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17 May 2003
Royal Northern College of Music
John Cameron Celebration Concert
John Ewen Cameron 1918 -2002
Programme
Jayne Carpenter (soprano)
Alexander Crowe (piano)
Giuseppe Verdi: La forza del destino, Pace, pace, dio mio
Simon Keenlyside (baritone)
Robin Humphreys (piano)
Franz Schubert: Im Walde (Waldesnacht), D. 708
Jayne Carpenter (soprano)
Robin Humphreys (piano)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Exultate, jubilate, K. 165, Alleluia
Mark Bell (baritone)
Alexander Crowe (piano)
Robert Schumann: Liederkreis, Opus 39
Intermezzo
Mondnacht
Frühlingsnacht
Andrew Greenan (bass-baritone)
Alexander Crowe (piano)
Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Wie duftet doch der Flieder!
Kate McCarney (mezzo-soprano)
Robin Humphreys (piano)
Xavier Montsalvatge: Cinco canciones negras
Cubadento de un pipano
Punto de Habañera
Chévere
Canción de cuna pora dormir an un negrito
Canto negro
- Interval -
Pavlo Hunka (bass)
Roderick Barrand (piano)
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol:
Ostap's Lament from the Ukranian opera Taras Bulba
Jayne Carpenter (soprano)
Robin Humphreys (piano)
Richard Strauss:
Die Nacht, Opus 10/3
Zueignung, Opus 10/1
Andrew Greenan (bass-baritone)
Alexander Crowe (piano)
Johannes Brahms: Verrat, Opus 105/5
Hugo Wolf: Michelangelo-Lieder, Fühlt meine Seele
Hugo Wolf: Mörike-Lieder, Zur Warnung
Kate McCarney (mezzo-soprano)
Robin Humphreys (piano)
arr. Benjamin Britten: 0 Waly, Waly
arr. Herbert Hughes: The Stuttering Lovers
Simon Keenlyside (baritone)
Alexander Crowe (piano)
George Butterworth: A Shropshire Lad
Loveliest of Trees
When I was one-and-twenty
Look not in my eyes
Think no more, lad
The lads in their hundreds
Is my team ploughing?
George Butterworth: Bredon Hill and other songs
On the idle hill of summer
With rue my heart is laden
Andrew Greenan (bass-baritone)
Robin Humphreys (piano)
Oley Speaks: The Road to Mandalay
Introduction in the programme by Penny Francis
The John Cameron prize for students of Lieder at the RNCM is a perfect memorial to a singer and a charismatic teacher who loved his twenty-six years of work here and never ceased to express his pleasure in the privileged place he held among the staff. He taught almost up to his death at the age of 84 in March 2002, warmly acknowledged by the College, particularly the Vocal Studies department, as senior tutor and Fellow. The RNCM was his second home. (To the end he could not have told you whether his native Australia or England was his first).
Before 1976, when he left London for Bowdon and his College career, he was a highly regarded singer of opera, oratorio and Lieder. The richness and depth of tone of his baritone voice were unmatched, and were allied to an intelligence of interpretation which made him a sought-after exponent of difficult modern works by the likes of Hindemith and Birtwistle. In contrast, he was always in demand for Gilbert and Sullivan, partly because of his famous clarity of diction: many of the recordings with Sir Malcolm Sargent are still available. Also in the catalogue and to be treasured are an exquisite version of The Shropshire Lad, a great Elijah and Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony.
John Cameron made numberless friends who will always mourn the loss of a man of warmth, humour, honesty and a boundless curiosity about the world. His students almost always became friends in whom he never lost interest. Tonight you will hear a few of the dearest and best of those students.