We’ve arrived at April, which means our website has been online for one year, and we have filled it with some brilliant content thanks to some amazing work behind the scenes by the likes of Martin, Geoff and many others. A huge thank you to you all for keeping us going during lockdown.

We are rolling in with inoculations now – our secretary John Lacy has been keeping count of how many of us have had one or two doses of the vaccine, with around 45 and 20 jabs respectively. We are edging ever closer to a number where we can return to rehearsals (guideline-permitting) and see each other once again. Things are looking up!

Composers of the Month

Sergei Prokofiev (27th April 1891 – 5th March 1953)

Prokofiev was a child prodigy. As a youngster – his mother frequently found him playing

Chopin and Beethoven on the piano in the evenings. He wrote his first piano piece at the age of 5 and his first opera at the age of 9! He went on to study at Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where he met the composer Alexander Glazunov. Several years younger than most of his classmates at the Conservatory, Prokofiev was viewed as eccentric and arrogant, often expressing his dissatisfaction with the education, which he found boring.

Upon leaving the conservatory, Prokofiev began his career as a composer-pianist, with his second piano concerto becoming scandalous – so much so that the audience left the hall exclaiming “the cats on the roof make better music!” But he later found success with the Scythian Suite, compiled from music he composed for the famous Ballets Russes. Diaghilev, impresario and founder of the Ballet Russes commissioned three more ballets from Prokofiev which were all successful.

He was drawn to write more operas – his first love. He composed several, including The Gambler and The Fiery Angel. But his most successful was the satirical The Love for Three Oranges. He was already considering making an opera from Tolstoy's War and Peace when Germany invaded Russia on 22 June 1941. The conflict spurred him on, and he took two years to compose his original version. Because of the war he was evacuated to the Caucasus where he also composed his 2nd String Quartet.

Prokofiev died at the age of 61 on 5 March 1953, the day Stalin's death was announced. For three days as the throngs gathered to mourn Stalin, it was impossible to carry Prokofiev's body out of his home for burial.

Prokofiev was perhaps most known by his composition of Peter and the Wolf. If you haven’t heard it before, here is the entire work performed by the Academy of London Orchestra and Narrated by Sir John Gielgud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ5WMZUbKy4

Bob Chilcott (9th April 1955 – present)

As a living composer, not much has been written about Chilcott’s life as of yet. Below is taken directly from his biography (https://bobchilcott.com/bio.html):

As a composer, conductor, and singer, Bob Chilcott has enjoyed a lifelong association with choral music, first as a chorister and choral scholar in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and for 12 years as a member of the King’s Singers.  He became a full-time composer in 1997, and has produced a large catalogue of music for all types of choirs which is published by Oxford University Press.  His most often performed pieces include Can you hear me?, A Little Jazz Mass, Requiem, and the St John Passion.

Bob has conducted choirs in more than 30 countries worldwide and has worked with many thousands of amateur singers across the UK in a continuing series of Singing Days. For seven years he was conductor of the Chorus of The Royal College of Music in London and since 2002 he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers. In 2017 Bob was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by The Royal School of Church Music and in 2019 took up the role of Principal Conductor, Birmingham University Singers.

His music has been widely recorded by leading British choirs and groups including The King’s Singers, King’s College Cambridge, Wells Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, The Sixteen, Tenebrae, The BBC Singers, The Bach Choir, Commotio, and Ora. In 2016 he enjoyed a collaboration with the celebrated singer Katie Melua on the album In Winter.  In 2017 two new discs were released by Commotio and Choralis – All Good Things on Naxos, and In Winter’s Arms on Signum, his first recording collaboration with an American choir.  Newer recording projects are with the BBC Singers, Houston Chamber Choir, and Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir.

Here is one of Chilcott’s pieces, The Shepherd’s Carol performed by King’s College Cambridge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8N2YTikOsc

Roxanna Panufnik (24th April 1968 – present)

Again, a living composer, so not much has been written about her either. However, Panufnik has a brilliant style of composition which combines modernism and harmony beautifully. Below is her biography from her website (https://roxannapanufnik.com/biography/):

Roxanna has a great love of world music – this has culminated in her Four World Seasons for violinist Tasmin Little, the world premiere of which was picked by BBC Radio 3 to launch their Music Nations weekend, celebrating the London Olympics; her multi-faith Warner Classics CD Love Abide (www.loveabide.com) and Dance of Life: Tallinn Mass for Tallinn Philharmonic (www.tallinnmass.com), commissioned to celebrate Tallinn’s reign as European Capital of Culture.

She is especially interested in building musical bridges between faiths and her first project in this field was the violin concerto Abraham, commissioned for Daniel Hope, incorporating Christian, Islamic and Jewish chant to create a musical analogy for the fact that these three faiths believe in the same one God. This work was subsequently converted into an overture for the World Orchestra for Peace and premiered in Jerusalem and London under the baton of Valery Gergiev, in 2008 and at the 2014 BBC Proms.

Her 2017 opera Silver Birch, commissioned by Garsington Opera, was met with great audience and critical acclaim.

2018, Roxanna’s 50th Birthday year, saw some exciting commissions and premieres for the BBC Last Night of the Proms and a co-commissioned oratorio Faithful Journey – a Mass for Poland for City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Poland, marking Poland’s centenary as an independent state. In 2019, she had a new commission for two conductors and two choirs, premiered by Marin Alsop and Valentina Peleggi with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and then the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra. Roxanna recently composed an epic work, celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday, for the Rundfunkchor Berlin, Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra and 9 other choirs from all over the world, to be premiered at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2020.

Here is her piece Love Endureth performed by Voces8:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMVH2u7YMCs&list=PL8IL9gtPsdqDU9uMu7f1ameZfKIFG91sn&index=5

I hope you enjoy this month’s selection and are keeping well. Remember, we’re a day closer than yesterday!

Tomos