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Events
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Events
Temple Song - Christopher Maltman, Mark Padmore and William Purefoy
Temple Church
18th November 2009
19:30 - 21:00
Sold Out
Temple Church
18th November 2009
19:30 - 21:00
The first canticle, for tenor and piano, was written in 1947. It sets a poem by the 17th century metaphysical poet Francis Quarles, derived from verses from the Song of Solomon. Although ostensibly a text celebrating the poet’s ecstatic communion with God, Britten clearly meant the work also to be interpreted as a declaration of the personal and professional relationship that now existed between himself and Pears.
Canticle II Abraham and Isaac
The second canticle was written in January 1952. The tale of how Abraham is summoned by God to offer up his own child Isaac for sacrifice is set as a highly dramatic scena, using two voices, tenor and alto, which not only perform the respective roles of father and son but also, singing in rhythmic unison, the other-worldly sound of the voice of God.
Canticle III Still Falls the Rain
Britten completed his third canticle in November 1954. It sets a poem by Edith Sitwell subtitled The Raids, 1940. Night and Dawn in which the casualties of war are represented through an allegory invoking the Passion of Christ. As with the Serenade composed some eleven years previously, the horn part was written for Dennis Brain who gave the first performance with Britten and Pears in January 1955 at a concert given in memory of the young pianist Noel Mewton-Wood, who had tragically taken his own life the previous year.
Canticle IV Journey of the Magi
The fourth canticle, Journey of the Magi, a setting of one of T.S.Eliot’s best-known poems, was written in January 1971 for three of Britten’s closest musical colleagues: the counter-tenor James Bowman, tenor Peter Pears and baritone John Shirley-Quirk. It is a somewhat pessimistic and bitter poem which foregoes the more traditional elements of the Christmas story and instead concentrates on the mundane aspects of the journey of the three kings to Bethlehem and their bewildered attempts to understand what they witness there.
Canticle V The Death of Saint Narcissus
Britten’s heart surgery in 1973 resulted in the partial paralysis of his right hand, leaving him unable to play the piano properly. Thus, he set about creating a repertoire of works for Peter Pears to perform with the harpist Osian Ellis. The fifth and last canticle sets a poem by T.S.Eliot, one of the few poets whose work Britten felt able to read during his period of convalescence. The work is dedicated to the memory of William Plomer, librettist of Gloriana and the three Church Parables, whose death in September 1973 affected Britten greatly.