Music of Vaughan Williams

Chester Music Society

MUSIC OF VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
The Garden of Proserpine
In the Fen country
Dona nobis pacem
Alison Pearce soprano
James Cleverton baritone
Chester Music Society Choir
Liverpool Sinfonia
Graham Jordan Ellis conductor
Vaughan Williams is among the best-known British composers, noted for his wide range of moods, from stormy and impassioned to tranquil, from mysterious to exuberant. His vocal works include hymns, folk-song arrangements and large-scale choral pieces, two of which are to be performed by the Society choir.
Dona nobis pacem was written and first performed in 1936 to mark the centenary of the Huddersfield Choral Society. Vaughan Williams produced this plea for peace by referring to recent wars during the growing fears of a new one. His texts were taken from the Mass, three poems by Walt Whitman, a political speech, and sections of the Bible.
The orchestral work In the Fen Country evokes feelings of traversing East Anglia's often bleak Fen landscape, illustrated by the solo opening melody, then wide open spaces as portrayed by sweeping string orchestral textures, with a melodic language strongly reminiscent of English folksong.
The Garden of Proserpine was written when Vaughan-Willaims was only 27 and was his first attempt at a large-scale work for soprano soloist, chorus and full orchestra. It is an impressive achievement: a combination of radiance and nobility that is so characteristic of this composer in his later works. Unpublished and unperformed until 2011, it receives its first performance in the North West in this concert.