classical music programme notes by Mike Wheeler

Programme Note Library

List of Programme Notes by Mike Wheeler

Orchestral notesChoral/vocal
Chamber/instrumentalMiscellaneous/biographies
Sample noteContact Mike Wheeler

Choral and vocal

Allegri, Gregorio

Miserere

anon.

Advent antiphons (plainsong)

carols:
'In Dulci Jubilo'
'Noel Nouvelet'
'Past Three O'Clock'
'The Angel Gabriel' (arr Pettman)

'Greensleeves'

Archer, Malcolm

My song is love unknown

Bach, JS

cantatas:

4 'Christ lag in Todesbanden'
82 'Ich habe genug’
140 'Wachet auf!'
147 'Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben'
170 'Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust’
202 'Weichet nur, betrübte schatten' (Wedding Cantata)
210 'O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit' (Wedding Cantata)

Magnificat

St John Passion

Barber, Samuel

Songs:
Four Songs, Op 13
Nuvoletta, Op 25

Beach, Amy

songs

Bennet, John

Madrigals

Bennett, Sir Richard Rodney

All the King's men

Berio, Luciano

Opus number zoo

Berlin, Irving

'I Left my Heart at the Stage Door Canteen'

Berlioz, Hector

Nuits d'été

Bernstein, Leonard

Chichester Psalms

On the town

West Side story

Bizet, Georges

Carmen: Seguidilla

Te Deum

Bizet/Hammerstein

Carmen Jones

Blow, John

Salvator mundi

Borodin, Alexander

Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor

Brahms, Johannes

Two songs for contralto, viola and piano, Op 91

Britten, Benjamin

A birthday hansel

Canticles 1 & 2

A ceremony of carols

A charm of lullabies

Five flower songs

Folk song arrangements

Jubilate Deo

Nocturne

Noye's fludde

Saint Nicolas

Serenade

Te Deum in C

Winter words

Bruckner, Anton

Mass no 2, E minor

motets

Byrd, William

Haec dies

Ne irascaris/Civitas sancti tui

O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth our Queen

Sing joyfully

Teach me, o Lord, the way of thy statutes

Campion, Thomas

Lute songs

Canteloube, Joseph

Songs of the Auvergne

Vocalise étude en forme de bourée

Carter, Andrew

Te Deum

Charpentier, Marc-Antoine

Messe de minuit

Chausson, Ernest

Chanson perpétuelle

Chansons de Shakespeare

Chopin, Fryderyck

Songs, op 74

Clarke, Jeremiah

Blest be those sweet regions

Copland, Aaron

Twelve poems of Emily Dickinson

Cowell, Henry

songs

Crawford Seeger, Ruth

Five songs

Cutts, Peter (arr)

Christ is alive!

Debussy, Claude

Fêtes galantes, bk 1

Three songs, texts by Paul Bourget

Trois chansons de Charles d'Orléans

Delius, Frederick

To be sung of a summer night on the water

Dowland, John

Songes or ayres (1597)

Doyle, Patrick

Henry V

Duparc, Henri

songs

Dvorák, Antonín

Biblical songs

Mass in D

Stabat mater

Dyson, Sir George

Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in D

Elgar, Sir Edward

Ave Maria

Ave maris stella

Ave verum corpus

From the Bavarian highlands

Give unto the Lord

How calmly the evening

The music makers

O hearken Thou

O salutaris hostia

Part-songs, Op 18

Part-songs, Op 53

Sea pictures

Te Deum and Benedictus

They are at rest

Falla, Manuel de

Seven Spanish folksongs

Fauré, Gabriel

Maria Mater gratiae

Requiem

songs:
La bonne chanson
Cinq mélodies de Venise
Opp 7, 23, 27, 83

Finzi, Gerald

Dies natalis

Lo, the full, final sacrifice

Seven unaccompanied part songs, op 17

Till earth outwears

Franck, César

Panis angelicus

Gabrieli, Giovanni

In ecclesiis

Gershwin, George

songs

Gibbons, Orlando

Hosanna to the son of David

madrigals

O clap your hands

This is the record of John

Goss, Sir John

If we believe that Jesus died

Grainger, Percy

Brigg fair (arr.)

Grieg, Edvard

Ave maris stella

Songs: Opp 5, 33

Gurney, Ivor

Ludlow and Teme

Handel, George Frederick

Coronation anthems

Dettingen Te Deum

Jephtha: ‘Waft her, angels, through the skies’

Messiah

Harris, Sir William

Bring us, O Lord God

Faire is the heaven

Haydn, Joseph

The Creation

Insanae et vanae curae

Masses:

Missa brevis Sancti Johannes de Deo ('Little organ mass')
Harmoniemesse

Six original canzonettas

The seasons

Te Deum (1800)

Head, Michael

'Foxgloves'

Heath-Gracie, George

I sing of a maiden

Heuberger, Richard

Der opernball – 'Geh’n wir in’s Chambre séparée’; Mazurka

Hilton, John (or Farrant, Richard)

Lord, for thy tender mercy’s sake

Holst, Gustav

Diverus and Lazarus (arr)

The hymn of Jesus

Honegger, Arthur

A Christmas cantata

Howells, Herbert

Hymnus paradisi

'King David'

Magnificat and Nunnc Dimittis in B minor

Ireland, John

Ex ore innocentium

'Sea Fever'

Ives, Charles

songs

Jannequin, Clément

chansons

Kander, John and Ebb, Fred

Cabaret

Kern, Jerome

Showboat

Kodály, Zoltan

Jesus and the traders

Lanier, Nicholas

songs

Lassus, Orlande de

chansons

Super flumina Babylonis

Lawes, Henry

songs

Lawes, William

songs

Lehár, Franz

Giuditta: ‘Meine Lippen sie küssen so heiss'

Lennon, John and McCartney, Paul

song arrangements

Loesser, Frank

The most happy fella

Loewe, Frederick and Lowe, Alan

My fair lady

Lotti, Antonio

Crucifixus à 8

Mahler, Gustav

early songs

Rückert-Lieder

Mathias, William

Missa Aedis Christi

Mendelssohn, Felix

Hear my prayer

Messiaen, Olivier

Vocalise-étude

Monteverdi, Claudio

Beatus vir

Moore, Philip

It is a thing most wonderful

Morley, Thomas

madrigals

Mozart, Wolfgang

Ave verum corpus

Exsultate, jubilate

Masses:

Missa Brevis, D, K194
Missa Brevis, C, K258
'Coronation' Mass, K317

Requiem

songs:
'Abendempfindung an Laura'
'An Chloë'
'Dans un bois solitaire'
'Sehnsucht nach dem Frühlinge'

Vesperae solennes de confessore

Mundy, William

O Lord, the maker of all thing

Nordheim, Arne

Music to two fragments to music by Shelley

Novello, Ivor

King's Rhapsody: 'Some day my heart will awake'

Nystedt, Knut

O crux

Offenbach, Jacques

La belle Hélène

La grande-duchesse de Gérolstein

La Périchole

Robinson Crusoe

Parry, Sir Hubert

Blest pair of sirens

Hear my words, ye people

I was glad

Jerusalem

Songs of farewell

plainsong

The Advent antiphons

Poulenc, Francis

'Les chemins de l’amour'

Four Christmas motets

Vocalise

Porter, Cole

50 million Frenchmen

Anything goes

Kiss me, Kate

songs

Praetorius, Hieronymus

In dulci jubilo

Purcell, Henry

The fairy queen

Funeral sentences/Queen Mary's funeral music

Hear my prayer

I was glad (2nd setting)

In guilty night (Saul and the Witch of Endor)

O God, thou art my God

Rejoice in the Lord alway ('Bell anthem')

songs:
'The fatal hour comes on apace'
'I attempt from love's sickness to fly'
'If music be the food of love' (3 settings)
'Sweeter than roses'
'When first Amintas sued for a kiss'

They that go down to the sea in ships

Quilter, Roger

To Julia, Op 8

Rakhmaninov, Sergey

Vocalise, Op 34/14

Ravel, Maurice

Five Greek folksongs

Trois poèmes de Stephane Mallarmé

Ravenscroft, Thomas

Melismata

Respighi, Ottorino

Il tramonto

Rodgers, Richard

Carousel

On your toes

South Pacific

The king and I

Rose, Barry

Psalm 121

Rossini, Gioacchino

Stabat mater

Roth, Alec

Chinese gardens

Rutter, John

Magnificat

Praise the Lord, o my soul

Requiem

The Lord bless you and keep you

Schoenberg, Arnold

Ode to Napoleon

Schubert, Franz

Die schöne Müllerin

Mass no 2, G, D167

The shepherd on the rock

songs

Schumann, Robert

Dichterliebe

Liederkreis, Op 39

Shostakovich, Dmitri

Seven romances on poems by Alexander Blok

Schütz, Heinrich

Es gingen zweene Menschen hinauf

Shephard, Richard

And when the builders

Sherwin, Manning, and Maschwitz, Eric

'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square'

Smith, John Christopher

Paradise Lost

Sondheim, Stephen

Anyone can whistle

A little night music

Follies

Stainer, Sir John

The crucifixion

Stanford, Sir Charles

For lo, I raise up

How beauteous are their feet

Magnificat & Nunc dimittis, A

Morning, Communion and Evening Services in G

Songs of the fleet

Te deum, B flat

Statham, Heathcote

Te Deum (1931)

Stolz, Robert

Der favorit

Straus, Oscar

The Chocolate soldier

Sumsion, Herbert

They that go down to the sea in ships

Sweelinck, Jan Pieterzoon

Hodie Christus natus est

Tallis, Thomas

If ye love me

Lamentations of Jeremiah

Mass for four voices

O salutaris hostia

Salvator mundi

Spem in alium nunquam habui

Tunes for Archbishop Parker's psalter

Tavener, John

Magnificat & Nunc dimittis, 'Collegium Regale'

Song for Athene

Tippett, Sir Michael

Five Negro Spirituals from A child of our time

Four songs from the British Isles

Songs for Ariel

Tomkins, Thomas

When David heard

Trenet, Charles

'La mer'

Vaughan Williams, Ralph

Along the field

Fantasia on Christmas carols

Mass in G minor

O clap your hands

O how amiable

On Wenlock Edge

The Old Hundredth psalm tune

A sea symphony

Ten Blake songs

Toward the unknown region

Vivaldi, Antonio

Gloria, RV589

Wagner, Richard

Wesendonck-Lieder

Walton, Sir William

Coronation Te Deum

Façade

A song for the Lord Mayor’s table

Warlock, Peter

The curlew

Weelkes, Thomas

Gloria in excelsis Deo

Weill, Kurt

Love life

songs

Wilbye, John

madrigals

Wood, Charles

Oculi omnium

St Mark passion

Wood, Haydn

'A brown bird singing'
Orchestral notesChoral/vocal
Chamber/instrumentalMiscellaneous/biographies
Sample noteContact Mike Wheeler

 

 


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