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EX CATHEDRA
Jeffrey Skidmore – conductor
Ex Cathedra Scholars Ensemble

Scroll down for texts and translations

Welcome note

Welcome to the first concert of the New Year 2025, appropriately given by our new generation – the Scholars – the next generation of Ex Cathedrans.  Even more appropriately the theme is love: love-songs through the ages … sung from the heart.

One of the key factors that makes Ex Cathedra special is the unique blend of carefully chosen singers – amateurs, students and professionals – which is deconstructed in some concerts this year to highlight the exceptional quality of the basic ingredients. From the beginning it has always been a team effort bringing together a group of like-minded musicians who love making music in a spirit of friendship and who love what they perform.  Great music, new and old from around the world, has always been the driving force behind what we achieve. 

This concert focusses on the student element and the Scholars.  Our work is more formal these days but equally effective with a flourishing Academy of Vocal Music and a blossoming relationship with the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and a recent renewal of activity with the University of Birmingham. Nurturing talent has always been an important part of our ethos but the more formal scheme began in 2017 and is now in its seventh year.  You can find online the singers who have benefitted during this period and many now sing regularly with the group, in the Choir, Consort and as soloists.  Many also now sing with some of the other top ensembles. 

It is a great pleasure to welcome a guest performer – Gabriella Liandu – who has sung with Ex Cathedra for many years, as a Student Scholar, a Graduate Scholar and as a professional member of the team.  Gabriella has sung in the Choir, the Consort and as a soloist.  You will see her performing in the Latin American programme in March and as soloist in our Good Friday St Matthew Passion in Symphony Hall.

Tonight’s concert is an opportunity to meet this year’s cohort of Scholars – probably the best yet – get to know them better, to better understand the work we do and perhaps help us with a financial donation to help maintain the scheme into the future.

Ex Cathedra’s unique style and infra-structure help to nurture the complete musician, specialising in choral, consort and solo skills, but also emphasising enjoyment, friendship and enthusiasm. Young singers work alongside some of this country’s top professionals who offer experience, support, guidance and contacts.

Chansons d’amour is a platform for our current crop of future stars who perform a seductive programme of love-songs from Monteverdi to Mozart and MacMillan, from Marlene Dietrich to the Carpenters, Burt Bacharach and the Beatles.  The programme is a history of love songs demonstrating stylistic awareness and flexibility.  As Valentine’s Day approaches enjoy this (very personal) selection of music in the specially created romantic ambiance of the Jennifer Blackwell Performance Space at Symphony Hall!

Programme Note

My journey through the history of Chansons d’amour begins with two songs from the movies. 

Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß is the most famous song performed by femme fatale Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg’s iconic German film The Blue Angel from 1930.  A cover of the song was performed by the Beatles in Hamburg (1962) and Burt Bacharach was Dietrich’s arranger in the late 1950s.  Gene Kelly’s equally iconic Singin’ in the rain is from the 1952 romantic comedy of the same name.  This short, simple arrangement has proved popular at summer garden parties!

The art of courtly love takes us back in time to 14th century France and the lively, eager virelai song form made famous by Guillaume de Machaut.  Three further songs are taken from the court of Henry VIII found in the well-known early 16th century manuscript.  Two are contemporary settings by one of the king’s favourite composers, William Cornysh, and the third a beautiful setting by Alec Roth, Ex Cathedra’s composer-in-residence for over 15 years, of a poem by Thomas Wyatt who was imprisoned for an affair with Anne Boleyn, but lived to tell the tale!

Orlande de Lassus wrote 150 chansons, incredibly, only a small fraction of his prolific output. Bonjour mon coeur and Je l’ayme bien are princely examples of his exquisite and intimate style.

Claude Le Jeune is best known for his vers mesuré which had such a crucial influence on the development of the air de cour, French song and French opera.  Qu’est devenu? is atypically chromatic and perfectly depicts the floundering state of a lost lover.  This trio is an extraordinary work from a posthumous collection The Second Book of Airs published in 1608. The seemingly harmless juxtaposition of closely related major and minor triads creates an alarmingly uneasy chromatic sound-world to depict devastating emotion.

Yorkshire born WH Auden’s well-known outpouring of grief Stop all the clocks introduces two of the greatest Baroque laments, Dido’s Lament from Purcell’s only opera Dido and Aeneas and Monteverdi’s madrigal  Lamento della Ninfa from Book 8 Songs of War and Love,  which was published in Venice in 1638. It is a dramatic work for a love-torn soprano soloist accompanied by a narrating male trio.  Pur ti miro is the final duet from the opera L’Incoronazione di Poppea sung by emperor Nero and the ambitious Poppea, his illicit mistress.  Ravishing music is sung by two of the nastiest characters in the whole of opera!

Mozart knew a thing of two about drama and love and V’amo di core is a short, amusing but beautiful canon for three vocal quartets.  It is typically expressive and dramatically aware.

Vaughan Williams’ 1919 arrangement of the ‘farewell’ English folk song The Turtle Dove provides a fitting conclusion to the first half.

The pavane Belle qui tiens ma vie is taken from Thoinot Arbeau’s influential dance treatise Orchésographie published in 1589 and opens the second half with a terpsichorean theme.

Maya Angelou’s proudly provocative poem Phenomenal Woman, published in 1978, is a confident celebration of womanhood.  Dieu! qu’il la fait bon regarder is the first of Debussy’s Trois Chansons de Charles d’Orléans written in 1898.  Although Debussy’s only unaccompanied choral pieces they successfully transfer his distinctive musical language to this medium.

One of Handel’s most famous and beautiful arias Where’er you walk is taken from his ‘musical drama’ Semele, first performed at Covent Garden in Lent 1744.  Jupiter’s seemingly serene but fatal infatuation with the beauty of his mistress Semele is mesmerically captured in the exquisite legato line of this wonderful melody.

Christina Rossetti’s poem A Birthday (1861) celebrates the passionate joy of love, the beginning of life.  The famous and controversial 17th century lutenist John Dowland’s bittersweet part-song Come again is taken from his First Book of Songs or Ayres was published in 1597.  While addressing a similar theme this relatively restrained northern European approach makes an interesting comparison with the hot-blooded Italian passion of Monteverdi’s most explicitly erotic madrigal Si ch’io vorrei morire from Book 4 published in 1603.

Hassler’s disturbing love-song Mein g’müth ist mir verwirret is the original source for Bach’s ‘passion’ chorale used five time in the St Matthew Passion.  As Luther famously asked: Why should the devil have all the good tunes?

1840 was the year in which Robert Schumann’s love for pianist and composer Clara Wieck blossomed into marriage resulting in an outpouring of ravishing songs and the song-cycle Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love).  Ich grolle nicht is the turning point in the collection when the lover realises his love is no longer returned.

Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran’s profound, nurturing interpretation On love from his best-selling work The Prophet (1923) has inspired many lovers.  Benjamin Britten’s magical arrangement of WB Yates verse, set to the traditional Irish tune The Salley Gardens, miraculously captures the precarious frailty of love with such utter simplicity.  The extraordinary chord on the word ‘foolish’ is a masterstroke.  So Deep is James MacMillan’s setting of My luve’s is like a red, red rose by fellow Scot, Robert Burns.  This is an austere but quietly passionate arrangement of the famous poem and tune.  It was a wedding gift for friends Caroline and Tom, written in 1992.

For many people When in disgrace with fortune is one of Shakespeare’s greatest love sonnets with its message of priceless love.

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

For all we know is a choral arrangement of American pop duo the Carpenters’ famous love-song from the early 1970s which won an Academy Award for the Best Original Song.  It was one of many arrangements Ex Cathedra sang in bars and pubs on their legendary trips abroad in the 70s and 80s.  The good old days!  Here, there and everywhere was our favourite (and the audience’s) Beatles song arranged by Gregory Rose and first performed in the late 60s by the Unauthorised Version, a Magdalen College, Oxford Kings Singers-type ensemble.  Burt Bacharach’s Anyone who had heart was arranged for a Heart Foundation fundraising dinner in the Council House, and aimed to set the pulse racing!  Dione Warwick, Cilla Black and Petula Clark made the song famous in the 1960s.

Ben E. King’s Rock ’n’ `Roll classic Stand by me was another hit in the early 1960s.  Ex Cathedra commissioned the arrangement for a performance by the Singing Playgrounds Team in London for the 2010 One Young World Inaugural Summit, performing to Bob Geldof and Desmond Tutu; it was the bishop’s favourite song and he ‘high-fived’ every single child as they left the stage.  It seems a fitting end to our concert of love-songs by Ex Cathedra’s new generation.  All you need is love!

Performers

EX CATHEDRA SCHOLARS ENSEMBLE
Gabriella Liandu guest soloist
Jeffrey Skidmore conductor

Soprano: Alexandra Burstow, Sophie Henderson, Alice Madden, Beth Taylor, Maria Willsher

Alto: Sarah Colgan, Georgi Davies, Laura Toomey

Tenor: Tom Hawkey-Soar, Dan Marles

Bass: Ollie Barker, Matt Pandya, William Swinnerton, Josh Thompson

Texts and Translations

Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß
Friedrich Holländer (1896-1976) arr. J Skidmore (b.1951)

Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß
From head to toe I’m
Auf Liebe eingestellt
Ready for love
Denn das ist meine Welt
Because this is my world
Und sonst gar nichts
And nothing else at all

Männer umschwirr’n mich
Men surround me
Wie Motten um das Licht
Like moths around a flame
Und wenn sie verbrennen
And when they burn
Ja dafür kann ich nicht
I can’t do anything about it
Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß
From head to toe I’m  
Auf Liebe eingestellt
Ready for love     

Singin’ in the rain           
Arthur Freed (1894-1973) and Nacio Herb Brown (1896-1964)arr. J Skidmore

I’m singin’ in the rain
Just singin’ in the rain
What a glorious feelin’
I’m happy again.

I’m laughing at clouds.
So dark up above
The sun’s in my heart
And I’m ready for love.

Let the stormy clouds chase.
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain
I’ve a smile on my face

I walk down the lane
With a happy refrain
just singin’
singin’ in the rain

Douce dame jolie
Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)
Soloist: Daniel Marles

Douce dame jolie,
Sweet, lovely lady
Pour dieu ne pensés mie
for God’s sake do not think
Que nulle ait signorie
that any has sovereignty
Seur moy fors vous seulement.
over my heart, but you alone

Qu’adès sans tricherie
For always, without treachery
Chierie
Cherished
Vous ay et humblement
Have I you, and humbly
Tous les jours de ma vie
All the days of my life
Servie                 
Served
Sans villain pensement.
Without base thoughts.

Helas! et je mendie 
Alas, I am left begging
D’esperance et d’aïe;
For hope and relief;
Dont ma joie est fenie,    
For my joy is at its end
Se pité ne vous en prent.      
Without your compassion.

Douce dame jolie…
Sweet, lovely lady…

Where be ye my love?
William Cornysh (1465-1523)
Soloists: Alexandra Burstow, Sarah Colgan, Oliver Barker

Where be ye my love?
And where be ye gone?
I am so sad;
To make me glad
It is but you, my love, alone.

Your company
Makes me so merry
From care and from all money;
But when ye miss,
No joy it is,
But you, my love, alone.

Ah, Robin
William Cornysh
Soloists: Daniel Marles, Oliver Barker, Matt Pandya

Ah, Robin, gentle Robin,
Tell me how thy leman doth and thou shalt know of mine;

I cannot think such doubleness for I find women true;
In faith my lady lov’th me well;
She will change for no new.

Sometime I sing
Alec Roth (b.1948), Text: Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)

Sometime I sigh, sometime I sing,
Sometime I laugh, sometime mourning.
As one in doubt this is my saying:
Have I displeased you in anything?

When you are merry, then I am glad.
When you are sorry, then am I sad.
I will you love, I will not spare
Into your presence as far as I dare.

All my poor heart and my love true
While life doth last I give to you;
And you to serve with service due
And never to change you for no new.

Bonjour, mon coeur   
Orlande de Lassus (1523-1594)

Bonjour, mon cœur,
Good day, my heart
bonjour, ma douce vie.
good day, my sweet life.
Bonjour, mon oeil,
Good day, my desire,
bonjour ma chère amie!          
good day my dear girl!  
Hé! bonjour, ma toute belle,    
Hello my beauty,  
Ma mignardise, bonjour,  
my coy little thing, good day,   
Mes delices, mon amour,         
My joy, my love,
Mon doux printemps,     
my sweet spring, my sweet flower  
ma douce fleur nouvelle,     
in first bloom.   
Mon doux plaisir,
My sweet pleasure,
ma douce colombelle,
my sweet little dove,
Mon passereau,
My little sparrow,
ma gente tourterelle!      
My pretty little turtle dove!    
Bonjour, ma douce rebelle.    
Good day my sweet rebel.            

Je l’ayme bien
Orlande de Lassus

Je l’ayme bien & l’aymeray
I love her well and always will,
En ce propos suis & seray
In this state I am and will be
Et demourray toute ma vie.
And will remain all my life.
Et quoy que l’on me porte envie.
And though others envy me.
Je l’ayme bien & l’aymeray.
I love her well and always will.

Qu’est devenu
Claude Le Jeune (1530-1600)
Soloists: Alice Madden, Sarah Colgan, Matt Pandya

Qu’est devenu ce bel œil qui mon
What has become of that lovely eye which
âme éclairait, ja de ses rays?
lit up my soul with its beams?
Dans qui l’Amour retrouvait ses flèches
In which Love discovered its burning
flames et traits     
arrows and darts
Qu’est devenu cette bouche, ce ris si mignard  
What has become of those lips, that so dear laughter
et ce discours?
and talk?
Dont ma maitresse attrapait les plus   
With which my mistress ensnared in love the
farouche en amour    
wildest beings

Lamento della Ninfa
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Soloists: Beth Taylor, Daniel Marles, Tom Hawkey-Soar, Josh Thompson

Amor
Love
(Dicea)
(She said)
Amor
Love
(il ciel mirando,
(gazing at the sky,
il piè fermo,)
standing still)
Amor
Love
Dove, dov’è la fè
Where is the troth
Ch’el traditor giurò     
that the traitor vowed?   
(Miserella)
(Unhappy one)
Fa che ritorni il mio   
Make him return to my     
Amor com’ei pur fu,
Love, as he once was,
O tu m’ancidi, ch’io   
Or else kill me, so I
Non mi tormenti più.    
Can no longer torment myself.
(Miserella, ah più, no
(The poor girl, ah no more, no,   
Tanto gel soffrir non può.)
can she sufferso much ice)
Non vo’più ch’ei sospiri  
I no longer want him to breathe
se lontan da me,
unless far from me
No, no che i martiti
so that he can no longer say the
Più non dirammi affè
things that torture me  
(Ah miserella, ah più, no, no)
(Ah, the poor girl, ah no more, no)
Perché di lui mi struggo,
Because I destroy myself for him
Tutt’orgoglioso sta,   
so full of pride as he is;  
Che sí, che sí se’l fuggo  
but if I flee from him  
Ancor mi pregherà?  
Again he entraits me.
Miserella, ah più, no   
The poor girl, ah no more, no
Tanto gel soffrir non puó.)         
can she suffer so much ice) 
Se ciglio ha più sereno
A more serene eyebrow
Colei, che’l mio non è,  
has she than mine,
Già non rinchiude in seno         
but love has not planted in his
Amore sí bella fè.      
breast so fair a faith.
Miserella, ah più, no   
The poor girl, ah no more, no
Tanto gel soffrir non puó.)         
can she suffer so much ice) 
Ne mai sí dolci baci    
Not ever such sweet kisses   
Da quella bocca havrai,
will he have from that mouth,
Ne più soave, ah taci,  
not softer, ah quiet,
Taci che troppo il sai.
quiet he knows it only too well.
(Miserella)        
(The poor girl)

Pur ti miro        
Claudio Monteverdi
Soloists: Sophie Henderson, Maria Willsher

Pur ti miro
I gaze on you,
Pur ti godo
possess you
Pur ti stringo
hold you,
Pur t’annodo
bind you close to me;
Piu non peno   
No more pain,
Piu non moro   
No more black despair.
O mia vita O   
my life,  
O mio tesoro
O my treasure.
Io son tua
I am yours
Tuo son io
Yours am I
Speme mia,
All my hope,
Dillo, di
Say you love me
Tu sei pur l’idol mio    
You are my idol.   
Si, mio ben
Yes, my love,
Si, mio cor, mia vita, si.
Yes, my heart, my life, yes

V’amo di core
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

V’amo di core teneramente, si, si!        
I love you heartily, tenderly, yes, yes!
Io non vi posso altro amare no, no!
I cannot love you in other way, no, no!
Uh, che dolore, uh che tormento, uh, uh!
Uh, what a pain, uh what a torment uh, uh!

The Turtle Dove  
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Soloist: William Swinnerton

Fare you well, my dear, I must be gone,
And leave you for a while;
If I roam away I’ll come back again,
Though I roam ten thousand miles, my dear,
Though I roam ten thousand miles.

So fair thou art, my bonny lass,
So deep in love am I;
But I never will prove false to the bonny lass I love,
Till the stars fall from the sky, my dear,
Till the stars fall from the sky.

The sea will never run dry, my dear,
Nor the rocks melt with the sun,
But I never will prove false to the bonny lass I love,
Till all these things be done, my dear,
Till all these things be done.

O yonder doth sit that little turtle dove,
He doth sit on yonder high tree,
A-making a moan for the loss of his love,
As I will do for thee, my dear,
As I will do for thee.

Belle qui tiens ma vie
Thoinot Arbeau (1520-1595)

Belle, qui tiens ma vie captive dan tes yeux,  
Beautiful one who holds my life captive in your eyes,
qui m’as l’âme ravie d’un souriz gracieux,
Who has ravished my soul with a gracious smile
viens tôt me se courir, ou me faudra mourir.   
Come to my aid or I must die.

Pourquoi fuis-tu, mignarde, si je suis près de toy,
Why do you flee, dainty one, if I am near you?
quand tes yeux je regard je me perds dedans moy,
When I behold your eyes I am lost inside myself
car tes perfections changent mes actions.
Because your perfection betters my actions.

Approche donc ma belle, approche toy mon bien
Come near, my lovely one, come near, my dear one,
ne me sois plus rebelle puisque mon coeur est tien, 
Do not resist me further for my heart is yours,
pour mon mal appaiser, donne moy un baiser.
To relieve my ills, give me a kiss.

Dieu! qu’il la fair bon regarder! from Trois Chansons 
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Dieu, qu’il la fait bon regarder
God, what a vision she is
La gracieuse, bonne et belle
one imbued with grace, true and beautiful
Pour les grans biens que sont en elle
For all the virtues that are hers
Chascun est prest de la loüer
everyone is quick to praise her
Qui se pourroit d’elle lasser?
Who could tire of her?
Tousjours sa beauté renouvelle
her beauty constantly renews itself
Dieu! qu’il la fait bon regarder
Lord, what a vision she is
La gracieuse, bonne et belle
one imbued with grace, true and beautiful
Par deça ne delà la mer
on neither side of the ocean
Ne scay dame, ne demoiselle
do I know any girl or womn
Qui soit en tous biens parfais telle
who is in all virtues so perfect
C’est un songe d’y penser
It’s a dream even to think of her
Dieu, qu’il la fait bon regarder
God, what a vision she is

Where’er you walk
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), text: Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Soloist: Daniel Marles

Where’er you walk
Cool gales shall fan the glade
Trees where you sit
Shall crowd into a shade
Trees where you sit
Shall crowd into a shade

Where’er you tread
The blushing flowers shall rise
And all things flourish
And all things flourish
Where’er you turn your eyes

Where’er you walk
Cool gales shall fan the glade
Trees where you sit
Shall crowd into a shade
Trees where you sit
Shall crowd into a shade

Come again
John Dowland (1563-1626)

Come again
Sweet love doth now invite
Thy graces that refrain
To do me due delight
To see, to hear
To touch, to kiss
To die with thee again
In sweetest sympathy
To see, to hear
To touch, to kiss
To die with thee again
In sweetest sympathy

Gentle Love,
Draw forth thy wounding dart,
Thou canst not pierce her heart;
For I, that do approve
By sighs and tears more hot than are thy shafts
Did tempt while she for triumph laughs.

Si ch’io vorrei morire
Claudio Monteverdi

Sì, ch’io vorrei morire,
Oh yes, I would welcome death;
ora ch’io bacio, amore,  
now, as I kiss, O love,
la bella bocca del mio amato core.  
the soft lips of my beloved.

Ahi, car’ e dolce lingua,
Ah, tongue so dear and sweet,
datemi tanto umore,
bestow such nectar upon me
che di dolcezza in questo sen’ m’estingua!
that I expire of sweetness on this breast.

Ahi, vita mia, a questo bianco seno,
Ah, my love, upon this snowy breast
deh, stringetemi fin ch’io venga meno!
clasp me, I pray, until my senses reel!
Ahi, bocca! Ahi, baci! Ahi, lingua! Torn’ a dire: 
Ah, lips, ah kisses, ah tongue, I repeat:
Sì, ch’io vorei morire!     
Oh yes, I would welcome death.    

Mein g’müth ist mir verwirret
Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612)
Soloist: Daniel Marles   

Mein Gmüth ist mir verwirret,       
I’m all mixed up;        
das macht ein Jungfrau zart,  
This a tender maid has done to me!   
bin ganz und gar verirret,       
I’m totally lost;
mein Herz das kränckt sich hart,
My heart is sick and sore.
hab tag und nacht kein Ruh,  
I get no rest by day or night,  
führ allzeit grosse klag,  
I’m lamenting all the time,
thu stets seufftzen und weinen,       
I can’t stop sighing and crying;  
in trauren schier verzag.    
I’m almost in despair.   

Ich grolle nicht           
Robert Schumann (1810-1856), Text: Heinrich Heine
Soloist: Oliver Barker

Ich grolle nicht, und wenn das Herz auch bricht,
I bear no grudge, though my heart is breaking,
Ewig verlor’nes Lieb! ich grolle nicht.  
Eternally lost love! I bear no grudge.  
Wie du auch strahlst in Diamantenpracht,
Even though you shine in diamond splendor,
Es fällt kein Strahl in deines Herzens Nacht.
there falls no light into your heart’s night.

Das weiss ich längst. Ich sah dich ja im Traume,
that I’ve known for a long time. I saw you, truly, in my dreams,
Und sah die Nacht in deines Herzens Raume,
And saw the night within your heart,
Und sah die Schlang’, die dir am Herzen frisst,
and saw the serpent that feeds on your heart,
Ich sah, mein Lieb, wie sehr du elend bist.
I saw, my love, how very miserable you are.
Ich grolle nicht.
I bear no grudge.

The Salley Gardens    
Irish Melody arr. Britten (1913-1976), Text – William Butler Yeats
Soloist: Tom Hawkey-Soar

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.

In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

So Deep
Robert Burns (1759-1796) arr. MacMillan (b.1959)

O my Luve’s like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June:
O my Luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly play’d in tune

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass
So deep in luve am I:
And I will luve thee still, my dear
Till a’ the seas gang dry:

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will luve thee still, my dear
While the sands o’ life shall run

And fare thee weel, my only Luve!
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile

For all we know                                                                                         
Fred Karlin (1936-2004), Robb Royer (b.1942), and Jimmy Griffin (1943-2005) arr. J Skidmore

Love, look at the two of us
Strangers in many ways
We’ve got a lifetime to share
So much to say and as we go from day to day
I’ll feel you close to me
But time alone will tell
Let’s take a lifetime to say
“I knew you well”
For only time will tell us so
And love may grow for all we know

Love, look at the two of us
Strangers in many ways
Let’s take a lifetime to say
I knew you well
For only time will tell us so
And love may grow for all we know

Here, there, and everywhere
John Lennon (1940-1980) & Paul McCartney (b.1942), arr. Gregory Rose

To lead a better life,
I need my love to be here
 
Here making each day of the year
Changing my life with a wave of her hand
Nobody can deny that there’s something there
There running my hand through her hair
Both of us thinking how good it can be
Someone is speaking but she doesn’t know he’s there
 
I want her ev’rywhere
And if she’s beside me I know I need never care
But to love her is to meet her ev’rywhere

Knowing that love is to share
Each one believing that love never dies,
Watching her eyes, and hoping I’m always there
 
I want her ev’rywhere
And if she’s beside me I know I need never care
But to love her is to meet her ev’rywhere
 
Knowing that love is to share
Each one believing that love never dies,
Watching her eyes, and hoping I’m always there
 
I will be there
And ev’rywhere
Here, there and ev’rywhere

Anyone who had a heart
Burt Bacharach (1928-2023), arr. J Skidmore

Anyone who ever loved could look at me
And know that I love you
Anyone who ever dreamed could look at me
And know I dream of you

Knowing I love you so
 
Anyone who had a heart
Would take me in his arms and love me, too
You couldn’t really have a heart and hurt me
Like you heart me and be so untrue
What am I to do?
 
Every time you go away, I always say
This time it’s goodbye, dear
Loving you the way I do
I take you back, without you I’d die, dear
Knowing I love you so
 
Anyone who had a heart
Would take me in his arms and love me, too
You couldn’t really have a hear and hurt me
Like you hurt me and be so untrue
What am I to do?
 
Knowing I love you so
 
Anyone who had a heart
Would take me in his arms and love me, too
You couldn’t really have a heart and hurt me
Like you hurt me and be so untrue
Anyone who had a heart would love me, too
Anyone who had a heart would take me
In his rms and always love me too
Why won’t you? Yes
 
Anyone who had a heart would love me too
Anyone who had a heart
Would surely take me in his arms and always love me.

Stand by Me
Ben E. King (1938-2015),arr. Alexander L’Estrange (b.1974)
Soloist: Gabriella Liandu

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we’ll see
No, I won’t be afraid
Oh, I won’t be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

Chorus
So darlin’, darlin’, stand by me
Oh, stand by me
Oh, stand
Stand by me, stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
Or the mountains should crumble to the sea
I won’t cry, I won’t cry
No, I won’t shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

Chorus

Meet the… musician

In this programme, we invite you to meet Ollie Barker.

Be an Angel…

We believe everyone should have the opportunity to access extraordinary choral music and feel the wonderful benefits of singing, which is why we share our love of singing with as many people as possible through concerts, new commissions, recordings, training choirs for young singers, Scholarships, and community projects that reach 90,000 children and adults every year.
Your support is vital in helping us achieve our charitable mission to share great choral music with as many people as possible.
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