Durham Singers: Songs for Joséphine

Our summer programme is inspired by the magnificent collection in The Bowes Museum and its founder, the actor, collector and artist Joséphine Bowes. Together with her husband John, she built the Bowes Museum on his land in Barnard Castle so that her treasures could be shared with the people of the North East.

We begin in the first half with Joséphine’s extensive European collection. El Greco’s painting ‘The tears of St Peter’ is matched in intensity by a poignant madrigal by Lassus and a miniature drama by Charpentier that features our guest soloists Patrick Owston and James Draper. We turn to Venice for music by Lotti and Monteverdi and we pay tribute to The Bowes Museum’s much loved Silver Swan.

In the second half of the concert turn to Joséphine’s own world, imagining ourselves at home in a grand nineteenth-century Anglo-French salon, with English and French music that touches on the landscapes and love-stories, including those in Joséphine’s own paintings.

To end the concert. We sing Samuel Wesley’s large scale anthem for choir and organ ‘Ascribe unto the Lord’ ,a lavishly tuneful piece that expresses the optimism and ambition of the Victorian age in the same way that Joséphine and her English husband John achieved with their museum.

You are warmly invited to join us for our annual reception with seasonal refreshments after the concert.