Concert Notes
Today’s concert frames the lesser known Rheinberger, (possibly the greatest composer ever to emerge from Lichtenstein!) with two much better known figures. Organists will be aware of his works since his 20 Sonatas form a bedrock of the repertoire, and yet they have been long out of fashion, opinions of his music range from the claim, not without merit, that he was the greatest contrapuntalist since Bach – to those who feel that he wrote too much and pandered to the tastes of his day. Whatever the case there is no doubt he left a great corpus of music, as well as the Organ sonatas there were some 18 Masses. 4 Requiems and 5 settings of the Stabat Mater, Instrumental music included 2 symphonies, Concertos and a great deal beside. His father recognised his talent at an early age and he was trained from the age of 5, was a parish organist at 7 and wrote a Mass at 8! By the age of 12 it was clear that he was ready for the ‘big time;’ and he travelled to study in Munich where he remained for the rest of his life holding several very important posts and being awarded a papal knighthood. His most well known choral work, certainly in his lifetime, was the Christmas Cantata ‘The star of Bethlehem’ the text of which was written by his wife. Rheinberger never heard this work performed since the last thirty years of his life were blighted by bad health. The Stabat Mater in today’s programme is in 5 distinct sections, the first and second nod gently in the direction of Mendelssohn, yet at the same time features fingerprints that are unmistakably his own; the third features simple duets between upper voices and then lower voices. A definite change marks the 4th section and the use of Unison voices and a dotted rhythm bring life into the work before the piece concludes with a fugue with a subject again reminiscent of Mendelssohn but handled in a masterful way. Rheinberger was without doubt gifted, and careful selection of the available works will repay the listener’s trouble with music of gentle calm and sometimes great beauty, this Stabat Mater – now all but unavailable – fits that category. The Organ Sonata that Graham has chosen to play is a fine example of the genre, unfortunately for Rheinberger many pieces have found their way into Anthologies, pieces that were not actually intended for performance, but for other organists to use as learning material, and even of the sonatas, many of the shorter ’sweeter’ movements have been published that do not show his undoubted skills in being able to write fine, and sometimes brilliant, music for his chosen instrument. The Te deum in C by Haydn first performed in 1800 is the work of a mature composer writing pieces out of choice rather than demand. It is in his typically childlike cheerful style, interrupted only briefly by a Adagio and darker section. From the very outset this unjustly neglected piece bounds along with a sense of purpose; firmly centred around the keys of C and G the voices dictated by the string parts which embellish the whole throughout, it ends with a fine fugue which brings it to a glorious conclusion. As we are in the 50th anniversary of his death year, we mark the work of Ralph Vaughan Williams and also, since we are planning a series of events in the summer to celebrate this, we are including here a undoubted masterwork of the 20th Century the motet, Lord thou hast been our refuge. Written in 1921 this is a setting of text from Psalm 90 and scored for semi chorus, chorus and orchestra or organ. It is the use of Croft’s hymn tune, St. Anne, a tune Vaughan Williams must have had a particular affection for, coupled with his own style of writing, that lend this motet a peculiarly old fashioned yet also essentially English feel. Further and more detailed notes about this composer will appear in later programmes. TJK |
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