The IGS Annual Spring Weekend
Saturday 7th May
St Andrew’s Church Centre, Station Road, Churchdown, Gloucester GL3 2JT
11.00 am Doors open
12.00 noon Annual General Meeting
12.30 pm Lunch
1.30 pm Talk and discussion led by John Greening and Margi Blunden
2.30 pm Break
3.00 pm Violin and Piano Recital given by Midori Komachi (violin) and Simon
Callaghan (piano). Their recital will include Delius’ Sonata no 3, Vaughan Williams’
The Lark Ascending, and other works by Holst, Venables, and Ivor Gurney.
4.00 pm Tea
5.00 pm End
Sunday 8th May
10.30 am Poetry walk led by Eleanor Rawling starting at The Black Horse Inn, Cranham.
Further details will be in the Newsletter.
Charlton Kings Choral Society Spring Concert
Saturday 21 May 2016, 7.30 pm
Holy Apostles Church, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham GL52 6HW
Maurice Duruflé – Requiem
John Wright – In Praise of Earth’s Beauty
Gabriel Fauré – Cantique de Jean Racine
Caroline Carragher (mezzo soprano)
Tom Hunt (bass)
Fiona Brown (organ)
Regency Sinfonia
John Wright (conductor)
The work ‘In Praise of Earth’s Beauty’, is written for the choir by the conductor, John Wright. The first movement is a setting of Gurney’s lovely poem ‘There was such beauty’. There are further strong Gloucestershire connections in the second movement, which combines Psalm 121, ‘I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills’, with words by F. W. Harvey, reflecting variously on the beauty of the Cotswolds and the tragedy of the First World War.
Tickets £15 (under 25s in full-time education £10)
01451 822110/01242 526636, [email protected], or on the door
The Codsall Community Arts Festival
Tuesday 15th March at 7.30 pm
Venue: St Nicholas Church, Church Lane, Codsall, WV8 1EH
The Klee String Quartet (from the Birmingham Conservatoire) are giving a recital of quartet music Purcell and Ligeti. Their recital will include Ivor Gurney’s rarely performed three movement string quartet in A.
Tickets priced £10 can be obtained in advance from Mrs Janice Sear, 10 Bromley Gdns, Codsall WV8 1BE. Cheques to be made payable to “Codsall Community Arts Festival”.
Booking opens: 16th February
website: www.codsallartsfestival.org.uk
Recent News and Past Events
‘Author, Composer, Soldier of a Sort’
by Jan Carey
Sunday 1st November at 4:30 pm.
At the Omnibus – the ‘Old Clapham Library’ building at 1, Clapham Common Northside, SW4 0QW. Tickets | £15 | £12 concessions
This showcase of the songs, poetry and letters of the relatively unknown genius Ivor Gurney – “the English Schubert” – celebrates his relationship with his beloved Gloucestershire and with Marion Scott, to whom he wrote most frequently from the trenches, and to whom he sent his music and poetry, written with mortars flying overhead. The first female music critic and a champion for the equality of women musicians, it was she who collected his work and was the instigator of their publication and performance. Though they came from very different backgrounds – she from a wealthy London family and he a son of a Gloucester tailor of modest means – they forged a friendship that withstood war, illness, despair, madness, joy and triumph. An earlier version of “Author, Composer, Soldier of a Sort” was given at The Orange Tree, Richmond and sold out twice in the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre.
With acclaimed young tenor Thomas Hobbs as Ivor Gurney, pianist Andrew-John Smith, and Jan Carey, who also wrote and compiled the show, as Marion Scott.
JAN CAREY Trained at the GSM&D. In the West End: Spring and Port Wine, The Cherry Orchard, Pygmalion. Outside London theatres include: Sheffield, Canterbury, Birmingham, the Citizens Glasgow, the Abbey Theatre Dublin. Her extensive television appearances range from I Claudius to Downton Abbey.
Author, Composer, Soldier of a sort, is her first venture into writing/compiling.
Meet the Author – Richard Pike, author of “Do Not Forget Me Quite” will be appearing at Cheltenham Library on Wednesday 7th October 7.30pm.
Richard will be reading extracts from his novel illustrated with musical examples from Gurney’s music. Free tickets from Library 01242 5325686. Refreshments provided.
Premiere of Ivor Gurney’s Anthem ‘God Mastering Me’
This was given by the the choir of Gloucester Cathedral, conducted by Adrian Partington on Sunday 20th September at 3pm. The Anthem, God Mastering Me is one of only three completed choral works by Ivor Gurney – the others being The Trumpet – a setting of an Edward Thomas poem and the motet, Since I believe to words by Robert Bridges. The text for God Mastering Me is the first stanza of Gerald Manley Hopkins’ famous poem, The Wreck of The Deutschland, that opens with the lines, ‘Thou mastering me/ God! Giver of breath and bread’. The anthem was composed between 1921-22, while Gurney was living at Longford in Gloucester. There is no record of any performance being given during his lifetime and until recently the work has remained in manuscript, held in the Gloucestershire archives. This short anthem has been typeset and edited for performance by the Ivor Gurney Trust.
Two New CD Releases Featuring the Music and Poetry of Ivor Gurney.
“The Premiere CD Recording of Ivor Gurney’s ‘Cello Sonata”
The society’s sponsored recording of Ivor Gurney’s ‘Cello Sonata is now available on CD from EM Records. Writing for the Birmingham Post, Christopher Morley said “This is a lovely release… CBSO cellist Richard Jenkinson and Benjamin Frith, his adept pianist partner, perform this all-English programme with insight and affection. Cyril Scott’s Sonata seems impossibly out of time for its 1958 date (though his tiny Lullaby which concludes this generous disc could fit beautifully into any programme), but the Ivor Gurney Sonata, a gripping single movement communicates urgently, empathetically conveyed by this duo…” And Rob Barnett writing for Musicweb International commented, “…this short single movement rhapsodic Sonata is rife with Gurney fingerprints. This includes especially the luminous piano writing which often recalls that for the two chamber ensemble song-cycles, Ludlow and Teme and The Western Playland…”
This is a must have CD for all Gurney enthusiasts. It can now be purchased from EM Records. Please click the following link: http://www.em-records.com/discs/emr-cd031-details.html
The Moon Sails Out
Cyril SCOTT (1879-1970)
Cello Sonata (1958)
Ian VENABLES (b.1955)
At Malvern op. 24a
Elegy op. 2
The Moon Sails Out op. 42
It Rains
Poem op. 29
Ivor GURNEY (1890-1937)
Cello Sonata in E minor (1921)
Cyril SCOTT
Lullaby op. 57 no. 2
‘The Song of the Severn’ – Song cycles and Songs
by Ian Venables
“Convincing and Yearning” – Andrew Clements, The Guardian
This new CD includes the premiere recording of ‘The Pine Boughs Past Music’ – settings of poems by Ivor Gurney and Leonard Clark, commissioned by the Gloucester Music Society. “…Ian Venables’ music is unashamedly rooted in the English pastoral tradition. With their gently arcing diatonic melodies, spiced by the occasional passing dissonance, and meticulous attention to the detail of every word of the English poetry they use, the most obvious model for Venables’ songs seems to be Gerald Finzi. But there are cadences, too, of composers from earlier in the 20th century, such as George Butterworth and, especially, Ivor Gurney, on whom Venables has done a great deal of valuable research…The Pine Boughs Past Music is a touching memorial to Gurney, using three of his poems as well as well an epitaph for him by Leonard Clark. Andrew Clements
This CD is available to IGS members at a special 25% Discount from Signum Records.
Please follow the link below and enter the code malvern2015
CLINK LINK HERE: http://www.signumrecords.com/catalogue/ian-venables/ian-venables:-the-song-of-the-severn/sigcd424.html