An Evening of Purcell and Handel

Friday 27th June, 7.45pm at St Nicholas Church, Church Street, Chiswick W4 3PJ

Tickets £16 Full-time education £8

An evening of duets with two of the finest counter-tenors in the world.

Henry Purcell was a chorister in the Chapel Royal until his voice broke in 1673, and was then made assistant to his god-father, John Hingeston, whom he succeeded as organ maker and keeper of the king's instruments in 1683. In 1677 he was appointed composer-in-ordinary for the king's violins and in 1679 succeeded as organist of Westminster Abbey.  From that time he began writing music for the theatre. In 1682 he was appointed an organist of the Chapel Royal. His court appointments were renewed by James II in 1685 and by William III in 1689, and on each occasion he had the duty of providing a second organ for the coronation. The last royal occasion for which he provided music was Queen Mary's funeral in 1695. Before the year ended Purcell himself was dead; he was buried in Westminster Abbey on 26 November 1695.

Purcell was one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period and one of the greatest of all English composers. His earliest surviving works date from 1680 but already show a complete command of the craft of composition. They include the fantasias for viols, masterpieces of contrapuntal writing in the old style, and some which reveal some acquaintance with Italian models. In time Purcell became increasingly in demand as a composer, and his theatre music in particular made his name familiar to many who knew nothing of his church music or the odes and welcome songs he wrote for the court. Much of the theatre music consists of songs and instrumental pieces for spoken plays, but during the last five years of his life Purcell collaborated on five 'semi-operas' in which the music has a large share, with 'divertissements', songs, choral numbers and dances. His only complete opera with music throughout, was Dido and Aeneas, which was written for a girls' school at Chelsea, and is among the finest of 17th-century operas.

We forget that many of the composers of the baroque, classical and romantic eras knew each other and, indeed, frequently put themselves out to promote their friends’ careers, Beethoven being a notorious exception. Handel visited Rome in 1708 and Venice in 1709, when the canals were frozen over.  We know he met Domenico Scarlatti, already an eminent harpsichordist. (There is a story of a trial of their skills at the palace of  the music-loving Cardinal Ottobini, and later in life, Scarlatti was known to cross himself in veneration when speaking of Handel's skill). Bach (1685 - 1750) transcribed concertos by “the red priest”, the Venetian violinist Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741), and based his own violin concertos more on Vivaldi’s model than Handel, who followed Arcangelo Corelli (1653 – 1713).  Bach and Handel never did catch up with each other, except in fiction, but both had cataracts in their old age, and were operated on by the same eye surgeon, John Taylor.

James Bowman has been one of the world's leading counter-tenors for nearly 30 years; his career spans opera, oratorio, contemporary music and solo recitals. He began singing as a chorister at Ely Cathedral and later went to New College, Oxford, where he was a member of the chapel choir. He also received vocal instruction in London from De Rentz and Manen.

As the result of an audition, he was invited by Benjamin Britten to sing at the opening concert of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in March 1967, and this marked his London debut. He was soon in demand on both the opera stage and the concert platform, appearing at Sadler's Wells in 1967 (A Midsummer Night's Dream), at Glyndebourne in 1970 (La Calisto), the English National Opera in 1971 (Semele), and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1972 (Taverner). Among his numerous opera engagements abroad mention should be made of Paris (L'Opéra, L'Opéra Comique and Théatre des Champs Elysées), La Scala, Milan, La Fenice, Venice and the Festival of Aix en Provence. In Australia he has appeared at the Sydney Opera House and in the USA at San Francisco, Dallas and Santa Fe.

James Bowman's concert career is equally wide-ranging; in Europe he is well known as a recitalist, and has a large following. In 1992 the French government honoured him with admission to 'L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres' and he was awarded the Medal of Honour of the city of Paris in recognition of long-standing contribution to the musical life of the city. He has given the world premiere of many important contemporary compositions, including works by Benjamin Britten, Michael Tippett, Peter Maxwell Davies, Richard Rodney Bennett, Robin Holloway, Geoffrey Burgon, Michael Nyman and Alan Ridout. He was appointed a CBE in the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Owen Willetts began singing as a choral scholar at Sheffield Cathedral and then at Lichfield Cathedral. In his year at Lichfield, Owen won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where he spent four years.  He has worked on the concert stage with many of the leading names in historical performance, including John Elliot Gardiner, Laurence Cummings, Richard Egar and Christian Curnyn. He has given many solo recitals, with the Irish Baroque Orchestra Owen has performed Vivaldi and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Bach’s St John Passion. The Irish Times said of his performance, “Creating some splendid resonances of his own was countertenor Owen Willetts, whose falsetto was no less impressive for its sumptuous low notes than for its ringing high ones. He showed an innate sense of the music's style, both as soloist in the Vivaldi and in duet in the Pergolesi….” On the opera stage, Owen has performed the role of Ottone in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea with Laurence Cummings and the Royal Academy Opera and for the Rekjavik Summer Opera; Anfinomus and Humano Fragilitata for Graham Vick and the Birmingham Opera Company, and covered the role of Pastoe Uno for Emmanulle Haim in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Last yearOwen performed the role of Satirino in Cavalli’s La Calisto, for the Iford Festival, with Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company.  In 2008, Owen will be covering the role of The Innocent in Harrison Birtwistle’s new opera The Minotaur, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and again at the ROH, he will cover the role of Satirino in Cavalli’s La Calisto. For the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Owen will be covering the role of Ottone in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronzione di Poppea.

Theresa Caudle comes from a musical family with a keen interest in renaissance and baroque music. She started to learn the violin at the age of seven and the cornett at thirteen, becoming one of the foremost performers on the latter when still a teenager. At the Guildhall School of Music she received a scholarship to study the baroque violin, and was the first person to receive a diploma on that instrument. Whilst pursuing her studies on the violin, she became director of The London Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, and with this group travelled all over Europe as well as making many recordings, including Monteverdi's opera L’Orfeo for Decca and Matthew Locke's Music for His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts for EMI Reflexe. As a string player she has been a member of The English Concert, The English Baroque Soloists and The Brandenburg Consort, and was principal second violin in The Drottningholm Court Theatre Orchestra for nine years. One of Theresa’s main commitments, lasting twenty-five years, was to The Parley of Instruments, of which she was a founder member and with whom she made over fifty recordings of baroque chamber and orchestral music for the Hyperion label. 

Although Theresa is a regular member of several different ensembles, such as The Symphony of Harmony and Invention (Harry Christophers’ orchestra) and The London Handel Orchestra, her activities are increasingly in connection with directing her own ensemble, Canzona, both in chamber music concerts and in collaborations with choirs. She is also in demand as a leader with other groups in this country such as Frideswide, Counterpoint and London Pro Arte Baroque, and abroad, where she has acted as Concert Master at Drottningholm Court Theatre and with the Polish group, L’arte dei Suonatore.

Theresa enjoys teaching at all levels and has a busy schedule both within schools and privately. She has coached in baroque style on courses at Benslow and Jackdaws, at The Royal Academy of Music, Birmingham and Leeds Universities and has acted as a specialist examiner for final recitals both at The Royal Academy and Royal College of Music. In 2004 she was one of the professors on “The Winter School” course for baroque music in Dubrovnik, which gathered students from throughout the former Yugoslavia. That visit led to a fruitful collaboration with the leader of the Croatian Baroque Ensemble, and last year Theresa revisited Croatia twice to direct programmes with this ensemble and to coach students at the Academy in Zagreb in baroque performance practice.