UPPINGHAM SCHOOL

CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL

30 January – 1 February 2015

With The King’s Men and

The Balnic Trio

Welcome On behalf of Uppingham School, we have great pleasure in welcoming you to this year’s Chamber Music Festival. The expansion and progression of Chamber Music at the School continues apace each year. This year’s Festival involves every faculty within the Music Department, including piano and woodwind for the first time. Vocal Chamber Music is also on the menu with our own 9.5 ensemble performing alongside The King’s Men. The Festival theme is: BACH TO BRAHMS. Most of the repertoire performed during the Festival will come from the great Germanic composers of the 18th and 19thcenturies: a time when some of the very best Chamber Music was written. We also mark the 150th anniversary of Paul David’s arrival from Leipzig to be Uppingham School’s first Director of Music. Ferdinand David (Paul David’s father) transcribed Bach’s First Cello Suite for Violin. We are delighted to include the first performance of this version in the 150 years since his son’s appointment. The audience will also experience an exciting new collaboration. The success of our pupils – who have recently been prize winners at the Pro Corda National Chamber Music Competition – is, in part, due to the skills and coaching of our wonderful team of visiting music teachers. This year we showcase our pupils and staff in the main concert of the Festival. Pupils will perform some of the greatest Chamber Works alongside professional players. As in previous Festivals, there will be public masterclasses and rehearsals to which you are warmly invited. We look forward to seeing you and hope you enjoy the Festival. Alex Laing Head of Strings and Andrew Webster Head of Wind, Brass and Percussion, Uppingham School.

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Programme of the Weekend’s Events Friday 30 January 9.5 and The King’s Men, 7.30pm Uppingham School Theatre Tickets £10, £8.50 Students

Saturday 31 January Open Rehearsals with Professionals and Pupils, 10am – 5pm Uppingham School Memorial Hall Free Admission Solo Bassoon Masterclasses with Sarah Burnett, 4pm Paul David Music School Free Admission Festival Concert featuring The Balnic Trio and Friends, 7.30pm BACH TO BRAHMS Uppingham School Memorial Hall Tickets £5 on the door

Sunday 1 February Masterclasses with The Balnic Trio and Friends, 11am – 4pm Uppingham School Recital Room, Memorial Hall and Chapel, and Paul David Music School Atrium Performance Class led by Catherine Griffiths, 3.15pm-3.45pm All groups will be shown stage craft and platform etiquette Uppingham School Recital Room Recital by Masterclass Attendees, 4pm Uppingham School Recital Room Free Admission Candlelight Classics, 7.30pm BACH TO BRAHMS Uppingham School Musicians Uppingham School Chapel Tickets £5 on the door

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Saturday 31 January Open Rehearsal with Professionals and Pupils, 10am – 5pm A chance to hear professionals and pupils in rehearsal preparation for the Festival Concert Uppingham School Memorial Hall Free Admission Solo bassoon masterclasses with Sarah Burnett Recital Room (Paul David Music School) 4.00pm: First movement of Mozart Sonata in B-flat Victoria Bedford 4.40pm: Third movement of Hurlstone Bassoon Sonata in F Major

Henry McAlpine 5.20pm: Galliard Bassoon Sonata Rory Brown

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Festival Concert, 7.30pm The Balnic Trio and Friends

Uppingham School Memorial Hall

Piano Trio in B Major Op.8 Johannes Brahms The Balnic Trio Nicolene Gibbons Piano; Alex Laing Violin; Rebecca Leyton-Smith Cello

INTERVAL Piano Trio in D minor Op.59 Felix Mendelssohn Andante con moto tranquillo Terrence Chan Piano; Alex Laing Violin; Rebecca Leyton-Smith Cello Trio Pathétique in D minor Mikhail Glinka Nicolene Gibbons Piano; Andrew Webster Clarinet; Sarah Burnett Bassoon Oboe Quartet in F Major K370 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Allegro Imogen Ross-Smith Oboe; Tim Birchall Violin; Alex Laing Viola; Rebecca Leyton-Smith Cello Octet in E-flat Major Op.20 Felix Mendelssohn Allegro moderato ma con fuoco Anthony Poon, Ali Asgarov, Anson Poon, Tim Birchall Violin Conrad Li, Alex Laing Viola Rebecca Leyton-Smith, Susannah Hill Cello

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Programme Notes

Piano Trio in B Major Op.8 Johannes Brahms

(1833-1897)

I. Allegro con brio – Tranquillo – In tempo ma sempre sostenuto II. Scherzo: Allegro molto – Meno allegro – Tempo primo

III. Adagio IV. Finale: Allegro Brahms was primarily a pianist, but wrote magnificent music for small groups. His three string quartets, two string sextets and his horn trio are examples of how at ease he was in the milieu of intimate Chamber Music. His Piano Trio in B Major was written in 1854 when he was 21 years old, and he produced a revised version (the one we hear today) in 1889. This is a work of considerable technical difficulties: the key of B major does not use any of the four open cello strings, and for the violin only the E string is part of the major scale. The first movement is a sonata form movement in B major, with a broad theme that begins in the cello and piano and builds in intensity. There is warm lyricism for all three parts, and Brahms frequently uses his characteristic triplet accompaniment, most often in the piano.

The second movement is a B minor Scherzo which combines delicate filigree passages with fortissimo outbursts. It begins on the cello almost like a far distant but bustling hunting call. Soon there is liberal use of fortissimo spiccato for both cello and violin. There is a lyrical central section in B major, heard first on the piano and then on violin and cello together. The exuberant mood of the first movement returns in the trio section, and, while B minor seems to have returned with inevitability, the movement concludes in a surprising and magical B major.

The third movement opens with a chordal theme in the piano. The mood is one of great dignity and spaciousness. The middle section is remarkable for a poignant cello melody in G♯ minor. The ending is poised and serene. It is perhaps this movement which shows Brahms’ often obsessive devotion to Beethoven. Like Beethoven’s slow movements, this has a timelessness where one feels one has been transported to a different realm.

The final movement returns to B minor. The first theme of this movement is highly chromatic, and appears first on the cello and then on the violin, again with rippling triplets on the piano. After a B major episode, recalling the mood of the first movement, there is an emotional outpouring as Brahms uses the violin and cello in octaves to reinforce the main theme. The music finally returns to B minor and ends turbulently.

INTERVAL

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Piano Trio in D minor Op.49 Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

II. Andante con moto tranquillo

This Piano Trio was written in 1839 and scored for violin, cello and piano. Mendelssohn would write a second piano trio six years later (No.2 in C minor Op.66). In this first Piano Trio there are elements of Schumann at his most romantic, and indeed Schumann himself remarked, on hearing the work, that Mendelssohn was “the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most illuminating of musicians.” While the first movement of the D minor Trio is full of glorious melody and bravura, the second movement, in B flat major, is serene and warm by contrast. This movement is introduced by the piano with an eight-bar melody in the right hand and the accompaniment divided between the hands, as in a number of Mendelssohn's Songs without Words. There follows a conversation between the piano and the two string players replying together. The second subject appears first on the piano, but soon all three instruments have equal roles. As the movement develops, listen for the partnership of the strings in octaves, accompanying the soaring piano melody. The closing moments are breathtaking in their serenity.

Trio Pathétique Mikhail Glinka

(1804–1857)

I. Allegro moderato II. Scherzo: vivacissimo III. Largo IV. Allegro con spirito

Glinka is recognised as the father of Russian music, and best known for his two operas, the Life of the Tsar, and Ruslan and Lyudmila. A cosseted childhood was followed by four years in Milan, where he met and was influenced by Donizetti and Bellini, and where this trio was composed in 1832. Although an accomplished pianist, Glinka had at that time received little formal musical training, and had yet to develop a style to reflect his native music. Although written for piano with clarinet and bassoon, the Trio Pathétique is often performed by piano with violin and cello. Why Pathétique? Glinka wrote on the score “I know love only by the sorrows which it causes”, but at the time he was also racked by physical illness, which led to a deep despair. The first three movements are played without a break, and have inter-related themes. The yearning Allegro leads to a more playful Scherzo. The Largo is a heartfelt lament, first from the clarinet, then the bassoon, and then both together, after which the brief finale rushes past.

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Oboe Quartet in F Major K370 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

1. Allegro

This quartet, scored for oboe, violin, viola and cello, was written in 1781, the same year during which Mozart wrote six wonderful string quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn. The Oboe Quartet was inspired by the virtuoso oboist Friedrich Ramm, whom Mozart met in Munich. The work shows off the sheer bravura of the oboist, and at times seems almost like an oboe concerto with accompanying strings.

The first movement is exuberant and full of optimism. The ornamented first subject appears in the oboe and then is offered to the violin. The viola and cello are given accompanying roles, although Mozart, reflecting his own love of the instrument, gives the more interesting part to the viola. A central exchange of canonic descending fourths, which includes the cello too, heralds a brief development section before the joyous first subject returns. The movement ends in an exquisite pianissimo.

Octet in E-flat Major Op.20 Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

1. Allegro moderato ma con fuoco

Very few octets for strings have been written, and, despite the recent popularity of George Enescu’s Op.7 String Octet, the Mendelssohn arguably remains the greatest of the genre. This is all the more remarkable since it is the work of a 16 year old. The melodic invention is rich, and the accompanying voices are a subtle tapestry: chamber music at its best. There is a striking combination of huge energy and tenderness which is shared between all eight strings. The music critic, Conrad Wilson, summarises much of its reception ever since: “Its youthful verve, brilliance and perfection make it one of the miracles of nineteenth-century music.”

Mendelssohn wrote of the work, “This Octet must be played by all the instruments in symphonic orchestral style. Pianos and fortes must be strictly observed and more strongly emphasised than is usual in pieces of this character.”

The first movement establishes itself in rising E-flat arpeggios. Mendelssohn declares a powerful presence in this opening, finding an exuberant personality typical of the next two decades of his compositions. Chattering semiquavers alternate with melodies of great beauty. A section predominantly in F minor provides a moment of peace before the opening returns and the movement gallops to a powerful conclusion, the circle complete: arpeggios in E-flat major.

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Sunday 1st February

Masterclasses with the Balnic Trio and Friends

Recital Room (Paul David Music School)

Atrium (Paul David Music School)

Chapel

11am – 11.40am Boccherini Piano Quintet No. 6 in C Major, Op.57 Polonaise David Edmondson-Jones Piano Jemima Oakey and Samuel Der-Kevorkian Violin Keith Li Viola Amber Mullins Cello 11.40am – 12.20pm Glinka Trio Pathétique Jamie Conway Piano Richard Liu Violin Tabbie Fistein Cello 12.20pm – 1.00pm Paul Mottram Fanflair Beatrice Tsang, Josephine Mottram-Epsom, Rachel Lee, Sebastian Garfoot Trumpet Gus Bell French horn Angus Cooper, Laurence Cummins, Maximilian McKiernan Trombones Patrick Clancy Tuba

11am – 11.50am Mozart Oboe Quartet in F Major K370 Allegro Imogen Ross-Smith Oboe Anson Poon Violin Rosina Griffiths Viola Eliza Ross-Smith Cello 11.50am – 12.40pm Mendelssohn String Quartet No.1 in E-flat Major, Op.12 Canzonetta Rosina Griffiths, Araminta Penn Clark (NH) Violin Ansel Swindells Viola Eliza Ross-Smith Cello

12.00 – 1.00pm Mozart Serenade for Wind K388 Allegro Imogen Ross-Smith, Terrence Chan Oboe Alexander Howard-Vyse and Amy Clark Clarinet Victoria Bedford, Rory Brown Bassoon Archie McAlpine, Rosanna Loyd French horn

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- LUNCH -

1.30pm – 2.20pm Luigi Boccherini Quartet in A Presto Grace Gregory, Hester Dewhurst Violin Alexander Kyle Viola William Renwick Cello 2.20pm – 3pm Lennie Niehaus Second Suite Alvin Tam, Ella Davenport, Serena Campos, Alexander Howard-Vyse Saxophone

- LUNCH -

1.30pm – 2.20pm Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A K581 Larghetto Sam Abbott Clarinet Anson Poon, Nadia Mason Violin Rosina Griffiths Viola Agnès Levingston Cello

- LUNCH -

3:15pm – 3:45pm Performance Class led by Catherine Griffiths All groups will be shown stage craft and platform etiquette Uppingham School Recital Room 4pm Recital by Masterclass Participants as selected by the Balnic Trio and Friends Uppingham School Recital Room (Paul David Music School) Free admission

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Candlelight Classics Concert, 7.30pm

Uppingham School Chapel Four Lieder for Female Voices, Harp and 2 Horns, Op.17

Johannes Brahms Eleanor Turner Harp Archie McAlpine, Oliver Shelton French horns Peter Clements Conductor Poppy Booth, Jason Cobb, Tamara Coulthard, Elfie Cracroft-Eley, Beth Davenport, Ella Davenport, Sophie Earnshaw, Rosina Griffiths, Susannah Hill, Francesca Moorhead, Jemima Oakey, Matilda Ross-Smith, Isabel Smith Voices Cello Suite No.1 in G, arranged for Violin by Ferdinand David JS Bach Ali Asgarov – Violin Wind Serenade K388 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Allegro Imogen Ross-Smith, Terrence Chan Oboe Alexander Howard-Vyse, Amy Clark Clarinet Victoria Bedford, Rory Brown Bassoon Archie McAlpine, Rosanna Loyd – French horn Alto Rhapsody Op.53 for Mezzo-soprano and Male Voices

Johannes Brahms Catherine Griffiths – Mezzo-soprano Gus Bell, Simon Brown, Terrence Chan, Jamie Conway, Laurence Cummins, David Edmondson-Jones, Nicholas Hollands, Arthur Landman, William Playle-de Vries, Oliver Shelton, William Warren, James Wells Voices

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Programme Notes

Four Lieder for Female Voices, Harp and 2 Horns, Op.17 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Brahms was 26 years old in 1859, when he founded a ladies’ choir (Frauenchor) made up of a small group of friends. Based in his hometown of Hamburg, the choir grew from its small social origins to an ensemble of around 40 singers. Brahms arranged folksongs for the choir as well as writing a number of original compositions, many of which are still performed today. This set of four songs received its first public performance in 1860, at a concert given by Clara Schumann, with Brahms and – regular visitor to Uppingham in Paul David's time – violinist Joseph Joachim. Clara wrote in her diary of the songs: “They are pearls. How can one help loving such a man?” Brahms’ choice of two horns and harp to accompany the choir is unusual, but highly effective. The selection of the four poems is tied together by melancholy love themes. The nineteenth-century German poets Ruperti and Eichendorff are set alongside translations from Shakespeare and Ossian. Ruperti’s “Es tönt ein voller Harfenklang” conjures the harp sound ringing out as a motif for unrequited love. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Duke Orsino pays the fool Feste to sing for the gathered company the ‘ancient’ song, “Come away, come away death”. The Gardener is a tragic tale of unrequited passion in an appropriately romantic setting. The writer James Macpherson claimed to have discovered fragments of an epic Gaelic poem by Ossian, a third-century Scottish king, but this was later uncovered as a spectacular literary hoax. His translation of Fingal was admired across Europe, and even Napoleon and Goethe were known to carry copies. By the time Brahms set this portion of the text, the forgery was most likely suspected. However, the grim story of a young maid mourning for the Scottish warrior Trenar clearly appealed to the Romantic imagination, just as the Celtic legend of Tristan and Isolde had done to Wagner only a couple of years earlier. This setting by Brahms evokes perfectly the bleak yet sublime landscape of Innistore.

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German Original

English Translation

1. Es tönt ein voller Harfenklang (Friedrich Ruperti) Es tönt ein voller Harfenklang den Lieb’ und Sehnsucht schwellen, er dringt zum Herzen tief und bang und läßt das Auge quellen. O rinnet, Tränen, nur herab, o schlage Herz, mit Beben! Es sanken Lieb’ und Glück ins Grab, verloren ist das Leben! 2. Lied von Shakespeare Komm herbei, komm herbei, Tod, Und versenk’ in Cypressen den Leib; Lass mich frei, lass mich frei, Not, Mich erschlägt ein holdseliges Weib. Mit Rosmarin mein Leichenhemd, O bestellt es! Ob Lieb’ ans Herz mir tötlich kommt, Treu’ hält es. Keine Blum, keine Blum süß, Sei gestreut auf den schwärzlichen Sarg; Keine Seel’, keine Seel’ grüß mein Gebein, wo die Erd’ es verbarg. Um Ach und Weh zu wenden ab’, bergt alleine mich, wo kein Treuer wall’ ans Grab und weine. 3. Der Gärtner (Joseph von Eichendorff) Wohin ich geh’ und schaue, In Feld und Wald und Tal, Vom Berg hinab in die Aue; Viel schöne, hohe Fraue, Grüß ich dich tausendmal. In meinem Garten find’ ich Viel’ Blumen schön und fein, Viel’ Kränze wohl draus wind’ ich Und tausend Gedanken bind’ ich Und Grüße mit darein.

1. A full harp sound rings A full harp sound rings, Swelling love and yearning; It pierces deep into the fearful heart, And brings tears to the eyes. Fall then, my tears: Heart, throb and tremble; Love and happiness lie in the grave, My life is lost. 2. Song from Twelfth Night Come away, come away, death, And in sad cypress let me be laid. Fly away, fly away, breath, I am slain by a fair cruel maid. My shroud of white, all stuck with yew, O prepare it! My part of death, no one so true Did share it. Not a flower, not a flower sweet On my black coffin let there be strown; Not a friend, not a friend greet My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown. A thousand thousand sighs to save, Lay me, O where Sad true lover never find my grave, To weep there. 3. The Gardener Where’er I walk and gaze, In field and wood and vale, From mountain-top to meadow, Most lovely noble lady, I greet you thousandfold. In my garden I do find Many flowers fair and fine, Many a garland I weave of them, And a thousand thoughts and greetings Into them entwine.

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Ihr darf ich keinen reichen, Sie ist zu hoch und schön, Die müssen alle verbleichen, Die Liebe nur ohnegleichen Bleibt ewig im Herzen stehn. Ich schein’ wohl froher Dinge Und schaffe auf und ab, Und, ob das Herz zerspringe, Ich grabe fort und singe, Und grab mir bald mein Grab. 4. Gesang aus Ossians “Fingal” Wein’ an den Felsen, der brausenden Winde weine, o Mädchen von Inistore! Beug’ über die Wogen dein schönes Haupt, lieblicher du als der Geist der Berge, wenn er um Mittag in einem Sonnenstrahl über das Schweigen von Morven fährt. Er ist gefallen, dein Jüngling liegt darnieder, bleich sank er unter Cuthullins Schwert. Nimmer wird Mut deinen Liebling mehr reizen, das Blut von Königen zu vergießen. Trenar, der liebliche Trenar starb O Mädchen von Inistore! Seine grauen Hunde heulen daheim, sie sehn seinen Geist vorüberziehn. Sein Bogen hängt ungespannt in der Halle, nichts regt sich auf der Haide der Rehe.

I dare offer her none of them, She is too noble and fair, They must all wither away, Love alone beyond compare Remains for ever in the heart. I seem to be of good cheer, And bustle back and forth, And as if my heart will break, I dig away and sing, And soon shall dig my grave. 4. Song from Ossian’s “Fingal” Weep on the rocks of the roaring winds, Weep, O maid of Inistore! O’er the waves bend thy fair head, Lovelier thou than the spirit of the mountain, When at noon upon a sunbeam He soars o’er the silence of Morven. He has fallen; thy young love lies low Pale he sank beneath Cuchulain’s sword. Nevermore shall valour rouse thy love, To shed the blood of kings. Trenar, the winsome Trenar has died, O maid of Inistore! His greyhounds are howling at home, They see his ghost passing by. His bow hands unstrung in the hall, Nothing moves upon the heath of the hinds.

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Cello Suite No.1 in G BWV 1007, arranged for violin in D Johann Sebastien Bach (1685-1750)

Arr. Ferdinand David (1810-1873)

I. Prelude II. II. Allemande III. Courante IV. Sarabande V. Minuets VI. Gigue

Bach wrote his six Cello Suites between 1717 and 1723 when he was serving as Kapellmeister in Köthen. Each Suite comprises six movements in the same order and structure, although in some Suites the Minuets are replaced by either Bourees or Gavottes.

The Prelude from Suite No. 1 in G is a great example of Bach’s genius. There is no accompaniment, but the harmony plays out note-by-note like a musical journey; the chords are implied over the course of a bar rather than played.

There are no surviving manuscripts in Bach’s own hand, so musicians have relied on a copy written out by his second wife, Anna Magdalena. It is nevertheless astounding that these extraordinary works were not widely known before the twentieth century, when the celebrated cellist Pablo Casals found an edition, studied them and began performing them. His recordings from 1936 are still considered as some of the best.

Ferdinand David was the father of Paul David, after whom our music school is named. Ferdinand was not only a prolific composer, but also an outstanding violinist and teacher. He was Professor at the newly formed Leipzig Conservatoire where Paul David was one of his father’s students, alongside the celebrated Joseph Joachim. Paul David and Joachim became firm friends, and Joachim visited Uppingham when David was the School’s first Director of Music.

Ferdinand arranged and edited many of the works of his musical predecessors and contemporaries for the violin.

Nineteenth-century composers in general showed little interest in writing for unaccompanied violin. David was an exception. His published works include a Suite and six Caprices for the instrument. He saw no reason why Bach’s six splendid Suites for unaccompanied cello should be the sole preserve of that instrument. Accordingly he arranged them (transposing and editing them) for his own instrument.

It is impossible not to see David the teacher in these arrangements. They are mostly faithful to Bach’s originals, but they contain different bowing techniques designed specifically to educate and strengthen a developing violinist.

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Wind Serenade in C minor K388 Allegro Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

The C minor Serenade for eight wind instruments (pairs of horns, oboes, clarinets and bassoons) occupies a special place in Mozart’s output of entertainment music, since it is his only such work in a minor key. The occasion and the patron for whom it was written are unknown, and even the exact date of its composition is uncertain. It is possible that he referred to it in a letter of July 27, 1782, where he wrote that he was composing a Nacht Musique – a “night music” or serenade – “in a great hurry.” Though he did not identify the work completely, it may well have been this Serenade, since he stated that the new composition was for winds. It has been conjectured that the work was written for the composer’s musician friends in Vienna, either as listeners or as performers. The lyric quality is always overtaken by gloomy outbursts. The first movement opens with just such an “aggressive unison” in long note values that establishes the deeply emotional nature of the entire work. Following a brief silence, the lyrical second theme in the brighter tonality of E-flat major is played by the solo oboe. The development is given over to sighing figures derived from the main theme shared among the oboes, clarinets and bassoons. The recapitulation recalls the thematic material from the exposition, but maintains the dark colour of the minor tonality to the stern closing measures of the movement. Alto Rhapsody Op.53 for Mezzo Soprano and Male Voices

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Brahms called the Alto Rhapsody his “Bridal Song” and indeed he presented it to Clara Schumann on the occasion of her daughter Julie’s wedding in 1869. It was certainly an unusual wedding gift, as it does not celebrate the joy of the occasion as Schumann himself had done for his own nuptials, but rather it is an expression of Brahms’s distress. He seems perhaps to have had romantic notions about Julie but his deep affection for Clara herself is well known and it is possible that through this work he wished to express his final disappointment that they were never to be joined by familial ties. Goethe’s poem had been set previously by Johann Rechthard and the title Rhapsody was his idea which Brahms chose to follow. He also used the same key of C minor. The work’s three sections correspond to the three verses of the poem. The first two are for the soloist and orchestra and meander chromatically through C minor describing the agony and confusion of the young protagonist. Section three hints broadly at C major and the soloist is joined by male chorus in a prayer like movement asking for some ease for the troubled spirit. It is interesting to note how the harmonic texture and choral writing in this richly dark work are reminiscent of A German Requiem which was written the previous year.

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German original English translation Aber abseits wer ist's? Im Gebüsch verliert sich sein Pfad; hinter ihm schlagen die Sträuche zusammen, das Gras steht wieder auf, die Öde verschlingt ihn.

But who is that apart? His path disappears in the bushes; behind him the branches spring together; the grass stands up again; the wasteland engulfs him.

Ach, wer heilet die Schmerzen dess, dem Balsam zu Gift ward? Der sich Menschenhaß aus der Fülle der Liebe trank! Erst verachtet, nun ein Verächter, zehrt er heimlich auf seinen eigenen Wert In ungenügender Selbstsucht.

Ah, who heals the pains of him for whom balsam turned to poison? Who drank hatred of man from the abundance of love? First scorned, now a scorner, he secretly feeds on his own merit, in unsatisfying egotism.

Ist auf deinem Psalter, Vater der Liebe, ein Ton seinem Ohre vernehmlich, so erquicke sein Herz! Öffne den umwölkten Blick über die tausend Quellen neben dem Durstenden in der Wüste!

If there is on your psaltery Father of love, one note his ear can hear then refresh his heart! Open his clouded gaze to the thousand springs next to him who thirsts in the wilderness!

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Performer Biographies

The Balnic Trio

Alex Laing is Head of Strings at Uppingham School. He was educated at Cambridge University and Birmingham Conservatoire. He has extensive experience as soloist, chamber musician, and is an orchestral leader and director. He is founder and director of the Darwin Ensemble Chamber Orchestra and former leader of the Astaria String Quartet. He is a keen educator and enjoys

working with students on all aspects of music and performance. His students can be found in the National Youth Orchestra and Children’s Orchestras of Great Britain. He conducts the NCO East Region Orchestra, the NCO Training Orchestra and is also an NCO violin tutor. Rebecca Leyton–Smith is in demand as an ensemble and orchestral player. Educated at Chetham’s School of Music, the Royal College of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music and Oxford University, Rebecca has appeared in the major symphony and chamber orchestras of the UK. Her most recent recording for the Dutton label is of John McCabe’s Rainforest I and II, with the composer at the piano. Her students can be found in the National Youth Orchestra and Children’s Orchestras of Great Britain. She is a cello tutor for the NCO and teaches the cello at Uppingham School. Nicolene Gibbons hails from South Africa, where she first appeared on radio and television as an 11-year old composer. She studied piano at the Royal College of Music, and composition at Cambridge University. Nicolene has performed throughout the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy and Egypt. She is on the piano staff of Uppingham School, and has previously taught at the National Young Pianists’ Week. Tim Birchall studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama before continuing his studies in Germany. Tim has guest led the Nuremberg Symphony and Meiningen Opera orchestras, as well as working with many of the UK’s orchestras including the Philharmonia, English National Opera and Glyndebourne Touring orchestras. As a keen chamber musician Tim has worked with Ensemble Kontraste, covering a diverse repertoire in concerts throughout Europe.

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In a career full of variety and diversity, Scottish born bassoonist, Sarah Burnett, is one of London’s most lyrical, successful and highly regarded wind players. In her early years, she won places, awards and scholarships allowing her to study at Chetham’s School of Music, Cambridge University, the Royal Academy of Music and later to study with Klaus Thunemann in Hanover, Germany. She was also Principal Bassoon in both the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the European Union Youth Orchestra.

Sarah is currently Principal Bassoon with the Britten Sinfonia and the London Mozart Players. She is in demand as Guest Principal with most of the major UK Orchestras which have taken her to venues and festivals worldwide and allow her to work with conductors of great renown. No stranger to the session world, Sarah can be heard on films such as Harry Potter and Les Miserables, TV programmes that include Frozen Planet and Dr Who as well as on albums and on tour with Peter Gabriel. She is much in demand as a chamber musician being a member of the Haffner Wind and Marais Ensembles as well as the RPS award winning Britten Sinfonia Soloists and regularly performs in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, St George’s Bristol, the South Bank and the Barbican Centre. She is frequently heard on BBC Radio 3. Sarah Burnett is Professor at the Royal College of Music, Consultant at Birmingham Conservatoire, teaches at the Purcell School of Music and coaches the bassoons of the National Youth Orchestra. She has become one of the most requested teachers of bassoon in the UK, frequently in demand for masterclasses both at home and abroad. Peter Clements was a chorister at Bristol Cathedral, later taking up an organ scholarship at Clare College, Cambridge, where he read Music and studied the organ with David Sanger and John Wellingham. He won the top prizes in the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists examination, and was also awarded the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He has appeared as both organ soloist and accompanist on BBC Radio 3 and has performed in numerous prestigious venues both in the UK and overseas. A member of Uppingham School’s Music Department since 2001, he is at present the Head of Academic Music and School Organist. He is also the Conductor of Uppingham Choral Society, an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and an organ advisor to the Diocese of Peterborough.

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Born in York, Catherine Griffiths studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, the University of Manchester and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Johanna Peters. Her career began with three years as a member of the Royal Opera, after which she left to become a freelance principal artist working with English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera, Opera Northern Ireland, Pavilion Opera, and Opera Theatre Company, among others. She has performed across the world, working in the USA and Japan, and throughout Europe.

Her operatic repertoire includes Ariodante, Ruggiero (Alcina), Arsace (Partenope), Cornelia (Giulio Cesare) and Orlando, all by Handel; Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), La Cenerentola, Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Eboli (Don Carlos), Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw), Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Marcellina and Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), the Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Niklaus (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), 2nd Rhine Maiden (Das Rheingold) and Waltraute (Die Walküre). Equally at home on the concert platform, Catherine has sung at the major UK venues in works such as: Messiah (Handel), Requiem (Verdi), Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater (Rossini), St Matthew Passion, St John Passion, Mass in B Minor and The Christmas Oratorio (Bach), A Child of Our Time (Tippett), The Dream of Gerontius (Elgar), Elijah (Mendelssohn), Das Lied von der Erde (Mahler), In the Beginning (Copland), Vespers (Rachmaninov) and Sea Pictures and The Musicmakers (Elgar). She performed the UK première of Samuel Wesley’s Missa di Spiritu Sanctu with the Bristol Bach Choir and maintained her enthusiasm for revived works with the first complete modern performance of the opera The Cady of Baghdad by Thomas Linley Junior as part of the Mozart Linley Kraus Anniversary Festival. Catherine now combines her performing career with family life and an ever expanding teaching practice. She is Head of Singing at Uppingham School and increasingly invited to give Masterclasses and run workshops and training days for choral societies and educational establishments.

Since her London concerto debut with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, aged just fifteen, British harpist Eleanor Turner has gained a worldwide reputation for the warmth and passion that she brings to her performances. In the 2007 Cardiff European Harp Competition she won First Prize, which sparked an international career; concertos in New Orleans

and Sydney, chamber music in the Berlin Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal and solo recitals across Spain and Italy. Eleanor won prizes at the Dutch International Harp Competition 2010 and Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in 2011 and is proud

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of her 2010 Wingate Scholarship and funding from The Tillett Trust, the PRS Foundation for New Music and Musicians Benevolent Fund for ground-breaking new music projects. Eleanor studied with Daphne Boden at the Royal College of Music Junior Department, then with Alison Nicholls; hugely inspiring preparation for a lifetime in music.

Andy Webster studied the clarinet at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Antony Pay and Thea King, after which he embarked on a busy freelance playing career with regular solo performances at venues such as The Wigmore Hall. From 1997 to 2004 he was a member of the Orchestra of English National Opera, and from 2002 to 2012 he was Principal Clarinet with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera Orchestra. He continues to work with most of the country’s major orchestras notably The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Philharmonia Orchestra, The BBC Symphony Orchestra and

The London Sinfonietta. He is also a member of the Britten Sinfonia and the Haffner Wind Ensemble. In 1994 he was appointed as Professor of Clarinet at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, a position he still holds and in 2013 he joined the staff at Uppingham School as Head of Wind, Brass and Percussion. Stephen Williams is Director of Music at Uppingham – where he directs the Chapel Choir and Concert Choir – and Music Director of the Chapter House Choir, York Minster. He is a Winston Churchill Fellow, having spent three months in Scandinavia and Estonia studying the relationship between composers and choirs. He has been Musical Director of a variety of choirs, including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Chorus, BBC Daily Service Singers, Take That’s backing choir and recently adjudicated at the Mainhausen International Choral Competition.

Forthcoming Events

Friday 27 February, 7.30pm

BACH TO BRAHMS Uppingham School Symphony Orchestra

Anthony Poon Violin Alex Laing and Andrew Webster Directors

Copland – Fanfare for the Common Man Schumann – Symphony No.3 Brahms – Violin Concerto

Uppingham School Memorial Hall

Thursday 5 March, 4.30pm Prep Schools’ Orchestral Day

Our famous annual orchestral extravaganza! This year we feature a new work by Tim Watts called The Great Tune Robbery

Uppingham School Memorial Hall

Saturday 14 March, 7.30pm Uppingham School Jazz Orchestra presents Cocktails, Canapés and

Cabaret! Come and join us for Canapés and Cocktails while Uppingham School Jazz Orchestra

entertains us with the Big Band sounds of the swing era. Directed by Gareth Lumbers and Andrew Webster

Tickets £15, www.wegottickets.co.uk, by telephone 01572 820705 and from Uppingham Bookshop

Uppingham School Memorial Hall

Friday 27 March, 7pm BACH TO BRAHMS

Uppingham School Concert Choir Beethoven – Choral Fantasy Op.80

Mozart – Sinfonia Concertante K364 Mozart – Coronation Mass K317

Tony Zheng Piano Conrad Li Viola

Richard Liu Violin Directed by Alex Laing and Stephen Williams

St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds

Apex Box Office 01284 758000 or www.whatsonwestsuffolk.co.uk Tickets £15 and £10 (restricted view)

Produced by the Music Department, Uppingham School, 1 School Lane, Uppingham, Rutland LE15 9QT Tel: 01572 820705 Email: music@uppingham.co.uk

www.uppingham.co.uk