Elin Manahan Thomas – Soprano

Elin Manahan Thomas has sung since an early age. A member of the Swansea Bach Choir and National Youth Choir of Wales whilst at school in Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr, she won a Choral Scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge. With Clare Choir she was regularly a soloist, on the choir's many CDs, on tours, and also on its BBC Radio 3 Evensong broadcasts. Since spring 1999 Elin has sung with the Monteverdi Choir, under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, with whom she has recorded several CDs, and toured as part of the choir's Bach Cantata millennium Pilgrimage. She performs in other professional choirs, such as the Sixteen, Polyphony and the Cambridge Singers, as well as in chamber ensembles. Elin regularly performs as a soloist: her repertoire includes Couperin's Lecons de Tenebres, Bach's Mass in B Minor, Handel's Saul, Haydn's Creation, as well as contemporary music by composer John Woolrich. Future engagements include Handel's Messiah in Cardiff, a concert with the Pontarddulais Male Voice Choir in Swansea, and projects in London and abroad. Elin currently studies singing with Hazel Wood, and hopes to further training at music college next year.

John was born in Staffordshire but spent most of his childhood in Hertfordshire, attending school in St. Albans.

He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music with Sidney Fell and upon graduating was offered the post of co-principal clarinet with the Orquestra Sinfonica de Bilbao in the Basque region of northern Spain. John lived in Spain for two years before returning to the North West where he enjoyed a busy free-lance career working with the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Welsh and Northern Chamber orchestras, as well as television and theatre engagements.

In 1986 he was appointed to his present position, sub-principal clarinet with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

In addition to his symphonic post, John has a growing reputation as a solo and chamber music player, with a recent acclaimed performance of the Copland Clarinet Concerto in St. Georges Brandon Hill, Bristol. He is also a member of the Vale Wind Quintet and the Contemporary Music Ensemble of Wales, and teaches at the University of Wales and the Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Leo Hussain – piano

Leo Hussain began his musical training as a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge in 1986. He then moved to Eton College as a music scholar, returning to Cambridge (St John’s College) in 1997. While at Cambridge, Leo spent much of his time in practical music-making, singing in King’s College Choir, and holding the posts of Principal Conductor of the University Symphony Orchestra, St John’s College Music Society, the Kettle’s Yard Ensemble (specialising in contemporary music) and the University Bach Society. In addition, he was assistant conductor of the University Chamber Choir, rehearsal conductor of the University Chamber Orchestra, and President of the University Music Club. Leo is now one of the two people selected each year for the postgraduate conducting course at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studies with Colin Metters.

As a composer and arranger, Leo is published by Novello, and several compositions and arrangements have been recorded by the Rodolfus Choir.

As an accompanist, recital work has involved performances in Cambridge, London and Windsor, among other places, and has included working with artists such as Julie Kennard and Michael George. Piano Accompaniment formed part of his degree from Cambridge, and is an important aspect of his musical life. Future engagements include concerts in Cambridge and at the RAM in London.

Michael Parkin

Ariettes Oubliées

Caneuon y Tri Aderyn (Songs of the Three Birds)

Finally, the sonnet, Mae Hiraeth yn y Môr, with its morning ‘cân y ceiliog’ (cock crow) starting ‘caniad ar ôl caniad clir, o’r gerddi agos’ (song after clear song in the nearby gardens).

Le Gibet (Gaspard de la Nuit)

In Gaspard Ravel set out to follow in the tradition of Paganini and Liszt, in writing music of ‘transcendent’ virtuosity. Le Gibet’s pianism offers a wonderful evocation of a single bell tolling (a Bb which sounds throughout the piece) and a sun setting over a nightmare scene.

Three Short Songs (first performance)

she being Brand
-new;…
What She Said
Riddle from the Exeter Book

As a composer I am particularly drawn to the idea of collections of songs from which the performer not only selects the individual songs to be performed in a particular concert, but also decides the order in which they will be sung. Schubert would often set Goethe one day, Mayrhofer the next and Schiller the day after, with no possible connection between any of them other than his delight and insight into the texts. Alas, the comparison with my songs stops at the ‘delight’!

These Three Short Songs are the first in a projected batch of 12 and include a racy description by e.e. cummings, a poem of longing and regret by Maturai Eruttalan Centamputan and an old English riddle from the Exeter Book (a manuscript of about the year 1000, left to Exeter Cathedral by its first bishop, Leofric). I offer no hints as to the solution of the riddle – it may be a thousand years old but this description is the finest and most moving that I have ever come upon.

Michael Parkin

Sechs deutsche Lieder op.103

of which the following four songs will be performed:

Louis Spohr (1784 - 1859) was renowned in his day as a virtuoso violinist, great operatic conductor and a celebrated composer of the German Romantic School, but his music today largely remains unfamiliar. Spohr idolised Mozart and revered Classicism, qualities that are clearly evident in much of his music, along with influences of Schubert and Weber. Amongst his extensive output of operas, symphonies and concertos are numerous chamber works including the Sechs deutsche Lieder. Composed in 1837, these six songs were commissioned by the Princess of Sondershausen, but it is thought that the initial idea for this commission came from J.S. Hermstedt, a talented clarinet virtuoso for whom Spohr had composed four clarinet concertos. Although the set of songs are scored for voice, clarinet and piano, it is evident that the voice and clarinet are perceived more as two solo instruments, leaving the piano to assume an accompanying role. The majority of the thematic ideas featured are shared between voice and clarinet creating an effective musical dialogue throughout. All six songs display the typical hallmarks of music of the German Romantic Era in terms of musical language; each song is highly characterised, but unified with continuous chromaticism and harmonic expression creating a sense of mystery and drama in the music. The clarinet writing is particularly virtuosic, featuring rapid scalic and arpeggio movement complementing the decorative melodies in the vocal line. Although a chamber work, these six songs can almost be conceived as operatic on account of the grandiose scale highlighting the work as a typical example of pre-Wagnerian German Romanticism.

Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet

Stravinski and his family left France during the First World War and moved to Switzerland. The Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet were written there in1919, a year after the Soldier’s Tale and a year before the Symphonies of Wind Instruments.

Der Hirt auf dem Felsen 
(The Shepherd on the Rock) D.965 (1828)

Despite failing health, Schubert’s last year, 1828, was hugely productive. He wrote the group of songs Schwanengesang (Swansong), the last three piano sonatas, the Fantasy in F minor for piano duet, the String Quintet in C major and the Shepherd on the Rock.

A virtuoso piece for soprano, clarinet and piano the Shepherd on the Rock is a setting of texts by Müller and Helmina von Chézy describing the longing of a shepherd for his absent love. Written for Anna Milder-Hauptmann it was sent to her in 1829 by Ferdinand, Schubert’s brother. It could be described as a lied cantata and was probably the last song he wrote.