Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' 2021 SING ON! A Choral Celebration

Choral Singing/

SING ON! A Choral Celebration

Date: Saturday 24 July 3pm (Due to Sydney lockdown resulting from COVID-19 Delta variant, this concert has been moved to 21 November 3pm, 2021.)

 

Venue: Sydney Town Hall

  

A concert like this only comes around every 100 years, or so. COVID-19 may have put paid to Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' centenary concert last year, but they're determined to present the amazing music planned so in 2021 – a long year later – they are thrilled to invite everyone their all-new, all-Australian choral extravaganza.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs are proud that they can now present works that were commissioned as part of their 100 Minutes of New Australian Music centenary project, such as Indigenous composer James Henry’s hypnotic Murrgumurrgu.

Photo credit: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Elena Kats-Chernin’s Human Waves reflects the rich legacy of Australia’s migrant history. Elena said, “Brett Weymark had a vision for a large work to be centred around the tapestry of our mixed community: an exploration and celebration of Australia’s diversity and how the fusion of cultures and traditions has enriched our society and taught us tolerance, thoughtfulness and gratefulness. He came up with the title Human Waves which I loved from the beginning. It can mean so many things: a warm wave of welcome; the waves of the ocean – bringing so many migrants by boat; the waves people make when they change society.”

Daniel Walker’s Choral Crackers is a high-energy medley of the top-10 hallmark choral works that have featured in SPC's performances over the last 100 years – works such as Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’, Mozart’s Requiem and Handel’s Zadok the Priest.

The journey from that first concert at Randwick Hospital on 9 September 1920 by the newly formed Hurlstone Park Choral Society – through wars, generations, seismic culture shifts and a global pandemic – has seen Sydney Philharmonia Choirs what it has become, Australia’s premier choral arts company. Celebrate with them at Sing On!

The program will run for approximately 1 hour and 55 minutes, including a 20-minute interval.

PROGRAM

Deborah CHEETHAM & Matthew DOYLE Tarimi Nulay – Long time living here†
Daniel BRINSMEAD Cantate Domino*†
Andrew ANDERSON Song in My Heart*†
Elena KATS-CHERNIN Human Waves*†
James HENRY Murrgumurrgu*†
Matthew ORLOVICH MMXX A Meditation on Auld Lang Syne*
Daniel WALKER Choral Crackers*

*Premiere
† Commissioned as part of our 100 Minutes of New Australian Music centenary project in 2020. 

ARTISTS
Brett Weymark conductor
Elizabeth Scott conductor
Chamber Singers
Symphony Chorus
VOX

Elena Kats-Chernin piano
Sydney Youth Orchestra
Members of Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra

Tickets: Premium $109 | A $89 | B $69 | C $49. Concessions available.
A booking fee of $8.50 per transaction applies.

BOOK TICKETS HERE

 

Reviews:
 

Will be provided as available.


Related Link:

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' 2021 SING ON! A Choral Celebration. Inspired Pen Web, Tel Asiado. June 11, 2021.

Resources:

Sing On! A Choral Celebration. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Website. (Available on access, June 11, 2021.)

Sing On! A Choral Celebration. Sydney Opera House Website (Available on access, June 23, 2021)

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Will Perform SING ON! A CHORAL CELEBRATION in July. By Stephi Wild, May 20, 2021. Broadway World. Accessed June 11, 2021.



COVID-19 SAFETY

• Audiences will be required to QR code register upon entry to the Sydney Town Hall.
• As a condition of the venue, audiences will be required to wear masks throughout the performance. If this changes we will inform patrons as soon as possible.
• Hand sanitizer will be available.
• We will publish a digital program book on our website a week prior to the concert. A limited number of printed program books will be available for $5 each at the concert.

DETAILS ABOUT COVID SAFE PLAN

(c) June 11, 2021. Updated June 23, 2021. Tel.  Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Carl Orff Carmina Burana (2021)

Choral Singing / Cantata

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana by the Sydney Philharmonia 

Symphony Chorus

Date: Saturday 22 May 2021 at 3pm
Venue: Centennial Hall, Sydney Town Hall

 

 

 “Huge applause filled the hall at the close of the performance with the beginnings of a standing ovation. We love our Philharmonia Choir and are so grateful to see them enjoying themselves and vibrating the walls and ceiling with their music. It was an outstanding performance by all.” 

Sydney Arts Guide

 

The 120 voices of our Symphony Chorus fill the Sydney Town Hall with Carl Orff’s kaleidoscopic Carmina Burana – one of the best-known choral extravaganzas of the 20th century. Based on a collection of medieval poems and profane songs, this thrilling work sings of the fickleness of fate and fortune, the circle of life and the earthy pleasures of wine, gambling and lust. The music drives through roaring rapids of primal ecstasy, dancing whirlpools and gentle pools of lullaby. Our performance will use the scintillating arrangement for two grand pianos and six percussion instruments made by Orff’s student Wilhelm Killmayer.

But before the singing to the Moon in the opening O Fortuna! the Symphony Chorus exalt the Sun as “both life-giver and dealer in death” in Peter Sculthorpe’s Sun Music for voices and percussion where he depicts “long, shimmering sonorous images” of his experiences of living in Australia. John Peterson’s The earth that fire touches captures in music the diverse Australian landscape – from dense, green forests to sparse, red deserts, with long single notes for the wide, open spaces, to celebratory dances of nature’s rebirth after fire.

PROGRAM

Deborah CHEETHAM & Matthew DOYLE Tarimi nulay – Long time living here†
Peter SCULTHORPE Sun Music – for voices and percussion
John PETERSON The earth that fire touches
Carl ORFF arr. Wilhelm KILLMAYER Carmina Burana arranged for voices, two pianos & percussion
† Commissioned as part of our 100 Minutes of New Australian Music centenary project in 2020.

 

 

                             

                             Photos credit: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

 

Artists:

Brett Weymark conductor
Penelope Mills soprano
Andrew Goodwin* tenor
José Carbó baritone
Symphony Chorus

Claire Howard Race piano
Catherine Davis piano
Sydney Philharmonia Percussion Ensemble

*Kanen Breen replaces Andrew Goodwin who is not well enough to sing.  

Two sound worlds that span continents and centuries – vastly different but equally strange and familiar, intimate and remote, mysterious and wild.

The program will run for approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes, including a 20-minute interval.

BOOK TICKETS HERE

Carmina Burana, briefly: 

Carmina Burana is a cantata composed in 1935 and 1936 by Carl Orff, based on poems from the medieval collection Carmina Burana. Its full Latin title is Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis ("Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images").  

It is Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" [Buria in Latin], a manuscript of poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent, and satirical. It was first performed by the Oper Frankfurt on 8 June 1937. It is part of Trionfi, a musical triptych that also includes Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite. The first and last sections of the piece are called "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" ("Fortune, Empress of the World") and start with the very well known "O Fortuna" (Video credit, with lovely scenic paintings of JMW Turner: YouTube, uploaded by Beatriz. Accessed April 26, 2021.) 

Lyrics of Carmina Burana

By Carl Orff 

Lyrics

O Fortuna
Velut luna
Statu variabilis

 

Semper crescis
Aut decrescis
Vita detestabilis

 

Nunc obdurat

Et tunc curat
Ludo mentis aciem

 

Egestatem
Potestatem

Dissolvit ut glaciem

 

Sors immanis
Et inanis
Rota tu volubilis

 

Status malus
Vana salus
Semper dissolubilis

 

Obumbrata

Et velata
Michi quoque niteris

 

Nunc per ludum
Dorsum nudum

Fero tui sceleris

 

Sors salutis
Et virtutis
Michi nunc contraria

 

Est affectus
Et defectus
Semper in angaria

Hac in hora
 

Sine mora
Corde pulsum tangite

Quod per sortem
Sternit fortem
Mecum omnes plangite

 

Source: Musixmatch

Carmina Burana lyrics © Schott Music Gmbh & Co. Kg

 

Reviews:
 

Carmina Burana (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs). 4.5 Stars. Reviewed by Steve Moffatt, May 23, 2021. Limelight Magazine. Accessed May 23, 2021. 

 

Carmina Burana review: Enthusiasm for lament of fate and fortune. 4 Stars. Reviewed by Peter McCallum, Mary 24, 2021. The Sydney Morning Herald. Accessed May 24, 2021. 

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana' @ Sydney Town Hall. Reviewed by Annabelle Drumm. May 23, 2021. Sydney Arts Guide. Accessed May 24, 2021.

 

Vox out of the box: a music review by Fraser Beath McEwing. J-Wire. Accessed May 24, 2021.

Related Links:

Carl Orff. Inspired Pen Web, Tel Asiado. April 28, 2021.
Carmina Burana BBC Proms (1994). YouTube, uploaded by RSBM. April 28, 2021. 
Orff's Carmina Burana conducted by Zeiji Ozawa. Uploaded by Andre Luiz Bellafronte. Accessed May 22, 2021. 


Resources:

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.  (Available on access, April 26, 2021.) 

Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. Sydney.com. Accessed April 28, 2021.

Carmina Burana by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. What's On City of Sydney. Accessed April 26, 2021.   

Carmina Burana by Orff. www.britannica.com

Carmina Burana (Orff). en.wikipedia.org

Choir’s bawdy recital ‘a bold statement to the world’. The Sydney Morning Herald. Written by Steve Meacham. Accessed May 18, 2021.

COVID-19 SAFETY

• Audiences will be required to QR code register upon entry to the Sydney Town Hall.
• As a condition of the venue, audiences will be required to wear masks throughout the performance. If this changes we will inform patrons as soon as possible.
• Hand sanitizer will be available.
• We will publish a digital program book on our website a week prior to the concert. A limited number of printed program books will be available for $5 each at the concert.

DETAILS ABOUT COVID SAFE PLAN

(c) April 26, 2021. Updated May 22, 2021. Tel.  Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Bach and Mozart: In the Imagination of their Hearts

Choral Singing / Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Saturday 20 April at 2pm Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

Free pre-concert talk in the Northern Foyer 45 minutes prior to the concert. Sponsored by Fine Music FM.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Capella St Crucis Choristers.
Photo Courtesy: Eric Hansen.

Between the solemnity of Good Friday and the joy of resurrection on Easter Morning, Easter Saturday might be the ‘deadest day of the church calendar’, but in 2019 you can spend Saturday afternoon with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs at the Sydney Opera House for a musical expression of faith that will lift your soul.

At the heart of the program is Johann Sebastian Bach and his brilliant Magnificat. Voices ring out – ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord!’ – and the music resounds with trumpets and drums in a spirit of festive celebration. Five soloists bring their dazzling virtuosity and expressive powers to a text that ranges between sheer elation and a profound expression of humility as Mary responds to the news that she will be the mother of Christ.

Framing the Magnificat are two works that, each in their own way, look to Bach for inspiration. The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs have commissioned a new motet for 50 voices from The Song Company’s artistic director Antony Pitts, who takes the explosive harmonies from Bach’s setting of the words ‘In the imagination of their hearts’ as his starting point. As he describes it, Bach’s moment of collective madness is frozen in a kind of anachronistic bullet time and scattered to the four winds and back to Bach.

After interval you can eavesdrop on the newly married Mozart through his work in Great Mass in C minor, embarking on a grand mass for choir and orchestra, to be performed in Salzburg when the couple make their first visit to his disapproving father. Wolfgang Mozart found fresh inspiration in the Baroque techniques of Bach and Handel, combining their complex weaving of voices with the elegance and drama of the Classical style. But he didn’t finish – no one’s entirely sure why – and so it remains ‘half a mass’, tantalising nevertheless magnificent.

The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs invited the Capella St Crucis of Hannover and its conductor Florian Lohmann to join the Sydney Philharmonia's Chamber Singers and Symphony Chorus as they continue their much-loved tradition of Easter concerts.

PROGRAM

Antony PITTS    XLX Mente cordis sui (Premiere)
     "Song of the Elders" - Revelation 5: 9-10
     "Song of theAngels" - Revelation 5:12
     "Song of All Creatures" - Revelation 5: 13-14
    
JS BACH    Magnificat in D major BWV 243
     from the Magnificat - Luke 1:51
     (in the imagination of their hearts, He hath scattered the proud ...)

WA MOZART    Great Mass in C minor KV 427


ARTISTS

Florian Lohmann conductor (Mozart)
Brett Weymark conductor (Bach, Pitts)
Sara Macliver soprano
Anna Dowsley mezzo-soprano
Nicholas Tolputt countertenor
Nicholas Jones tenor
David Greco baritone
Capella St Crucis Hannover
Chamber Singers
Symphony Chorus
Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra
Fiona Ziegler, concertmaster


(The performance will be recorded by Fine Music 102.5FM for future broadcast. Recording engineer Peter Bell)


Reviews of Performance

Bach & Mozart: In the Imagination of their Hearts. Stage Whispers. Accessed April 26, 2019.

Bach & Mozart: In the Imagination of their Hearts @ The Sydney Opera House.  Sydney Arts Guide. Accessed April 26, 2019.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: A dazzling Easter dip into Bach and Mozart. Reviewer: Peter McCallum. The Sydney Morning Herald. Accessed April 21, 2019.


(Personal note:  I found this concert timely, performed right on a Holy Saturday. It is compelling and meaningful. I'm not just talking about the superb repertoire, the magnificent choirs, soloists, orchestra,  and quality conducting. I'm talking about an extra depth that one experiences as an audience-member ... when I was transposed into something divine ... I have no words, I can only feel. Everything started with Antony Pitts' featured new work XLX MENTECORDIS SUI. The delightful voices of various split choirs well-positioned inside the Sydney Opera House sounded like calm ocean waves that washes away the weariness of the soul, in reflection of the Holy Week. And Bach's Magnificat! What an enthralling interpretation. How can one not be touched! And the program's finale: Mozart's Great Mass in C minor. I lie if I don't admit that the main attraction for me is this Wunderkind's Mass in C. SPC did not disappoint. Whilst listening intently to the performance came to mind the 1984 Milos Forman movie Amadeus, for in parallel with the Great Mass in C, unfinished like WAM's Requiem but considered also his greatest work. What an uplifting glorious performance! Bravo, and thank you, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Capella St. Crucis. / Tel)

Suggested Listening:

 

Mozart Mass in C minor K.427 Gardiner. YouTube, uploaded by vse vsad. Accessed April 1, 2019. (Monteverdi Choir. Eric Ericson. Chamber Choir. Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Mia Persson soprano. Ann Hallenberg mezzo-soprano. Helge Rønning tenor. Peter Mattei bass. Nobel Prize Concert 2008.)

 

Video Credit:

In Conversation: Brett Weymark, Bach, Mozart at Easter. Uploaded by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Accessed April 1, 2019.

Resources: 

Antony Pitts: 50 is the new 40. Limelight Magazine. Accessed April 16, 2019.

Bach & Mozart. Sydney Opera House. April 15, 2019.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs / Bach & Mozart (available at this time of Posting).  Accessed April 1, 2019.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Program.



(c) April 1, 2019.  Updated, April 20, 2019. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Bach in B Minor Mass

Choral Singing / Baroque Music

JS Bach's Mass in B Minor

Date: Saturday 31 March 2018, 1pm
Venue: Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House

At the pinnacle of Johann Sebastian Bach's artistry is one of his greatest choral works, the B Minor Mass. Composed over the course of 16 years, it is a compendium of every aspect of Bach’s genius and a profound testament of his faith.

This majestic performance by the  Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, with intimate solo arias and instrumental moments, marks the Easter weekend the timeless power of Bach's music.  

Johann Sebastian Bach was a deeply religious man with aesthetic convictions. On July 28, 1750, less than a year after completing B-minor Mass, he died in Leipzig, due to complications from treatment following eye surgery. His body in a humble oak casket was buried in a site unmarked until the mid-19th century. Mozart found revelation in Bach's work reflected in the younger composer's famous unfinished Requiem. But it was not until 1829, during Mendelssohn's revival of Bach's work, in particular, Mendelssohn’s momentous performance of the St. Matthew Passion that secured Bach’s place in history.

Bach's Mass was published in 1845, nearly 100 years after the composer's death. Complete performances followed in Europe.  Bach's B-minor Mass is a masterful combination of sublimity and profundity.




From the choir’s first call for God’s mercy, to its final prayer for peace, the B Minor Mass is a trove of musical riches. Weaving together moments of overwhelming majesty with intimate solo arias decorated with intricate instrumental filigree, and outbreaks of dancing joy, the Mass has everything that gives Bach’s music its timeless power.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Tudor Portraits

Choral Singing / 16th Century Period Music



Dates:
   Thursday 24 August, 7:30pm
   Sunday 27 August, 2:00pm
Venue:
   City Recital Hall


Review:

Tudor Portraits (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs), by Clive Paget. LimelightMagazine.Com. August 25, 2017.


Music transports us to other times and places. Journey to the Elizabethan era with our Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Symphony Chorus and works inspired by a golden age of English art. Thomas Tallis and Thomas Tomkins created a unique style of choral music: expressive, dramatic and intimate. A great English composer of a later generation rediscovered their music and was profoundly transformed: Ralph Vaughan Williams paid tribute to his forebears in his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis and invoked the spirit of Shakespeare in his gorgeous Serenade to Music, but it is the Five Tudor Portraits that are Vaughan Williams’ most extended love letter to Merrie Olde England.

Sydney Philharmonia soloists rehearsing.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony

Choral Singing / Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Dates:  

Thursday 22 Sept 2016, 8pm
Saturday 24 Sept 2016, 2pm

Venue: 

Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House

 

Program:

1. Richard Wagner - 'Siegfried's Rhine Journey' from the opera Götterdämmerung

2. Carl Vine - Wonders (world premiere) 

3. Ralph Vaughan Williams - A Sea Symphony, 

The Four Movements: 

       I.     A Song for All Seas, All Ships 

      II.   On the Beach at Night Alone 

      III.  Scherzo: The Waves 

      IV.   The Explorers


Artists:

Brett Weymark  Conductor
Penelope Mills  Soprano
Christopher Hillier  Baritone
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: Symphony Chorus & Festival Chorus 
Sydney Youth Orchestra


A snippet  of our general rehearsal with Maestro Brett Weymark. Apology for the abrupt end of the recording. 



A pre-concert talk by Carl Vine and English composer Christopher Gordon will be held prior to the performance on Thursday 22nd September 7:15pm-7.45pm. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House Northern Foyer. 

About the Music:

A Sea Symphony is a choral symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams, written between 1903 and 1909. Vaughan Williams's first and longest symphony, it was first performed at the Leeds Festival in 1910, with the composer conducting. It marked the composer's emergence as one of the most ditinctive musical personalities of the 20th century. The symphony's maturity belies the composer's relative youth when it was written (he was 30 when he first began sketching it). 

                                  Image Credit: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

 

One of the first symphonies in which a choir is used throughout the work and is an integral part of the musical texture, A Sea Symphony helped set the stage for a new era of symphonic and choral music in England during the first half of the 20th century. The work is sometimes referred to as the Symphony No. 1. The sound of the sea permeates the entire work from the sailors' sea shanties "Song for all Seas, all Ships", to the tranquillity of "On the beach at night, alone", and the exulting dramatic waves in "The Waves", and the words the choir sings are by the American poet Walt Whitman.

Australia's Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Choral Singing / Choral Music

The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs (SPC), Australia's oldest and most prestigious iconic choir, continue to share the joy of choral music to both audience and singers. At the helm is its charismatic and dynamic Music Director Brett Weymark.

Passionate choristers. Fun. Demanding. Exciting. Therapeutic. Fulfilling.

As the largest choral group of Australia, the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs mainly comprises the following: Chamber Singers, Symphony Chorus, Festival Chorus, and VOX youth group led by Liz Scott, Music Director.

The Chamber Singers. The dynamic Chamber Singers are renowned for their exceptional performances and professionalism. It comprises of 32-voice choir, auditioned annually to ensure the highest standard is maintained. As a flexible ensemble, they are also be engaged for commercial performances and corporate functions, Royalty and foreign dignitaries. It also performs annually in events such as the City of Sydney.

The Symphony Chorus.  The Symphony Chorus, with up to 150 members,  performs in concerts with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra headed by David Robertson, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director. It performs alongside the world's best conductors and soloists at the highest standard of excellence.

VOX.  SPC's young adult ensemble led by Music Director, Liz Scott. It comprises of singers aged 18-30 (orig. 16-26) performing programs of classical, popular and contemporary works. Recent highlights have included a recording with Aria award-winning composer and pianist, Sally Whitwell, appearances at the World Netball Championships, and in the Video Games concerts at the Enmore Theatre. In 2015 they performed in A Concert for Peace with the Festival Chorus. They also performed in Holst:The Planets for Earth Hour and Danny Elfman Music from the Films of Tim Burton with Sydney Symphony Orchestra.




Festival Chorus.  The Festival Chorus is the largest of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, with 350 to 400 members who come together twice a year to perform works from a diverse musical range. Singers are selected during Festival Chorus Open Days, which are held twice each year. To join Festival Chorus all singers must attend a voice placement workshop in early February. Each session will take around an hour and a half. At the workshop, the Music Director, possibly with other vocal associates, will conduct voice placements in order for him to assess singing ability and to determine vocal range. It also comprise warm-up exercises, simple melodies, scales and easy harmony pieces to give one the feel of being part of a wonderful sea of sound.  Its performances are often in collaboration with other organizations such as musical theatre company.

Recent  previous Festival Chorus programs include Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, Leonard Bernstein’s hit musical Wonderful Town, Rossini Stabat Mater and Elgar Dream of Gerontius. The choir has premiered compositions by Matthew Hindson and Carl Vine, and collaborates with organisations such as the Sydney Youth Orchestra. In 2018 Festival Chorus will present Haydn's The Creation and Bernstein's Candide.

Joining will give you the opportunity to perform not only with hundreds of other passionate singers but also with professional orchestral players and some of Australia’s best soloists. In 2018 you will perform in the iconic Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House and the stunning Centennial Hall at Sydney Town Hall.

Here's a sneak peek of our rehearsals for George and Ira Gershwin's  Of Thee I Sing  performed Sept 26 and 27, 2015, timely too, for the composer's (George Gershwin) birthday.  In 1932, Of Thee I Sing was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. 





Three other major events include: ChorusOz, Carols at the House & Handel's Messiah.


More recently, other initiatives have transpired, including: Singing at the House collaborated with the Sydney Opera House, commissioning and presenting Australian composers' works, and the Discover Series workshop.





How to Audition at Sydney Philharmonia


Sydney Philharmonia Festival Chorus Open Day Audition. In keeping with the times, there have been new developments in the FC audition process.





Here's Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 "Ode to Joy" Excerpt 2, performed during SSO's Season Opening Gala 2012.  Sydney Symphony Orchestra with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Symphony Chorus, Chamber Singers and VOX. Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor,  Lorina Gore soprano,  Sally-Anne Russell mezzo-soprano,  James Egglestone tenor,  Michael Nagy baritone.





Sharing a Favourite Quote: 

"Sing, then. Sing, indeed, with shoulders back, and head up so that song might go to the roof and beyond to the sky. Mass on mass of tone, with a hard edge, and rich with quality, every single note a carpet of colour woven from basso profundo, and basso, and baritone, and alto, and tenor, and soprano, and also mezzo, and contralto, singing and singing, until life and all things living are become a song..." ~ Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley


Resources:

Beethoven Symphony No. 9: Ode to Joy Excerpt.  Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs / Ashkenazy.  YouTube, uploaded by Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Accessed November 12, 2016.   

Facebook.com/SydneyPhilharmoniaChoirs.  Accessed December 6, 2014.

Highlights of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Accessed December 6, 2014. 

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: Festival Chorus (Audition 2011).  Accessed December 6, 2014. 

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. YouTube uploaded by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Accessed, November 12, 2016 

The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

Twitter.com/SydPhil

Note:  Originally published Dec 6, 2014.   Latest update, November 12, 2016. 



(c) December 2014.  Tel Asiado.  Latest update November 12, 2016. Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.

JS BACH St. Matthew Passion

Classical Music / Sacred Music


The St Matthew Passion (German: Matthäus-Passion), BWV 244, is a Passion, an oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici). The setting is based on the Holy Bible's Gospel of St. Matthew chapters 26 and 27 (in the German translation of Martin Luther) to music, with interspersed chorales and arias. It is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of classical sacred music and pinnacle of JS Bach's musical artistic achievement.

Below is a video performed by the King's College Chapel in Cambridge, conducted by Stephen Cleobury. Rogers Covey-Crump - tenor (Evangelist), Michael George - bass (Jesus),  Emma Kirkby - soprano,  Michael Chance - alto,  Martyn Hill - tenor,  David Thomas - bass,  The Choir of King's College, Cambridge; The Choir of Jesus College, Cambridge (Soprano in ripieno); The Brandenburg Consort (Roy Goodman - leader). 

Bach - St. Matthew Passion (Cambridge, 1994). Apology. Embedding is no longer available for this video. Here's the link: Bach's St Matthew Passion. Uploaded by EuroArtsChannel. Accessed November 11, 2017.

Another video, for more listening ...  Here's the link: Bach St. Matthew Passion (Complete). Youtube, uploaded by ClassicalMusicTVHD. Accessed Nov 11, 2014  (more listening)

The St Matthew Passion is the second of two Passion settings by JS Bach that have survived, the first being the St. John Passion, first performed in 1724. Very little is about the creation process of the St Matthew Passion. The available information derives from extant early manuscripts, contemporary publications of the libretto, and circumstantial data, for instance in documents archived by the Town Council of Leipzig.  It was  probably first performed on 11 April 1727 in the St. Thomas Church and again on 15 April 1729, 30 March 1736, and 23 March 1742. Bach then revised it again between 1743 and 1746.

Trivia:  Our Sydney Philharmonia Choirs (Symphony Chorus, Chamber Singers and VOX) performed Bach's St Matthew Passion, with Brett Weymark conducting. Soloists: Robert Macfarlane (Evangelist), Christopher Richardson (Christus), Celeste Lazarenko (Soprano), Sally-Anne Russell (Mezzo Soprano), Jonathan Abernethy (Tenor) and David Greco (Baritone). An amazing statement of faith! Saturday, 15 April 2017, Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. The last time Sydney Philharmonia Choirs performed this was 10 years ago (2007).  Here's a review from the Sydney Morning Herald: "Bach's St Matthew Passion an epic undertaking of power and energy."


Video Credit:

Bach St. Matthew Passion (King's College, Cambridge, 1994). Youtube, uploaded by EuroArtsChannel. Accessed Nov. 11, 2017. 

Bach St. Matthew Passion (Complete). Youtube, uploaded by ClassicalMusicTVHD. Accessed Nov 11, 2014  (more listening)

Resource:

St. Matthew Passion (Bach).  en.wikipedia.org.



(c) April 11, 2009. Updated September 5, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.