Mater Ora Filium

Bath Camerata
Paul Spicer – conductor

Benjamin Britten Choral Dances from Gloriana
Gerald Finzi Seven Poems of Robert Bridges
Herbert Howells Two Madrigals: Before me careless lying; In youth is pleasure
William Byrd Mass for Five Voices
Arnold Bax Mater ora filium
Charles Villiers Stanford Heraclitus; On Time
 
Paul Spicer writes:
 
The programme I have put together grew out of my discussions with Benjamin and the thought that Bax’s Mater ora filium might form a centre piece. It’s a challenging work and typical of Bax’s chromatic, romantic style which is full of imagination with an obviously highly creative mind at work. I feel that Bax is one of the most interesting of the British early 20th century composers and his choral music certainly bears this out and is completely different from all the other music being written at the time. So having decided on the Bax I was reminded that he said that the inspiration for the work was a performance he heard of Byrd’s Five Part Mass. It’s an extraordinary leap of imagination to link these two works, but what better than to give everyone the chance of hearing the two together – which surely can hardly ever have been done before?  So the two building blocks were in place. It followed quite naturally that the programme would therefore be an English one. This is anyway my specialist area and Herbert Howells was my composition teacher so it was natural to put some Howells in the programme – and music of his which is hardly known. The two madrigals are beautiful recreations in a modern style of Elizabethan models. The other works in the first half expand on this with the wide-ranging Gloriana Dances by Britten and Finzi’s beautiful part songs to poems by Robert Bridges. We are finishing with two extraordinary part songs by Stanford which, again, will be almost unknown. It’s an exciting programme! 

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