Music on Thursdays
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Thursday 3rd April 2025
12.30 lunchtime
Venue: Leatherhead Methodist Church KT22 8AY
Parking: Swan Centre multi storey KT22 7RH
2025 Season Opening Concert
Piano Trio from the
Tailleferre ensemble
Nicola Hands, oboe
Amy Thompson, bassoon
Lana Bode, piano
Programme
Songs by Vaughan Williams and Elizabeth Maconchy
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Text: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Orpheus with His Lute (1904)
Vaughan Williams
Text: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
from Songs of Travel (1901-04)
2 Let Beauty Awake
Dame Elizabeth Violet Maconchy LeFanu (1907-1994)
Text: from Shakespeare's Hamlet
Ophelia’s Song
Vaughan Williams
Text: Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1828-1882)
from The House of Life
2 Silent Noon
Cecilia McDowall (b1951)
arranged specially by Ms McDowall for the Tailleferre Ensemble
Cavatina at Midnight (2008)
Althea Talbot-Howard (b1966)
Byzantion 1 - Hagia Sophia
Madeleine Winefride Isabelle Dring (1923-1977)
Trio for oboe, bassoon and harpsichord (pub 1986)
I Drammatico - Allegro con Brio
II Dialogues - Andante sostenuto
III Allegro con Brio
Concert duration approx: 45+ minutes
Please donate to help fund these concerts at: cafdonate.cafonline.org/14455
Songs by Vaughan Williams and Elizabeth Maconchy
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Text: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Orpheus with His Lute (1904)
Vaughan Williams
Text: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
from Songs of Travel (1901-04)
2 Let Beauty Awake
Dame Elizabeth Violet Maconchy LeFanu (1907-1994)
Text: from Shakespeare's Hamlet
Ophelia’s Song
Vaughan Williams
Text: Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1828-1882)
from The House of Life
2 Silent Noon
Cecilia McDowall (b1951)
arranged specially by Ms McDowall for the Tailleferre Ensemble
Cavatina at Midnight (2008)
Althea Talbot-Howard (b1966)
Byzantion 1 - Hagia Sophia
Madeleine Winefride Isabelle Dring (1923-1977)
Trio for oboe, bassoon and harpsichord (pub 1986)
I Drammatico - Allegro con Brio
II Dialogues - Andante sostenuto
III Allegro con Brio
Concert duration approx: 45+ minutes
Please donate to help fund these concerts at: cafdonate.cafonline.org/14455
Tailleferre Ensemble
Devoted to promoting women in classical music, the Tailleferre Ensemble is a UK- based chamber collective founded by oboists Nicola Hands and Penelope Smith. Since its inception in 2019 the group has gone from strength to strength. The ensemble’s work encompasses diverse instrumentation, time periods, and genres, with a particular onus on promoting underrepresented and underappreciated works and composers, both historical and contemporary. Their playing has been praised for its ‘extensive palette of timbres’.
In February 2023 the ensemble released their debut album There are Things to be Said, which reviewers praised for their ‘superb musicianship’ and ‘effortless’ performance. Textura magazine celebrated it as an ‘exceptional debut’ on account of ‘the beauty and precision of the musicians’ playing and their sensitivity to dynamics.’ The ensemble has enjoyed airtime on radio stations across Europe and Canada, and is developing an ongoing relationship with BBC Radio 3. They are especially proud to have ongoing collaborations with numerous contemporary composers, many of whom have dedicated new works to them, including Ingrid Stölzel, Rhian Samuel, Sally Wave, Jonathan Heeley, and Dana Joras.
Recently the ensemble has performed at London’s Conway Hall and St John’s Smith Square, and are repeat artists for the Nottingham Chamber Music Festival and Leatherhead Concert & Arts Society. They regularly perform in recital series around the UK, including at St James Piccadilly, Aylesbury Lunchtime Concerts, Music-at-Hill, St John’s ARC in Old Harlow, and Brighton’s Chapel Royal. The ensemble has also collaborated with Façade Ensemble and the South Florida Chamber Ensemble.
Individual members’ own playing experience includes with orchestras such as Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Aurora Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Wexford Festival Opera orchestra and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, as well as venues such as the National Theatre, Royal Opera House, London Coliseum, Wilderness Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, National Portrait Gallery, and Wigmore Hall, and recording at Abbey Road Studios.
The Tailleferre Ensemble are Musicians in Residence at St John’s Church, Notting Hill.
In February 2023 the ensemble released their debut album There are Things to be Said, which reviewers praised for their ‘superb musicianship’ and ‘effortless’ performance. Textura magazine celebrated it as an ‘exceptional debut’ on account of ‘the beauty and precision of the musicians’ playing and their sensitivity to dynamics.’ The ensemble has enjoyed airtime on radio stations across Europe and Canada, and is developing an ongoing relationship with BBC Radio 3. They are especially proud to have ongoing collaborations with numerous contemporary composers, many of whom have dedicated new works to them, including Ingrid Stölzel, Rhian Samuel, Sally Wave, Jonathan Heeley, and Dana Joras.
Recently the ensemble has performed at London’s Conway Hall and St John’s Smith Square, and are repeat artists for the Nottingham Chamber Music Festival and Leatherhead Concert & Arts Society. They regularly perform in recital series around the UK, including at St James Piccadilly, Aylesbury Lunchtime Concerts, Music-at-Hill, St John’s ARC in Old Harlow, and Brighton’s Chapel Royal. The ensemble has also collaborated with Façade Ensemble and the South Florida Chamber Ensemble.
Individual members’ own playing experience includes with orchestras such as Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Aurora Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Wexford Festival Opera orchestra and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, as well as venues such as the National Theatre, Royal Opera House, London Coliseum, Wilderness Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, National Portrait Gallery, and Wigmore Hall, and recording at Abbey Road Studios.
The Tailleferre Ensemble are Musicians in Residence at St John’s Church, Notting Hill.
Recordings of the works in today's concert
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Text: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Orpheus with His Lute (1904)
The instrumental version is for guitar and the player is Igor Sirotinsky.
Here the vocal choice is baritone Jonathan Forbes Kennedy with accompanist José Javier Ucendo. How ancient is that decorated Steinway piano?
Text: William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Orpheus with His Lute (1904)
The instrumental version is for guitar and the player is Igor Sirotinsky.
Here the vocal choice is baritone Jonathan Forbes Kennedy with accompanist José Javier Ucendo. How ancient is that decorated Steinway piano?
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Vaughan Williams
Text: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
from Songs of Travel (1901-04)
2 Let Beauty Awake
It seems nobody has put an instrumental version on YouTube, so here is the piano accompaniment, played by Dr Eunae Ko Han
Robert Kidd is the singer, at his Junior Recital, with pianist Landon Baumgard. Drop us an email if you recognise the venue? MusicOnThursdays gmail com
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Dame Elizabeth Violet Maconchy LeFanu (1907-1994)
Text: from Shakespeare's Hamlet
Ophelia’s Song
Just a vocal performance for this work. In the University of Manchester's Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama Hannah Jo Mackinlay is accompanied by Max Bilbe. Max was with us in August 2021 accompanying flautist Lucy Driver.
Vaughan Williams
Text: Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1828-1882)
from The House of Life
2 Silent Noon [4:30]
An unusual arrangement here, from July 2023, as the Diocesan Boys School Senior Choir (of Hong Kong) participate in the 12th World Choir Games in Gangneung, South Korea.
Diocesan Boys' School Music Department contains six choirs, a symphony orchestra, string and wind orchestras, a Chinese orchestra, and many chamber ensembles. The school also excels in a wide range of sports and is No 1 Worldwide for its pupils scores in the International Baccalaureate.
Cecilia McDowall (b1951)
arranged specially by Ms McDowall for the Tailleferre Ensemble
Cavatina at Midnight (2008)
This is our selected recording with the Odora Trio - Sophie Hinson, violin, Francesca Cull, cello, and Songeun Choi, piano. Please see Ms McDowall's programme notes below the video.
Cavatina at Midnight encloses, at its centre, a reference to the opening of the sublime Cavatina, the fifth movement from Beethoven’s String Quartet in Bb Major, Op 130.
Shapes and shades of the long lyrical line are hinted at throughout Cavatina at Midnight which also brings together songs of another kind, two allusions to the nightingale; one drawn from the poem by John Keats, who wrote Ode to a Nightingale one springtime, under a plum tree in a Hampstead garden, and the other from the first live broadcast of birdsong in 1924, in which the cellist, Beatrice Harrison, played well-known songs in nocturnal duet with a nightingale in her garden.
In the trio the clarinet takes an agile role, suggestive of birdsong, often with arpeggio motifs, and is supported by the lyricism of the cello. As I was writing the piece a blackbird sang at my window, not its beautiful, mellifluous evensong but an insistent F sharp which somehow found its way into Cavatina at Midnight.
Cavatina at Midnight was commissioned by the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust and first performed by Catriona Scott (clarinet) Gemma Rosefield (cello) and Michael Dussek (piano) as part of the Hampstead and Highgate Festival on 8 May 2008 at Christ Church, Hampstead Square, London. © 2008, Cecilia McDowall
Cavatina at Midnight was commissioned by the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust and first performed by Catriona Scott (clarinet) Gemma Rosefield (cello) and Michael Dussek (piano) as part of the Hampstead and Highgate Festival on 8 May at Christ Church, Hampstead Square, London .
A version for violin, cello and piano was made shortly afterwards.
Althea Talbot-Howard (b1966)
Byzantion 1 - Hagia Sophia [5:20]
Unable to find an online recording of this item, we offer instead a flavour of worship chanting in the Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom). From Greek Orthodox Cathedral to Turkish Mosque to its modern status as a national museum, the Hagia Sophia is one of the most famous buildings in the world. Talbot-Howard's work incorporates some chant elements.
Madeleine Winefride Isabelle Dring (1923-1977)
Trio for oboe, bassoon and harpsichord (pub 1986)
I Drammatico • II Dialogues - Andante sostenuto • III Allegro con Brio
For this online selection we have exchanged the piano for a chamber orchestra. A distinctly Madeleine Dring composition to settle back and enjoy.
The soloists are Andriy Karpyak, flute, and Juriy Khvostov, oboe.
Previous concert
27 February 2025 @ 3pm - pianist Anson Wong (RAM) - click here
Next concert
10 April 2025 - Aeris Trio - 2 flutes & piano, from Royal Academy of Music, click here
