CLASSICS
2018/19
2018/19 SEASON PRESENTING SPONSORS:
BRITTEN WAR REQUIEM COLORADO SYMPHONY BRETT MITCHELL, conductor AMANDA MAJESKI, soprano NICHOLAS PHAN, tenor JAMES WESTMAN, baritone COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS, DUAIN WOLFE, director COLORADO CHILDREN’S CHORALE, DEBORAH DESANTIS, artistic director Friday, November 2, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, November 3, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, November 4, 2018, at 1:00 p.m. Boettcher Concert Hall
BENJAMIN BRITTEN War Requiem, Op. 66 Requiem aeternam Dies irae Offertorium Sanctus Agnus Dei Libera me There will be no intermission at this performance. The custom Allen Digital Computer Organ is provided by MurvineMusic, LLC
This Weekend's Performances are Gratefully Dedicated to Jane Costain and Gary Moore Friday's Concert is Gratefully Dedicated to Jim and Janice Campbell Sunday’s Concert is Gratefully Dedicated to Mr. Robert S. Graham PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY
SOUNDINGS
2018/19
PROGRAM 1
CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES BRETT MITCHELL, conductor
PHOTO: ROGER MASTROIANNI
Hailed for presenting engaging, in-depth explorations of thoughtfully curated programs, Brett Mitchell began his tenure as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony in July 2017. Prior to this appointment, he served as the orchestra’s Music Director Designate during the 2016/17 season. He leads the orchestra in ten classical subscription weeks per season as well as a wide variety special programs featuring such guest artists as Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, and Itzhak Perlman. Mr. Mitchell is also in consistent demand as a guest conductor. Highlights of his 2018-19 season include subscription debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and return appearances with the orchestras of Cleveland, Dallas, and Indianapolis. Other upcoming and recent guest engagements include the Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, National, Oregon, and San Antonio symphonies, the Grant Park Festival Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Mitchell also regularly collaborates with the world’s leading soloists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Rudolf Buchbinder, Kirill Gerstein, James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Leila Josefowicz, and Alisa Weilerstein. From 2013 to 2017, Mr. Mitchell served on the conducting staff of The Cleveland Orchestra. He joined the orchestra as Assistant Conductor in 2013, and was promoted to Associate Conductor in 2015, becoming the first person to hold that title in over three decades and only the fifth in the orchestra’s hundred-year history. In these roles, he led the orchestra in several dozen concerts each season at Severance Hall, Blossom Music Center, and on tour. From 2007 to 2011, Mr. Mitchell led over one hundred performances as Assistant Conductor of the Houston Symphony. He also held Assistant Conductor posts with the Orchestre National de France, where he worked under Kurt Masur from 2006 to 2009, and the Castleton Festival, where he worked under Lorin Maazel in 2009 and 2010. In 2015, Mr. Mitchell completed a highly successful five-year appointment as Music Director of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. As an opera conductor, Mr. Mitchell has served as music director of nearly a dozen productions, principally at his former post as Music Director of the Moores Opera Center in Houston, where he led eight productions from 2010 to 2013. His repertoire spans the core works of Mozart (The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute), Verdi (Rigoletto and Falstaff), and Stravinsky (The Rake’s Progress) to contemporary works by Adamo (Little Women), Aldridge (Elmer Gantry), Catán (Il Postino and Salsipuedes), and Hagen (Amelia). As a ballet conductor, Mr. Mitchell most recently led a production of The Nutcracker with the Pennsylvania Ballet in collaboration with The Cleveland Orchestra during the 2016-17 season. In addition to his work with professional orchestras, Mr. Mitchell is also well known for his affinity for working with and mentoring young musicians aspiring to be professional orchestral players. His tenure as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra from 2013 to 2017 was highly praised, and included a four-city tour of China in June 2015, marking the orchestra’s PROGRAM 2
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CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES second international tour and its first to Asia. Mr. Mitchell is regularly invited to work with the highly talented musicians at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the orchestras at this country’s high-level training programs, such as the National Repertory Orchestra, Texas Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, and Interlochen Center for the Arts. Born in Seattle in 1979, Mr. Mitchell holds degrees in conducting from the University of Texas at Austin and composition from Western Washington University, which selected him as its Young Alumnus of the Year in 2014. He also studied at the National Conducting Institute, and was selected by Kurt Masur as a recipient of the inaugural American Friends of the Mendelssohn Foundation Scholarship. Mr. Mitchell was also one of five recipients of the League of American Orchestras’ American Conducting Fellowship from 2007 to 2010. For more information, please visit www.brettmitchellconductor.com
AMANDA MAJESKI , soprano American lyric soprano Amanda Majeski is rapidly garnering critical acclaim for a voice of “silvery beauty” (Musical America) that combines “transparent fragility with soulful strength” (Chicago Sun-Times). In the 2018-2019 season, she will be heard with the Sydney Symphony in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 conducted by Edo de Waart, Music of the Baroque in Mozart’s Requiem with Jane Glover, and the Colorado Symphony in Britten’s War Requiem. Ms. Majeski made her debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic as Gutrune in Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung conducted by Jaap van Zweden which will be released commercially on Naxos Records as the final installment of their Ring Cycle. She has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and sang her first performances of Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder at Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall with the Curtis Orchestra conducted by Karina Canellakis. She debuted with Sinfonieorchester Aachen singing Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder and Mozart’s Requiem. She also sang Gounod’s Marguerite in concert with Washington Concert Opera under Antony Walker, Bach’s Magnificat under Sir Gilbert Levine in Chicago, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, and the title role in Stanisław Moniuszko’s Halka at the Bard Music Festival. She made her New York City recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation and returned for her solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2014.
SOUNDINGS
2018/19
PROGRAM 3
CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES
PHOTO: HENRY DOMBEY
NICHOLAS PHAN, tenor Described by the Boston Globe as “one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” American tenor Nicholas Phan is increasingly recognized as an artist of distinction. Praised for his keen intelligence, captivating stage presence, and natural musicianship, he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. Also an avid recitalist, in 2010 he co-founded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC) to promote art song and vocal chamber music, where he serves as Artistic Director. Phan’s many opera credits include appearances with the Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Chicago Opera Theater, Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and Frankfurt Opera. His growing repertoire includes the title roles in Bernstein’s Candide, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, and Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Fenton in Falstaff, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and Lurcanio in Ariodante. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Phan is the 2012 recipient of the Paul C Boylan Distinguished Alumni Award. He also studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Aspen Music Festival and School, and is an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. He was the recipient of a 2006 Sullivan Foundation Award and 2004 Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation. In 2018, Phan was appointed to the faculty of DePaul University, where he serves as an adjunct member of the voice faculty.
JAMES WESTMAN, baritone Whether performing song, concert, or opera throughout the world, baritone James Westman’s passion and musicianship bring an extra dimension to his performances. Future projects include Rigoletto for l’Opéra de Montréal, Germont in La traviata for Edmonton Opera and Pacific Opera Victoria, the title role in Nabucco for Opéra de Québec, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for the Vancouver Symphony. Mr. Westman’s 2017-2018 season was notable for Carmina Burana for the St. Louis and Vancouver symphonies, Brahms’s Requiem with Orchestre symphonique de Québec, and as Germont in La traviata with Manitoba Opera. Nominated for two Grammy awards and three Canadian Juno awards, Westman has recorded for Decca, Opera Rara, CBC, and BBC. Mr. Westman further thrives at art song repertoire in many different styles and genres. He has performed recitals for the Marilyn Horne Foundation, the George London Foundation, the Aldeburgh Connection, the Canadian Arts and Letters Club, the CBC, the BBC, Stratford Summer Music Festival, the Michigan Chamber Music Society, the Lanaudière Festival, Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyrique, and the Wexford Festival, Ireland. Formerly a successful boy treble, Mr. Westman toured with the American Boys Choir, the Paris Boys Choir, and the Vienna Boys Choir. Known as Jamie Westman, he was the first boy ever to perform the fourth movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and toured this work with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of twelve. Mr. Westman lives with his wife Nadine and their two sons Liam and Hardy by the Avon in Stratford, Ontario, Canada; situated close to the Westman and Marshall/Levy heritage farms which have been in his family since the 1700’s! PROGRAM 4
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CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES DUAIN WOLFE, director, Colorado Symphony Chorus Recently awarded two Grammys® for Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Recording, Duain Wolfe is founder and Director of the Colorado Symphony Chorus and Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. This year marks Wolfe’s 35th season with the Colorado Symphony Chorus. The Chorus has been featured at the Aspen Music Festival for over two decades. Wolfe, who is in his 25th season with the Chicago Symphony Chorus has collaborated with Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, and the late 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 an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Denver, the Bonfils Stanton Award in the Arts and Humanities, the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, 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 also founder of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, from which he retired in 1999 after 25 years; the Chorale celebrated its 40th anniversary last season. 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 additional 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 as Chorus Director for the Canadian National Arts Centre Orchestra for the past 13 years.
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2018/19
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CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS The 2018-2019 Colorado Symphony concert season marks the 35th year 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, over the past three decades, into a nationally respected ensemble. This outstanding chorus of 185 volunteers joins the Colorado Symphony for numerous performances (more than 25 this year alone), and radio and television broadcasts, to repeat 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 Valley Music Festival, where it has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony. For over two decades, the Chorus has been featured at the world-renowned Aspen Music Festival, performing many great masterworks under the baton of notable conductors Lawrence Foster, James Levine, Murry Sidlin, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano and David Zinman. Among the seven recordings the CSO Chorus has made is a NAXOS release of Roy Harris’s Symphony No. 4, as well as a remarkable recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. 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 Orchestra and Chorus has released a world-premier recording of William Hill’s The Raven. In 2009, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the chorus, Duain Wolfe conducted the chorus on a 3-country, 2-week concert tour of Europe, presenting the Verdi Requiem in Budapest, Vienna, Litomysl and Prague, and in 2016 the chorus returned to Europe for concerts in Paris, Strasbourg and Munich. From Evergreen to Brighton, and Boulder to Castle Rock, singers travel each week to rehearsals and performances in Denver totaling about 80 a year. The Colorado Symphony continues to be grateful for the excellence and dedication of this remarkable all-volunteer ensemble! For an audition appointment, visit the symphony website for an on-line sign up form. www.coloradosymphony.org
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CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS Duain Wolfe, Founding Director and Conductor; Mary Louise Burke, Associate Conductor; Travis Branam, Taylor Martin, Assistant Conductors; Brian Dukeshier, Hsiao-Ling Lin, Danni Snyder, Pianists; Eric Israelson, Barbara Porter, Chorus Managers; SOPRANO I Black, Kimberly Brazell, Madeline Brown, Jamie Causey, Denelda Choi, LeEtta H. Coberly, Sarah Coppage, Zoie Dirksen, Sarah Gile, Jenifer D. Gill, Lori C. Graber, Susan Heintzkill,Mary-Therese Hinkley, Lynnae Hittle, Erin R. Hofmeister, Mary Hupp, Angela M. Jordan. Cameron Joy, Shelley E. Kim, Michelle Knecht, Melanie Levy, Juliet Long, Lisa Look, Cathy Maupin, Anne Mitchell, Angela Moraskie, Wendy Porter, Barbara A. Ropa, Lori A. Schawel, Camilia Schweitzer, Laura Sladovnik, Roberta Solich, Stephanie Stegink, Nicole J. Tate, Judy Wuertz, Karen York, Hannah Young, Cara M. SOPRANO II Ascani, Lori Blum, Jude Bohannon, Hailey Borinski, Jackie Bowen, Alex S. Brauchli, Margot Coberly, Ruth A. Colbert, Gretchen Cote, Kerry H. Dakkouri, Claudia Gross, Esther J.
Houlihan, Mary Irwin, Emily R. Kendall, Chelsea Kittle, Grace A. Kraft, Lisa D. Kushnir, Marina Linder, Dana Machusko, Rebecca Montigne, Erin Mulvany, Suzanne Nesbit, Angie Nyholm, Christine O’Nan, Jeannette Pflug, Kim Rae, Donneve S. Rider, Shirley J. Roth, Sarah Ruff, Mahli Saddler, Nancy C. Timme, Sydney Von Roedern, Susan Walker, Marcia L. Weinstein, Sherry L. Woodrow, Sandy Zisler, Joan M. ALTO I Adams, Priscilla Branam, Emily M. Braud-Kern, Charlotte Brown, Kimberly Cauthen, Rachael Clauson, Clair T. Franz, Kirsten D. Frey, Susie Gayley, Sharon Groom, Gabriella Guittar, Pat Haller, Emily Holst, Melissa J. Hoopes, Kaia M Kim, Annette Kraft, Deanna Lawlor, Betsy McNulty, Emily McWaters, Susan Nordenholz, Kristen Passoth, Ginny Pringle, Jennifer Rudolph, Kathi L. Schmicker, Kate
Stevenson, Melanie Thayer, Mary B. Virtue, Pat Voland, Colleen
Hunt, Leonard Ibrahim, Sami Jin, Yi Kolm, Kenneth E. Lively, Mark McCracken, Todd Meswarb, Stephen Milligan, Tom A. Richardson, Tyler Ruth, Ronald L. Seamans, Andrew Shaw, Kyle Sims, Jerry E.
ALTO II Boothe, Kay A. Cox, Martha E. Daniel, Sheri L. Deck, Barbara Dominguez, Joyce Eslick, Carol A. Gangware, Elizabeth Golden, Daniela Holmes, Kelsey Hoskins, Hansi Jackson, Brandy Janasko, Ellen D. LeBaron, Andrea London, Carole A. Maltzahn, Joanna Marchbank, Barbara McKinney, Ariel Nittoli, Leslie M. Schalow, Elle C. Scooros, Pamela Worthington, Evin TENOR I Dougan, Dustin Gordon, Jr., Frank Guittar, Jr., Forrest Hodel, David K. Jordan, Curt Moraskie, Richard Mosser, Shane Muesing, Garvis J. Nicholas, Timothy Rehberg, Dallas Reiley, William G. Roach, Eugene Zimmerman, Kenneth TENOR II Babcock, Gary E. Bradley, Mac Carlson, James Davies, Dusty R. Dinkel, Jack Fuehrer, Roger Gale, John H.
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BASS I Adams, John G. Cowen, George Drickey, Robert Gray, Matthew Hesse, Douglas Hume, Donald Jirak, Thomas J. Patterson, Ethan Quarles, Kenneth Ragan, Jimmy Ravid, Frederick Struthers, David BASS II Friedlander, Robert Grossman, Chris Israelson, Eric W. Jackson, Terry L. Kent, Roy A. Moncrieff, Kenneth Morrison, Greg A. Nuccio, Eugene J. Phillips, John R. Potter, Tom Skillings, Russell Skinner, Jack Smedberg, Matthew Swanson, Wil W. Taylor, Don Virtue, Tom G. Zhang, Alex
2018/19
PROGRAM 7
CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES DEBORAH DESANTIS, artistic director, Colorado Children’s Chorale Deborah DeSantis has been instrumental in the growth and success of the Colorado Children’s Chorale since 1983. She directs tour choir and regularly conducts performances throughout metropolitan Denver and has led numerous tours, nationally and internationally. Her passion for artistic excellence and music education has been a driving force in the development of the Chorale’s School Partnership program, which she established in 1994. In addition to designing and directing community performance residencies for the Chorale, she frequently serves as guest clinician and conductor for school and community children’s choral programs throughout the nation. Debbie has conducted seminars and workshops for Chorus America, the American Choral Director’s Association, Colorado Music Educators Association, the Choristers’ Guild and the Suzuki Institute and has served as co-chair of Chorus America’s Children/Youth Choir Constituency.
COLORADO CHILDREN'S CHORALE Celebrating their 45th Anniversary Season, the Colorado Children’s Chorale has brought its artistry and charm to audiences throughout the world. With a diverse repertoire ranging from fully staged opera and musical theater to standard choral compositions in classical, folk and popular traditions, the Chorale performs with an innovative stage presentation and a unique theatrical spirit. In recognition of its artistic quality, the Chorale was awarded the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and the prestigious El Pomar Award for Excellence in Arts and Humanities. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Deborah DeSantis and Executive Director Meg Steitz, the Colorado Children’s Chorale annually trains 500 members between the ages of 7 and 14 from all ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds representing more than 170 schools in the Denver metro area and beyond. Since its founding in 1974, the Chorale has sung countless performances with some of the world’s finest performing arts organizations, performed for numerous dignitaries, and appeared in several television and radio broadcasts. The Performance Program includes a series of selfproduced concerts, numerous performances with other Colorado arts organizations and touring around the world. The Chorale presents annual performances of Christmas with the Children’s Chorale and Spring with the Children’s Chorale at Boettcher Concert Hall, A Classical Jazz Evening at Saint John’s Cathedral plus Performing Small Miracles and Spring Fling Sing! which are presented in venues across the metro area. This season also includes War Requiem, A Colorado Christmas and Carmina Burana with the Colorado Symphony, Billy Budd with Central City Opera and Tosca with the Philadelphia Orchestra for Bravo! Vail.
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CLASSICS BIOGRAPHIES COLORADO CHILDREN'S CHORALE Deborah DeSantis, Artistic Director Mary Louise Burke, Associate Director TOUR CHOIR James Algermissen Ella Basham Ben Bosch Gabi Bustamante Pryce Cantrell Ethan Conklin Lucy Crile Emily Cull Logan Day-Richter Theresa Dowling Katie Dupper Vinny Falk Reagan Fitzgerald Izzy Getsch Annie Goldmanis Haylee Gonzales
Junhee Graf Bella Grant Sophia Haynes Ethan Hecker Gunnar Henry Elena Higgins Graham Higgins Violet Higgins Nate Hutabarat Charles Hutchings Elliot Jenkins Emily Johnson Kuyla Kim Shaedryn Klein Nora Knight Connor Kramer Julia Kung
Vivianne Lee Daisy Lynch Claire Mann Trey Mays Jacob Mays Luke McAdams Noah Meyerhoff Maressa Mora-Calderon Levi Morris Lillian Moyer Marisa Mulryan Finn Murry Sarah Myers Bella Newton Gareth Page-Roth Ella Parsons Jack Peterson
Ben Ragan Lucy Reynolds Emelie Rosenberg Lily Sharpe Jack Shoup Claire Sladovnik Jaxson Smith Audra Snyder Oliver Strubbe Ira Timme Henry Trask Max Trujillo-Acevedo Annika Visser Alaina Wharton Josie Wilger Owen Wolfinger
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SOCIAL
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SOUNDINGS
2018/19
PROGRAM 9
CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES Britten: War Requiem Poems by Wilfred Owen Missa pro defunctis translated by Brett Mitchell I. REQUIEM AETERNAM CHORUS Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. CHILDREN'S CHOIR
Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. Exaudi orationem meam. Ad te omnis caro veniet.
Songs of praise are due to You, God in Zion, and homage will be paid to You in Jerusalem. Hear my prayer. All flesh shall come to You. TENOR SOLO
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries for them from prayers or bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, — The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes. The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. CHILDREN'S CHOIR Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison.
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy. II. DIES IRAE CHORUS
Dies irae, dies illa solvet saeclum in favilla, teste David cum Sibylla.
Day of wrath, that day Will consume the world in ashes, As foretold by David and the Sibyl.
Quantus tremor est futurus, quando Judex est venturus cuncta stricte discussurus!
What trembling there will be When the Judge has come To strictly weigh everything!
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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES Tuba mirum spargens sonum per sepulchra regionum, coget omnes ante thronum.
The trumpet scattering its awful sound Across the graves of all lands Summons all before the throne.
Mors stupebit et natura, cum resurget creatura judicanti responsura.
Death and nature shall be stunned When mankind rises again To answer the Judge. BARITONE SOLO
Bugles sang, saddening the evening air, And bugles answered, sorrowful to hear. Voices of boys were by the river-side. Sleep mothered them; and left the twilight sad. The shadow of the morrow weighed on men. Voices of old despondency resigned, Bowed by the shadow of the morrow, slept. SOPRANO SOLO AND CHORUS Liber scriptus proferetur, in quo totum continetur, unde mundus judicetur.
The written book will be brought, In which all is contained, From which the world shall be judged.
Judex ergo cum sedebit, quidquid latet apparebit, nil inultum remanebit.
When the Judge takes His seat, All that is hidden will appear: Nothing will remain unavenged.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? Quem patronum rogaturus, cum vix justus sit sicurus?
What shall I, a wretch, say then? To which protector shall I appeal When even the just are barely safe?
Rex tremendae majestatis, qui salvandos salvas gratis, salva me, fons pietatis!
King of awful majesty, Who freely saves those worthy of salvation, Save me, fount of pity! TENOR AND BARITONE SOLOS
Out there, we’ve walked quite friendly up to Death; Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland, — Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand. We’ve sniffed the green thick odour of his breath, — Our eyes wept, but our courage didn’t writhe. He’s spat at us with bullets and he’s coughed Shrapnel. We chorussed when he sang aloft; We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.
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2 0 1 8 / 1 9 PROGRAM 11
CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES Oh, Death was never enemy of ours! We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum. No soldier’s paid to kick against his powers. We laughed, knowing that better men would come, And greater wars; when each proud fighter brags He wars on Death — for Life; not men — for flags. CHORUS Recordare, Jesu pie, quod sum causa tuae viae, ne me perdas illa die.
Remember, gentle Jesus, That I am the reason for Your being. Do not cast me out on that day.
Quaerens me, sedisti lassus, redemisti crucem passus; tantus labor non sit cassus.
Seeking me, You sank down wearily: You saved me by enduring the cross: Such labor must not be in vain.
Ingemisco tamquam reus, culpa rubet vultus meus, supplicanti parce, Deus.
I groan like the sinner I am: Guilt reddens my face: Spare the supplicant, God.
Qui Mariam absolvisti et latronem exaudisti, mihi quoque spem dedisti.
You, who pardoned Mary And heeded the thief, Have given me hope, too.
Inter oves locum praesta et ab hoedis me sequestra, statuens in parte dextra.
Give me a place among the sheep And separate me from the goats, Let me stand at Your right hand.
Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus afflictis, voca me cum benedictis.
When the damned are cast away And consigned to searing flames, Call me to be with the blessed.
Oro supplex et acclinis, cor contritum quasi cinis, gere curam mei finis.
Bowed down in supplication, I beg You, My heart as though ground to ashes, Help me in my final hour. BARITONE SOLO
Be slowly lifted up, thou long black arm, Great gun towering toward Heaven, about to curse; Reach at that arrogance which needs thy harm And beat it down before its sins grow worse; But when thy spell be cast complete and whole May God curse thee, and cut thee from our soul!
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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES CHORUS AND SOPRANO SOLO Dies irae, dies illa solvet saeclum in favilla, teste David cum Sibylla.
Day of wrath, that day Will consume the world in ashes, As foretold by David and the Sibyl.
Quantus tremor est futurus, quando Judex est venturus cuncta stricte discussurus!
What trembling there will be When the Judge has come To strictly weigh everything!
Lacrimosa dies illa qua resurget ex favilla judicandus homo reus; huic ergo parce Deus.
That tearful day When the sinner rises from the ashes To be judged, Spare him, God. TENOR SOLO
Move him into the sun — Gently its touch awoke him once, At home, whispering of fields unsown. Always it woke him, even in France, Until this morning and this snow. If anything might rouse him now The kind old sun will know. Think how it wakes the seeds, — Woke, once, the clays of a cold star. Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides, Full-nerved — still warm — too hard to stir? Was it for this the clay grew tall? — O what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break earth’s sleep at all? CHORUS Pie Jesu, Domine, Gentle Lord Jesus, dona eis requiem. Grant them rest. Amen. Amen.
III. OFFERTORIUM CHILDREN'S CHOIR Domine Jesu Christe, rex gloriae, Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, Libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum free the souls of all the faithful dead de poenis inferni from the tortures of hell et de profundo lacu. and the bottomless pit. Libera eas de ore leonis, Free them from the jaws of the lion, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, lest hell engulf them, ne cadant in obscurum; lest they be plunged into darkness.
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2 0 1 8 / 1 9 PROGRAM 13
CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES CHORUS sed signifer sanctus Michael representet eas in lucem sanctam, quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus.
But let the holy standard-bearer Michael bring them back into holy light as You promised Abraham and his offspring.
BARITONE AND TENOR SOLOS So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went, And took the fire with him, and a knife. And as they sojourned both of them together, Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father, Behold the preparations, fire and iron, But where the lamb for this burnt-offering? Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps, And builded parapets and trenches there, And stretched forth the knife to slay his son. When lo! an angel called him out of heaven, Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, Neither do anything to him. Behold, A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns; Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him. But the old man would not so, but slew his son, — And half the seed of Europe, one by one. CHILDREN'S CHOIR Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus, tu suscipe pro animabus illis, quarum hodie memoriam facimus: fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam.
We offer sacrifices and prayers to You, Lord in praise, Receive them for the souls of those we remember today. Make them pass, Lord, from death to life.
IV. SANCTUS SOPRANO SOLO AND CHORUS Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus Deus Saboath! Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis! Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini! Hosanna in excelsis!
PROGRAM 14
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts! Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!
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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES BARITONE SOLO After the blast of lightning from the East, The flourish of loud clouds, the Chariot Throne; After the drums of Time have rolled and ceased, And by the bronze west long retreat is blown, Shall life renew these bodies? Of a truth All death will He annul, all tears assuage? — Fill the void veins of Life again with youth, And wash, with an immortal water, Age? When I do ask white Age he saith not so: “My head hangs weighed with snow.” And when I hearken to the Earth, she saith: “My fiery heart shrinks, aching. It is death. Mine ancient scars shall not be glorified, Nor my titanic tears, the sea, be dried.” V. AGNUS DEI TENOR SOLO One ever hangs where shelled roads part. In this war He too lost a limb, But His disciples hide apart; And now the Soldiers bear with Him. CHORUS Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest. TENOR SOLO
Near Golgotha strolls many a priest, And in their faces there is pride That they were flesh-marked by the Beast By whom the gentle Christ’s denied. CHORUS Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest.
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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES TENOR SOLO The scribes on all the people shove And bawl allegiance to the state, But they who love the greater love Lay down their life; they do not hate. CHORUS Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem sempiternam. Dona nobis pacem.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them eternal rest. grant us peace. VI. LIBERA ME
CHORUS AND SOPRANO SOLO Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra, dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem. Tremens factus sum ego et timeo, dum discussio venerit atque venture ira: quando coeli movendi sunt et terra. Dies irae, dies illa, calamitatis et miseriae, dies magna et amara valde, Libera me, Domine.
Free me, Lord, from eternal death on that terrible day: When the heavens and earth will shake: When You will come to judge the world by fire. I am seized with trembling and fear, until the trial will come and the wrath arrive. When the heavens and earth will shake. That day, day of wrath, of calamity and misery, a great day and exceedingly bitter, Free me, Lord.
TENOR SOLO It seemed that out of battle I escaped Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped Through granites which titanic wars had groined. Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned, Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred. Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared With piteous recognition in fixed eyes, Lifting distressful hands as if to bless. And no guns thumped, or down the flues made moan. “Strange friend,” I said, “here is no cause to mourn.” BARITONE SOLO “None,” said the other, “save the undone years, The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours, Was my life also; I went hunting wild After the wildest beauty in the world.
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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES For by my glee might many men have laughed, And of my weeping something had been left, Which must die now. I mean the truth untold, The pity of war, the pity war distilled. Now men will go content with what we spoiled. Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled. They will be swift with swiftness of the tigress, None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress. Miss we the march of this retreating world Into vain citadels that are not walled. Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot-wheels I would go up and wash them from sweet wells, Even from wells we sunk too deep for war, Even the sweetest wells that ever were. I am the enemy you killed, my friend. I knew you in this dark; for so you frowned Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed. I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.” TENOR AND BARITONE SOLOS “Let us sleep now . . .” CHILDREN'S CHORUS, CHORUS AND SOPRANO SOLO In paradisum deducant te Angeli: in tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem, Chorus Angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.
Into Paradise may the Angels lead you: At your arrival, may the Martyrs receive you and bring you into the holy city of Jerusalem. May the Choir of Angels receive you, and with Lazarus, once poor, may you have eternal rest. Grant them eternal rest, Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.
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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913-1976): War Requiem, Op. 66 Benjamin Britten was born November 22, 1913 in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, and died December 4, 1976 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. The War Requiem was composed in 1961 and premiered in St. Michael’s Cathedral, Coventry, on May 30, 1962, conducted by Meredith Davies and the composer. The score calls for a boys’ choir accompanied by small organ or harmonium; tenor and baritone soloists supported by a chamber orchestra of piccolo (doubling flute), oboe (doubling English horn), clarinet, bassoon, horn, percussion (timpani, side and bass drums, cymbal, gong), harp, two violins, viola, cello, and double bass; and a soprano soloist and large mixed chorus with full orchestra of three flutes (third doubling piccolo), two oboes, English horn, three B-flat clarinets (first doubling E-flat clarinet, third doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons, contrabassoon, six horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, and strings. Duration of the work is approximately 85 minutes. The War Requiem was last performed by the orchestra on November 2-4, 2001, with Duain Wolfe conducting. “Perhaps the toughest decision of World War II,” it was called — the harrowing choice that Churchill made in 1940 to let the city of Coventry be bombed without notice by the mercilessly effective German Luftwaffe. With the help of an émigré Polish scientist, the British had broken the deadly mystery of “Enigma,” the baffling code system by which the Nazis transmitted their most sensitive information. Since the Germans did not know their messages were being intercepted by the enemy, they continued to broadcast with confidence, and intelligence of inestimable value in aiding the Allied cause was received every day. One shocking message ordered an all-out bombing attack on the industrial city of Coventry for November 10th. Churchill could have warned the town, but in doing so he would have revealed to the Germans the British possession of “Enigma.” Churchill chose to keep his secret, and Coventry was subjected to the most destructive Blitzkrieg bombing of the war. Six hundred died, thousands were injured, and the city was reduced to rubble. The charred shell of Coventry’s great 14thcentury Cathedral of St. Michael became both a symbol for the savagery of war and a rallying point for British patriotism. In the years following the war, the architect Sir Basil Spence built a modern Cathedral in Coventry next to the destroyed pile of the old one, which was left as it had been after the 1940 bombing. The dedication of the new St. Michael’s in the spring of 1962 was deemed an occasion for a great festival of the arts whose purpose would be not only to recall the horrors of the war years but also to recognize the conciliation that had developed between the former enemies. Several works were commissioned, including an opera, King Priam, from Michael Tippett and a large choral and orchestral composition from Benjamin Britten. Britten’s thoughts turned immediately to an oratorio, a genre that was not then represented in his output but which he had considered for some time. In the 1950s, he asked W.H. Auden for a libretto for such a work, but Britten found the result too long to set. In 1955, Ronald Duncan prepared for Britten a text on the subject for St. Peter for possible performance at York Minster, but nothing came of that project, either. The Coventry commission provided Britten with another opportunity, and he settled on the traditional text of the Requiem Mass, but added to it, as commentary on the ancient, frozen verses of the liturgy, nine poems by Wilfred Owen, an English writer killed at the age of 25 in hostilities in France only seven days before the Armistice that ended the First World War on November 11, 1918. PROGRAM 18
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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES The poems of Wilfred Owen were unusual and disturbing creations in an imperial age that glorified soldiers and the valor of combat. Wrote William Plomer, Britten’s librettist for the three Church Parables (Curlew River, The Burning Fiery Furnace and The Prodigal Son) and the opera Gloriana, of Owen’s verses, “They were not about what soldiers gloriously did but what they had unforgivably been made to do by others and to suffer themselves. Owen did not accept what he called ‘the old Lie,’ that it was necessarily glorious or even fitting to die for one’s own or any other country, or that a country was necessarily or perhaps ever justified in making the kind of war he knew. As he saw and experienced it, war appeared as a hellish outrage on a huge scale against humanity, and a violation of Christianity. He shared the destiny of millions on both sides, but unlike them he had the sensibility to see what war now really meant, and the power to explain it. ‘My subject is War,’ he wrote, ‘and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.’” Britten had been familiar with Owen’s anti-war poetry for some time. The composer had been granted official status as a conscientious objector during World War II, and he had delved deeply into the philosophy and history of the movement in formulating his beliefs. In 1958, he set Owen’s The Kind Ghosts as one movement of the Nocturne for Tenor, Seven Obbligato Instruments and Strings, a musical anthology of poems about sleep. In a BBC program of that same year about the works of his favorite poets, Britten, one of the greatest of all musifiers of English verse, included Strange Meeting by Owen. Britten chose nine poems of Owen to juxtapose with the Latin text for the War Requiem. In his biography of the composer, Michael Kennedy noted that Britten was strongly drawn to the Coventry commission for two reasons. “First,” wrote Kennedy, “there was the challenge of the acoustics of the new building. ‘The best music to listen to in a Gothic church is the polyphony which was written for it, and was calculated for its resonance,’ Britten said in 1964. ‘This was my approach to the War Requiem — I calculated it for a big reverberant acoustic, and that is where it sounds best.’ Secondly, as a life-long pacifist he was deeply stirred by the thought of a new cathedral being erected near the ruins of the medieval cathedral destroyed by bombs in 1940. He saw the chance to make a public declaration of his hatred of war and to emphasize the importance of reconciliation.” The War Requiem, then, came to be built on two musico-philosophical planes: one, public and ceremonious, with a soprano soloist, mixed chorus and large orchestra limning the ancient words of the Mass for the Dead; the other, personal and beseeching, given to tenor and baritone soloists, who represent the men shattered by the war, accompanied by a chamber ensemble. Boys’ voices, distant, almost disembodied, supported by a small organ or harmonium, augment the performing forces for the Requiem proper. Of the juxtaposed Latin and English texts, William Plomer noted, “The theme of both is the same: it is death. It is death inseparable from grief and from guilt, death ordained by God for every man, often caused by human stupidity and cruelty, but death associated, in spite of everything, with ideas of mercy, forgiveness and peace.” “The message is what counts,” said Britten of his War Requiem. The grieving heart of that message, sung quietly and simply and with crushing sincerity by the baritone after the bitter ironies and scorching emotions of all the preceding music, is embodied in Owen’s words from his poem Strange Meeting, which Britten placed just before the work’s closing pages: “I am the enemy you killed, my friend.” To reinforce the spirit of reconciliation underlying the War Requiem, Britten chose for the premiere soloists from three of the warring nations: Peter Pears (tenor) from England, Galina SOUNDINGS
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CLASSICS PROGRAM NOTES Vishnevskaya (soprano) from Russia, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone) from Germany. (Vishnevskaya was unable to appear because of prior commitments, and her place was taken by Heather Harper. However, the Russian soprano joined the male soloists of the premiere in the now-legendary recording made under the composer’s direction.) The War Requiem was greeted with an immediate and universal acclaim seldom accorded to a new work. The audience at the premiere sat in hushed awe at the conclusion, too moved to applaud. Performances followed immediately at Westminster Abbey and Albert Hall. Within little more than a year, the War Requiem had been heard in a dozen cities abroad, including Berlin, Paris, Perugia, and Prague. The work was premiered in America on July 7, 1963 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, a performance of such wide interest that it was telecast to much of the nation. The Decca recording sold over 200,000 copies in five months. The War Requiem continues to be regarded by many as the supreme choral masterwork of the 20th century. In The Times of London, the noted music critic and scholar William Mann wrote of the War Requiem, “It is not a requiem to console the living; sometimes it does not even help the dead to sleep soundly. It can only disturb every living soul, for it denounces the barbarism more or less awake in mankind with all the authenticity that a great composer can muster. The work is so superbly proportioned and calculated, so humiliating and disturbing in effect, in fact so tremendous, that every performance it is given ought to be a momentous occasion. There can be no doubt that it is the most masterly and nobly imagined work that Britten ever gave us.” ©2018 Dr. Richard E. Rodda
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