Figure 1 Poster “Summer Awakening” 2024, Book of Words 1938 and 1941. Image LBC Archive.
LBC Archivist: Dr Jennifer Wilkinson.
© Dr Jennifer Wilkinson (permission is given to correct typographical errors but not to edit or alter without consent from Dr Jennifer Wilkinson)
The LBC 2024 Summer Awakening Concert combines works new to the LBC’s repertoire with previously performed music.
New works… Choral (Leicester Bach Choir)
A Prayer – Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Dating from 1916 A Prayer is Frank Bridge’s only choral work. Set to words by St Thomas à Kempis this wartime work is predominantly a calm and contemplative prayer for peace, sleep and rest.(1).
Stabat Mater – Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901)
Published in 1884 Rheinberger’s Stabat Mater is as a profoundly personal work written as an act of thanksgiving for the healing of an injury to his hand, conveying hope and salvation rather than pain and loss.(2).
New works… Orchestral (Bach Camerata)
Adagio – Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894)* Arranged for a string orchestra Adagio was written in 1891 when Lekeu was just 21 years old.
A Downland Suite – John Ireland (1879-1962)* Originally composed in 1932 A Downland Suite represents Ireland’s appreciation of the Sussex downs.(3). Other Ireland choral works performed by the LBC include Adam lay ybounden (1958) under the baton of George Gray, and The Hills (2023), conducted by Richard Laing.
Revisited works… Choral (Leicester Bach Choir)
Cantata 140 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme – J S Bach (1685-1750)
Unsurprisingly the LBC has performed Bach’s Cantata 140 numerous times in its 94 year history. Sleepers Awake featured regularly in the pre war years and in 1950/1954. During the 1980s/90s conductors Clive Fairbairn, Paul Spicer and Robert Hollingworth incorporated the Air and Chorale into several concerts.(4). Richard Laing included Wachet auf! Ruft uns die Stimme, with words by Paul Nicholai, in his inaugural year with the LBC.(5). 2024 will see the first LBC performance of No1 Chorus as a standalone piece.
Three Songs of Praise – George Dyson (1883-1964)
Set to poems by George Herbert, George Gascoigne and Robert Herrick Dyson’s Three Songs of Praise were first performed by the LBC in 1938, “the singing… maintained a very high standard under the capable conducting of Mr George C. Gray.”(6). Interestingly the Leicester Evening Mail also reported that a silver collection was taken for expenses, “…it would be a tragedy if lack of funds kept this excellent choir from performing”. Perhaps it’s not just the music that we are revisiting in 2024?
The 1939/40 season was cancelled on account of WW2 (7), however the choir remained in rehearsal throughout the war years during which they produced thirteen performances (8), including the 1941 Christmas Concert which “… nicely combined the old and the new… The old was represented by unaccompanied motets and anthems by Thomas Morley, Praestorius, William Mundy, Thomas Weelkes… With Brahms as a junction, the train of musical thought ran along modern lines by way of Sir Edward Bairstow… CV Taylor, Sir RR Terry and Arthur Warrell to the very forward-looking music of George Dyson, whose ‘Three Songs of Praise’ are in his best vein”.(9).
*Details of orchestral works included at LBC concerts are not fully recorded in the LBC archive but to the best of my knowledge these have not been previously performed.
…
1. Musicweb (n.d.) Frank Bridge(1879-1941) COMPOSER, COURAGEOUS REVOLUTIONARY AND PACIFIST. Available from https://www.musicweb-international.com/bridge/chapt1.htm . Last accessed 22/05/24
2. Carus Verlag (n.d.) Josef Gabriel Rheinberger Stabat Mater in G Major op.138, 1884. Available from https://www.carus-verlag.com/en/music-scores-and-recordings/josef-gabriel-rheinberger-stabat-mater-in-g-minor-5013800.html . Last accessed 26/5/24)
3. Wikipedia (2024) A Downland Suite. Available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Downland_Suite . Last accessed 22/05/2024
4. Leicester Bach Choir Open Archive Records
5. Leicester Bach Choir (2003), Christmas Concert Programme. Leicester Bach Choir Open Archive
6. Leicester Evening Mail (1938) Bach Choir Needs City Support, Monday 12 December 1938. British Newspaper Archive. Available from https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003330/19381212/100/0007 . Last accessed 22/05/2024. (need to register).
7. LBC (1939) AGM 18 September 1939. Leicester Bach Choir Open Archive
8. LBC (1945) Secretary’s Report 19 September 1945, Leicester Bach Choir Open Archive
9. Leicester Mercury (1941) Bach Choir Concert, Monday 15 December 1941. British Newspaper Archive. Available from https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000760/19411215/003/0003 . Last accessed 22/05/2024. (need to register).