2011– Ronald Corp 60th Birthday Year!

2011 proved to be an especially busy and productive year for Ronald Corp in his 60th year. Some of the highlights are below.

Classic FM

During a particularly harsh winter, on 4 January, 2011 at 7.00pm, Classic FM presented a Full Works programme to celebrate Ron's Birthday, hosted by Jane Jones. The pieces played were mainly from his European Light Music Classics disc, also from the British Light Music Classics series and his Prokofiev CD. Download the full programme pdf transcript.

Dhammapada

The première of Dhammapada at Village Underground in Shoreditch in February marked the launch of the CD in a transfiguring atmosphere of candles and fairylights courtesy of Vignette Productions; Apsara performed the work again in June in a programme of complementary pieces by Holst, Rubbra and Alwyn at St. Martin-in-the-Fields; a third performance took place by The London Chorus on 10 November at St. Alban’s, Holborn – a first outing for the full chorus version. CD  Excerpts  Video  Score  Reviews  Press Release 

String Quartets No. 1 'The Bustard' and No. 2

In March, Naxos released their Maggini Quartet recording of the String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 coupled with the satirical song-cycle, Country Matters, for tenor (Mark Wilde) and string trio. Ron describes the latter as 'variously poignant and riotously outrageous', while the Quartets fuse post-minimalist devices with the English pastoral tradition and share substantial, expressive slow movements, and scherzos in fast, motoric triple-time. Critics have singled out for comment the slow movement of No. 1 (mesto semplice), admiring its evocation of a nocturnal Salisbury Plain, its elements of folksong and its alternation of fraught, troubled episodes with generous outpourings of 'restorative' melody. CD  Excerpts  Scores  Reviews

Overseas Choral Tours

On the choral front, there was a substantial tour with The London Chorus to South Africa in March-April (Vivaldi’s Gloria, Fauré’s Requiem, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony), and another with Highgate Choral Society to Budapest in May for a main concert of Handel, Parry, Liszt, Dyson and Byrd.

Forever Child

With spring well afoot, the memorial cycle Forever Child ('Seven Songs of Childhood') was sung by The National Youth Choir and NYCGB Junior Choirs under Mike Brewer in Birmingham Symphony Hall in April. CD  Excerpts Score  Reviews

Missa San Marco

The simple and affecting Missa San Marco, originally written for Highgate Choral Society to perform at St. Mark’s, Venice in 2003, was programmed as part of Eucharist at the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music by the Choir of Her Majesty's Savoy Chapel in May. CD  Excerpts  Score  Concert Archive

The Ice Mountain

During the same Festival, the children's opera, The Ice Mounain, received its third performance by the New London Children’s Choir, and this tied in with the release of the CD on Naxos. Says Ronald Corp: 'The tale is a haunting one and very poignant, and I was drawn by the mystical element in the story...' CD  Excerpts  Score  Concert Archive

String Quartet No. 3

The summer saw the première of his new String Quartet No. 3 played by the Wihan Quartet on 23 June as part of the Proms at St. Jude’s in Hampstead Garden Suburb. In just three movements, 'lighter in texture and mood' than Quartets 1 and 2, and with a Scherzo embedded in an unashamedly tuneful slow movement, the Quartet concluded with a witty and jokey finale which prompted loud and prolonged applause. The work is due to be recorded in 2012. Score  Concert Archive