Out of the Shadows

for 1 hour, 15 mins
The Temple Church, London
The Temple Church, Temple, London EC4Y 7BB, EC4Y 1BB, United Kingdom

Alessandro Fisher (tenor)
Gareth Brynmor John (baritone)
William Vann (piano)
Navarra String Quartet
A stellar line-up of musicians come together to mark the 70th birthday of composer Ian Venables. At the heart of the programme are two powerful works for tenor, string quartet and piano. Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge is a deeply evocative setting of poetry from A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad - with its themes of homesickness, lives cut short, and lost love, and its conjuring of Shropshire landscape. Ian Venables’ ethereal Portraits of a Mind, was commissioned by the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society in honour of that earlier composer’s 150th Anniversary in 2022 and premiered by the musicians who perform it tonight. Inspired by the musical language of Vaughan Williams and his artistic credo – ‘the object of art is to reach out to the ultimate realities through the medium of beauty’ – Venables references music from The House of Life to The Lark Ascending, in a highly atmospheric cycle.

The concert opens with the London premiere of Out of the Shadows, which was commissioned by Robert Venables KC in 2023 to celebrate Gary Morris and he having been together for 30 years. Works by Howells and Butterworth complete the lavish programme.

Venables: Out of the Shadows
Vaughan Williams (arr. Vann): Fantasia on Greensleeves
Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge

Interval

Vaughan Williams: Love Bade me Welcome
Butterworth: Love Blows as the Wind Blows
Venables: Portraits of a Mind
Howells: An Old Man’s Lullaby

Duration: 1 hr 45 minutes (including interval)

Sponsored by The Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation

More info

The Temple Church, London

Welcome to the prayerful and beautiful Temple Church, steeped in the history of Christendom, this country and the whole Common Law World. 1162: the Round Church was built to be London’s Jerusalem. 1214–19: Magna Carta was negotiated in the Temple, and its greatest hero was buried in the Church. 1584, 1776, 1787: from Raleigh’s expeditions through the colonial constitutions to the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution, the Temple was the birthplace of American Law. And to this day the Church serves the legal colleges Inner and Middle Temple, London’s residents, visiting jurists and travellers from all over the world with some of the most uplifting services, music and discussions in London.

How can so ancient a building be equipped to serve the modern age in prayer and praise and engagement with the socio-legal challenges facing Britain and the wider world? Through Restoration & Renewal: Equipping the Temple Church for the next 100 Years, a major programme of refurbishment and repair, energised and supported by The Friends of the Temple Church.

Robin Griffith-Jones Master of the Temple
Mark Hatcher Reader of the Temple

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What's on

Out of the Shadows

for 1 hour, 15 mins
The Temple Church, London
The Temple Church, Temple, London EC4Y 7BB, EC4Y 1BB, United Kingdom

Alessandro Fisher (tenor)
Gareth Brynmor John (baritone)
William Vann (piano)
Navarra String Quartet
A stellar line-up of musicians come together to mark the 70th birthday of composer Ian Venables. At the heart of the programme are two powerful works for tenor, string quartet and piano. Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge is a deeply evocative setting of poetry from A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad - with its themes of homesickness, lives cut short, and lost love, and its conjuring of Shropshire landscape. Ian Venables’ ethereal Portraits of a Mind, was commissioned by the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society in honour of that earlier composer’s 150th Anniversary in 2022 and premiered by the musicians who perform it tonight. Inspired by the musical language of Vaughan Williams and his artistic credo – ‘the object of art is to reach out to the ultimate realities through the medium of beauty’ – Venables references music from The House of Life to The Lark Ascending, in a highly atmospheric cycle.

The concert opens with the London premiere of Out of the Shadows, which was commissioned by Robert Venables KC in 2023 to celebrate Gary Morris and he having been together for 30 years. Works by Howells and Butterworth complete the lavish programme.

Venables: Out of the Shadows
Vaughan Williams (arr. Vann): Fantasia on Greensleeves
Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge

Interval

Vaughan Williams: Love Bade me Welcome
Butterworth: Love Blows as the Wind Blows
Venables: Portraits of a Mind
Howells: An Old Man’s Lullaby

Duration: 1 hr 45 minutes (including interval)

Sponsored by The Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation

More info

Safeguarding

The care and protection of children, young people and vulnerable adults who are involved in Church activities is the responsibility of the whole Church. Everyone who participates in the life of the Church has a role to play in promoting a Safer Church for all.This Safeguarding Policy is based on the Safeguarding Policy Statement of the Church of England that was agreed and published by the House of Bishops in 2017. It sets out the Safeguarding Policy of the Diocese of London and in particular a summary of the roles and responsibilities of all church bodies and office holders as we work together to protect children, young people and vulnerable adults who are involved in church activities.

This policy makes six overarching policy commitments:

To promote a safer environment and culture
To enable and ensure safe recruitment practice and to support all those within the Church with any responsibility related to children, young people, and vulnerable adults
To respond promptly to every safeguarding concern or allegation
To offer pastoral care to victims/survivors of abuse and other affected persons
To offer pastoral care to those who are the subject of concerns or allegations of abuse and other affected persons
To respond to those who may pose a present risk to others.

https://www.templechurch.com/application/files/7216/2074/0149/Temple_Church_Safeguarding_Policy_revi

The Temple Church, London Charity No. 1205712