Songs of War and Peace

Concert date: 2 August 2008 (Saturday)

Venue: Wells Cathedral, Somerset, UK

Poulenc - Gloria
Kodaly - Psalmus Hungaricus
Vaughan Williams - Dona nobis pacem

Somerset Chamber Choir
Southern Sinfonia
Graham Caldbeck (conductor)
Charlotte Ellett (soprano)
Andrew Staples (tenor)
Benedict Nelson (baritone)

This exciting concert brings together three contrasting 20th-century
masterpieces in a moving and life-affirming programme about the pursuit of
freedom and peace on earth.

Kodály's Psalmus Hungaricus was commissioned in 1923 to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the unification of the cities of Buda, Pest and Óbuda to
create the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Kodaly was drawn to the text, a
16th century poem based on Psalm 55, because of the recent turmoil brought
to his country by the First World War. This dramatic, folk-inspired work
draws parallels between the sorrows of King David and the suffering of the
people of Hungary, which was under Turkish occupation when the poem was
written. Lavish orchestral writing, a thrilling role for solo tenor and
dramatic choruses all combine to create one of the composer's most inspired
works.

We mark the 50th anniversary of the death of that best-loved English
composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, with a performance of his intensely moving
cantata, Dona nobis pacem, for soprano and baritone soloists, chorus and
orchestra. The composer had served in the medical corps during the Great
War, and this impassioned and eloquent plea for peace - an angry warning by
a composer with a social conscience - was written in 1937 as Europe lurched
towards another war. Vaughan Williams draws his texts from a rich variety of
sources, including the American Civil War poetry of Walt Whitman and
biblical texts - the phrase Dona nobis pacem ("Give us peace'') punctuates
the entire piece.

Poulenc's Gloria, with its matchless tunes and unmistakable freshness,
enjoyed immediate acclaim following its first performance in Boston in 1961
- it has remained a firm favourite with performers and audiences ever since.
The arresting opening movement 'Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace
to men of goodwill', with its brass fanfares and swirling ostinati, sets the
almost irreverent tone for this joyful masterwork, and stunning soprano
solos add an exciting extra dimension to the work. The composer's sense of
humour - '..while writing it I had in mind those frescoes by Gozzoli where
angels stick their tongues out at each other'- and his love of life, shine
through in the exuberance of this wonderful music. So here, then, is the
perfect piece for a summer evening - once described by Poulenc as "without
question my best work".

Tickets £7.50 - £25
www.somersetchamberchoir.org.uk

Composers
Poulenc; Kodaly; Vaughan Williams