Works Include: Brahms Vocal Quartets, Vaughan-Williams Serenade to Music, In Windsor Forest, Faure Pavane, Madrigal and Cantique
For its second subscription series concert, the Giovanni Consort will present an evening of glorious romantic melodies.
Ralph Vaughan-Williams wrote his celebrated Serenade to Music for a consort of soloists, many of whom were his close friends, so few works provide such a perfect artistic match for the Giovanni Consort. The lyrical melodies and sumptuous harmonies that highlight the Serenade to Music can also be heard in his choral cantata, In Windsor Forest. Created from music taken from his opera Sir John in Love, Vaughan Williams vividly recreates of the magical Shakespearean world, with its mysterious forests, drunken revelry and gorgeous love songs.
The choral and vocal music of German Romantic composer Johannes Brahms has been unjustly neglected in favour of his orchestral music. Brahms, perhaps the greatest of the Romantic masters, nevertheless maintained and interest in the human voice throughout his career. His Vocal Quartets are each superbly crafted miniatures, characterized by exquisitely shaped vocal lines expressive harmonies and virtuosic piano accompaniments.
Lighter in style, texture and mood than the Quartets by Brahms, the three choral songs by Gabriel Fauré, Pavane, Madrigal and Cantique de Jean Racine, are nonetheless polished, restrained and elegant, reflecting precisely the differences between the French and German late Romantic style. These stylistic differences caused enormous controversy towards the end of the 19th century but both can been enjoyed in this charming and delightful program.
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