Monday 20 January 2025
7.30pm
Milton Court Concert Hall
Robert Levin in Residence:
Mozart Double Piano Concerto & Requiem
Scott Stroman conductor
Eclectic Voices
Blaze Ensemble
Robert Levin piano
David Dolan piano
Biqing Zhang soprano
Gabriella Noble mezzo-soprano
Dominic Lee tenor
Hector Bloggs baritone
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Milton Court
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Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Founded in 1880 by the City of London Corporation
Chair of the Board of Governors
The Hon. Emily Benn
Principal
Professor Jonathan Vaughan
Vice-Principal & Director of Music
Armin Zanner
Please visit our website at gsmd.ac.uk
Welcome
The genesis for tonight’s programme began several decades ago, through collaborations between David Dolan and myself in the overlapping worlds of classical and jazz improvisation. As we improvised together, it became clear that David had skills and ideas ideal to share with the Renga Ensemble that I was leading at the London Philharmonic Orchestra and I invited him to work together on a project with the group. He gradually led me to Robert and his work both as pianist and musicologist/composer. With Eclectic Voices we had a wonderful experience studying and performing Robert’s completion of Mozart’s Mass in C Minor over the past two years, leading to tonight’s collaboration featuring him and David as soloists.
It is well known that Mozart and his contemporaries were proficient and regular improvisers, additionally reinterpreting their composed works when employed at the keyboard in the role of soloist or accompanist. Robert and David are leaders in rediscovering this technique in their own performances, sharing their passions and discoveries through their teaching at Guildhall School, at Julliard, at Harvard, and around the world in master classes and workshops. In their performance of the Concerto for Two Pianos expect delightful surprises, especially in the cadenzas, which Mozart and his sister Nannerl may have likely improvised and he would have later notated for others to use at will.
Robert, additionally, has employed his knowledge and creative urge to edit and courageously complete numerous works from the Baroque and Classical periods, including the Requiem and Mass in C Minor. It is impossible to know what Mozart would have done had he completed them, but Robert’s skill in composition, extensive knowledge of the classical style, and superb instinct as a performer gives us at least a viable, and to my mind, exciting and engaging option. One can read of the dramatic history of the genesis of Mozart’s Requiem elsewhere; I'll leave it to Robert to tell of the dramatic history of its completion in person.
– Scott Stroman
Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Concerto for Two Pianos, KV 365 (1779)
I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Rondo: Allegro
Following the Concerto, Robert Levin will give an illustrated introduction to his completion of the Requiem.
Interval
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Requiem, KV 626 (1791)
completion by Robert Levin (1993)
I. Introit
Requiem
Kyrie
II. Sequence
Dies irae
Tuba mirum
Rex tremendae
Recordare
Confutatis
Lacrimosa
Amen
III. Offertory
Domine Jesu
Hostias
IV. Sanctus
Sanctus
Benedictus
V. Agnus Dei
Agnus Dei
VI. Communion
Lux aeterna
Cum sanctis tuis
Skip to texts and translations
Eclectic Voices
Eclectic Voices (EV) is regarded as one of the most adventurous and versatile choirs on the London scene. Formed in 1991, they continue to be directed by their founding director Scott Stroman and supported by assistant director and accompanist Sarah Wilkinson, performing a wide variety of music from jazz, gospel and folk to baroque, classical and contemporary. In addition to producing their own concerts with a variety of guest musicians they have performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, regular partners the City Bach Collective, the London Jazz Orchestra, in the Swingle Singers’ A Cappella Festival, and formed the chorus for stage productions including Stroman’s The Weekend, Fever Pitch and As You Like It, Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars and Odaline de la Martinez’s The Crossing.
Eclectic Voices’ next concert, on Friday 28 March at St Paul’s, Covent Garden (the Actors’ Church) will feature Reena Esmail’s Malhaar: A Requiem for Water, incorporating Hindustani musicians, Bright Mass with Canons by Nico Muhly and Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb. For more information and tickets,
visit www.eclecticvoices.org.uk.
Soprano
Phyllida Bolam
Eleanor Butcher
Nancy Butcher
Sandra Bush
Bernadette Cagnoni
Kate Clark
Alex Finlay
Jenny Higgins
Anne Johnson
Angela Jung
Maggie Kemmner
Hilary Lines
Janie Mack
Frosso Miltiadou
Clodagh O'Reilly
Katie O'Reilly
Caroline Percy
Corinne Pignard
Sue Stevens
Arisa Turner
Nadia Weekes
Inga Wolf
Alto
Ros Andrews
Ros Barker
Alice Brunning
Tamsin Collison
Penny El-Nemer
Miriam Grant
Winnie Greer
Pamela Harling
Francesca Johnson
Hannah Kanter
Hilary Neal
Richenda Power
Anna Sambidge
Anna Schilke
Nina Shandloff
Judy Slater
Sue Stroman
Irene Weinreb
Claire Wynnick
Tenor
Juliette Chatterton
Carolyn Graham
Sara Hyson
Peter Ilmolelian
Sonia Lovett
Daryn Moody
Rupert Wickham
Andrew Wood
Bass
Damian Ball
Matt Broadbent
Justin Butcher
Tim Dowley
Bernard Gabony
Geraint Jones
Geoff Metzger
Jeffery Pike
Matt Seys-Llewellyn
Michael Walker
Blaze Ensemble
Blaze Ensemble is a London-based chamber ensemble whose performances range from works for small wind ensemble to chamber orchestra. The ensemble was formed in 1997 and currently gives up to six concerts each season, performing in all the major lunchtime recital venues in central London. Recent performances have taken place at St Brides, St James’s Piccadilly, the Study Society, All Saints Fulham and St Olave in the City. In addition to performing staples from the wind and string chamber ensemble repertoire, Blaze Ensemble has commissioned new works from the UK’s most established contemporary composers. In recent seasons, Blaze Ensemble has given the London premiere of Chris Gunning’s Concertino for Flute and Small Orchestra and the first performance of Adrian Sutton’s Montana Peaks for chamber ensemble. Blaze Ensemble has also performed several premieres of works by Paul Pritchard, including Imaginarium, Two Irish Songs and Other Dances, Fire Dances and the revised version of the semi-staged work Green Man Ho!.
Visit www.blazeensemble.com.
Violin I
Alex Postlethwaite
Anne Beitel
Claire Moisson
Sarah Crick
Rachel Boxall
Violin II
Abbie Davis
Claire Maugham
Nancy Borrett
Danny Lyness
Viola
Andrew Rodgers
Allan Grant
Hywel Jones
Cello
Emma Baldock
Alex Borthwick
Bass
Martin Johnson
Oboe
Nick Ridley
Sue Treherene
Bassoon
Melanie Eyres
Sarah Finlay
Basset Horn
& Clarinet
Chris Walters
John Cook
Horn
Andy Feist
Susanna Stephenson
Trumpet
Tony Rickard
David Critchley
Trombone
Phil Cambridge
Mark Horton
Stefan Terry
Timpani
Andrew Cumine
Scott Stroman
conductor
Scott Stroman is a conductor, composer, trombonist, singer and educator across a uniquely broad range of musical styles spanning classical, contemporary, jazz and world music. Born in the USA but long based in London, he is the founding musical director of Eclectic Voices, director of the London Jazz Orchestra (LJO), artistic director of Highbury Opera Theatre (HOT), director of music at the American International Church and a professor at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he developed the School’s jazz programme. He was founding conductor of the contemporary string ensemble OPUS 20 and the innovative cross-genre Renga ensemble of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and directs orchestras, opera, choirs and jazz ensembles throughout the UK and Europe. A prolific composer and arranger, his choral compositions include the cycles Songs of the Spirit, Songs of Life and Liberty, Shakespeare Songs, Jazz Mass, Little Mass, Canticle of the Nativity, African Easter, Jazz Psalms, Christmas Fantasia, Songs for the Seasons and Songs of Love and Laughter, premiered in Geneva in December. He has written many works for jazz orchestra and a new suite, Between Earth and Sky, was premiered by the Guildhall Jazz Orchestra in June and subsequently recorded by the LJO. His operas The Weekend, based on Michael Palin’s play and Fever Pitch, based on Nick Hornby’s memoir, a Shakespeare musical, As You Like It, and Fables, a one-act opera for young voices, have all been premiered by HOT. A Fellow of Guildhall School, in 2018 he was awarded the BASCA Gold Badge for services to music.
Robert Levin
piano
Robert Levin has performed as a concert pianist throughout the world, appearing with major orchestras on the Steinway and with leading period instrument orchestras on early pianos. Renowned for his improvised cadenzas in classical repertoire, he has recorded Bach’s complete keyboard concertos, the six English Suites and both books of The Well-Tempered Clavier; a Mozart concerto cycle with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music; the Beethoven concertos with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique; and the complete Beethoven sonatas and variations for fortepiano and cello with Steven Isserlis. Recent releases include the complete Mozart sonatas on Mozart’s Walter piano. A noted Mozart scholar, his completions of Mozart’s Requiem, Mass in C Minor and other unfinished works have been recorded and performed throughout the world. Awarded the Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig in 2018, he is presently Visiting Professor at The Juilliard School and International Chair of the Centre for Creative Performance & Classical Improvisation at Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
photo by Clive Barda
David Dolan
piano
David Dolan, pianist, researcher, and educator, is the founder and Head of the Centre for Creative Performance & Classical Improvisation at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. A leading figure in the revival of classical improvisation and its applications in Western art-music performance, his pioneering teaching and practice methods are used at music institutions worldwide. In his international career as a concert pianist, David integrates extemporisation into solo and chamber music performances of relevant concert repertoire. He has performed in many of the world’s leading concert venues and festivals. Yehudi Menuhin’s response to David Dolan’s CD When Interpretation and Improvisation Get Together was: “David Dolan is giving new life to classical music.” His recent multidisciplinary research, conducted in collaboration with Imperial College, London, and the Max Planck Institute, Frankfurt, has examined the impact of risk-taking and an improvisational approach to music-making on performers, audiences, and the quality of communication between them.
Biqing Zhang
soprano
Chinese soprano Biqing Zhang is currently studying on the Guildhall School Opera Course with vocal teacher Marilyn Rees. In 2023, Biqing was a semi-finalist in the Handel International Competition, and performed in the roles of Poppea in Agrippina at Hampstead Garden Opera and a nightingale in La bella dormente nel bosco at Guildhall School. She sang the role of Sandman in Hansel and Gretel, Ophelie in Hamlet, Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia and Manon and Zdenka in Arabella in Guildhall School Opera Scenes 2023/24. In 2024 Biqing joined the Leeds Lieder Festival as one of the young artists, performed Callie in Ursa Minor (premiered as part of the Guildhall School Making It Festival) and played the role of Adele in Die Fledermaus at Guildhall School. Biqing joined the Britten Pears young artist program (French Melodies) in August 2024. In 2025 she will perform with Glyndebourne Chorus and as Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park at Guildhall School.
Biqing is supported in her current studies at Guildhall School by the Rosemary Thayer Award and the Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship.
Gabriella Noble
mezzo-soprano
Gabriella is a mezzo-soprano from London, who recently enrolled on the Guildhall School Opera Course studying with Janice Chapman. Alongside opera and song, Gabriella loves performing early music – she was recently the recipient of a Young Artist’s Scholarship from Fundaciòn Salvat and was awarded the 2023 Rodney Gibson Early Music Prize by the Association of English Singers and Speakers. She has been grateful to develop her craft with such young artist positions, including on the Wigmore French Song Exchange, which culminated with recital appearances at Salle Cortot in Paris and at the Wigmore Hall. Gabriella was a 2024 Alvarez Young Artist at Garsington Opera and is grateful for the support of the Knight Family Foundation, the Worshipful Company of Dyers and the Worshipful Company of Horners. She is passionate about interdisciplinary arts, and her singing is influenced by her love of poetry and theatre. Her poems were published in the first edition of An Inkling, an interdisciplinary journal.
Gabriella is supported in her current studies at Guildhall School by the Dyers’ Scholarship and Horners’ Becker Scholarship.
Dominic Lee
tenor
Dominic Lee started singing as a Chorister at Worcester Cathedral in 2004, going on to study for his undergraduate degree in music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. In 2022 he completed a Masters degree at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he is now studying on the Opera Course with John Evans. His wide range of oratorio and concert repertoire has seen him perform well-known works all around the country, from Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s The Creation to new commissions in the Three Choirs Festival. He was part of the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus in their highly acclaimed production of Dialogues des Carmélites and recently performed the role of Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus at Guildhall School. In February 2025, Dominic will perform the role of Mr Rushworth in Mansfield Park, Guildhall School’s Spring Opera.
Dominic is supported in his current studies at Guildhall School by the Innholders’ Scholarship and the Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship.
Hector Bloggs
baritone
Hector Bloggs is studying on the Opera Course at Guildhall School of Music & Drama with John Evans. Operatic roles include the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Sid in Britten’s Albert Herring, Silvio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Marco in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Bartolo in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. At Guildhall School he has performed scenes from Puccini’s La bohème, Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Bizet’s Carmen, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Massenet’s Manon, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, as well as covering major roles in Judith Weir’s Blonde Eckbert, Respighi’s La bella dormente nel bosco and Stephen McNeff’s A Star Next to the Moon. He recently performed in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at Westgreen House Opera, as well as Opera Makers at Guildhall School. He won first place in the Courtney Kenny Award from the AESS and The Keith Bonnington Competition. Hector will perform the role of Sir Thomas Bertram in Guildhall School’s Spring Opera, Mansfield Park.
Hector is supported in his current studies at Guildhall School by the Gwen Catley Scholarship.
Forthcoming Events
Guitar Alumni Concert
22 January 2025
Milton Court Concert Hall
Be transported by the extraordinary sounds of the guitar with an evening of unique arrangements of timeless classical works, performed by celebrated alumni from Guildhall School.
Mansfield Park
24 Feb–3 Mar 2025
Silk Street Theatre
Immerse yourself in the charm and wit of Mansfield Park, Jonathan Dove's enchanting opera based on Jane Austen’s beloved novel, performed in the author's 250th anniversary year.
Guildhall Symphony Orchestra: An Alpine Symphony
6 March 2025
Barbican Hall
Join Guildhall Symphony Orchestra for an awe-inspiring evening of music in Barbican Hall, conducted by alumnus Roberto González-Monjas.
Requiem Texts & Translations
I. Introit
Requiem aeternam
Soprano solo & Chorus
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
and may perpetual light shine on them.
Exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet.
Hear my prayer, unto Thee all flesh shall come.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
and may perpetual light shine on them.
Kyrie
Chorus
Kyrie eleison.
Lord have mercy upon us.
Christe eleison.
Christ have mercy upon us.
Kyrie eleison.
Lord have mercy upon us.
II. Sequence
Dies irae
Chorus
Dies irae, dies illa
Day of wrath, day of anger
solvet saeclum in favilla,
will dissolve the earth in ashes,
teste David cum Sibylla.
as foretold by David and the Sibyl.
Quantus tremor est futurus,
What trembling there will be
quando judex est venturus,
when the Judge descends from heaven
cuncta stricte discussurus!
to examine all things closely!
Tuba mirum
Solos SATB
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
The trumpet will send its wondrous sound
per sepulcra regionum,
throughout the graves of all lands,
coget omnes ante thronum.
and gather all before the throne.
Mors stupebit et natura
Death and Nature shall be astounded
cum resurget creatura
when all creation rises again
judicanti responsura.
to answer the judgement.
Liber scriptus proferetur,
A book will be brought forth,
in quo totum continetur,
in which all will be written,
unde mundus judicetur.
by which the world shall be judged.
Judex ergo cum sedebit
When therefore the Judge takes His seat
quidquid latet apparebit:
whatever is hidden will be revealed:
nil inultum remanebit.
nothing will remain unavenged.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
What shall a wretch like me say?
Quem patronum rogaturus,
Who shall intercede for me,
cum vix justus sit securus?
when even the righteous may not be secure?
Rex tremendae
Chorus
Rex tremendae majestatis,
King of awful majesty,
qui salvandos salvas gratis,
who freely savest the redeemed,
salva me, fons pietatis.
save me, fount of pity.
Recordare
Solos SATB
Recordare, Jesu pie,
Remember, blessed Jesu,
quod sum causa tuae viae,
that I am the cause of Thy pilgrimage:
ne me perdas illa die.
Do not forsake me on that day.
Quaerens me sedisti lassus,
Seeking me Thou sat down weary,
redemisti crucem passus.
and redeemed me, suffering on the cross.
Tantus labor non sit cassus.
Let not such great effort be in vain.
Juste judex ultionis,
Righteous judge of vengeance,
donum fac remissionis
grant remission
ante diem rationis.
before the day of reckoning.
lngemisco tamquam reus:
I groan like a guilty man:
culpa rubet vultus meus:
guilt reddens my face:
supplicanti parce Deus.
spare a supplicant, God.
Qui Mariam absolvisti
Thou who absolved Mary Magdalene
et latronem exaudisti,
and hearkened to the thief,
mihi quoque spem dedisti.
to me also have Thou given hope.
Preces meae non sunt dignae,
My prayers are unworthy,
Sed tu bonus fac benigne,
But Thou in Thy merciful goodness grant
ne perenni cremer igne.
that I burn not in everlasting fire.
Inter oves locum praesta,
Place me among Thy sheep,
et ab haedis me sequestra,
and separate me from the goats,
statuens in parte dextra.
setting me on Thy right hand.
Confutatis
Chorus
Confutatis maledictis,
When the accused have been confounded
flammis acribus addictis,
and doomed to flames of woe,
voca me cum benedictis.
call me among the blessed.
Oro supplex et acclinis,
I kneel in supplication,
cor contritum quasi cinis:
my heart contrite as ashes:
gere curam mei finis.
safeguard my fate.
Lacrimosa & Amen
Chorus
Lacrimosa dies illa,
That day of tears and mourning,
qua resurget ex favilla
when from the ashes shall arise
judicandus homo reus.
all humanity to be judged.
Huic ergo parce Deus.
Therefore spare us, God.
Pie Jesu Domine,
Merciful Jesu, Lord,
Dona eis requiem.
Grant them rest.
Amen.
Amen.
III. Offertory
Domine Jesu
Solos SATB & Chorus
Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae,
Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,
libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum
deliver the souls of the faithful,
de poenis inferni, et de profundo lacu:
out of the pains of hell, and from the bottomless pit:
libera eas de ore leonis,
deliver them from the lion’s mouth,
ne absorbeat eas tartarus,
neither let them be swallowed up by darkness,
ne cadant in obscurum:
nor fall into the black abyss:
sed signifer sanctus Michael
and let Thy standard-bearer, St Michael,
repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam:
lead them into the holy light:
quam olim Abrahae promisisti
which was promised to Abraham
et semini ejus.
and his descendants.
Hostias
Chorus
Hostias et preces tibi Domine
We offer unto Thee this sacrifice
laudis offerimus:
of prayer and praise:
tu suscipe pro animabus illis,
receive it on behalf of those souls
quarum hodie memoriam facimus:
whom today we commemorate:
fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam,
allow them, Lord, to cross from death into the life
quam olim Abrahae promisisti
which was promised to Abraham
et semini ejus.
and his descendants.
IV. Sanctus
Sanctus
Chorus
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,
Holy, holy, holy,
Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Lord God of Hosts.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua.
Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.
Osanna in excelsis.
Hosanna in the highest.
Benedictus
Solos SATB & Chorus
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord.
Osanna in excelsis.
Hosanna in the highest.
V. Agnus Dei
Agnus Dei
Chorus
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi:
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world:
dona eis requiem.
grant them rest.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi:
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world:
dona eis requiem sempiternam.
grant them everlasting rest.
VI. Communion
Lux aeterna
Soprano solo & Chorus
Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine,
May eternal light shine on them, Lord,
cum sanctis tuis in aeternum,
with Thy saints forever,
quia pius es.
because Thou art merciful.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
and may perpetual light shine on them.
Cum sanctis tuis
Chorus
Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum,
With Thy saints forever,
quia pius es.
because Thou art merciful.
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