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FA I R E H E AV E N IS THE

UK TOUR PREVIEW CONCERT Brett Weymark conductor Ross Cobb organ Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

WILLIAM HARRIS Faire is the heaven EDGAR BAINTON And I saw a new heaven TRADITIONAL LANGUAGE HYMN from Mer Island, arranged by Alice Chance in consultation with Noel Zaro, Kaylynn Zaro and Mer Elders Adira Arenio (O Lamb of God) – CHANCE Agnus Dei HENRY BALFOUR GARDINER Evening Hymn TWIST Nunc dimittis (St James’ Service) (Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace) RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Old One Hundredth Psalm Tune (with audience participation) † 100 Minutes of New Australian Music * Premiere of an SPC commission Adira Arenio, a traditional language hymn, is the cultural and intellectual property of the Mer Island people (Murray Island, Torres Strait), arranged with the consent of Noel Zaro oam, Kaylynn Zaro oam and Mer Elders Duration: 60 minutes, without interval

SPC On Tour In 2002, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs made history as the first Australian choir to perform at the BBC Proms, singing Mahler’s Eighth Symphony in the Royal Albert Hall under Simon Rattle. They returned to the BBC Proms in 2010, again performing Mahler’s Eighth, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek for the First Night of the Proms. On 26 July this year, they return once more to the world’s most famous music festival, performing John Adams’ Harmonium with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Music Director Kazuki Yamada. Beyond the Proms, this UK tour – their first in 16 years – is shaped by the idea of bringing British choral music ‘home’. The great anthems and hymns of the English cathedral tradition have long been central to the SPC repertoire, resonating powerfully in the secular ‘cathedral’ that is the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall as well as in churches and cathedrals throughout NSW. SPC will sing Evensong at Coventry Cathedral (23 July) and give performances of today’s program, Faire is the Heaven, at Ely Cathedral (29 July), Oxford Town Hall (30 July) in the Oxford Arts Festival, and at Gloucester Cathedral (1 August) in the prestigious Three Choirs Festival. The tour will conclude with a special event at Australia House in London.

The Artists BRETT WEYMARK OAM has led Sydney Philharmonia Choirs as Artistic & Music Director since 2003, conducting the Choirs throughout Australia and internationally. A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, he also studied conducting under Simon Halsey, Vance George, Daniel Barenboim and John Eliot Gardiner. He has prepared choirs for Simone Young, Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Edo de Waart, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Simon Rattle. Recent conducting highlights include Bernstein’s Candide and Joe Twist’s Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan, both for Opera Australia. He was awarded an Australian Centenary Medal (2001) and the Medal of the Order of Australia (2021). English-born Australian organist and conductor ROSS COBB studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Royal Academy of Music and King’s College London. In addition to serving in music posts at large churches in London and Bristol, he has given solo organ recitals in some of the world’s most iconic venues, including Notre Dame de Paris, the Royal Albert Hall and St Paul’s Cathedral in London, as well as the Sydney Town Hall. In 2005 he moved to Australia to take up the post of Music Director and Organist at St Andrew’s Cathedral.

The Music This program celebrates the British cathedral music tradition from enduring classics to vibrant new interpretations. We begin with Hubert Parry’s anthem I Was Glad, commissioned for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902, expanded to thrilling effect for George V in 1911, and now a beloved fixture in British coronations and other royal events. And in its opening phrases it establishes the organ, the king of instruments, as a brilliant partner for the choir. Joe Twist offers a contemporary Australian take on the Evensong tradition with his St James’ Service from 2024. The Magnificat (‘My soul doth magnify the Lord’) floats over rippling organ textures before emerging as a majestic song of praise. Later in the program, the Nunc dimittis (‘Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace’) brings these canticles to a luminous conclusion. Sing, Mortals! composed by Arthur Bliss to a sonnet by Richard Tydeman for the annual St Cecilia service in 1974, paints a radiant image of heavenly joy – the planets treading their stately dance, the morning stars singing. The mood shifts with John Ireland’s Greater love hath no man (1912). Its reflective text, drawn from the Song of Solomon and New Testament passages, forms the basis for a powerful meditation on sacrifice. Alice Chance’s Sanctus, performed for the first time today, is the second instalment of her Requiem Mass, and its agile melodies and vivid harmonies form a bright, colourful counterpart to the stillness and reflection of her Agnus Dei setting. In concert, the Agnus Dei is paired with an a cappella arrangement of the traditional Mer Island hymn Adira Arenio (O Lamb of God), developed in consultation with the people of Mer Island (Murray Island in the Torres Strait). Between the two Alice Chance movements we perform the centrepiece of the program, William Harris’s sublime Faire is the Heaven (1925), a stirring setting of words by 16th-century poet Edmund Spenser in music of ‘endlesse perfectnesse’, and Edgar Bainton’s equally sublime And I saw a new heaven. Composed in 1928 to words from Revelation, Bainton’s anthem reveals a late-Romantic influence in its opulent harmonies and vivid imagery: ecstatic visions, brilliant fanfares (‘Behold!’) and a heartbreaking conclusion (‘God shall wipe away all tears’). For his Evening Hymn (1908) H. Balfour Gardiner set an 8th-century Latin hymn ‘Te lucis ante terminum’ (To thee before the close of day, Creator of the world, we pray…). Through powerful organ writing and simple choral textures this anthem captures perfectly the devotional mood and affirmation of faith. With Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Old Hundredth Psalm Tune – his glorious setting of the 16th-century hymn ‘All people that on earth do dwell’ – we come full circle with music commissioned for ceremonial use rather than worship. Writing for the coronation of Elizabeth II, Vaughan WIlliams makes an ingenious nod to an earlier Elizabethan age with a quotation from John Dowland in the fourth verse. But the Old Hundredth is most notable for its simple but spectacular deployment of both choir and ‘the people’ as it fills our cathedral space: ‘Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice!’ Adapted from a note by Yvonne Frindle © 2025

Sunday 12 July 2026 at 3:00 pm St Andrew’s Cathedral acknowledgement of country CHEETHAM FRAILLON and DOYLE Tarimi Nulay – Long time living here† HUBERT PARRY I was glad when they said unto me JOE TWIST Magnificat (St James’ Service, 2024) (My soul doth magnify the Lord) ARTHUR BLISS Sing, Mortals! JOHN IRELAND Greater love hath no man ALICE CHANCE Sanctus* WILLIAM HARRIS Faire is the heaven EDGAR BAINTON And I saw a new heaven TRADITIONAL LANGUAGE HYMN from Mer Island, arranged by Alice Chance in consultation with Noel Zaro, Kaylynn Zaro and Mer Elders Adira Arenio (O Lamb of God) – CHANCE Agnus Dei HENRY BALFOUR GARDINER Evening Hymn TWIST Nunc dimittis (St James’ Service) (Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace) RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Old One Hundredth Psalm Tune (with audience participation) † 100 Minutes of New Australian Music * Premiere of an SPC commission Adira Arenio, a traditional language hymn, is the cultural and intellectual property of the Mer Island people (Murray Island, Torres Strait), arranged with the consent of Noel Zaro oam, Kaylynn Zaro oam and Mer Elders Duration: 60 minutes, without interval

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