The Great War Symphony National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Joshua Ellicott, Louise Alder & Patrick Hawes

• Patrick Hawes (b.1958): The Great War Symphony / 1. Praeludium:
• 1The Great War Symphony / 1. Praeludium: Chorus '1914'02:21
• 2The Great War Symphony / 1. Praeludium: Tenor 'Wake Up England'02:04
• 3The Great War Symphony / 1. Praeludium: Chorus 'The Trumpet'02:44
• 4The Great War Symphony / 1. Praeludium: Tenor 'The Oath Of Allegiance'01:46
• 5The Great War Symphony / 1. Praeludium: Chorus 'Christian Soldiers'03:25
• 6The Great War Symphony / 1. Praeludium: Chorus 'Into Battle'02:06
• 7The Great War Symphony / 1. Praeludium: Tenor 'Waste'01:36
• The Great War Symphony / 2. March
• 8The Great War Symphony / 2. March. Chorus 'Quit Ye Like Men'02:42
• 9The Great War Symphony / 2. March. Soprano 'The Falling Leaves'03:14
• 10The Great War Symphony / 2. March: Chorus 'Gallipoli'02:41
• 11The Great War Symphony / 2. March: Soprano 'Mid Jutland's Deadly Battle Roar'00:50
• 12The Great War Symphony / 2. March: Soprano & Chorus 'No Cross Or Headstone'03:02
• 13The Great War Symphony / 2. March: Tenor 'Inferno'01:16
• The Great War Symphony / 3. Elegy
• 14The Great War Symphony / 3. Elegy: Chorus 'Anthem For Doomed Youth'04:14
• 15The Great War Symphony / 3. Elegy: Tenor 'The Song Of The Mud'01:22
• 16The Great War Symphony / 3. Elegy: Soprano & Tenor 'He Lies With England's Heroes'04:04
• 17The Great War Symphony / 3. Elegy: Soprano & Chorus 'America Speaks'01:37
• 18The Great War Symphony / 3. Elegy: Chorus 'The Dead Soldier'03:56
• The Great War Symphony / 4. Finale
• 19The Great War Symphony / 4. Finale: Chorus 'Dies Irae'01:44
• 20The Great War Symphony / 4. Finale: Tenor 'The Storm Night'01:47
• 21The Great War Symphony / 4. Finale. Tenor 'Tell Them At Home'00:49
• 22The Great War Symphony / 4. Finale. Chorus 'Disarmament'01:21
• 23The Great War Symphony / 4. Finale. Soprano 'Calm Fell'01:04
• 24The Great War Symphony / 4. Finale. Chorus 'Blow Out, You Bugles'03:54
• 25The Great War Symphony / 4. Finale. Soprano & Chorus 'The Last Post'02:20
• 26The Great War Symphony / 4. Finale: Soprano, Tenor & Chorus 'We Shall Keep The Faith'03:29
• Total Runtime01:01:28

Info for The Great War Symphony

Patrick Hawes has completed his biggest and most important work to date, The Great War Symphony (in aid of SSAFA), a choral symphony to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War.

The Great War Symphony is in four movements and each one reflects each year of the war – Praeludium (1914-1915), March(1915-1916), Elegy(1916-1917) and Finale(1917-1918). The music is set to the affecting words of war including Wilfred Owen’s 1914, Seigfried Sassoon’s Hell Let Loose, Margaret Postgate Cole’s The Falling Leaves, as well as lesser known words from Sydney Bolitho’s Gallipoli and Moina Michael’s Flanders Field.

This beautiful body of work features soloists Louise Alder (soprano) and Joshua Ellicott (tenor), alongside the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain.

Joshua Ellicott, tenor
Louise Alder, soprano
National Youth Choirs Great Britain
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

National Youth Choirs Great Britain
Founded in 1983, the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain has grown to become one of the most highly regarded and inspirational youth music organisations in the world.

Originally set up as a single choir made up of 100 of the best young singers in Britain, the NYCGB now comprises an educational structure of eight choirs: Boys' Choir for trebles and Cambiata Voices (for school years 5-10) which train together; Girls' Choirs Junior and Senior (for school years 6-10) which also train together; Training Choirs North and South, which are mixed boys and girls (for school years 9-13); the National Youth Choir (for school years 11 up to age 22); and the Chamber Choir for young professionals up to age 24.

Joshua Ellicott
represents an extraordinary talent, effortlessly crossing genre from Song to Opera to Concert repertoire with his sweet-toned, flexible yet powerful, lyric tenor voice. His versatile musicianship is apparent in the wide range of repertoire in which he excels and the comprehensive list of conductors and ensembles with whom he works.

Described by the Wiener Zeitung as ‘the magnificent tenor’ for his performance with Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Purcell’s Fairy Queen he has also been described by the New York Times as a “stand out in an excellent cast” for his portrayal of Andres in Wozzeck with the Philharmonia and Esa Pekka Salonen at the Lincoln Centre New York.

Joshua was born in Manchester and is a graduate of the University of York where he read music. From there he progressed to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where he studied singing, aided by a full scholarship. A landmark in his developing career came in 2006 when he was the overall winner of the International Vocal Concours in ‘s Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, as well as taking four of the remaining nine prizes for song, musical interpretation and opera.

Joshua’s international career now sees him travel to the premier concert halls of the world with some of the finest artists of this generation. In the field of early music he has worked with; Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Concentus Musicus Wien), Sir Roger Norrington (Zurich Chamber Orchestra), Harry Bicket (The English Concert), Harry Christophers (The Sixteen, Boston Handel and Haydn Society), Robert King (The King’s Consort), Paul McCreesh (The Gabrielli Consort, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra), Bernard Labadie (OAE), Emmanuel Haim (Le Concert d’Astree) and has developed a particular affinity with the works of Bach, Handel and Monteverdi and within that a special love for the role of the Evangelist in Bach’s Passions. Such is the flexibility of Joshua’s voice that he is also able to meet the stylistic demands of later repertoire and he has been privileged to work with such luminaries as Sir Mark Elder, Daniel Harding and Esa Pekka Salonen in works as varied as Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde (Wagner) to The Seven Deadly Sins (Kurt Weill) and Wozzeck (Berg). Orchestras include the BBC Symphony and Concert Orchestras, The Philharmonia, The Halle, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Swedish Radio Symphony, Trondheim Symphony, Stavanger Symphony, Brabants Orkest, RTE Symphony, Ulster Orchestra and Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra.

Song is another important feature of Joshua’s artistry and his care for the text, allied to his beautiful and carefully modulated vocal production, allows for the most moving and engaging of performances. One of the greatest successes of recent years has been a programme devised around the First World War letters of Josh’s Great Uncle Jack in which through his dramatic readings of letters and interspersed song, audiences have been left deeply moved. A particularly special performance took place this year at the Cologne Early Music Festival where some of the letters were translated into German and read by Joshua.

Louise Alder
won best Young Singer at International Opera Awards 2017 and represented England in BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition 2017, winning the third round of the competition and the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize.

Future engagements include the title role in Theodora at the BBC Proms with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen, Semele with John Eliot Gardiner at La Scala Milan, Philharmonie de Paris and Palau de la Música Barcelona, Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) at Bayerische Staatsoper, title role in La Calisto with Ivor Bolton and Teatro Real Madrid, Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Romilda (Xerxes), Monica (The Medium) with Oper Frankfurt, debuts with Canadian Opera Company, English National Opera and San Francisco Opera and returns to the Royal Opera House, Teatro Real Madrid and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Recent opera engagements include Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Welsh National Opera, Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) and Ilia (Idomeneo) for Garsington Opera, Eurydice in Rossi's Orpheus at the Wanamaker Globe for The Royal Opera, Zerlina (Don Giovanni) with Glyndebourne, Gilda (Rigoletto), Vixen Sharp Ears (Cunning Little Vixen), Sophie (Werther), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare in Egitto), Atalanta (Xerxes), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Despina (Cosi fan Tutte), Frasquita (Carmen) with Oper Frankfurt. ​

Concert highlights include the title role in Semele with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Christoph Rousset in Vienna and London, King Arthur with Academy of Ancient Music, Rossini arias with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Richard Egarr in Antwerp and Gent, Anne Truelove (Rake's Progress) with National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Alexander Liebreich in Warsaw, Marzelline (Fidelio) with BBC Philharmonic at the BBC Proms and recitals at the Wigmore Hall with Gary Matthewman and James Baillieu and in Madrid with Roger Vignoles. Her debut recital disc Through Life and Love, a programme of Strauss Songs with pianist Joseph Middleton, was recorded with Orchid Classics and released in July 2017.

Louise has been a member of the Oper Frankfurt ensemble since 2014, other roles performed there include Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Musetta (La Bohème), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Silandra (L'Orontea), Lisa (La Sonnambula), Juliette Vermont (Der Graf von Luxemburg). Elsewhere she has sung Lucia (The Rape of Lucretia), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) with Glyndebourne, Rapunzel (Into the Woods) with Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, Soprano 1 in Mozart's C Minor Mass with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Ilan Volkov (BBC Proms), the title role of Poppea (L'incoronazione di Poppea) with Academy of Ancient Music/Richard Egarr in the Enescu Festival, Bucharest, Il Delirio Amoroso with Dunedin Consort/John Butt (Edinburgh International Festival) and Arcangelo Ensemble/Jonathan Cohen in Bruges, Zélidie (Zaïs by Rameau) with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Coronation Gala at Buckingham Palace for Her Majesty the Queen.

Louise is also a passionate recitalist and has performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Graz Musikverein, Oper Frankfurt, Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall (Southbank Centre), Cadogan Hall, Holywell Music Room Oxford and Queen's Hall Edinburgh with pianists Gary Matthewman, James Baillieu, Helmut Deutsch and Joseph Middleton..

Louise won the inaugural British Young Soloists' Competition at the Wigmore Hall in 2015, the 2014 Glyndebourne Festival Opera John Christie Award and the 2013 Glyndebourne on Tour Donald Albert Anderson Award. Also in 2013, Louise won second prize in Kathleen Ferrier Award and an INDEPENDENT OPERA fellowship and became a Classical Opera Associate Artist. Other prizes include first prize and a Miriam Licette Award in the 2012 Maggie Teyte French Song Competition, and numerous prizes at the Royal College of Music including the 2013 Tagore Gold Medal awarded every year to two graduating students for outstanding representation of the RCM. Louise is a 2013 Samling Scholar and a Britten-Pears young artist almuni.

Louise was born in London into a family of musicians and graduated with First Class Honours from the University of Edinburgh in 2010 where she studied singing with Patricia MacMahon. The same year she joined the Royal College of Music, graduating in 2013 from the International Opera School as the inaugural Kiri te Kanawa scholar. She continues to study with Dinah Harris.

Booklet for The Great War Symphony