history for all seasons

Some diverse choral works which are rarely-heard, at least in their entirety, will broadcast this month. On Sunday 11th at 11am Massed Voices will include the little-known King Estmere of Gustav Holst along with well-known works by Vivaldi and Palestrina and will conclude with the Te Deum of Budavár by Zoltán Kodály. This work, composed in 1936, commemorates the 250th anniversary of the recapturing of the Hungarian city of Buda from the Turks who held the city from 1541 to 1686. It was liberated, after a devastating siege, by a Christian army sent by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The Te Deum, which is basically a religious musical fresco, had its first performance in the Coronation Church of the Royal Castle in Buda.

Haydn’s oratorio, The Seasons, will be the offering of the Sydney Philharmonia in Concert on Saturday 17th at 4pm. Haydn began composing this work around the time that his oratorio The Creation was first performed in 1798. These two works are testaments to the vast range of the composer’s inner senses: childlike joy in the world of nature and a profound faith in God expressed with nobility and hymnlike fervour. Whilst The Creation is a religious work, The Seasons is a secular celebration of the wonders of creation expressed through the changing natural world. It was Haydn’s last choral work, completed in 1801, and was followed only by his last string quartet.

In Musical Explorations on Sunday 25th at 9am, secular choral music will be explored with works by Holst and Debussy and the highlight will be a performance of Prokofiev’s concert scenario Ivan the Terrible. This dramatic choral work is based on the life of the Russian Tsar Ivan IV who lived from 1530 to 1584. As well as engaging in prolonged wars against Sweden, Livonia and the Tartars, he was determined to impose military discipline and a centralised administration in Russia. To achieve this he engaged in a reign of terror against the boyars and other high nobility. Supposedly a devout son of the Orthodox Church, it is said that at one time he gave money to various monasteries asking them to pray for the souls of the dead on a list he provided of 3,000 victims of his purges. The concert scenario is not quite as ghastly as the true story and it has wonderful music by Prokofiev!