GCU News February 2025
Hello everyone …
Welcome to the latest edition of GCU News.
We are working hard towards our concert on 28th March at Smith Square Hall. This is a challenging programme, probably one of the most difficult that the choir has taken on for some time. We will all rise to the occasion though and I know that the concert will be a wonderful event.
If you have any content for future newsletters please drop me a line. It is always helpful to have input from as many people as possible.
Ian Stephenson
Howells - Hymnus Paradisi
Herbert Howells was in the audience for the first performance of the Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia which features in our concert. The performance took place, as part of the Three Choirs Festival, in Gloucester cathedral on 6th September 1910. Herbert Brewer, the organist of Gloucester cathedral (and a teacher of Herbert Howells) commented “A queer, mad work by an odd fellow from Chelsea”. The piece was guaranteed a large audience as Elgar conducted his Dream of Gerontius in the second part. Howells (who attended with Ivor Gurney) reacted rather more positively than Brewer - “it was an overwhelming evening, so disturbing and moving that I even asked RVW for his autograph - and got it!”. Howells and Gurney walked the streets of Gloucester into the early hours that night, excitedly debating what the Tallis Fantasia might mean for the future of English music.
Howells’ beloved son, Michael, died of polio in 1935. This tragic event partly inspired the composition of Hymnus Paradisi which Howells wrote between 1936 and 1938. He drew on material from his then unpublished Requiem which had been written in 1932. Hymnus was not performed until 1950 (at the Three Choirs Festival) after encouragement from Herbert Sumsion (who suggested the title), Gerald Finzi and Vaughan Williams.
We are very grateful for the support of the Herbert Howells Trust who have given a generous grant towards the cost of this concert.
Please do all that you can to encourage your family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances to attend this wonderful concert.
A window in memory of Howells at Gloucester cathedral.
Our soloists …
Will be Charlotte Bowden (soprano) and Jeremy Budd (tenor).
Charlotte is a Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition 2025, International Handel Singing Competition 2024, and Cesti Baroque Opera Competition 2023 prize winner
Jeremy was a chorister at St Paul’s cathedral and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music. He is a member of The Sixteen.
Great Lives
Herbert Howells
Former Member of Parliament Ed Balls chose Herbert Howells to feature in this episode of the BBC Radio Four programme - listen here.
George Dyson
Sir George Dyson KCVO (1883-1964) was one of those sadly rare creatures, a composer from a working-class background. He was born in Halifax and his father was a blacksmith and his mother a weaver. He studied at the Royal College of Music under Parry and Stanford and later became director of the College, steering it through the difficult days of the Second World War.
Dyson’s list of compositions is large, though he is best known these days for his setting of the evening canticles in D major.
Hierusalem was composed in 1956 for Harold Darke and the St Michael’s Singers. It has been described in Gramophone as “a wonderful piece which I would bracket with Finzi’s Dies Natalis and Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi as one of the best examples of mystical ecstasy which certain British choral works achieve”.
We are very grateful for the support of the Sir George Dyson Trust who have given a generous grant towards the cost of this concert.
Congratulations!
The Royal Academy of Music has recently announced its associate honours for 2024-25. Among the alumni who will be conferred with Associateship of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM), at a special cermony in April, is our Music Director Jack Apperley.
Please follow this link to read more.
Many congratulations to Jack!
Sponsor Us
We are in an incredibly good position compared with many choirs who are losing members, but it is expensive to put on classical music concerts and we need sponsorship of around £25,000 a year, or to sell a lot more tickets.
If anyone is able to introduce us to the board members of any top companies, or indeed is a board member, please get in touch. All companies need to demonstrate Corporate Responsibility these days, and we are hoping to forge some mutually beneficial relationships which will enable us to flourish for many, many years to come!
Dates for your diary…
Friday 28 March 2025
7.30pm, Smith Square Hall:
Brahms Geistliches Lied
Haydn Missa - Sancti Joannis de Deo (Little Organ Solo Mass)
Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis
Dyson Hierusalem
Howells Hymnus Paradisi
Wednesday 09 April 20264, 6.30pm, Queen’s Gate House:
First rehearsal for our summer concert
Sunday 13 April 2025,
7.30pm, St James’ Church, Norlands:
Concert (including the Fauré Requiem)
Friday 20 June 2025,
7.30pm, Holy Trinity Sloane Square:
Rheinberger Mass in E flat
Dove Passing of the Year
Stanford Songs of the Fleet
Lauridson Sure on this Shining Night
Stanford Three Motets
Wednesday 25 June 2025, 6.30pm, Queen’s Gate House:
Summer Sing 1 - Bach Mass in B Minor
Wednesday 02 July 2025, 6.30pm, Queen’s Gate House:
Summer Sing 2 - Brahms German Requiem