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SUNDAY MARCH 5TH
Although this is the first Sunday in Lent, I set aside my usual
prohibition on secular operatic music, because on this date "Sunday
Afternoon at the Opera" does its bit for Marathon 2006, our station's
annual intensive week of on-air fundraising. For a third year in
a row I will put on mike my fundraising pal Tom Carling. We will
be listening to and commenting upon a New Chandos recording of two
of Sir Arthur Sullivan's early lyric theaterworks, Cox and Box (1866)
and Trial by Jury (1875). Richard Hickox leads the BBC National
Orchestra of Whales. Cox and Box is of particular interest, since
it is presented for the first time on disc in its original version.
SUNDAY MARCH 12TH
We return on this the second Sunday in Lent to programming appropriate
for the penitential season. Juan Garcia de Salazar (1639-1710) was
one of several topnotch church musicians circulating in posts among
the cathedrals of Spain in the seventeenth century. Garcia de Salazar's
output consisted entirely of sacred choral works. Sufficient amounts
of his music have survived in manuscript to allow baroque music
scholar Josep Cabré to reconstruct a Complete Vespers of Our Lady
as it might have been heard in its proper Latin liturgical context
for the period. Our recorded presentation offers sumptuous settings
of the psalms and the Magnificat for choir and instruments, plus
passages of plainchant and brief compositions for organ taken from
Garcia de Salazar's colleague and contemporary Martin Garcia de
Olagué. Josep Cabré leads the massed voices of the Capilla Penaflorida
and the period instrumentalists of Ministriles de Marsias. A Naxos
release on one very generously timed silver disc. We round out the
afternoon's audio devotions with Marian motets in the older polyphonic
style by a German musician, Thomas Stoltzer (c. 1480-1526). In the
few years leading up to his accidental death by drowning he was
in the service of the royal household of the King of Hungary. The
former Hungarian state record label Hungaroton continues to bring
to public attention the works of music masters native to or residing
in their land. The six singers of Voces Aequales have recorded both
Stoltzer's motets and his Missa Kyrie Summum.
SUNDAY MARCH 19TH
In Europe in the old days (especially in Catholic Europe) the opera
houses were shut down for the duration of Lent. In place of opera
sacred oratorio held sway until after Easter. As a musical genre
oratorio is essentially dramatized Bible stories; it isn't exactly
staged as opera is, but it is sung along operatic lines. Bible stories
continue to provide inspiration for lyric theater composers of our
own time. British composer Lennox Berkeley (1903-89) wrote a little
staged opera in three scenes based on the Old Testament Book of
Ruth. He looked to Eric Crozier, co-founder with Benjamin Britten
of both the English Opera Group and the Aldeburgh Festival, to prepare
a suitable libretto from the scriptures. The story of Ruth, Boaz,
and Naomi is important for Christians to ponder during Lent, since
it marked the founding of the house of David, from whose lineage
sprang Jesus the Christ. Berkeley's Ruth was first staged in London
in 1956. The world premiere recording of Ruth had to wait until
the next century, when it was given in two semi-staged performances
in 2003 to celebrate the centenary of Sir Lennox Berkeley's birth.
Richard Hickox conducts the City of London Sinfonia and the Joyful
Company of Singers choral group. Mezzo Jean Rigby is Ruth, tenor
Mark Tucker Boaz and Naomi is soprano Yvonne Kenny. A Chandos release.
SUNDAY MARCH 26TH
In eighteenth century Italy sacred oratorio closely resembled secular
opera seria. The Bohemian composer Josef Myslivecek (1737-81) spent
a large part of his career in Italy writing Italian opera. His oratorio
Abramo e Isaaco (1776) relates the Old Testament story of the patriarch
Abraham's sacrifice of his son Isaac. This is arguably Myslivecek's
finest operatic work. It was a big success first in Florence, then
in productions all over Europe. Mozart took in a performance of
it in Munich in 1777. Myslivecek's style is easily confused with
that of the young Mozart. Manuscript copies of Myslivecek's score
of Abramo e Isaaco were often attributed to Mozart or Haydn. The
music is that good! We'll be listening to the second of two recordings
Supraphon, the former Czechoslovak state record label, made of the
famous oratorio by one of Bohemia's talented native sons. It was
taped in Prague in 1991 with the Prague Sinfoneitta, the Kuhn Mixed
Chorus and an all-Czech cast of vocal soloists. Bonton Classics
has issued the same recording on two CD's. I last broadcast Abramo
e Isaaco on this program on Sunday April 20, 1997.
SUNDAY APRIL 2ND
Several times over the past twenty-odd years I have broadcast recordings
of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Vespers/All Night Vigil (1915), an extremely
long a cappella choral work meant to accompany the Russian Orthodox
liturgy for the night before Easter. British composer Sir John Tavener
(b. 1944) converted to Orthodoxy in 1977. His take on this sort
of Eastern Christian vigil music is embodied in The Veil of the
Temple, first performed overnight, June 27-28, 2003. Tavener's entire
Veil compositions requires more than seven hours to perform. In
2004 he prepared a concert version that compacted all the eight
"cycles" or sections of the work into a two-and-a-half hour timeframe.
Veil was specifically intended to be heard in the historic twelfth
century round Temple Church in London. The Temple Music Trust commissioned
it. The two-CD RCA Red Seal recording of Veil of the Temple was
excerpted from the live liturgy that took place in Temple Church.
The massed forces of performers taking part in this holy rite reach
an overwhelming sonic ecstasy in Tavener's eighth and final "cycle."
The forces under Stephen Layton's direction include the renowned
Choir of Temple Church, the Holst Singers, two vocal soloists, the
brass ensemble of the English Chamber Orchestra, plus organ and
several players of oriental instruments. Tibetan temple bells among
these. Tavener has inserted Muslim mystical texts into the Christian
scriptural proceedings. Gramophone magazine gave this recording
an "Editor's Choice" citation for 2005. I agree, however, with Fanfare
magazine's reviewer John Story, who writes, "I am not a huge fan
of the Tavener's work in general, finding a certain disconnect between
what he is striving for with what he actually achieves. Still one
man's ecstasy is another man's tedium…" (Fanfare, Sept. /Oct., '05
issue). Decide for yourself by tuning in this afternoon.
SUNDAY APRIL 9TH
I offer up two contrasting musical Passion settings for this
Palm Sunday. First, The Crucifixion (1887) by Sir John Stainer (1840-1901).
Stainer was the quintessential church musician. He crafted his oratorio
especially for good amateur singers who would make up a well-trained
parish church choir. Well over a century after its premiere there,
The Crucifixion is still performed every Good Friday at St. Marylebone
Parish Church in London. Some might think The Crucifixion is crude
and sentimental, yet is has secured for itself a permanent niche
in the English Choral repertoire. When I last broadcast Stainer's
Victorian chestnut on Palm Sunday, April 8, 1998, you heard a Chandos
CD, the recording made in All Saints' Church, Tooting in the Metro
London area. The Crucifixion was recorded again at Guildford Cathedral
in Surrey in June, 2004. Timothy Brown directs the Choir of Clare
College, Cambridge. A 2005 Naxos release on one silver disc. Stainer's
Passion setting lasts a little over an hour in airplay, leaving
sufficient time to present for a second time on this program the
St. Luke Passion (1966) of Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933). This
devotional work and his setting of the Stabat Mater (1962) made
a lasting impression upon the avant garde of the international classical
music scene. Penderecki's Passion owes a great deal of its form
to Bach's St. Matthew Passion. One of the tone rows on which the
work is based ends with the notes that spell out B-A-C-H in German
notation. While it was commissioned by a German cathedral, Penderecki's
Passion was first performed the same year as the thousand year anniversary
of the introduction of Christianity into his native Poland. Interpolated
into the Latin text of St. Luke's Gospel is his earlier Stabat Mater,
plus verses from the Gospel according to St. John and other Roman
Catholic texts for Holy Week. Our new recording of the St. Luke
Passion was made in September, 2004 in Warsaw's Philharmonic Choir
and Orchestra, with the Warsaw Boy's Choir and five vocal soloists.
Yet another Naxos release on a single silver disc.
SUNDAY APRIL 16TH
Easter and Passover fall on the same day this year, so I will be
presenting music to honor both the Christian and Jewish holidays,
all of it by twentieth century American composers. Chief among these
is Dave Brubeck (b. 1920), who wrote an Easter oratorio in three
parts Beloved Son (1978) for the American Lutheran Women's Convention
in Minneapolis. Brubeck scored it for full symphony orchestra and
chorus, children's choir and baritone soloist, with Brubeck's own
jazz quartet improvising on various melodic motifs. Employing the
same big performance resources in Brubeck's Pange Lingua Variations
(1983), commissioned by the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in
Sacramento, California. This work uses both the Latin text of the
Gregorian hymn for Holy Week and an English language adaptation
by Brubeck's wife Iola. The Voice of the Holy Spirit (1985) tells
the story of the Pentecost as recounted in the Book of Acts. The
singers speak in "tongues of fire" a verse from the Gospel according
to St. John in many languages, ancient and modern. All three of
Brubeck's musical brain-children get a wonderful treatment from
the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Voices, the London Oratory
School Schola and baritone Alan Opie. Brubeck's old jazzman pal
Russell Gloyd conducts. All three compositions were recorded together
in one big four-day session at London's famous Abbey Road studio.
A 2003 Telarc release under the title Classical Brubeck. Brubeck
also wrote a lengthy sacred cantata based on Old Testament and Jewish
liturgical texts. The Gates of Justice (1969) requires two vocal
soloists and chorus, backed by the jazz instrumentalists of the
Dave Brubeck Trio. In his cantata Brubeck wanted to reach out to
both American Jews and Black Americans, ever mindful of the 1968
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Gates of Justice
was recorded in Baltimore, Maryland. The voices of the Baltimore
Choral Arts Society support the soloists, who are cantor Alberto
Mizrahi and African-American bass-baritone Kevin Deas. Naxos Records
issued this in 2004 in its series "The Milken Archive of American
Jewish Music." Also from the Milken Archive comes a CD of "Music
for Prayer" in the Jewish tradition by American composer David Diamond,
Morton Gould, Roy Harris and Douglas Moore. Listen in particular
for Diamond's Ahava ("Brotherhood", 1954), featuring Theodore Bikel
as the narrator.
SUNDAY APRIL 23RD
I have always loved the mystical poetry of William Blake. That's
why I'm delighted to present American composer William Bolcom's
musical settings in the form of a song cycle or oratorio (?) of
Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience. Bolcom (b. 1938) was
interested in these poems going back to 1955, when he was seventeen.
He began making songs out of Blake's verse in 1956. Work went forward
on and off up to 1982. His magnum opus premiered in Stuttgart, Germany
in 1984. If you like Bernstein's Mass or Tippett's The Mask of Time
you'll like Bolcom's style. His wife mezzo Joan Morris was among
the vocal soloists who took part in what was presumably the world
premiere recording of Songs for the Naxos label. It was made at
Hill Auditorium on the campus of the University of Michigan at Ann
Arbor in 2004. Bolcom's longtime friend, the distinguished Leonard
Slatkin conducts the University of Michigan School of Music Symphony
Orchestra and the chorus of the University Musical Society. Naxos
released Bolcom's Songs in its "American Classics" series. Almost
450 performers took part in the Ann Arbor live recorded concert.
This is a song cycle on a grand, Mahlerian scale. There should be
time remaining to sample another one of Naxos' "American Classics"
issues: soprano Carole Farley interpreting songs of William Bolcom,
with the composer at the piano.
SUNDAY APRIL 30TH
The motion picture is the supreme art-form of modern times. By the
1920's talking pictures were supplanting opera and other live staged
entertainments. Film now dominates the world of audiovisual art
so completely that contemporary opera must find a way to accommodate
itself to the silver screen. After having composed at least ten
operas for the stage (many of which you've heard on this program
in times past), Philip Glass (b. 1937) came up with a curious hybrid:
an opera that can serve as a synchronized substitute soundtrack
for an already existing movie. That movie is one of the all-time
greatest art cinema flicks: Jean Cocteau's Le Belle et Le Bête ("Beauty
and the Beast", 1946). Glass' "Opera for Ensemble and Film" can
stand on its own as a theatrical production. It witnessed its world
premiere in Sicily in 1994 and American premiere shortly thereafter
at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The world premiere recording was
subsequently made at The Looking Glass Studio in New York City,
with the composer playing keyboards in the seven-member Philip Glass
Ensemble. These instrumentalists are augmented by a chamber orchestra
and seven vocal soloists, taking the seven major acting rôles in
the film. A 1995 Nonesuch release on two CD's. If you have Cocteau's
celluloid masterpiece on videocassette or DVD, why not tune into
this radio show and watch the movie simultaneously? Just turn down
the volume on George Auric's original soundtrack and start the action
as soon as Glass' overture music ends. I'll tell when to hit the
pause button at moments appropriate for radio broadcast. Stay tuned
for a charming German language Singspiel. The genre of the singing
play with spoken dialog was popular in Central Europe in the eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries. Mozart's "The Magic Flute" is the
greatest example. Germany's most famous poet of the era, Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe wrote the libretto for a Singspiel that several
composers of his day set to music. Mozart wrote music for Veilchen,
"The Violet" one of the song lyrics in Goethe's wordbook for Erwin
und Elmire (1774, revised 1787). Swiss German composer Othmar Schoeck
(1886-1957) took up Goethe's libretto for his own Erwin und Elmire,
his first opera, first staged in Zurich in 1916. In an hour's span
it sets forth the story of boy who thinks he has lost girl, but
gets her back in the end. Erwin und Elmire received an excellent
recorded treatment under conductor Howard Griffiths, who lead the
Zurich Chamber Orchestra and four solo singers. Fanfare magazine's
reviewer Adrian Corleonis says this 2004 cpo records release is
"enthusiastically recommended." (Fanfare, Jul. /Aug. 2005 Issue)
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