Devotion and Glory

Dear Patrons,

Thank you so much for attending tonight’s concert. It is wonderful to see how the Easter collaboration between WASO and St George’s Cathedral Concert Series has grown to be such a successful and established tradition within the WA arts scene.

It is a joy that all the composers featured in tonight’s concert are very much alive! It is also notable that the majority of the music you will hear tonight is written by two of Australia’s finest composers. The choral work that opens tonight’s concert is a world premiere written by WASO Composer in Residence, Olivia Davies. Commissioning of young, Australian composers is so important for the future of music and is yet another area where WASO and St George’s Cathedral are strongly aligned.

Sir John Rutter’s Gloria for choir, brass octet, percussion and organ could be said to be a 15-minute homage to Sir William Walton’s mighty Belshazzar’s Feast. Whilst Rutter has his detractors, who comment that his music is too simple and approachable, his Gloria is a compact and direct masterpiece that appeals to performers and audience alike.

It was a privilege for me to be part of the world premiere of Mary Finsterer’s award-winning work, Stabat Mater, at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2024. This epic and remarkable work reflects Mary’s absolute commitment to her catholic faith.

Whilst dwelling on the subject of faith, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our underwriting sponsors, Julian and Alexandra Burt, for their incredible support of the St George’s Cathedral Concert Series.

Dr Joseph Nolan
Artistic Director, St George’s Cathedral Concert Series

Joseph Nolan
Conductor

Multiple award-winning British-Australian organist and choral conductor Dr Joseph Nolan has been hailed by ABC Classic as ‘a gem of a musician’, by BBC Radio 3 Record Review as ‘magnificent’ and by Limelight Magazine as ‘a colossus’.

Appointed to Her Majesty’s Chapel’s Royal, St James’ Palace, in 2004, Joseph performed on numerous occasions at Buckingham Palace. Joseph was recruited as Master of Music at St George’s Cathedral, Perth, in 2008 by Dean Emeritus, Dr John Shepherd.

Dr Nolan’s work as a musician has been awarded innumerable five-star reviews, Editor’s Choice, Critic’s Choice and Recordings of the Month and Year in Gramophone, Limelight, BBC Music Magazine, Classicalsource, MusicWeb International, and Choir and Organ magazine (UK).

Nominated twice for Artist of the Year in Limelight Magazine, Joseph holds the distinction of winning Editor’s Choice three times for discs of his much-feted Widor recordings from France and is the only organist to have been awarded Limelight’s coveted Recording of the Month award (St Etienne du Mont, Paris). Joseph has been invited to perform with all the major performing arts groups in Australia, such as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and with international orchestras such as The New Zealand Symphony and Malaysian Philharmonic.

The French government have awarded Joseph the medal of Chevalier des Arts des Lettres by the French government for services to French music and the prestigious Higher Doctorate, The Doctor of Letters, by The University of Western Australia.

Future engagements include Joseph making his debut as a soloist in the Singapore Symphony Orchestra season in October 2025 and recording a disc for Signum Classics, UK, at Berliner Dom, Germany, in January 2026.

Mia Robinson
Soprano

Mia Chenea Robinson has become a recognised face in the music world, with her recent performances seeing her tour Sydney and Melbourne as a soloist with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and making her soloist debut with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2023, for a world premiere performance of Mary Finsterer’s Stabat Mater.

Graduating from the Victorian College of The Arts Secondary School in 2021, under the tutelage of Dermot Tutty, Mia was awarded the Robert Salzer Voice Award, John Hopkins Music Award and was the joint winner of the Outstanding Soloist Competition. Mia was also awarded the Margaret Schofield Memorial Scholarship which saw her being selected for Top Class Music 2021 & 2022 and Top Class Sound 2022.

Mia is undergoing her third year in classical voice at The University of Melbourne and has been granted a full scholarship to reside at Trinity College, where she is an active soloist and chorister in The Choir of Trinity College. During her time with the choir, Mia has recorded and participated in the Australian premiere of Eric Whitacre’s ‘The Sacred Veil’ and has spent time touring Europe and the UK, performing at iconic venues such as Trinity College Cambridge, Trinity College Dublin, and St Peter’s Basilica.

St George's Cathedral Consort

St George’s Cathedral Consort is the premier mixed voice choir in Western Australia and is frequently hailed as the leading choral ensemble of its type in Australia. Founded in 2009 by Dr Joseph Nolan, St George’s Cathedral Consort has been described as elite, world class and producing a sound akin to the evanescence of snow by The Australian and The West Australian newspapers.

The Consort sings regularly as a solo choir with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and has sung with highly regarded UK ensembles: The Academy of Ancient Music and vocal groups such as The Hilliard Ensemble and The King’s Singers. The Cathedral Consort has also performed for Musica Viva Australia and Perth Festival to rave reviews and can often be heard on ABC Classic. Seesaw Magazine reviewer, Rosalind Appleby, stated “The Cathedral Consort shone in this repertoire….you would be hard pressed to find better performances anywhere in the world”.

Gloria, a collaboration between WASO, St George’s Cathedral Consort and contemporary dance company, Co:3, was awarded unanimous five star reviews in the press and named Best Mainstage Production in the 2023 WA Performing Arts awards.

Limelight named the 2024 WASO/SGC Easter concert, Gloria, as one of the year’s best concerts heard and broadcast across Australia.

Olivia Davies
(b. 1988)

Femina Mortem (World Premiere)
[Based on Hildegard von Bingen’s antiphon ‘Quia ergo femina mortem instruxit’]

Femina Mortem is based on the text from Hildegard von Bingen’s antiphon Quia ergo femina mortem instruxit, which roughly translates to ‘because, then, a woman prepared death’.

What drew me to this short, evocative text is Hildegard’s celebration of feminine power as she reframes women’s role in Christianity from one of guilt to one of blessing and redemption. In the text, Hildegard contrasts Eve, who introduced death through original sin, with Mary, who brought life through Christ. This follows the medieval “New Eve” theology, where Mary’s obedience reverses Eve’s disobedience.

In just seven lines Hildegard elevates women with a narrative that is at once complex and nuanced. Its boldness instantly resonated with me, and one of my first musical decisions was to layer the text with independent soprano and alto lines. These layers, often in canon, slowly carry the music and narrative forward, while the tenors, basses and organ softly ground it all with depth and contrast. The piece, for the most part, is quite sustained, breaking down and drawing out the words by their syllables. This renders the text indiscernible at times, instead drawing attention to the subtle shifts in tone as vowels slowly change.

To pay homage to Hildegard and to honour her original antiphon, I incorporated melodic fragments from Quia ergo femina mortem instruxit at the end of my piece. Over a steady, chant-like texture, solo soprano voices echo the words; “mortem” (death), “femina” (woman), “summa benedictio” (highest blessing), “virgo” (virgin), “illam interemit” (she destroyed it). Hildegard’s phrases float freely, emerging out of the music with clarity and purity. The piece ends with the final phrase “pre omni creatura” (rather than in any other creature), taken from “and thus the highest blessing is found in female form, rather than in any other creature”. I found the melody for this phrase worked beautifully as a final statement, with the words expressing the boldness and directness that first drew me in.

Femina Mortem was commissioned for WASO by Prue Ashurst.

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
German Benedictine abbess, composer, writer, mystic, and polymath. A renowned figure of the Middle Ages, Hildegard made lasting contributions to music, theology, medicine, and natural sciences.

John Rutter
(b.1945)

Gloria

Allegro vivace – “Gloria in excelsis Deo”
Andante – “Domine Deus”
Vivace e ritmico – “Quoniam tu solus sanctus”

When we think of sacred music, we may recall the solemn tones of a Gregorian chant, or the ethereal sounds of a choir under an arched ceiling. Not often do we hear sacred works that commence with a rolling timpani and majestic fanfare! John Rutter’s Gloria leaps into a lively expression of Latin text from the Ordinary of the Mass. He writes music for voices who sing of peace on Earth, and he does it with optimism and delight.

Jubilant tones aside, Rutter did in fact draw inspiration from medieval music. In his own writings about Gloria, the English composer explained how he based his setting of this text on an old Gregorian chant. Perhaps we can hear this soothing sentiment better reflected in the slower movement, when voices move as one through a tranquil and wondrous melody. At the centre of this Andante is an awe-inspiring climax that glistens with percussion.

Vivace e ritmico begins as decisively as the third movement of Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony, crossed with a broadcast news theme. Rutter propels us towards a cheerful finish, the singers’ ecstasy echoing through brass and organ.

Rutter wrote Gloria for The Voices of Mel Olson, and directed its United States premiere in 1974. Despite being a religious work, Rutter has said he’s not a particularly religious man. That he still wrote so many sacred compositions shows us how beautiful music, whether religious or secular, can bring joy to anyone who listens.

© Stephanie Eslake

First Performance:
5 May 1974, Omaha, Nebraska. Composer conducting.

First WASO Performance:
This is WASO’s first performance of the work.

Instrumentation:
four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and organ.

Mary Finsterer
(b.1962)

Ad Honorem Beatæ Mariæ Virginis

Dedicated to Our Lady and her maternal grace that enfolds the world — especially the innocent.

Ad Honorem Beatæ Mariæ Virginis emerges as a tribute to the Blessed Virgin Mary, a sacred overture preceding my composition, Stabat Mater. Here, at the foot of the cross, the Blessed Virgin Mary stood as a sentinel of love, her heart a mosaic of anguish and devotion. In a gesture of divine significance, Jesus cast His gaze upon His mother and the beloved disciple John, entrusting their souls to one another’s care. “Woman, behold, your son”. “Behold, your mother”. With these words, the boundaries of motherhood expanded beyond flesh and blood, encompassing the entirety of humanity in a tender embrace.

Ad Honorem Beatæ Mariæ Virginis is in honour of this pivotal moment that resounds through the ages, an invitation to all hearts to seek solace and guidance in Mary as our heavenly mother. It is a musical offering that encapsulates this timeless truth. Through narrated and sung text, the work weaves three revered prayers of the Ave Maria, Sub Tuum Praesidium and Salve Regina in honour of Our Lady with Psalm 82: 3-4, evoking a plea for Our Lady’s maternal grace to protect under her mantel the children of the world – especially those who have been lost, were left forsaken, taken or whose existence was tragically quenched by the agency of another. In this fusion, the music becomes a prayer and a supplication – a tribute to the universal motherhood that blossomed beneath the cross, transcending grief to bestow grace upon all who turn their eyes toward her.

Ad Honorem Beatæ Mariæ Virginis is a testament to honour the eternal essence of Mary’s compassion and devotion and sets the stage for the poignant journey that awaits in Stabat Mater.