This has been a difficult year for all lovers of music. Since mid March Covid-19 has meant the cancellation of concerts and opera and the closure of churches and cathedrals. What we had originally thought would be a three month problem looks as if it will continue for a year or more. I had hoped to attend a performance of Stanford’s Requiem in Dublin in May. Sadly that was one of the casualties of the pandemic. Hopefully this concert will be rescheduled. Several planned recording projects of Stanford’s music have also been cancelled. We hope that they will take place in 2021.
We have been holding an annual Stanford Festival Weekend since the Society’s formation in 2007. This year we had planned to be in Gloucester in October. Because of Covid-19 the Cathedral Choir is currently not allowed to sing and the Cathedral is practising social distancing with limited attendance at services and meetings. As a result of this we have decided to delay the 14th annual Stanford Festival Weekend to October 2021. It will still be held in Gloucester. We also plan to hold a Stanford Weekend in Durham in March 2022.
The cancellation of live music has led us all to listen more to our libraries of recorded music and to streaming services and the radio. Two recordings of Stanford’s music that the Society has sponsored with SOMM in 2019 have yet to appear. In November SOMM will release a CD of Stanford’s two String Quintets and the Intermezzo for Clarinet arranged for Cello. Members of the Dante and Endellion Quartets join forces for this recording. The String Quintet Number 2 and Intermezzo for Cello are first recordings. Early in 2021 SOMM will also release a CD of Stanford Song cycles with Roddy Williams and James Way. This includes Stanford’s song cycles The Triumph of Love and Nonsense Rhymes. We also plan to record Volume 2 of Stanford’s part songs with Somm and the opera Shamus O’Brien with Retrospect Opera in 2021 together with Volume 1 of a new cycle of Charles Wood’s eight String Quartets.
In June the Society registered as a Charity in England and Wales. We now have six trustees and a Board that is meeting every two months. One of the Board’s main areas of current focus is to begin planning events and activities to mark the one hundredth anniversary of Stanford’s death in 2024. We hope that in 2024 there will be special concerts featuring Stanford’s music, performances of several of his operas, a focus on his music at UK music festivals and by the Royal College of Music, Cambridge University Music Society and Bach Choir. We are planning a special Stanford Festival Weekend in Dublin and Symposia on his music in London and Dublin. Further details will be announced in due course. We would welcome suggestions from Society members of other ideas as to what to include in our plans for 2024.
One recent CD release that I highly recommend is a double set of music by Stanford and Howells sung by the Cambridge Singers directed by John Rutter on the Collegium Records Label {CSCD 524}. This was originally released in 1992 as a single CD. The new release has some extra music; Stanford’s Latin Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in G as well as Howells’ Nunc Dimittis from his Gloucester service. These are all wonderful performances and the original recording has been remastered to produce outstanding sound. This set is available at a special price to Stanford Society members. Don’t hesitate to purchase this release . You will not be disappointed.
So, we have plenty going on at the Stanford Society. We can’t wait for live concerts and opera to return and for churches and cathedrals to be able to operate with their choirs and no restrictions.
In the meantime we hope that our members and friends keep well and remain in good spirits.
John Covell
Chairman of The Charles Villiers Stanford Society
