Kenneth Woods and the English Symphony Orchestra (ESO) return to London on 24 April for a performance of Mozart’s Requiem at St. John’s Smith Square. Also on the programme are three works that have references in, or had an influence on, Mozart’s final, unfinished composition – Handel’s Dettingen Anthem and Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, and Sinfonia in D minor by W. F. Bach. Joining forces with Woods and the ESO will be soprano Sofia Larsson, contralto Emma Curtis, tenor Matthew Minter, bass Brian Bannatyne-Scott, and the Hereford-based Academia Musica Choir.

“The Mozart Requiem was one of the first pieces of music I fell in love with as a young listener,” says Woods, “and it’s one I’ve conducted many times. When I finally started to understand the piece’s web of references and quotations from earlier music I realised it gave the piece an even greater sophistication of meaning and symbolism. It even helps shape one’s understanding about how complete the work really is—whatever shortcomings of detail we’ve inherited from Süssmayr, Mozart had clearly developed a complete and compelling beginning-to-end formal structure that’s amazingly musically unified.”

Performing the Mozart alongside some of the works Mozart quoted from or used as models is “not as much about pointing out similarities,” says Woods, “but about revealing layers of meaning. All of these quotes carry with them accumulated meanings, having been set to very specific texts in Lutheran hymns or even Gregorian chant. It’s no accident that the first melody you hear in the Requiem is the hymn tune, “When my Final Hour is at Hand.”

Kenneth Woods’ and the ESO’s performance at St. John’s Smith Square marks the orchestra’s third London appearance this season. In October, they premiered Deborah Pritchard’s Wall of Water, a violin concerto written for the orchestra and Harriet Mackenzie, in response to a new series of paintings by the celebrated contemporary artist Maggi Hambling. Deemed an “uncommonly interesting work,” by Classical Source, whose reviewer Robert-Matthew Walker continued, “one must pay tribute to the players’ musicianship … and to Kenneth Woods, whose skill and undemonstrative mastery of the music was a joy to behold.” The work was reprised in January at the National Gallery, where Hambling’s paintings were on exhibit.

Shortly after his appointment as the ESO’s Principal Conductor in 2013, Classical Music magazine wrote, “With Kenneth Woods taking hold of the reins, the English Symphony Orchestra has been given a new lease of life and is riding confidently into the future.” In the past two years, Woods has enriched the orchestra’s artistic offerings and expanded its outreach considerably. He has augmented the ESO’s concert schedule in the orchestra’s home base of Malvern, throughout Worcestershire, in neighbouring Herefordshire and in Birmingham. He has spurred collaborations with such organisations as the Three Choirs Festival and English Touring Opera. And he has contributed substantially to the ESO’s already robust discography with forthcoming recordings for the AVIE, Nimbus, Signum and Toccata labels.

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PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Friday, 24 April 2015 – 7:30 pm (pre-concert talk at 6:45 pm)
St. John’s Smith Square
Handel Dettingen Anthem “The King Shall Rejoice”: V. Alleluia: We will rejoice in Thy salvation
W. F. Bach Sinfonia in D minor, FK6: I. Adagio
Handel Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, “The Ways of Zion do Mourn,” HMW264
Mozart (comp. Süssmayr) Requiem in D minor, K626

Kenneth Woods conductor
English Symphony Orchestra
Sofia Larsson soprano
Emma Curtis contralto
Matthew Minter tenor
Brian Bannatyne-Scott bass
Academia Musica Choir, Aryan Arji director

http://eso.co.uk
www.sjss.org.uk