Concert: A Celebration of Vaughan Williams
From £15 to £45
RVW150: Celebrating the 150th Birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ailish Tynan soprano
Ruairi Bowen tenor
Gareth Brynmor John bass
Oxford Bach Choir
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Choristers of Merton College, Oxford
Benjamin Nicholas conductor
Programme
Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis
Vaughan Williams Sancta Civitas (to be introduced by Professor Daniel Grimley, Head of the Humanities Division, University of Oxford)
Vaughan Williams Dona nobis pacem
The Oxford Bach Choir opens its 126th season with a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the great composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. No other composer has enjoyed such a close relationship with the choir as RVW, for they were among the first choirs in the country to perform his major choral works, and they worked together for almost half a century.
The OBC therefore commemorate that special relationship by performing RVW’s oratorio Sancta Civitas, which they premiered in the Sheldonian Theatre in May 1926. Sancta Civitas is based on the Book of Revelation and takes the listener from the terrors of war and its desolate aftermath (whose depictions remind one that RVW had seen these for himself when serving in the First World War) to the ecstasy of the Last Judgement. It was RVW’s own favourite among his choral works.
The other major work in the concert will be Dona Nobis Pacem, a cantata written in 1936, and never before sung by the OBC. As its date and name suggests, this deeply moving piece is filled with foreboding for another war, but also hopes of a happier future. RVW sets words from the Bible, but also from other sources, including Walt Whitman, who always inspired RVW to write his very best music.
These two works, together with the much-loved Fantasia on a Theme of Tallis, will make for a very special evening, not least because the OBC will sing Sancta Civitas in the very building where it was first heard almost a century ago.
