Young musicians of St Giles’ present a short afternoon concert with piano, violin, vocal, and organ works.
The programme includes works by J S Bach, Frescobaldi, and Mendelssohn.
Free admission with retiring collection
The concert on Sunday, 5 June, at 12:00 to celebrate Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee raised £3,840 for the new organ. It will feature some of the church’s young musicians. It featured some of our young musicians and there was high standard of performance. It was a lovely occasion, as was remarked by several members of the congregation.
It’s not too late to raise a little more! To contribute please visit:
Project 900 concert – Midsummer Music: an eclectic and varied concert of music performed by some of the ‘back row’ musicians of St Giles’ will take place on Saturday 25th June at 7.00pm. Refreshments will be served, and tickets available on the door (including card payments). Please do come and enjoy a midsummer evening of music with us, in support of Project 900.
Accompanists: Peter Ward Jones and Nicholas Prozzillo
John Pusey (tower captain of St Giles’), Sara Jones, Joe Norton, Lindsay Powell
Plain Bob Triples
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Jonathan Mitchell (baritone)
Welcome
Silent Noon – Ralph Vaughan Williams
Linden Lea – Ralph Vaughan Williams
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Patrick Tan (counter-tenor), John Buckley (tenor) and Mike Geary (bass)
Mannerly Margery Milk and Ale – William Cornysh
En l’ombre d’un buissonnet – Josquin Desprez
Pastime with Good Company – Henry VIII
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John Pusey (tower captain of St Giles’), Sara Jones, Joe Norton, Lindsay Powell
Kent Treble Bob Major
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John Buckley (tenor)
A Chloris – Reynaldo Hahn
Vaga luna que inargenti – Vincenzo Bellini
Annabel Lee – Henry Leslie
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Freddy Chelsom (baritone)
Danza, danza, fanciulla – Francesco Durante
An die Musik – Franz Schubert
Au bord de l’eau – Gabriel Fauré
The programme was:
Georgia’s Russell’s programme was wide-ranging, technically demanding and very exciting. The Kenji Bunch was like a Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page guitar solo. The Purcell Chaconny was dramatic and mournful, the Enescu a typical virtuosic showpiece and the Hindemith lean and sinuous with incredible musical line. Mark Russell wrote ‘For Lise’ when his sister died in 2015 – it’s haunting, like an unanswered question.
Retiring collection was in aid of the Project 900 St Giles Organ Appeal
Trio Amici is an exciting and energetic group formed by three successful professional musicians from various branches of the musical world, whose paths have now converged in the Oxford area. Their individual expertise and experience, combined with their passion and enjoyment for performing chamber music, is establishing their prestigious reputation with local audiences. Performing an eclectic repertoire, spanning the Classicism of Beethoven and Schubert, the Romanticism of Brahms and Mendelssohn, through to the French Impressionism of Debussy and Ravel with a dash of tango!
The concert raised funds for the new organ at St Giles’ Church by supporting the Project 900 appeal
Cantata: Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen (BWV 66) J S Bach (1685-1750) was sung on Easter morning 17 April 2022 by:
Pergolesi’s ‘Stabat Mater’ will be performed at St Giles’ church on Sunday 10 April at 6:30pm.
Composed by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi in 1736 in the final weeks of Pergolesi’s life. It is scored for soprano and alto soloists, violin I and II, viola and basso continuo (cello and organ).
The work was composed for a Neapolitan confraternity, the Confraternita dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo and is one of Pergolesi’s most celebrated sacred works, achieving great popularity after the composer’s death.
Sibelius, Brahms, Busoni, Janacek, Rachmaninov: Ida Pelliccioli, Piano
Ida Pelliccioli was born in Bergamo, Italy. She studied at the Nice Conservatoire de Région and at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris where she was awarded scholarships from the Zygmunt Zaleski Foundation and Fondation Albert Roussel. She received a double diploma in interpretation and pedagogy from the École.
Ida has performed throughout Europe and Canada. During the 2021/22 Season, she will make her debut in Serbia, Luxembourg, Ireland and Romania.
She has also appeared on screen, playing the role of a pianist, for the American TV Series “Find me in Paris” – Season 1 and 2 (2017/2018) and the French series “Munch” (2018).
From January 2022, she will start to collaborate with the Berlin-Tokyo Quartet, performing a quintet programme with them.
In the Six Impromptus (1890-93) we find reminiscences of Sibelius’s journey to collect traditional runes in Karelia. Kantele (traditional Finnish and Karelian plucked string instrument) influences and dance tunes from eastern Finland and Karelia can be observed in the pieces. In this connection it is well to remember that Sibelius could play the kantele and that his performances have actually been documented. The opening, Impromptu no. 1 in G minor (Moderato). is an unaffected and melodious opening piece. Its theme has been regarded as “the musical symbol of Finland, Sibelius’s native country”.
With Brahms’ Chorale Prelude we have an example of late compositional work. Written for organ in 1896, the 11 Chorale Preludes Op. 122 were published posthumously. They are based on verses of Lutheran chorales. Number 10, based on the “passion” chorale, expresses the depths of the emotions implied by the text: “My heart is ever yearning for blessed death’s release”. The Preludes are a revealing document of Brahms’ thoughts on his own life. One biographer, Niemann, points out that most of the Preludes are: “A retrospect and an epilogue, a salutation to youth and its ideals, and a farewell to this world which is, after all, so fair”. Sombre as many of the Preludes are, they yet have a warm, autumnal quality that is all Brahms’ own.
In May 1909, a few months before the death of his mother, Busoni had lost his father. In his memory the son created an original work, poised and noble in tone, out of three organ pieces by Bach: Busoni’s way of thanking his father for an early introduction to the music of a composer he had been championing for years. The Fantasia after J S Bach (by ‘Bach- Busoni’, as the composer is identified on the cover page) is the first of his works that can be called a Nachdichtung—a work resulting from such a free transcription or adaptation of a model that it becomes original and independent in its own right.
Janácek revealed a very private and sensitive side of his musical personality when he composed In the Mists, a collection of four pieces for solo piano. Written in the winter of 1912-1913, the work came four years after the composer’s much longer collection, On an Overgrown Path. In the Mists has a feeling of introspection about it, as it were an entry in the composer’s musical “journal”; it lives up to its name by maintaining an air of distance, as if
the piano were at times lost in a bank of clouds.
The five pieces that constitute Rachmaninov’s Morceaux de fantaisie, are not intended to be played as a group, and they represent a step forward toward Rachmaninov’s mature style. The Elégie in E flat minor is an epic and tragic work, with sweeping melodies, an imposing climax, and a fine melancholic atmosphere.
Gladiator Trust
Great news: Gladiator Trust has awarded St Giles’ £10,000 towards the building work, to be paid when 90% of the total is raised. So far we have £57,000 including this award, out of the total of £92,000 (though final costs will be confirmed once the extent of the vault repair is known.) Thank you to those who have donated so far. Please help us if you can to raise the outstanding £35,000 to reach the target and get the building work started.
This is the first grant we have received and the P900 Grants Team are actively working to identify more trusts that we can apply to for further funding.
Project 900-St Giles' Church 