Music Department Staff at The University of York

Peter Seymour

Peter Seymour studied at Huddersfield School of Music and at University of York, including post-graduate work
researching into the performance of baroque music. In July 1994 he was awarded the degree of D Mus., at University of
York for research into performing style. He is director of Yorkshire Baroque Soloistsand of Yorkshire Bach Choir
and has worked and recorded in most European countries. He is also an artistic adviser to York Early Music Festivaland Senior Lecturer in Music and Organist at the University of York. He records regularly both as conductor and keyboard player for WDR-Köln, BBC and other radio stations.

Major recordings have included a three–year project recording the last six volumes of keyboard works by CPE Bach, the JS Bach Motets, Haydn Seasons, a Viennese mass of 1648 plus related motets, and Festing's violin sonatas with Catherine Mackintosh. BBC 3 have broadcast many recordings of Lieder recitals (using fortepiano) with such as Emma Kirkby, Barbara Schlick, Stephen Varcoe and Mark Rowlinson, including live lunchtimes with Stephen Varcoe and Emma Kirkby with whom he also devised and performed two Invitation Concerts  exploring early dialogue and ornate Lieder. In the 1997 season he was again  involved in Lieder recitals with Emma Kirkby and Barbara Schlick, an Early Music University Network Tour,  performances of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin and a BBC live lunchtime  with Stephen Varcoe and  Winterreise with David Thomas. In the summer of 1999 he gave recitals with Emma Kirkby and programmes of Goethe settings with Christoph Prégardien, Stephen Varcoe and Lynne Dawson. He also gives regular Lieder recitals with Yvonne Seymour, Ian Partridge, Thomas Guthrie, David Thomas and Thomas Thomaschke.

He conducts the WDR choir Corona Coloniensis, a specialist early music choir, with whom he has recorded programmes of Haydn, Mozart, motets of the Bach family, motets by Sweelinck and madrigals by Peter Phillips. Subsequent recordings have included the complete Cantiones sacrae by Sweelinck and, for both WDR and BBC, 17th century motets from the German Baroque and in July 2001 a programme of a mass by Andrea Gabrieli with motets by Gabrieli and his contemporaries. Later in 2001 the group appeared at Herne Festival in Germany and recorded a programme of music inspired by by political events or making political comment with music by Byrd, Gombert, Lassus and Clemens non Papa. In March 2002 Corona Coloniensis recorded and perform in concert a programme of English 17th music by Gibbons, Jeffreys and Weelkes. There will be further performances of this programme (including York Early Music Festival) in the 2002/3 season.

Recent recordings with Yorkshire Bach Choir and Yorkshire Baroque Soloists have included Handel's Alexander's Feast, Bach's Cantatas for the Feast of St Michael, Haydn's Theresienmesse and Mozart's  Requiem, all of which were recently broadcast by BBC and WDR.  A recording of Mozart's Requiem for WDR has now been released commercially. With Yorkshire Bach Choir and Yorkshire Baroque Soloists he conducted and helped to devise a programme for Channel 4 about Bach's work at Leipzig. Recordings of Bach's Motets and a Festal Mass at the Imperial Court in Vienna 1648  were re-issued in 1997 on the Carlton IMP label. In 2002 Yorkshire Bach Choir and Yorkshire Baroque Soloists recorded a programme of Psalms and Motets by Victoria (edited by Peter Seymour); the CD was released in June 2002.

Other major BBC recordings have included a sequence of Charpentier psalms, Purcell's semi–opera Dioclesian, Come ye Sons of Art, Yorkshire Feast Song, Clarke's Music on the Death of Purcell, and Blow's Welcome every guest. He has also directed recordings for BBC of string suites by Muffat and Biber with YBS and BBC have recently broadcast a Schubertiad and recordings of Lieder with Barbara Schlick as well as Biber's Missa Alleluia. BBC has also broadcast several recordings of concerts with Crispian Steele-Perkins. Recent WDR recordings have included a programme of solo harpsichord by JS Bach, Duphly and Arne and Italian cantatas by Handel.

He recently appeared at various festivals in England, USA, Denmark, Germany and the Czech Republic and conducted Northern Sinfonia in programmes of Beethoven, Mozart, Handel and Bach. In USA he has conducted and played concertos with Virginia Symphony Orchestra and directed performances of Bach cantatas and played Bach harpsichord concertos in Sacramento Bach Festival. He has also been conducting and playing in Corfu and Hong Kong where he  conducted Bach's Christmas Oratorio, St Matthew Passion, and a series of Bach cantatas, as well as performing solo harpsichord recitals and recording Bach's 5th Brandenburg Concerto.

In the last two seasons he has conducted Bach's Christmas Oratorio, St Matthew and St John Passions, B Minor Mass and Lutheran Masses, Schütz's Christmas History; Handel's Israel in Egypt, The ways of Zion do mourn, Messiah and Solomon; Monteverdi's Vespers; Haydn Creation, Mozart's C Minor Mass, Linz symphony and Exsultate jubilate (with Northern Sinfonia); and Mendelssohns' Elijah, Verdi's Quattro Pezzi Sacri, Puccini's Missa di Gloria and Elgar Dream of Gerontius (with English Northern Philharmonia) , Verdi Requiem (with the Orchestra of Opera North Haydn Stabat Mater (with Northern Sinfonia). He has also conducted, played harpsichord and gave masterclasses in Greece, Germany, the Czech Republic and in Denmark. In July 2000 he directed performances in York Early Music Festival, performing programmes of Schütz (St John Passion, Seven Last Words, Resurrection History) and some new editions of biblical narratives by Purcell and Blow. Both of these concerts were recorded by BBC. In the same month Yorkshire Baroque Soloists appeared in Ryedale Festival performing Purcell and Blow odes. He performed Bach F minor Harpsichord Concerto with Northern Sinfonia and also conducted them in Haydn's Schöpfungsmesse and Mozart Jupiter Symphony. With the Orchestra of Opera North he conducted Berlioz' Te Deum and Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony.

With YBC and YBS he conducted Haydn Nelson Mass, Mozart Requiem; programmes of North German cantatas by Tunder, Buxtehude and Bach; Spanish Renaissance music including Victoria Requiem, a Vespers sequence by Victoria and motets by Guerrero, Morales, Lobo, etc; motets and psalms by Monteverdi. He also played Handel organ concertos with European Union Chamber Orchestra and with Newcastle Baroque. Chamber music performances included Schubert's Winterreise with Stephen Varcoe, a programme of Bach sonatas for violin and harpsichord with Bradley Creswick and 17th century Italian music with Simon Jones (violin) and John Potter (tenor). In the summer of 2002 he conducted programmes of Victoria for York Early Music Festival, Haydn and Mozart for Ryedale Festival and Purcell for Festival Mitte Europa. He also toured Denmark, appeared in Greece and devised a programme about the 18th century castrato Farinelli which he performed with James Bowman. Additionally, in Autumn 2002 he appeared with the Palladian Ensemble.

He has recently edited St Cecilia's Day Odes by Daniel Purcell (Begin and strike the harmonious lyre) and John Blow (Begin the Song) which he conducted in Autumn 1998. The Blow ode was also recorded as part of a live EBU broadcast from Köln.

In the 2002/3 season he conducted Stravinsky Les Noces; Vaughan Williams An Oxford Elegy; Bach Motets, Magnificat, St Matthew Passion and cantatas; Haydn Theresienmesse; Mozart Clarinet Concerto; Handel Coronation Anthems and Concerti grossi; Purcell Fairy Queen; and Britten War Requiem. He also directed a five concert weekend celebration of early Lieder in May 2003 in which he appeared with Stephen Varcoe and Thomas Guthrie.

In summer 2003 he appeared at various festivals including Swaledale (Lieder with Emma Kirkby), Stour (with Réjouissance), York Early Music Festival (with Réjouissance and Stephen Varcoe and in a programme with Corona Coloniensis), Ryedale (Victoria and Guerrero), Brinkburn (Haydn songs with Mhairi Lawson). He also toured Denmark where he played organ and piano in recitals with Yvonne and Bethany Seymour.

In the 2003/4 season he conducts Bach Motets, Christmas Oratorio, B Minor Mass,  Monteverdi Vespers, programmes of Victoria and settings by various Renaissance and Baroque composers of Stabat Mater and Salve Regina; Handel Saul, Rachmaninov The Bells, Holst The Planets, Haydn Creation (with Northern Sinfonia). With Yorkshire Baroque Soloists he directs programmes of Bach concerti and Cantata 170 and appears with Réjouissance in programmes of Purcell and Bach (harpsichord concerti). In January 2004 he accompanies Mhairi Lawson in Haydn Scottish songs and settings of Scots poets by Schubert and Lieder by Wolf and Strauss. He also accompanies Lucy Russell in performances of Bach Sonatas for violin and harpsichord. In October 2003, Yvonne and Peter Seymour are joined by Gabriel Woolf in a programme of words and music from 18th century London.

Recent scholarly performing editions have included Sweelinck Cantiones Sacrae, A Gabrieli Missa Quando lieta sperai and anthologies of Victoria psalms and antiphons (1600). These are published by York Early Music Press.


 

Peter Seymour - Research Interests

Late Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and early Romantic music (c.1550- 1850), especially performance practice.

Rhetoric (and its influence on performance) in Baroque and Classical music.
Early Lieder (c.1750-1850).
Early instruments (especially keyboard).
Choral and vocal music (especially 1550-1850).
Keyboard music (especially 1600-1800).

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This page is maintained by Peter Seymour. Last updated September 2003.