tableaux-vivant of each line of the text to music. Jan\u00e1\u010dek also wrote beautifully for violin and piano and we will hear his Romance and Dumka for these forces this evening. Like many compositional geniuses, Jan\u00e1\u010dek had a tumultuous life losing two children to illness, the trauma of which led to eventual divorce from his wife. The second of these children, Olga, died at the age of 21, was particularly special to him and forms the subject matter of his poignant and tragic Elegy on the death of my daughter Olga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the music of Jan\u00e1\u010dek and his contemporaries is very different to the music of Arvo P\u00e4rt and this partly reflects the differing historical contexts. Janacek\u2019s music often took inspiration from folk melodies of his home in Moravia and this reflects the nationalistic tendencies at the end of the nineteenth century and the pride he felt in the culture of Czechoslovakia and the wider Austro-Hungarian Empire. His choral arrangement of Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s Moravian Duets is the perfect way to end the concert as it transports us close to his homeland and the city of Brno \u2013 the place of his burial. Folk music was also a key influence for Bart\u00f3k and Kod\u00e1ly who were composing at a similar time to Jan\u00e1\u010dek across the border in Hungary and who also wrote considerably for the violin. The similarities and contrasts in styles are fascinating to observe in Bart\u00f3k\u2019s Romanian Folk Dances and Kod\u00e1ly\u2019s The Kallo Double Dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In contrast, the music of P\u00e4rt, G\u00f3recki, Petr Eben and Sergiu Natra came around 50 years later and explores a new sound world post the movement of the Second Viennese School; P\u00e4rt and G\u00f3recki specifically exploring the concept of minimalism. This change in sound and style is significant but comparing works such as P\u00e4rt\u2019s Spiegel im Spiegel with Janacek\u2019s Elegy is a perfect example of how a sombre atmosphere can be expressed in two entirely different compositional styles and both be equally moving. I wanted to begin tonight\u2019s concert with a statement and G\u00f3recki\u2019s Totus Tuus is a statement unlike any other in modern choral music. It is a complete affirmation of faith to the Virgin Mary and offers eleven minutes of sheer beauty entirely a cappella \u2013 I hope you enjoy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For our concerts we are always blessed with exciting soloists and today is no exception. It is an absolute pleasure to welcome back former Musical Director David Davies to the society. Any concert is enhanced by his playing whether it be on piano or organ and he is the lynchpin of tonight\u2019s concert as both soloist and accompanist. It is also exciting to have Michael Graham with the society again as our Tenor soloist. Michael and I arrived in Exeter around the same time in 2012 and we have worked closely together for many years. It is always a joy to work with him and this repertoire is particularly suited to his voice. Anna Cockroft will be a name familiar to many of you as Leader of the Exeter Bach Society Orchestra and it is fabulous to have her as a soloist this evening. Finally, it is brilliant to have Sally Jenkins back with the society after she last appeared as a part of the orchestra for the Durufl\u00e9 Requiem in Spring 2018. The harp is such a beautiful instrument with a rich culture of music from Eastern Europe and it offers a different soundscape to our other instruments this evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am extremely grateful to all the soloists and I would particularly like to thank the committee for their help in the preparation of this concert. I look forward to meeting you following the performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musical Director
Jonathan Lucas Wood<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the concert on 2 June 2018: It is a privilege to welcome you to our final concert of the 2017\/18 season: \u2018The Music of Eastern Europe\u2019. After the disappointment of having to cancel the St Matthew Passion due to snow back in March, the members have responded brilliantly and tonight\u2019s repertoire has been an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exeterbachchoir.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exeterbachchoir.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exeterbachchoir.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exeterbachchoir.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exeterbachchoir.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/exeterbachchoir.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116,"href":"https:\/\/exeterbachchoir.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exeterbachchoir.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exeterbachchoir.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exeterbachchoir.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exeterbachchoir.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}