26th November 2011
In Memoriam

7:30pm, St. Michael and All Angels, Bedford Park

• Eclogue for Piano and Strings - Gerald Finzi
• For the Fallen - Cyril Bradley Rootham
• Ein Deutsches Requiem - Johannes Brahms

Soloists:

• Cordelia Williams – Piano
• Julie Kennard – Soprano
• Michael George – Baritone

Rootham’s For the Fallen  is something of a rarity.  This short masterpiece has long been out of print.  Rootham was a don at Cambridge University, Organist at St. John’s College and director of the University Music Society for 30 years.  For the Fallen was given its first performance at a CUMS concert in 1919 in a concert that remembered members of the Society who failed to return to the University after the First World War.  This performance brings this beautiful choral work before the public again and, with the help of St. John’s College and Cathedral Music, bring the piece back into print. 

The origins of Brahms’s German Requiem lie in the passing of the composer’s mother.  One of the great choral works of the 19th century, it is a setting of biblical text in German translation, rather than the tradition Latin of the Requiem Mass. 

The concert begins with the Eclogue by Gerald Finzi.   While not a memorial or sacred work, its peaceful and very English mood gives an entirely appropriate opening to our concert.  

Downloads:

• Flyer (PDF 119 KB)