Concert Diary

Spring Concert
Saturday 10th April 2010

7.30pm
St Martin's Church, Salisbury
A feast of Baroque music, with orchestra and organ.

Bach - Missa in F
Bach - Prelude and Fugue in G (organ)
Bach - Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied
Handel - Te Deum in D (Dettingen)

Tickets:
Available in March 2010

All the ends of the earth
Saturday 19th June 2010

7.30pm
Wilton Church

Hieronymus Praetorius - Magnificat quarti toni
Orlandus Lassus - Missa Osculetur me
Hieronymus Praetorius - O bone Jesu
Judith Weir - All the Ends of the Earth
Roxanna Panufnik - Westminster Mass
William Walton - The Twelve

You can also find details of Farrant Singers concerts on the Music in Salisbury website www.musicinsalisbury.org

Recent concert programmes and reports

Choral Evensong
Saturday 20th February 2010

Well Cathedral, 5.15pm
The Farrant Singers visited Wells Cathedral to sing Evensong.

Responses - Lucas
Magnificat & Nunc Dimitis in B minor - Howells
Schaffe in mir, Gott - Brahms

In Dulci Jubilo
Friday 11th December 2009

St Lawrence Church, Stratford-sub-Castle, Salisbury
A candlelit concert in aid of church funds. The programme is structured around the Advent Antiphons, with Christmas and Advent music by Praetorius, Leighton, Byrd, Vaughan Williams and others, making imaginative use of all parts of the building.

Voices, Valves and Voix Celeste
Saturday 14th November 2009

St Martin's Church, Salisbury
A vibrant programme of contemporary choral music recently commissioned by the John Armitage Memorial Trust, including pieces by Jonathan Dove, James Lark, Elizabeth Winters and Paul Patterson, as well as an arrangement of Langlais's Messe Solonnelle for choir, brass and organ.

With Salisbury Brass Ensemble, organist Simon Hogan, and guest soloists.

Find out more about John Armitage Memorial Trust here.

Choral Evensong
Sunday 9th August 2009

Weston Patrick Church, Hampshire
The Farrant Singers sang choral evensong in this delightful country church to celebrate its patronal festival, following an organ recital by Daniel Cook.

Locus iste - Bruckner
Responses - Tomkins/Stone
Psalm 84 - Alcock
Second Evening Service - Gibbons
My soul, there is a country - Parry

Holy Trinity Church, Fonthill Gifford
(in aid of church funds)
A concert featuring settings of words by Shakespeare

The choir took part in a major collaboration in association with Salisbury International Arts Festival. Hundreds of singers from choirs based in Salisbury joined Salisbury Symphony Orchestra to sing Salisbury Vespers, a new work by Bob Chilcott created to exploit the acoustic world of the main space of Salisbury Cathedral, and drawing on the medieval Use of Sarum.

You can see some photographs of the event at www.adrianharrisphotography.co.uk.

This video clip shows The Farrant Singers singing in the concert:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA7r8F8USmo

A Lenten programme with organ, including:
James MacMillan - Te deum
Johannes Brahms - Schaffe in mir, Gott; Herzlich tut mich verlangen; O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid; Warum ist das Licht gegeben?
Gerald Finzi - Lo, the full, final sacrifice
Kenneth Leighton - Crucifixus pro nobis
John Ireland - Greater love hath no man

The Farrant Singers took part in a broadcast of BBC Radio 4's Sunday Worship, live from St Andrew's Church at Bemerton, about the life and work of George Herbert. Other participants were Canon Judy Rees, Philippe Honoré, Ronald Blythe and Vikram Seth.

A short programme of Christmas music accompanied by strings and organ, including Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Christmas Carols, Corelli's Christmas Concerto, and more by Britten, Buxtehude, Sweelinck and Byrd. The concert was followed by drinks and a chance to say farewell to Colin Howard.

Anniversary Celebration Weekend
Mass in B Minor, J S Bach
Saturday 18th October 2008
Salisbury Cathedral Services and Recital
Sunday 19th October 2008

The Farrant Singers Collection
Salisbury International Arts Festival
Monday 2nd June 2008

The choir celebrated its 50th anniversary with the first performance of no less than seven new pieces that make up The Farrant Singers Collection, along with other favourites from the repertoire. The near-capacity audience at St Martin's Church included five of the composers, and we were especially pleased to welcome Richard Lloyd, founder of the choir.

The full programme can be downloaded here.

The choir spent a very enjoyable weekend in Canterbury, singing Evensong on Saturday, and Eucharist and Evensong on Sunday. We stayed at Cathedral Lodge, a new conference facility in the Precincts, and enjoyed exploring the Cathedral, the town and its various hostelries.

The music for the services included an entirely "Farrant" Eucharist, with Richard Shephard's Mass, Richard Lloyd's View me Lord, and David Halls' Ave Verum Corpus. This last anthem was sung facing the entire length of the Cathedral, from beside the Archbishop's throne at the top of the steps - an uplifting and unique experience.

The staff and clergy at the Cathedral were extremely welcoming, and it was good to see old friends from Salisbury such as Robert Willis, now Dean of Canterbury, and Chris Crooks. The sermon even included the relating of a watery tale from "Singing on the River" many years ago!

Handel – Dixit Dominus
Purcell – five anthems
Britten – Choral Dances from Gloriana

The Farrant Singers and Farrant Orchestra
Conductor: Colin Howard
Augusta Hebbert, Mary Chelu (soprano)
Pam Jackson, Andrew Stewart (alto)
Ian Wicks (tenor), Patrick Jordan (bass)
Tim Hone (continuo)

A full house greeted The Farrant Singers as they embarked on the first concert of their ambitious 50th anniversary year.  In store was an unashamedly popular but beautifully balanced programme, linked, as the informative programme notes made clear, by each composer having written music for his respective monarch.

The choir started with a lightness of touch in the dancing motifs of Purcell’s I was glad, moving on with intensity and depth of feeling to Hear my prayer and Jehovah quam multi sunt hostes – this moving music sung exquisitely by choir and soloists (Ian Wicks, tenor and Patrick Jordan, bass).

Britten’s Choral Dances brought a change of mood, and included the seldom performed ‘Spirit-Messenger’ linking interludes between each one, Ian Wicks' mellifluous tenor voice accurate and flexible in some demanding passages.

A return to Purcell brought in the excellent chamber ensemble for Rejoice in the Lord alway.  Led by Naomi Rump, they achieved an enviable period feel for this charming anthem.  The soloists, joined by counter-tenor Andrew Stewart, sang with style and exemplary blend.

Choir and ensemble settled into the pace of Handel’s Dixit Dominus, after a slightly shaky start. They demonstrated a grasp of the light and shade essential for this ‘concerto for voices’.  Each soloist rose magnificently to the challenges Handel set and particular mention should be made of Pam Jackson’s Virgam virtutis (stepping forward from the altos) and of the heart-rending duet, De torrente, between Augusta Hebbert and Mary Chelu, as well as of Tim Hone's sensitive continuo throughout the evening. 

Colin Howard, in his final year as the Farrant’s conductor, shaped and held together the concert with energy and intelligence, giving of his all to choir, ensemble and soloists - Bravo!

Salisbury Journal, 7 February 2008

When The Farrant Singers rehearsed in St Martin's Church for their concert “George Herbert Pastoral” on 5th October, Vision News filmed and interviewed Colin Howard.  The concert was presented in association with Sarum College, as part of their weekend conference entitled “George Herbert's Pastoral: Poetry and Priesthood, Past and Future”.  Herbert was rector of Bemerton & Fuggleston from 1630, and much of his sacred poetry has been set to music by major composers: Britten, Vaughan Williams and Walton were all drawn to Herbert's ‘Antiphon' – Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing, My God and King! The programme included Vaughan Williams' magnificent setting of this poem as part of his Five Mystical Songs. Other settings include King of Glory, King of Peace by Sir William Harris, a favourite of Salisbury Cathedral Girls Choir. Contemporary composers Bob Chilcott, Barry Ferguson, Grayston Ives, Richard Lloyd (founder of The Farrant Singers) and Judith Weir were also represented, in a programme of wide-ranging musical styles.

Also performing his own set of five settings of Herbert poems was local composer/singer Simon McEnery, accompanied by pianist Elizabeth Sweetnam and cellist Rickman Godlee.

In this programme The Farrant Singers, under their conductor Colin Howard, proved again their credentials as one of Salisbury's finest and most innovative chamber choirs.