Program Notes: Brahms Requiem

BRAHMS REQUIEM WITH PETER OUNDJIAN

PETER OUNDJIAN, conductor

KARINA GAUVIN, soprano

JOSHUA HOPKINS, baritone

COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS, DUAIN WOLFE, director

Friday, March 24, 2023 at 7:30pm

Saturday, March 25, 2023 at 7:30pm

Sunday, March 26, 2023 at 1:00pm

Boettcher Concert Hall

WEBER Oberon: Overture, J. 306

RAVEL Shéhérazade Asia

The Enchanted Flute

The Indifferent One

— INTERMISSION —

BRAHMS Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45

I. “Selig sind die da Leid tragen”

II. “Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras”

III. “Herr, lehre doch mich”

IV. “Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen”

V. “Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit”

VI. “Denn wir haben hie”

VII. “Selig sind die Toten”

CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR AND 57 MINUTES WITH A 20 MINUTE INTERMISSION

FIRST TIME TO THE SYMPHONY? SEE PAGE 7 OF THIS PROGRAM FOR FAQ’S TO MAKE YOUR EXPERIENCE GREAT!

Saturday'S concert iS dedicated in memory of Selig Sind Jean and ted friedlander

Sunday’S concert iS dedicated to Jane coStain and gary moore

CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES

PETER OUNDJIAN, conductor

Recognized as a masterful and dynamic presence in the conducting world, Peter Oundjian has developed a multi-faceted portfolio as a conductor, violinist, professor and artistic advisor. He has been celebrated for his musicality, an eye towards collaboration, innovative programming, leadership and training with students and an engaging personality. Strengthening his ties to Colorado, Oundjian is now Principal Conductor of the Colorado Symphony in addition to Music Director of the Colorado Music Festival, which successfully pivoted to a virtual format during the pandemic summers of 2020 and 2021.

Now carrying the title Conductor Emeritus, Oundjian’s fourteen-year tenure as Music Director of the Toronto Symphony served as a major creative force for the city of Toronto and was marked by a reimagining of the TSO’s programming, international stature, audience development, touring and a number of outstanding recordings, garnering a Grammy nomination in 2018 and a Juno award for Vaughan Williams’ Orchestral Works in 2019. He led the orchestra on several international tours to Europe and the USA, conducting the first performance by a North American orchestra at Reykjavik’s Harpa Hall in 2014.

From 2012-2018, Oundjian served as Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra during which time he implemented the kind of collaborative programming that has become a staple of his directorship. Oundjian led the RSNO on several international tours, including North America, China, and a European festival tour with performances at the Bregenz Festival, the Dresden Festival as well as in Innsbruck, Bergamo, Ljubljana, and others. His final appearance with the orchestra as their Music Director was at the 2018 BBC Proms where he conducted Britten’s epic War Requiem.

Highlights of past seasons include appearances with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Iceland Symphony, the Detroit, Atlanta, Saint Louis, Baltimore, Dallas, Seattle, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. With the onset of world-wide concert cancellations, support for students at Yale and Juilliard became a priority. In 2022/2023 season Oundjian will conduct the opening weekend of Atlanta Symphony, followed by return engagements with Baltimore, Indianapolis, Dallas, Colorado and Toronto symphonies, as well as a visit to New World Symphony.

Oundjian has been a visiting professor at Yale University’s School of Music since 1981, and in 2013 was awarded the school’s Sanford Medal for Distinguished Service to Music. A dedicated educator, Oundjian regularly conducts the Yale, Juilliard, Curtis and New World symphony orchestras.

An outstanding violinist, Oundjian spent fourteen years as the first violinist for the renowned Tokyo String Quartet before he turned his energy towards conducting.

PHOTO: DALE WILCOX

CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES

KARINA GAUVIN, soprano

Recognized for her work in the baroque repertoire, Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin sings Mahler, Britten and the music of the late 20th and 21st centuries with equal success. She has received prestigious distinctions, including the title of “Soloist of the Year” awarded by the Communauté internationale des radios publiques de langue française, first prize in the CBC Radio competition for young performers, and the Virginia Parker Prize and Maggie Teyte Memorial Prize in London. Her 2022-23 season includes performances with the Houston Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Quebec Symphony, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and Les Violons du Roy.

Recently, Ms. Gauvin made appearances in the United States and Canada as soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, in Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with Les Violons du Roy, and in Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. She also toured widely in Europe, giving concerts and recitals in Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and Britain, including a performance at Wigmore Hall.

Ms. Gauvin has sung with the world’s greatest symphony orchestras, including the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Rotterdam Philharmonic, as well as baroque orchestras such as the English Concert, Les Talens Lyriques, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, Accademia Bizantina, Il Complesso Barocco, the Akademie Für Alte Musik Berlin, the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and Les Violons du Roy. She has performed under the direction of maestros, Semyon Bychkov, Charles Dutoit, Matthew Halls, Bernard Labadie, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Roger Norrington, Masaaki Suzuki, Helmuth Rilling, Christophe Rousset, and Michael Tilson Thomas. In addition, she has sung in recital with pianists Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, Michael McMahon, and Roger Vignoles.

Notable opera successes include Vitellia in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées; Vénus in Rameau’s Dardanus with Opéra National de Bordeaux; L’Eternità/ Giunone in La Calisto with the Bayerische Staatsoper; the title role in Armide with De Nederlandse Opera; Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo at the Glyndbourne Festival; the title role of Handel’s Alcina with Les Talens Lyriques; and Ariadne in Georg Conradi’s Die Schöne und getreue Ariadne for the Boston Early Music Festival. She performed in Vivaldi’s Tito Manlio in Brussels and at the Barbican in London; Fulvio in Handel’s Ezio in Paris and Vienna; the title role in Giulio Cesare in Paris and Vienna; and the title role in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans with Andrea Marcon at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She has also sung Seleuce in Handel’s Tolomeo with Alan Curtis, with whom she recorded Handel operas on ARCHIV/Deutsche Grammophon, Virgin and Naïve labels, among others. Her recorded performances with the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra have earned her two nominations from the Grammy Awards.

CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES

JOSHUA HOPKINS, baritone

Known as one of the finest singer-actors of his generation, JUNO awardwinning Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins has been hailed as having “…a glistening, malleable baritone of exceptional beauty, and…the technique to exploit its full range of expressive possibilities from comic bluster to melting beauty” (Opera Today).

In the 2021-2022 season, Joshua Hopkins returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Orpheus in the New York premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and directed by Mary Zimmerman. He also joins Lyric Opera of Chicago for his role debut as Belcore in L’elisir d’amore under the baton of Enrique Mazzola, makes his house debut at Seattle Opera as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, and returns to Santa Fe Opera for his signature role of Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. On the concert stage, he performs Songs for Murdered Sisters – a collaboration between composer Jake Heggie and author Margaret Atwood, personally conceived by Mr. Hopkins in remembrance of his sister, Nathalie Warmerdam – with both Houston Grand Opera and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. Mr. Hopkins also presents this new song cycle as part of a full recital with pianist Myra Huang, streamed online with Vocal Arts DC.

Operatic highlights of recent seasons include performances as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at the Glyndebourne Festival, Verbier Festival, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Washington National Opera; Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia at Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Norwegian National Opera, and Opera Lyra Ottawa; Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Lyric Opera of Chicago and his company debut at Oper Frankfurt; Papageno at Canadian Opera Company, Washington National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Vancouver Opera, Opera Lyra Ottawa, and Arizona Opera; Marcello in La bohème at Canadian Opera Company and Houston Grand Opera; Mercutio at the Metropolitan Opera, conducted by Plácido Domingo; his San Francisco Opera debut as Harry Bailey in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life; and the title role in Billy Budd at Central City Opera.

Mr. Hopkins has won numerous awards and distinctions. He was the winner of both the Verbier Festival Academy’s 2008 Prix d’Honneur and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2006. He was also a prizewinner at the prestigious 2006 ARD Musikwettbewerb in Munich and the 2005 Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition held in Madrid. In 2002, José Carreras presented him with the first place prize in the Julián Gayarre International Singing Competition in Pamplona. Mr. Hopkins has also received prizes from the George London Foundation and the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation, and won the Sylva Gelber Foundation Award from the Canada Council for the Arts.

PHOTO: SIMON PAULY

CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES

DUAIN WOLFE, founder and director, Colorado Symphony Chorus

Three-time Grammy winner for Best Choral Performance, Best Classical Recording, and Best Opera Performance, Duain Wolfe is Founder and Director of the Colorado Symphony Chorus.

This year marks Wolfe’s 39th season with the Colorado Symphony Chorus. The Chorus has been featured at the Aspen Music Festival for nearly three decades. Wolfe recently retired as Director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus after 28 years. He has collaborated with Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, and Sir George Solti on numerous recordings including Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, which won the 1998 Grammy® for Best Opera Recording. Wolfe’s extensive musical accomplishments have resulted in numerous awards, including the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Denver, the Bonfils Stanton Award in the Arts and Humanities, the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline, and the Michael Korn Award for the Development of the Professional Choral Art. Wolfe is Founder of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, from which he retired in 1999 after 25 years. For 20 years, Wolfe also worked with the Central City Opera Festival as chorus director and conductor, founding and directing the company’s young artist residence program, as well as its education and outreach programs. Wolfe’s other accomplishments include directing and preparing choruses for Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, the Bravo! Vail Festival, the Berkshire Choral Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Grand Teton Music Festival. He has worked with Pinchas Zuckerman and Alexander Shelly as Chorus Director for the Canadian National Arts Centre Orchestra for the past 20 years.

COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS

The 2022/23 Colorado Symphony concert season marks the 39th season of the Colorado Symphony Chorus. Founded in 1984 by Duain Wolfe at the request of Gaetano Delogu, then the Music Director of the Symphony, the chorus has grown into a nationally respected ensemble. This outstanding chorus of volunteers joins the Colorado Symphony for numerous performances each year, to repeated critical acclaim.

The Chorus has performed at noted music festivals in the Rocky Mountain region, including the Colorado Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, where it has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony, under conductors Alan Gilbert, Hans Graf, Jaap van Zweden, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Fabio Luisi. For over twenty five years, the Chorus was featured at the world-renowned Aspen Music Festival, performing many great masterworks under the baton of conductors Lawrence Foster, James Levine, Murry Sidlin, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, and Robert Spano.

Among the eight recordings the Colorado Symphony Chorus has made is a NAXOS release of Roy Harris’s Symphony No. 4. The Chorus is also featured on a Hyperion release of the Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem and Stephen Hough’s Missa Mirabilis. Most recently, the Colorado Symphony and Chorus released a world-premiere recording of William Hill’s The Raven

CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES

In 2009, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the chorus, Duain Wolfe conducted the chorus on a three-country, two-week concert tour of Europe, presenting the Verdi Requiem in Budapest, Vienna, Litomysl and Prague; in 2016 the chorus returned to Europe for concerts in Paris, Strasbourg and Munich featuring the Fauré Requiem. In the summer of 2022, the Chorus toured Austria, performing to great acclaim in Vienna, Graz and Salzburg.

COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS

Duain Wolfe, Founding Director and Conductor

Mary Louise Burke, Principal Associate Director and Conductor

Taylor Martin, Associate Director and Conductor

Jared Joseph, Conducting Intern

Hsiao-Ling Lin and ShaoChun Tsai Schneider, pianists

Eric Israelson, Chorus Manager/Librarian

Barbara Porter, Associate Chorus Manager

SOPRANO 1

René Atchison

Kimberly Black

Denelda Causey

Sarah Coberly

Elizabeth Collins

Suzanne Collins

Mary Dobreff

Emily Eck

Kate Emerich

Jenifer Gile

Lori Gill

Susan Graber

Erin Hittle

Alicia Irigoyen

Kaitlyn Jones

Cameron Jordan

Meghan

Kinnischtzke

Cathy Look

Rebecca Machusko

Isabella Mattingly

Anne Maupin

Wendy Moraskie

Jodie Peterson

Barbara Porter

Lori Ropa

Roberta Sladovnik

Nicole Stegink

Caitlin Wadman

Karen Wuertz

Cara Young

SOPRANO

Lori Ascani

Jude Blum

Alex Bowen

2

Kerry Cote

Candace Caruthers

Claudia Dakkouri

Gracie Ewert

Leontine Galante

Andria Gaskill

Alaina Headrick

Lindsey Kermgard

Lisa Kraft

Marina Kushnir

Leanne Lang

Erin Montigne

Christine Nyholm

Jeannette O’Nan

Kim Pflug

Donneve Rae

Andi Rooney

Sarah Roth

Mahli Ruff

Judy Tate

Sydney Timme

Stacey Travis

Susan von Roedern

Marcia Walker

Alison Wall

Rebecca Wise

Sandy Woodrow

Joan Zisler

ALTO 1

Priscilla Adams

Brenda Berganza

Charlotte Braud

Clair Clauson

Jayne Conrad

Janie Darone

Valerie Dutcher

Sharon Gayley

Gabriella Groom

Pat Guittar

Emily Haller

Kaia Hoopes

Christine Kaminske

Annette Kim

Juliet Levy

Tinsley Long

Susan McWaters

Kristen Nordenholz

Sheri Owens

Jennifer Pringle

Leanne Rehme

Kathi Rudolph

Melanie Stevenson

Deanne Thaler

Mary Thayer

Clara Tiggelaar

Kimberly

Trubetskoy

Pat Virtue

Beth York

ALTO 2

Liz Arthur

Cass Chatfield

Martha Cox

Barbara Deck

Daniela Golden

Sheri Haxton

Hansi Hoskins

Brandy Jackson

Ellen Janasko

Andrea LeBaron

Carole London

Joanne Maltzahn

Lisa Townsend

Benita Wandel

Evin Worthington

TENOR 1

Ryan Bowman

Dustin Dougan

Frank Gordon

Forrest Guittar

David Hodel

Richard Moraskie

Garvis Muesing

Lucas Myers

Timothy Nicholas

Dallas Rehberg

Eugene Roach

Hannis Thompson

Kenneth Zimmerman

TENOR 2

Gary Babcock

James Carlson

Dusty Davies

Jack Dinkel

Roger Fuehrer

John Gale

Sami Ibrahim

Trey Johnson

Kenneth Kolm

Tom Milligan

Miguel Rangel

Tyler Richardson

Ronald Ruth

Andrew Seamans

Kyle Shaw

Jerry Sims

BASS 1

John Adams

Daniel DeCecco

Dave Glauner

Matthew Gray

Chris Grossman

Douglas Hesse

David Highbaugh

Donald Hume

Leonard Hunt

Thomas Jirak

Matthew Johnson

John Jones

Jared Joseph

Paul Lingenfelter

Nalin Mehta

Ben Pilcher

Ken Quarles

Matthew Smedberg

David Struthers

BASS 2

Robert Friedlander

Tim Griffin

Eric Israelson

Terry Jackson

Matthew Molberg

Greg Morrison

Eugene Nuccio

John Phillips

Tom Potter

Joshua Richards

Adam Scoville

Russell Skillings

Wil Swanson

Tom Virtue

Margo Brauchli

Ruth Coberly

Angie Collums

Raleigh Fairchild

Susie Frey

Anna Friedman

Emily McNulty

Jill Parsons

Elizabeth Scarselli

Philip Stohlmann

CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES

CARL MARIA VON WEBER (1786 -1826)

Overture to Oberon

Carl Maria von Weber was born on December 18, 1786 in Eutin, Germany, and died on June 5, 1826 in London. He composed Oberon in 1825-1826 and conducted its premiere on April 12, 1826 in London. The score calls for woodwinds in pairs, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings. Duration is about 9 minutes. The Orchestra last played this piece on December 31, 2022, conducted by Jacob Joyce.

Carl Maria von Weber’s Romantic opera Der Freischütz, premiered in Berlin in 1821, was one of the greatest successes of its time. It was staged immediately in virtually every German opera house and leaped the English Channel to land in London with five separate productions during the 1824 season. One of the British stagings was at Covent Garden, and that theater’s director, Charles Kemble, was so pleased with its success that he determined to commission a new work from Weber specially for London. Late in 1824 Kemble visited Weber in Bad Ems, where the composer, then in the advanced stages of tuberculosis, was having a rest and taking the waters, and presented him with a number of possible subjects for the libretto, one of which was Goethe’s Faust. Weber decided, however, that the new piece would be Oberon, a fantasy opera with a text by the British writer James Robinson Planché. Planché adapted his libretto from Sotheby’s translation (1798) of Wieland’s German poem (1780) based on the 13th-century French chanson de geste, Huon de Bordeaux.

Since Oberon was to be in English and he would be travelling to London to conduct its premiere, Weber undertook a strenuous course of more than 150 lessons to learn the language from an Englishman named Carey. The composer proved to be a good student, as his letters and text setting attest. The composition of the opera went less smoothly than the English lessons, however, since Planché was sending the libretto scene by scene as he completed it so that Weber had difficulty formulating an overall musico-dramatic structure for the work. Weber began composing the music in January 1825; more than a year later, in February 1826, he left Dresden for London with the score still incomplete, but took time to stop en route in Paris to visit with Rossini and Cherubini. He began rehearsals at Covent Garden on March 9th, forged ahead with the last bits of music to be finished and dated the Overture, the final section to be completed, on April 9th “in the morning at quarter of twelve. Soli Deo Gloria!” Oberon was premiered at Covent Garden on April 12, 1826 to enthusiastic acclaim — “the greatest success of my life,” the composer wrote to his wife. “The emotion produced by such a triumph is more than I can describe. When I entered the orchestra, the house was crammed to the roof and the audience broke into a frenzy of applause. Hats and handkerchiefs were waved in the air.... At the end of the presentation, I was called to the stage by the enthusiastic acclamations of the public, an honor which no composer had ever before attained in England.” (Weber curiously discounted the triumphs of Handel and Haydn during the preceding century.)

Weber’s success in London was bittersweet. His health had never been good, and the last years of his life saw his strength drained by tuberculosis. He was constantly short of breath, often ran a fever and taxed his stamina unmercifully with every scrap of work. His physician in Dresden advised against the London venture, warning Weber that the rigors of the trip and the premiere would probably kill him. “Whatever I do, whether I go or not, I will be a dead man within one year,” he answered. “However, if I go my children will have something to eat when their father is

CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES

dead, and they will be hungry if I stay.” He went, was paid his fee of £500, and died in London, far away from home and family, six weeks after Oberon opened. He was 39 years old.

Planché wrote his libretto for Oberon to allow for the greatest possible theatrical spectacle, with hardly a shred of character explication or dramatic veracity — “the merest twaddle for regulating the operations of scene-shifters,” according to Sir Donald Tovey. “Its plot,” wrote Sigmund Spaeth, “tells of the quarrel between Oberon and Titania, the fairy king and queen, who will not speak to each other until a pair of faithful lovers has been found. Oberon’s sprightly little errand-boy, Puck, finds the necessary couple in Huon of Bordeaux, a knight of the court of Charlemagne, and Rezia, daughter of the calif of Baghdad, Haroun al Raschid. On their way home from Baghdad, the lovers are shipwrecked and captured by pirates, who sell Rezia to the Emir of Tunis and Huon to his wife, Roxanna. Each resists the temptation to infidelity, and when they are condemned to death by fire, Huon blows upon the magic horn of Oberon, which magically transports them to the court of Charlemagne, where all ends happily, with a reconciliation between Titania and her husband.”

Weber’s splendid Overture for Oberon, cast in traditional sonata form, is based on themes from the opera. The introduction comprises a soft call evoking the horn of Oberon, answered by muted strings; a gossamer figure for high woodwinds borrowed from the opening scene, set in Oberon’s palace; and a tiny, elfin march. The main body of the Overture begins with a dashing theme taken from the accompaniment to the Act II quartet, Over the Dark Blue Waters. After a reminder of Oberon’s horn signal, the clarinet introduces the subsidiary melody, Huon’s air from the first act, From Boyhood Trained. The impetuous closing theme is taken from Rezia’s Act II aria, Ocean! Thou Mighty Monster.

MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)

Shéhérazade, Trois Poèmes pour Chant et Orchestre

Maurice Ravel was born on March 7, 1875 in Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, France, and died on December 28, 1937 in Paris. He composed Shéhérazade in 1903. Jane Hatto gave the premiere on May 17, 1904 at a concert of the Société Nationale in Paris; Alfred Cortot conducted. The score calls for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, celesta, two harps, and strings. Duration is about 17 minutes. Shéhérazade was last performed by the Orchestra on March 12, 2012, and featured Soprano Renee Fleming, conducted by Sebastian Lang-Lessing.

They must have been a merry clan, that group of innovative young artists living in Paris at the turn of the century who banded together under the name of “The Apaches,” which connoted both “hooligans” in French and “renegade” in its Wild West association. Ravel was a charter member. Falla joined, as did Caplet, Schmitt, Calvocoressi and Delage among the musicians; Paul Sordes represented the painters, Klingsor and Fargue, the poets. Stravinsky popped in at some of the gatherings of these “Apaches,” who were dedicated to breathing fresh life into modern art. Ravel was one of the leaders of the group, and probably the most fashionable figure among them. Something of a dandy during these years (he turned 25 in 1900), he could give a serious and straight-faced disquisition on the color of his socks or the cut of his cravat.

CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES

When one of The Apaches, Tristan Klingsor (the Wagnerian pseudonym of Léon Leclère), devised a book of poems on the legendary story of “The Thousand and One Nights” in 1903, Ravel immediately determined to set some of the verses to music. He had planned an opera on the same subject in 1898 (only the overture was written), and his interest in the fabled character of Scheherazade was piqued anew by the opulent sensuality of Klingsor’s poems. (“In [my songs],” admitted Ravel, “again, I have succumbed to the profound fascination which the East has held for me since childhood.”) Klingsor, who helped the composer select the verses he would include in his song cycle, recalled, “Ravel’s love of difficulty led him to choose, in addition to L’Indifférent and La Flûte enchantée, one which, by reason of its length and narrative form, seemed the least suited to his purpose: Asie. The fact is that he was just at that time extremely preoccupied with the problem of adapting music to speech, heightening its accents and inflections and magnifying the words by transforming them into melody; and to assist him to carry out his project he asked me to read the poems out loud to him.” Ravel’s project quickly came to fruition.

A sense of misty reverie and sensuous languor hangs over the three songs that comprise Shéhérazade. As much as the vocal line, Ravel’s glowing orchestration contributes to his musical interpretation of the poems. The first, Asie (“Asia”), is an exotic account told by a worldly traveler of the wonders and mysteries of the Orient. Both the voice and the instruments mirror the bard’s words with careful fidelity. The shimmering sound of the strings at the opening, like a scented breeze from an unknown quarter, entices the listener. The rocking of the sea vessel, the twittering of colorful, exotic birds, the wistful sighs of lovers are only some of the delicious images conjured up by Ravel’s sonorities. So precise are the composer’s evocations that he is able to portray the storyteller’s voyage home (following the line “Je voudrais voir mourir d’amour ou bien de haine”) not in words, but simply with a recall of the earlier instrumental sea music. The second song, The Enchanted Flute, possesses the evocative charm of a Japanese haiku. Ravel’s setting is quiet and subtle, painting a richly hued picture of colors and emotions with a few deft strokes. The composer, always extremely discreet about his private life, suggested that the key to his personality lay in the final song, L’Indifférent (“The Indifferent One”). The music is filled with a sweet sadness tempered by a delicate grace that, like its creator, allows only the most ambiguous indication of the passions playing beneath its elegant surface.

Ravel: Shéhérazade

Text: Tristan Klingsor

Asie (“Asia”)

Asie, Asie, Asie, Asia, Asia, Asia

Vieux pays merveilleux des contes de nourrice Marvellous old land of fairy-tales

Où dort la fantaisie comme une impératrice, Where fantasy sleeps like an empress

En sa forêt tout emplie de mystère ... In her forest full of mystery ... Asie, je voudrais m’en aller avec la goëlette Asia, I should like to sail away with the schooner

Qui se berce ce soir dans le port That rocks this evening in the port, Mystérieuse et solitaire, Mysterious and solitary, Et qui déploie enfin ses voiles violettes

And that at last unfurls its violet sails Comme un immense oiseau de nuit dans

Like an immense night bird in the golden sky. le ciel d’or.

CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES

Je voudrais m’en aller vers des îles de fleurs, I should like to sail away to the islands of flowers

En écoutant chanter la mer perverse Listening to the perverse sea singing

Sur un vieux rythme ensorceleur. To an old, bewitching rhythm.

Je voudrais voir Damas et les villes de Perse I should like to see Damascus and the cities of Persia

Avec les minarets légers dans l’air. With their slender minarets in the air.

Je voudrais voir de beaux turbans de soie I should like to see fine silk turbans

Sur des visages noirs aux dents claires; On black faces with gleaming teeth;

Je voudrais voir des yeux sombres d’amour I should like to see eyes dark with love

Et des prunelles brillantes de joie, And pupils shining with joy

En des peaux jaunes comme des oranges; In skin yellow as oranges;

Je voudrais voir des vêtements de velours I should like to see clothes of velvet

Et des habits à longues franges. And coats with long fringe.

Je voudrais voir des calumets entre I should like to see pipes in mouths des bouches

Tout entourées de barbe blanche; Entirely surrounded by white beards;

Je voudrais voir d’après marchands I should like to watch suspicious-looking aux regards louches, merchants, Et des cadis, et des vizirs And cadis, and viziers

Qui du seul mouvement de leur doigt

Who with a single bending of a finger qui se penche

Accordent vie ou mort au gré de leur désir. Grant life or death at the whim of their desire.

Je voudrais voir la Perse, et l’Inde,

I should like to see Persia, and India, et puis la Chine, and then China—

Les mandarins ventrus sous les ombrelles, Big-bellied mandarins under their umbrellas

Et les princesses aux mains fines. And princesses with delicate hands

Et les lettrés qui se querellent And scholars quarrelling

Sur la poésie et sur la beauté; Over poetry and beauty;

Je voudrais m’attarder au palais enchanté I should like to linger at the enchanted palace

Et comme un voyageur étranger And, like a foreign traveller, Contempler à loisir des paysages peints Contemplate at leisure landscapes painted Sur des étoffes en des cadres de sapin, On cloth in frames of pinewood

Avec un personnage au milieu d’un verger; With one figure in the middle of an orchard;

Je voudrais voir des assassins souriant

Du bourreau qui coupe un cou d’innocent

I should like to see assassins smiling

At the executioner who cuts off an innocent head

Avec son grand sabre courbé d’Orient. With his great curved oriental sword. Je voudrais voir des pauvres et des reines; I should like to see poor people and queens; Je voudrais voir des roses et du sang; I should like to see roses and blood; Je voudrais voir mourir d’amour ou bien

I should like to see people dying of love de haine ... or of hatred ...

And then to return home later Narrer mon aventure aux curieux de rêves, And tell my story to people interested in dreams,

Et puis m’en revenir plus tard

En élevant comme Sindbad ma vieille

Raising, like Sinbad, my old Arabian cup tasse arabe

De temps en temps jusqu’à mes lèvres

To my lips from time to time, Pour interrompre le conte avec art ... In order to interrupt the tale artfully ...

La Flûte enchantée (“The Enchanted Flute”)

The shade is gentle, and my master sleeps, Coiffé d’un bonnet conique de soie, Wearing a conical silk cap

L’ombre est douce et mon maître dort

Et son long nez jaune en sa barbe blanche. With his long yellow nose in his white beard.

Mais moi, je suis éveillée encore

But I, I am still awake

Et j’écoute au dehors And I am listening, outside, Une chanson de flûte où s’épanche

To the melody of a flute pouring forth

Tour à tour la tristesse ou la joie ... Alternately sadness and joy ...

Un air tour à tour langoureux ou frivole, An air alternately languorous and gay Que mon amoureux chéri joue. Played by my dear lover.

Et quand je m’approche de la croisée And when I approach the casement window

Il me semble que chaque note s’envole

De la flûte vers ma joue

It seems to me that each note flies

From the flute towards my cheek

Comme un mystérieux baiser. Like a mysterious kiss.

L’lndifférent (“Indifferent”)

Tes yeux sont doux comme ceux d’une fille, Your eyes are as soft as those of a girl, Jeune étranger, Young stranger, Et la courbe fine And the delicate curve

De ton beau visage de duvet ombragé Of your handsome face, shaded with down, Est plus séduisante encore de ligne. Is even more seductive in outline.

Ta lèvre chante sur le pas de ma porte You sing on my doorstep

Une langue inconnue et charmante An unknown and charming language Comme une musique fausse. Like music out of tune. Entre! Et que mon vin te réconforte ... Enter! And let my wine refresh you ...

Mais non, tu passes

But no, you pass on your way

And I see you leave my threshold behind, Me faisant un dernier geste avec grâce, Making me one last graceful gesture, Et la hanche légèrement ployée With your hips slightly bent

Et de mon seuil je te vois t’éloigner

Par ta démarche féminine et lasse ...

By your languid, girlish gait ...

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JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)

Ein deutsches Requiem (“A German Requiem”) for Soprano and Baritone Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 45 Johannes Brahms was born on May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, and died on April 3, 1897 in Vienna. He composed A German Requiem between 1857 and 1868, and conducted its premiere on April 10, 1868 in Bremen. The score calls for woodwinds in pairs plus piccolo and contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, strings and organ (ad libitum). Duration is about 68 minutes. The Symphony last performed this piece February 26-28, 2010, conducted by Jeffrey Kahane.

Robert Schumann was the most influential person who ever came into the life of Johannes Brahms. It was Schumann who hailed Brahms in print as the “savior of German music” when the young composer had only just begun his life’s work. It was to Schumann that Brahms looked when he was searching to establish not only the technique of his compositions, but also the philosophical basis on which they were founded. And it was the Schumann family, first Robert and later his wife, Clara, who provided encouragement, constructive criticism and affection to Brahms throughout his life. It is no surprise, then, that Brahms was deeply moved by the premature death of his mentor in 1856, the first profound grief to fall upon his life.

Schumann encouraged Brahms to write in the grand forms of the great Classical composers in order to continue the revered traditions of Mozart and Beethoven that Schumann believed were being swept away by the flood of meretricious music created by the legion of third-rate composers, now long forgotten, of the mid-19th century. Brahms began a symphony the year after Schumann’s death with a view toward fulfilling his charge, but that project did not result in its intended aim. Though Brahms abandoned the symphony, he used the music of the opening movement in his first orchestral work, the D minor Piano Concerto. The slow movement of the Symphony was resurrected as a choral work in 1861 and provided with the text, Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras (“For all flesh is as grass”); it served as the germ from which A German Requiem grew. It is possible that Brahms may have been influenced in this transformation by an idea credited to Schumann, one that he did not live to realize — the writing of a work of the Requiem type based on a German text rather than on the traditional Latin liturgy of the ancient Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead. With a view towards erecting a musical monument to Schumann, Brahms assembled a text appropriate to such a composition from the Lutheran Bible in 1861, but that memorial then lay dormant for several years.

It was the death of another loved one that moved Brahms to resume activity on his Requiem. Brahms, a confirmed bachelor, was extraordinarily fond of his mother. When she passed away in February 1865, it marked the beginning of a period of sadness and mourning for him, one result of which was an unsettled wandering through many places in central Europe. Another product of this experience was that it spurred him to resume work on the unfinished Requiem, which, with the death of his mother, could become a memorial both to her and to Schumann. He completed the six sections of his original conception by August 1866, and added another portion eighteen months later for soprano soloist specifically occasioned by the death of his mother: Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit (“Ye now have sorrow”). A line of its scripture, “I will see you again,” tells of the touching personal message that this music carried for the composer.

Though Brahms was raised in the beliefs of German Protestantism, he was not a religious man. He did not bother with the church, and confessed in the last year of his life to his biographer Max Kalbeck that he had never believed in life after death. His knowledge of the

CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES

Bible, however, was thorough, and he continued to enjoy the comfort that reading it provided him throughout his life. When he chose the texts for his Requiem, he took the greatest care to eschew dogmatism, avoiding passages mentioning the name of Christ. Rather than a specifically sectarian document, he saw the work as a universal response by a sensitive soul to the inevitability and sorrow of death, and he even noted that he would be happy if the word “Mankind” could replace the word “German” in the title. (The title as it stands does not denote any nationalistic intent but simply recognizes the fact that the text is in Brahms’ vernacular tongue rather than in liturgical Latin.) Brahms’ use of the language of the people rather than the ancient tongue of the Catholic Church is not just an incidental fact in the effect of this composition, but is part of its conceptual basis, as Karl Geiringer explained in his study of the composer: “The Latin Requiem is a prayer for the dead, threatened with the horrors of the Last Judgment; Brahms’ Requiem, on the contrary, utters words of consolation, designed to reconcile the living with the idea of suffering and death. In the liturgical text whole sentences are filled with the darkest menace; in Brahms’ Requiem, each of the seven sections closes in a mood of cheerful confidence or loving promise.” This is a work meant for people rather than for God.

The moving nature of A German Requiem is attested by its continuing popularity. Following its premiere in Bremen in 1868, there were fully two-dozen performances of the work in European cities within the next year alone. It was the composition that won international fame and some economic security for Brahms, and its success enabled him to quit his labors as conductor and piano soloist to devote himself to composition. It launched a series of works for chorus and orchestra (the Alto Rhapsody, the Song of Destiny and Rinaldo) that not only stand among the great 19th-century music for voices, but that also served as harbingers of the instrumental compositions he was to write beginning in 1873 with the Haydn Variations and continue with the symphonies and concertos of his later years.

As with all of Brahms’ works, this one shows meticulous construction in its overall structure and proportions. Walter Niemann offered this view: “The first half — the first through the third movements — is devoted almost entirely to earthly suffering, lamentation and mourning over the transitoriness and nothingness of human life, rather than to the consolation and the everlasting bliss of the redeemed. In the second half — the fourth through the seventh movements — mourning is gradually transformed, passing through the stages of pious faith, consolation, and joy in the living God, to celestial bliss and triumphant resurrection.” Most of the movements exhibit a tripartite organization in which the text and music of the opening section reappear to round out the form. The overriding mood of the work is one of comforting resignation rather than of visions of supra-human worlds. Only in the sixth movement is any of the terror of the Dies Irae (“Day of Wrath”) of the Latin Requiem present, and this is quickly supplanted by the quiet benediction of the closing movement. Brahms’ A German Requiem, a work of grand scope and surpassing excellence, is rich in a substance that never wavers from its purpose of sharing a universal experience through the incandescent beauties that only music can provide.

©2022 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

Brahms: A German Requiem

1. Selig sind, die da Leid tragen, denn sie sollen getröstet werden. Die mit Tränen säen, werden mit Freuden ernten. Sie gehen hin und weinen und tragen edlen Samen, und kommen mit Freuden und bringen ihre Garben.

2. Denn alles Fleisch ist wie Gras und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen wie des Grases Blumen. Das Gras ist verdorret und die Blume abgefallen. So seid nun geduldig, lieben Brüder, bis auf die Zukunft des Herrn. Siehe, ein Ackermann wartet auf die köstliche Frucht der Erde und ist geduldig darüber, bis er empfahe den Morgenregen und Abendregen. Aber des Herrn Wort bleibet in Ewigkeit.

Die Erlöseten des Herrn werden wieder kommen, und gen Zion kommen mit Jauchzen; ewige Freude wird über ihrem Haupte sein; Freude und Wonne werden sie ergreifen und Schmerz und Seufzen wird weg müssen.

3. Baritone:

Herr, lehre doch mich, daß ein Ende mit mir haben muß, und mein Leben ein Ziel hat, und ich davon muß. Siehe, meine Tage sind einer Hand breit vor dir, und mein Leben ist wie nichts vor dir.

Chorus:

Ach wie gar nichts sind alle Menschen, die doch so sicher leben. Sie gehen daher wie ein Schemen,

und machen ihnen viel vergebliche Unruhe; sie sammeln und wissen nicht wer es kriegen wird. Nun Herr, wess soll ich mich trösten? Ich hoffe auf dich.

Der Gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand und keine Qual rühret sie an.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. They who sow in tears, shall reap in joy. Go forth and cry, bearing precious seed, and come with joy bearing their sheaves.

For all flesh is as grass, and the glory of man like flowers. The grass withers and the flower falls. Therefore be patient, dear brothers, for the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the delicious fruits of the earth and is patient for it, until he receives the morning rain and evening rain. But the word of the Lord endures for eternity.

The redeemed of the Lord will come again, and come to Zion with a shout; eternal joy shall be upon her head; They shall take joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing must depart.

Lord, teach me That I must have an end, And my life has a purpose, and I must accept this. Behold, my days are as a handbreadth before Thee, and my life is as nothing before Thee.

Alas, as nothing are all men, but so sure the living. They are therefore like a shadow, and go about vainly in disquiet; they collect riches, and do not know who will receive them. Now, Lord, how can I console myself? My hope is in Thee.

The righteous souls are in God's hand and no torment shall stir them.

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4. Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth!

Meine Seele verlanget und sehnet sich nach den Vorhöfen des Herrn; mein Leib und Seele freuen sich in dem lebendigen Gott. Wohl denen, die in deinem Hause wohnen, die loben dich immerdar.

5. Soprano and Chorus: Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit; aber ich will euch wieder sehen und euer Herz soll sich freuen und eure Freude soll niemand von euch nehmen. Sehet mich an:

Ich habe eine kleine Zeit Mühe und Arbeit gehabt und habe großen Trost funden. Ich will euch trösten, wie Einen seine Mutter tröstet.

6. Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt, sondern die zukünftige suchen wir. Siehe, ich sage euch ein Geheimnis:

Baritone and Chorus: Wir werden nicht alle entschlafen, wir werden aber alle verwandelt werden; und dasselbige plötzlich, in einem Augenblick, zu der Zeit der letzten Posaune.

Denn es wird die Posaune schallen, und die Toten werden auferstehen unverweslich, und wir werden verwandelt werden.

Dann wird erfüllet werden

das Wort, das geschrieben steht: Der Tod ist verschlungen in den Sieg. Tod, wo ist dein Stachel?

Hölle, wo ist dein Sieg? Herr, du bist würdig zu nehmen

Preis und Ehre und Kraft, denn du hast alle Dinge geschaffen, und durch deinen Willen haben sie das Wesen und sind geschaffen.

7. Selig sind die Toten, die in dem Herrn sterben, von nun an Ja der Geist spricht, daß sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit; denn ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach.

How lovely are thy dwelling places, O Lord of Hosts! My soul requires and yearns for the courts of the Lord; My body and soul rejoice in the living God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they praise you forever.

You now have sorrow; but I shall see you again and your heart shall rejoice and your joy no one shall take from you. Behold me:

I have had for a little time toil and torment, and now have found great consolation. I will console you, as one is consoled by his mother.

For we have here no continuing city, but we seek the future. Behold, I show you a mystery:

We shall not all sleep, but we all shall be changed and suddenly, in a moment, at the sound of the last trombone. For the trombone shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Then shall be fulfilled The word that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.

O Death, where is thy sting?

O Hell, where is thy victory? Lord, Thou art worthy to receive all praise, honor, and glory, for Thou hast created all things, and through Thy will they have been and are created.

Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth Yea, saith the spirit, that they rest from their labors, and their works shall follow them.