The Annual

 Glebe Music Festival

In conjunction with The Glebe Society Inc

Saturday 7th November at 3pm,
Record Reign Hall
(corner St John's Road and Derwent Street, Glebe)

CORO AUSTRAL

Artistic Director: Margot McLaughlin

Soprano Jazmin Doyle, Yasmin Funk, Margaret Grove, Lourdes Miguel de García, Sanchia Osborn
Alto Deborah Adrian, Marjory Ellsmore, Terry Funk, Rachel Knowles,
Tenor Gary Brewer, Damien Kuan, Gabriel Newman
Bass Justin Clark, David Goodwin, Clive Lane
Special Guests Ermanno Brignolo guitar
Minie Minarelli actress & singer

PROGRAMME

PROGRAMME NOTES AND TRANSLATIONS

Baruch Haba B’shem Adonai Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968)

Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord

Sung in Hebrew

From Songs and Processionals for a Jewish Wedding – Processional for the Bride. Based on an old Sephardic melody that Castelnuovo-Tedesco heard in his childhood from his grandfather.

Psalm 118:26
Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we bless you out of the house of the Lord.

Psalm 95:6
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

Psalm 100:2
Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Ballata dell’Esilio – The Ballad of Exile Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968)

Sung in Italian Poem: Guido Cavalcanti (1255-1300)

Just before he died, the Italian poet Guido Cavalcanti (1255-1300) was exiled from his home town Florence by his friend, the eminent poet Dante Alighieri. Even though the exile lasted only a few months, Guido suffered greatly and, during those months, he wrote into a ballad all his sorrow and struggle for that sad situation.

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was forced to leave Florence after the introduction of anti-Semitic laws during the Nazi occupation of Europe just before the start of WWII. He felt so close to the situation of his illustrious ancestor and compatriot Cavalcanti that he wanted to put his noble words to music.

Since I have no hope of ever going back,
Gentle ballad in Tuscany,
You go, soft and gentle,
Straight to my woman,
Who will honour you with her courtesy.
You will tell her news of sighs,
Full of sorrow and much fear;
But beware that nobody can see you
If they are enemies of gentle nature;
Because, for sure, due to my disgrace
You would be challenged,
And she would be so worried
That I would be in anguish,
After my death,
To know of tears and new sorrow.

See, gentle ballad, death
Is getting so close that life abandons me,
And feel how my heart is beating strong
For what makes every spirit thinking.
So much is my person broken
That I cannot suffer:
If you want to help me,
bring my soul with you,
I much beg you to do so
When it leaves my heart.

Dear gentle ballad, to your friendship
I entrust my trembling soul:
Bring it and its mercy
To the beautiful lady to whom I send you.

Dear gentle ballad, tell her whispering
When you are in her presence:
“This servant of yours
comes to stay with you, from the one
who served love”.

You, dismayed and weak voice
Coming out, crying, from my painful heart,
With my soul and with this gentle ballad
You will speak of my broken mind.
You will find a pleasant woman,
With such a sweet mind that you will enjoy
Her presence every moment.
Oh my soul, you will always adore her
In her virtue.

Concierto Juglar – Minstrel Show Bernardo Juliá (1922 -2013)

Sung in Catalan Revised by Ermanno Brignolo (b.1981)

In Spain’s history, jesters have often been considered in the lowest ranks of society (under King Charles V, the taxation class included Saltimbanquis, musicos y demas canallas – acrobats, musicians and other charlatans). Nevertheless, they always had a special place in every court and at every feast. Bernardo Juliá, a fine Catalan composer born in Mallorca, expresses the joy of singing and the joyful mood of a dancing party by letting the jesters share their thoughts and emotions in this rare concerto for guitar and choir.

I

We are singing and dancing minstrels
Listen to our chant
It is our heart that vibrates and beats
Always, always, always sings
We all want to sing and dance
We are singing and dancing minstrels
Listen to our chant, the voice of our hearts
We are singing and dancing minstrels.

II

It is the song of the beautiful pines
Singing, singing since dawn
Ah! Up to the top of the highest branch
It is the song of the beautiful pines
Singing, singing since dawn,
Always singing, singing since dawn
Singing since dawn Ah! Ah!

III

A dance you dance with no rest,
The flute is playing to accompany.
The flutes are playing, Ah!
To dance, the flutes are playing, Ah!
Everyone get in couple, everyone get in couple
Flutes are playing to dance
hearts full of love are vibrating
dancing and singing without rest
gives strength and light to the gathered hearts
hearts vibrate, filled with love
A dance you dance with no rest
The flute is playing to accompany.

IV

We are the best singers
We feel the strength of happiness
We always wish to sing
We want to cheer up your hearts
We are all minstrels, we are all friends
We want to light up your life with joy
We always wish to sing
We want to cheer up your hearts
We are the best singers
We feel the strength of happiness
We have just finished the party.

INTERVAL

Los cien enamorados David Basden (b. 1957)

The One Hundred Lovers Text: from De Profundis by Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)

Sung in Spanish

The one hundred lovers sleep forever under the dry earth.

Andalucía has long red roads.

Córdoba, green olive trees where a hundred crosses

will help remember them.

The one hundred lovers sleep forever.

(translation: Robert Nasatir)

Excerpts from Platero y yo Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968)

Platero and I Text: Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881-1958)

Narrated in English

The Nobel awarded Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez guides us into a touching and deep reflection about friendship. If the starting point seems awkward (after all, the narrator's closest friend is Platero, a little donkey), the development of the plot lets us get to know Platero so deeply that we cannot feel less than sorry when the poor donkey passes away at the end of the novel. Once again, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco succeeded in sketching a meticulous musical comment that not only underlines the episodes, but also becomes an interlocutor between the narrator and the characters.

1. Platero
2. Swallows
3. Lullaby
4. Ronsard
5. Melancholia

Romancero Gitano – Gypsy Romances Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968)

Sung in Spanish Texts by Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)

based on excerpts from Poema del Canto Jondo

The lyrics of Federico García Lorca are made alive by a fine musical fabric that underlines the power of the words with a remarkably precious polyphony. Lorca tells the stories of a Spain soaked in passion: he portrays the common people and he immortalizes humble men and women in their everyday, ordinary lives, yet he is able to raise them from their miseries to a most dignified level of poetry.

1. Baladilla de los tres ríos –Little Ballad of the Three Rivers
The river Guadalquivir flows between oranges and olives
The two rivers of Granada descend from the snow to the wheat
Oh my love! Who went and never returned!
The river Guadalquivir has beards of maroon
The two rivers of Granada, one a cry the other blood
Oh my love! Who vanished into thin air!
For the sailboats Sevilla has a course;
Through the water of Granada only sighs are rowing
Oh my love! Who went and never returned!
Guadalquivir, high tower and the wind in the orange groves
Dauro and Genil, little towers dead on the ponds
Oh my love! Who vanished into thin air!
Who will say that the water bears a vain fire of screams
Oh my love! Who went and never returned!
Carry orange blossom, carry olives, Andalucia, to your seas
Oh my love! Who vanished into thin air!

2. La Guitarra – The Guitar
The weeping of the guitar begins.
The goblets of dawn are smashed.
The weeping of the guitar begins.
Useless to silence it.
Impossible to silence it.
It weeps monotonously as water weeps
As the wind weeps over the snowfields.
Impossible to silence it.
It weeps for distant things.
Hot southern sands yearning for white camellias.
Weeps arrow without target, evening without morning
And the first dead bird on the branch.
Oh, guitar!
Heart mortally wounded by five swords.

3. Puñal – Dagger
The dagger goes into the heart
Like the blade of a plough into barren land
No. Don’t run it through me. No.
The dagger like a ray of sun
Sets fire to terrible depths.
No. Don’t run it through me. No.

4a. Procesión – Procession
Along the street come strange unicorns.
From what field, what mythical grove?
Close up they resemble astronomers,
Fantastic Merlins and the Ecce Homo (the condemned Christ),
Enchanted Durandarte (a fallen knight),
Orlando furioso (a tragic, chivalrous knight).

4b. Paso – Processional Float
Paso: large platform carrying a statue used in holy processions
Virgin with glittering crinoline skirts, virgin of solitude,
Opening like an immense tulip.
In your boat of lights you sail
with the high tide of the city,
among gypsy songs and crystal stars.
Virgin with glittering crinoline skirts,
you float down the river of the street – to the sea!

4c. Saeta – Saeta
Saeta: gypsy processional song for Holy Week
The swarthy Christ transforms
from the lily of Judea to the carnation of Spain.
Look where he's coming from!
From Spain, the sky, clean and dark,
the earth scorched, and ditches where water runs very slowly.
Swarthy Christ, his locks of hair burned,
his cheekbones protruding and his pupils white.
Look where he's going!

5. Memento – Memento
When I die, bury me with my guitar under the sand.
When I die, bury me among the orange and peppermint.
When I die, bury me, if you wish, in a weathervane.
When I die!

6. Baile – Dance
Carmen is dancing through the streets of Seville.
White is her hair and her eyes shine.
Girls, draw the curtains!
Around her head a yellow serpent coils.
And as she dances she dreams of swains from days gone by.
Girls, draw the curtains!
The streets are empty and in the deep recesses can be glimpsed
Andalusian hearts searching for old thorns.
Girls, draw the curtains!

7. Crótalo – Castanet
Castanet. Castanet. Castanet. Sonorous scarab.
In the spider of the hand you crimp the warm air,
And drown in your wooden trill.
Castanet. Castanet. Castanet. Sonorous scarab.

Programme notes: Ermanno Brignolo

ARTISTS

MARGOT MCLAUGHLIN

M argot has over 40 years' experience as a singer and conductor. She studied Music, Education and Languages at the NSW Conservatorium of Music and Sydney University, and Psychology and Spanish at Macquarie University. One of Sydney’s most respected choral conductors, Margot directed Macquarie University Singers from 1987 to 2008, and has worked with Sydney Philharmonia, Bel a cappella, the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra, Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra and Willoughby Symphony Choir. Currently she is Musical Director of the Sydney Trade Union Choir and seniors’ choir Beating Time and is founding Artistic Director of Coro Austral. Margot is constantly seeking and discovering new insights into Iberian and Latin American music.

ERMANNO BRIGNOLO

I talian guitarist Ermanno Brignolo studied with Angelo Gilardino and graduated with honours in 2003. He has performed in Europe and Australia and has become known as a fine interpreter of 20th and 21st Century guitar repertoire.

His most significant work so far is the complete recording of The Andrés Segovia Archive, a collection of pieces written for Segovia but never performed by him during his glorious career. This 7CD box was released worldwide by Brilliant Classics in 2013, with reviewers calling it “a cornerstone in the guitar recordings” and “one of the best records in the last thirty years”.

In 2014, Ermanno recorded the set Platero y yo by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, narrated in English and Italian by actress Minie Minarelli. His next endeavour is the complete recording of the works for and with guitar by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: a monumental project that shall again be distributed by Brilliant Classics.

MINIE MINARELLI

Italian actress and singer Minie Minarelli received a broad education in music and dramatic arts, including classical and jazz singing, cabaret, acting and cinema overdubbing. She has been on stages in Europe and Australia, acting and singing in several languages and many diverse genres.

Since moving to Australia in 2013, she has taken part in two music productions: the complete recording of Platero y yo, and the album Preludio, a journey through Latin jazz, both recorded with guitarist Ermanno Brignolo.

Minie recently published her first novel Stella in Australia (in Italian), where she describes the experiences and vicissitudes of a migrant from the point of view of a naïve yet motivated young girl. Apart from the ongoing musical activity with Ermanno Brignolo, Minie is also a certified Mental Coach specialising as a trainer in mental skills for musicians.

CORO AUSTRAL

Photo: Lisa Chanell, Chanell Photography

Coro Austral is an auditioned chamber choir performing works from the 13th to 21st centuries. Our repertoire is drawn from the many countries and provinces of Iberia and Latin America, including Renaissance Spain and Portugal, Mexican Baroque, Brazilian classical, as well as traditional and contemporary songs from Chile, Argentina, Cuba and more. The ensemble was established as El Coro in 2010 by Margot McLaughlin in order to explore this incredibly rich and varied music, much of which is still largely unknown in Australia.

We’ve performed at Wollongong’s Viva la Gong Festival, the Blackheath Choir Festival, the Addison Road Community Centre and the Casa Latinoamericana in Marrickville, the Moorambilla Festival in Coonamble, the second Australian Jewish Choral Festival and the Instituto Cervantes. We have also given concerts at St Luke’s Anglican Church Enmore, St Johns Centre, Glebe, the Glebe Justice Centre, South Sydney Uniting Church in Waterloo, Campbell Street Church in Balmain and the Camelot Lounge in Marrickville.

Some of our members travelled with Margot and the Australian Union Choir to the Festival Internacional de Coros in Santiago de Cuba in November 2013. Coro Austral is now planning a performance tour to Cuba for the 2017 Festival.

JOIN AND FOLLOW CORO AUSTRAL

Coro Austral is currently looking for skilled singers in all sections, to expand the choir to 20-24 voices. It is not necessary to be a Spanish speaker to join the choir. More important is music-reading, ability to practise at home and a keenness to explore new repertoire and languages. We rehearse in Sydney’s Inner West on Wednesday evenings, and the selection process includes a short audition and attendance at a rehearsal or two.

If you are interested in joining Coro Austral or would like to be kept informed of our future concerts:
Website: http://www.coroaustral.org/;
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Coro-Austral-108611479162240/?fref=ts