Welcome to the second music concert of Founder’s Weekend 2025!

Today’s concert opens with the Chamber Orchestra performing Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture. You will then hear Polyphonix and members of our Chamber Orchestra, along with some of our Visiting Music Teachers, perform a beautiful piece by the composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi entitled ‘Stabat Mater’.

Stabat Mater was composed by Pergolesi in the last year of his life in 1736. Originally scored for soprano and alto soloists, violins I and II, violas and basso continuo, the piece was supposed to have been commissioned by the confraternity of St. Luigi di Palazzo at Naples, as a substitute for the Stabat Matter setting by the composer A. Scarlatti, which had up until this time been sung there each year on Good Friday.

The work has been republished on a number of occasions. The version being performed this evening was edited and arranged by C. Kennedy Scott in 1927 and is for upper voices (soprano and alto), strings and continuo. The piece consists of six chorus movements with five solos for Soprano and Alto voices and 3 duets (movements 5, 10 and 12). The piece combines florid and rhythmically intricate solo movements with broader chorus numbers such as the opening Stabat Mater movement and culminates with a thrilling ‘Amen’ chorus at the end of the work.

I would like to thank the whole Music team, including our fantastic Visiting Music Teachers, for all of their guidance and encouragement of our students in preparations for this concert. I am also delighted that a number of Downe House colleagues and parents are joining us to perform alongside our students in both the Chamber Orchestra and Polyphonix choir.

Our final thanks go to our wonderful musicians for their amazing commitment and contribution to music at Downe House. They have worked incredibly hard throughout this term in preparation for this concert and we hope you enjoy every moment of their performances.

The Programme

Pergolesi Concert – Sunday 29th June 

Chamber Orchestra  

Romeo and Juliet Overture by Tchaikovsky 

Angelina Shek, Leader
Mr Alexander Leadbeater, Conductor 

Polyphonix 

Stabat Mater by Pergolesi 

Mr Alexander Leadbeater, Conductor 

i) Stabat Mater Dolorosa – Chorus

ii) Cujus Animam Gementem – Honor McMyn soprano Solo

iii) O Quam Tristis et Afflicta – Chorus

iv) Quae Moerebat et Dolebat – Sophie Lambourne soprano Solo

v) Quis est Homo – Honor McMyn soprano, Charlotte Foulkes alto Duet

vi) Pro Peccatis Suae Gentis – Chorus

vii) Vidit Suum Dulcem Natum – Cosima Islef soprano Solo

viii) Eja Mater Fons Amoris – Henrietta Simpkin alto Solo

ix) Fac ut Ardeat Cor Meum – Chorus

x) Sancta Mater, Istud Agas – Aderinola Aderibigbe soprano, Hedy Dong alto, Duet

xi) Fac ut Portem Christi Mortem – Hitomi Kotaka (Yip) alto Solo

xii) Inflammatus et Accensus – Violet Barker soprano, Isabella de Arcangelis alto Duet

xiii) Quando Corpus Morietur – Chorus

xiv) Amen – Chorus

Our Musicians

Music Seniors

Yan Qi (Angelina) Shek Head of Music

Isabella de Arcangelis and Violet Barker Deputy Heads of Music

Honor McMyn Head of Choral

Lottie Foulkes Deputy Head of Choral

Song Heng (Claudia) Wu Head of Instrumental

Our Ensembles

Thanks

With thanks to Mr George Laing and the AV Team, Mrs Chloe Pincott and the Marketing Team, the Estates Department and the Music Department staff.