DOCSLIB.ORG

London's Symphony Orchestra

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
London's Symphony Orchestra London Symphony Orchestra Living Music Sunday 1 March 2015 7.30pm Barbican Hall DURUFLÉ REQUIEM Debussy La damoiselle élue Debussy La mer INTERVAL Duruflé Requiem London’s Symphony Orchestra Donald Runnicles conductor Nicole Cabell soprano Kelley O’Connor mezzo-soprano Duncan Rock baritone London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director Concert finishes approx 9.40pm 2 Welcome 1 March 2015 Welcome Living Music Kathryn McDowell In Brief Welcome to this evening’s LSO concert at the 2015/16 SEASON NOW ON SALE Barbican, for which we are joined by conductor Donald Runnicles for a programme of French The LSO 2015/16 season is now available to book. classics, from Debussy’s La mer to Duruflé’s Season themes include Creative Geniuses, a series meditative and moving Requiem. Donald Runnicles of concerts curated by Sir Simon Rattle, The Power was last with the Orchestra in 2006, conducting of the Voice, a celebration of great vocal works, a concert at the Barbican and leading a tour to Shakespeare 400, exploring the iconic playwright’s Germany; we are delighted to see him return tonight. influence on music, and Valery Gergiev: Man of the Theatre. Full details and listings can be found I would also like to extend a warm welcome to our on the LSO website. soloists – returning soloists Kelley O’Connor and Duncan Rock, and Nicole Cabell, who makes her lso.co.uk/201516season LSO debut tonight – and to the London Symphony Chorus with our Choral Director Simon Halsey. This performance forms part of LSO Sing, an LSO SINGING DAYS initiative that aims to involve Londoners in choral singing, and follows a Singing Day that took place If tonight’s concert has inspired you to get singing, at LSO St Luke’s on 7 February, which focused on why not join us for a Singing Day at LSO St Luke’s? Duruflé’s Requiem. I am particularly pleased that Led by the LSO’s experienced choral team, these many of the participants who attended this day workshops give you the chance to join a scratch join us in the audience this evening. choir for a day, meet other like-minded people and explore great choral works, including some of Thank you to our media partners Classic FM for their the music that influenced Brahms’ Requiem (9 May) continuing commitment to the LSO. and traditional gospel music (20 June). Enjoy the concert and please join us again as our lso.co.uk/singingdays season continues. On 12 and 15 March, the LSO presents two concerts celebrating the 70th birthday of Principal Guest Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, THE LATEST RELEASE ON LSO LIVE followed by a tour of the West Coast of America. For the latest release on LSO Live, violist Antoine Tamestit and mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill join forces with the LSO for the next instalment of Valery Gergiev’s revelatory Berlioz series, featuring Harold in Italy and the experimental cantata Kathryn McDowell CBE DL The Death of Cleopatra. Managing Director lso.co.uk/lsolive lso.co.uk LSO Sing 3 LSO Sing Highlights in 2015 SINGING DAYS AT LSO ST LUKE’S CHORAL CONCERTS AT THE BARBICAN BRAHMS CONNECTIONS AFRICAN/AMERICAN JOURNEY BRAHMS GERMAN REQUIEM BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO 9 Sat 9 May 2015 11am–4.30pm Sat 20 Jun 2015 10.30am–4.30pm Sun 24 May 7.30pm Sun 21 Jun 7.30pm Ahead of the LSO and LSC’s Come and explore how early traditional Daniel Harding conductor Bernard Haitink conductor performance of Brahms’ German gospel music evolved from African Dorothea Röschmann soprano Erin Wall soprano Requiem, Simon Halsey leads a spirituals and European hymnody. Matthias Goerne baritone Karen Cargill mezzo-soprano workshop on the music that inspired it, Led by David Lawrence, we’ll sing London Symphony Chorus Steve Davislim tenor including works by Schütz, Handel and our way through American soul and Simon Halsey chorus director Hanno Müller-Brachmann Bach, and an early Brahms motet. end up with the contemporary gospel bass-baritone Some sight-singing ability is required. sounds of today. London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director LSO Sing is generously supported by the John S Cohen Foundation, the J Paul Getty Jnr 020 7638 8891 Charitable Trust and Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement lso.co.uk 4 Programme Notes 1 March 2015 Claude Debussy (1862–1918) La damoiselle élue (1887–8) NICOLE CABELL SOPRANO The scene is set by a gently luminous orchestral KELLEY O’CONNOR MEZZO-SOPRANO prelude which unfolds three main leitmotifs – LADIES OF THE LONDON SYMPHONY CHORUS a soft celestial ‘circle’ of rising and falling string SIMON HALSEY CHORUS DIRECTOR chords heard at the very beginning; a flowing theme also in the strings, associated with the Damozel’s PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Debussy came across Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s hope to be soon reunited with her beloved; and JEREMY THURLOW is a composer; poem The Blessed Damozel in a book of modern a supple flute melody evoking the figure of the his music ranges from chamber and English poetry translated into French by Gabriel Damozel herself. orchestral music to video-opera. He won Sarrazin. The depiction of a Christian afterlife filled the George Butterworth Award 2007. with sensual longing was striking, as was the The chorus enters, taking turns with the soloist Author of a book on Dutilleux, he damozel herself, chaste but passionate, with long to act as narrator and describe the scene. The broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, and is a and resplendent hair, a precursor of the future words are sung in a plain, syllabic style somewhere Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge. Mélisande of Maeterlinck’s play and Debussy’s between speech and plainchant, later to become a opera, Pelléas et Mélisande. hallmark of Pelléas et Mélisande. It is not until almost halfway through the work that the soloist takes up DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI Attracted by the poem’s symbolist and Wagnerian the voice of the Damozel herself, singing in a long (1828–82) was an English poet and resonances, Debussy set La damoiselle élue to rhapsodic soliloquy of how she can find no joy in painter, one of the three founders music in 1887–8, not long after cutting short his paradise while her lover remains apart from her on of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. prestigious (but, to him, tedious) four-year stay in earth below. The sentiment of luxurious melancholy Along with his poem The Blessed Rome and returning to Paris. It was first performed captured Debussy’s imagination perfectly: seamless Damozel, first published in 1850, at the Société Nationale in 1893, raising a few and unhurried melodies rise from delicacy to passion he also gave the title to a painting, eyebrows, and not only at the Conservatoire over subtly floating harmonies and sensuous, one of his most famous, which whose top prize had earned him his trip to Rome. shimmering timbres. The young composer had depicts the Damozel in paradise, The fact that Debussy described himself at this found his voice. with her lover below on earth. time as ‘madly Wagnerian’ (he made his first visit to Bayreuth in 1888) certainly leaves its mark on PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE the piece. But Debussy was quick to turn Wagner’s Sat 9 & Sun 10 Jan 2016, Barbican influence to his own ends, and already his own distinctive sound-world is beginning to emerge. Next season, the LSO performs a semi-staged version of Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande, directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. For more information, visit lso.co.uk/201516season lso.co.uk Text 5 Claude Debussy La damoiselle élue: Text LA DAMOISELLE ÉLUE THE BLESSED DAMOZEL Chorus La damoiselle élue s’appuyait The blessed damozel leaned out Sur la barrière du Ciel, From the gold bar of Heaven; Ses yeux étaient plus profonds que l’abîme Her eyes were deeper than the depth Des eaux calmes au soir. Of waters still at even; Elle avait trois lys à la main She had three lilies in her hand, Et sept étoiles dans les cheveux. And the stars in her hair were seven. Narrator Sa robe flottante Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem, N’était point ornée de fleurs brodées, No wrought flowers did adorn, Mais d’une rose blanche, présent de Marie, But a white rose of Mary’s gift, Pour le divin service justement portée; For service meetly worn; Ses cheveux qui tombaient le long de ses épaules, Her hair that lay along her back Étaient jaunes comme le blé mûr. Was yellow like ripe corn. Chorus Autour d’elle des amants Around her, lovers, newly met Nouvellement réunis, ‘Mid deathless love’s acclaims, Répétaient pour toujours, entre eux, Spoke evermore among themselves Leurs nouveaux noms d’extase; Their rapturous new names; Et les âmes, qui montaient à Dieu, And the souls mounting up to God Passaient près d’elle comme de fines flammes. Went by her like thin flames. Narrator Alors, elle s’inclina de nouveau et se pencha And still she bowed herself and stooped En dehors du charme encerclant, Out of the circling charm; Jusqu’à ce que son sein eut échauffé Until her bosom must have made La barrière sur laquelle elle s’appuyait, The bar she leaned on warm, Et que les lys gisent comme endormis And the lilies lay as if asleep Le long de son bras étendu. Along her bended arm. Chorus Le soleil avait disparu, la lune annelée The sun was gone now; the curled moon Était comme une petite plume Was like a little feather Flottant au loin dans l’espace; et voilà Fluttering far down the gulf; and now 6 Text 1 March 2015 Claude Debussy La damoiselle élue: Text continued Qu’elle parla à travers l’air calme, She spoke through the still weather.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Music%2034.Syllabus
    Music 34, Detailed Syllabus INTRODUCTION—January 24 (M) “Half-step over-saturation”—Richard Strauss Music: Salome (scene 1), Morgan 9 Additional reading: Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music, vol. 4 (henceforth RT), (see Reader) 36-48 Musical vocabulary: Tristan progression, augmented chords, 9th chords, semitonal expansion/contraction, master array Recommended listening: more of Salome Recommended reading: Derrick Puffett, Richard Strauss Salome. Cambridge Opera Handbooks (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989) No sections in first week UNIT 1—Jan. 26 (W); Jan. 31 (M) “Half-steplessness”—Debussy Music: Estampes, No. 2 (La Soiré dans Grenade), Morgan 1; “Nuages” from Three Nocturnes (Anthology), “Voiles” from Preludes I (Anthology) Reading: RT 69-83 Musical vocabulary: whole-tone scales, pentatonic scales, parallelism, whole-tone chord, pentatonic chords, center of gravity/symmetry Recommended listening: Three Noctures SECTIONS start UNIT 2—Feb. 2 (W); Feb. 7 (M) “Invariance”—Skryabin Music: Prelude, Op. 35, No. 3; Etude, Op. 56, No. 4, Prelude Op. 74, No. 3, Morgan 21-25. Reading: RT 197-227 Vocabulary: French6; altered chords; Skryabin6; tritone link; “Ecstasy chord,” “Mystic chord”, octatonicism (I) Recommended reading: Taruskin, “Scriabin and the Superhuman,” in Defining Russia Musically: Historical and Hermeneutical Essays (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 308-359 Recommended listening: Poème d’extase; Alexander Krein, Sonata for Piano UNIT 3—Feb. 9 (W); Feb. 14 (M) “Grundgestalt”—Schoenberg I Music: Opus 16, No. 1, No. 5, Morgan 30-45. Reading: RT 321-337, 341-343; Simms: The Atonal Music of Arnold Schoenberg 1908-1923 (excerpt) Vocabulary: atonal triads, set theory, Grundgestalt, “Aschbeg” set, organicism, Klangfarben melodie Recommended reading: Móricz, “Anxiety, Abstraction, and Schoenberg’s Gestures of Fear,” in Essays in Honor of László Somfai on His 70th Birthday: Studies in the Sources and the Interpretation of Music, ed.
    [Show full text]
  • Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Programs, Season 130, 2010-2011
    BOSTON SYM PHONY • 4 ORCH ESTRA MTSP III __ 2010-2011 SEASON WEEK 1 James Levine Music Director Bernard Haitink Conductor Emeritus Seiji Ozawa Music Director Laureate RMES TALE I S, LIFE AS A ^S Table of Contents Week i 15 BSO NEWS 21 ON DISPLAY IN SYMPHONY HALL 22 BSO MUSIC DIRECTOR JAMES LEVINE 24 THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 27 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 33 THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM 35 FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR Notes on the Program 39 Gustav Mahler 57 To Read and Hear More... Guest Artists 61 Layla Claire 62 Karen Cargill 64 Tanglewood Festival Chorus 67 John Oliver 70 SPONSORS AND DONORS 80 FUTURE PROGRAMS 82 SYMPHONY HALL EXIT PLAN 83 SYMPHONY HALL INFORMATION THIS WEEK S PRE-CONCERT TALKS ARE GIVEN BY BSO DIRECTOR OF PROGRAM PUBLICATIONS MARC MANDEL (OCTOBER 8, 12) AND ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF PROGRAM PUBLICATIONS ROBERT KIRZINGER (OCTOBER 7, 9). program copyright ©2010 Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc. design by Hecht Design, Arlington, MA cover photograph by Michael J. Lutch BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02115-4511 (617) 266-1492 bso.org THE JOURNEY TO THE PRIVATE CLOUD STARTS NOW EMC is proud to support the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Learn more atwww.EMC.com/bso. EMC where information lives endary. HARVARD EXTENSION SCHOOL Greek heroes and award-winning faculty. At Harvard Extension School, we have our share of legends. Whether you are interested in ancient mythology or some other awe-inspiring subject, we invite you to check out our evening and online courses.
    [Show full text]
  • Akron Symphony: “American Journey” at E.J. Thomas Hall (September 19) by Daniel Hathaway
    Akron Symphony: “American Journey” at E.J. Thomas Hall (September 19) by Daniel Hathaway Pianist Philip Thomson joined music director Christopher Wilkins and the Akron Symphony Orchestra in a spirited concert on Saturday, September 19 at E.J. Thomas Hall. The “American Journey” began in Mexico with Aaron Copland’s El Salón México, stopped in Texarkana, Texas ​ ​ for Clint Needham’s Southern Air, and traveled to ​ ​ somewhere in the Wild West for Copland’s Rodeo before ​ ​ meeting up with George Gershwin in New York. Gershwin followed his 1924 Rhapsody in Blue a year ​ ​ later with a true concerto for piano and orchestra — the Concerto in F — which paid closer homage to classical ​ forms while taking its melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic cues from American music of the 1920s. Writing in the New York Tribune, the composer noted that the opening ​ movement is based on a Charleston rhythm, the slow movement is “a purer form” of the American blues, and the finale is “an orgy of rhythms, starting violently, and keeping the same pace throughout.” Longtime University of Akron piano professor Philip Thomson embraced the classical and contemporary elements of the concerto with equal enthusiasm, contributing ​ ​ technically brilliant and soulful playing throughout the engaging work. Wilkins and the orchestra wrapped colorful orchestral textures around Thomson’s fine fingerwork. The string section sounded full and vibrant, and soloists — especially principal trumpet Scott Johnston, English hornist Mary Kausek, and concertmaster Alan Bodman — added lusciously to the piano­orchestral conversation. The perpetual motion finale was as precise as it was thrilling. Copland’s El Sálon México was inspired by his visit to a seedy, south­of­the­border ​ ​ nightclub in 1932, his 1942 Rodeo by the success of a previous “cowboy ballet,” Billy the ​ ​ ​ Kid, in 1938.
    [Show full text]
  • Folk Roots, Urban Roots
    Thursday 13 December 2018 7.30–9.55pm Barbican Hall LSO SEASON CONCERT FOLK ROOTS, URBAN ROOTS Bartók Hungarian Peasant Songs Szymanowski Harnasie Interval Stravinsky Ebony Concerto Osvaldo Golijov arr Gonzalo Grau Nazareno Bernstein Prelude, Fugue and Riffs ROOTS & Sir Simon Rattle conductor Edgaras Montvidas tenor Chris Richards clarinet Katia and Marielle Labèque pianos Gonzalo Grau percussion Raphaël Séguinier percussion London Symphony Chorus ORIGINS Simon Halsey chorus director In celebration of the life of Jeremy Delmar-Morgan Streamed live on youtube.com/lso Recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast on Tuesday 18 December Welcome Jeremy Delmar-Morgan In Memory 1941–2018 We are also delighted to welcome Katia and Jeremy Delmar-Morgan was a member of Marielle Labèque, who perform Nazareno, the LSO Advisory Council for over 20 years, a double piano suite drawn from Osvaldo a Director of LSO Ltd from 2002 to 2013, and Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marco, thereafter a Trustee of the LSO Endowment arranged by Gonzalo Grau, who appears Trust. He was also Honorary President of alongside Raphaël Séguinier as one of this the Ronald Moore Sickness and Benevolent evening’s percussion soloists. We then close Fund, where he brought invaluable advice with Prelude, Fugue and Riffs by the LSO’s to the LSO musicians on the investment former President, Leonard Bernstein, with strategy for the fund. After studying LSO Principal Clarinet Chris Richards as soloist. medicine at Cambridge he went into the City for a career in stock-broking, latterly elcome to this LSO concert at Tonight’s concert is performed in combining the two in the financing of the Barbican.
    [Show full text]
  • Hèléne Grimaud, Piano Program Notes Berio
    Hèléne Grimaud, piano Program Notes Berio: Wasserklavier from Six Encores Wasserklavier (Water Piano, 1965) by Italian composer Luciano Berio (1925-2003) serves as a graceful dive into a diverse program of pieces all about water. Like many of Berio’s works, it references music from the past. Here, motifs from Brahms mix with hints of Schubert. Even as the music reaches ever higher toward the quiet climax—the entire piece is incredibly quiet—a repeated, descending motif drips downward, and the ending is left intentionally ambiguous. Liszt: St François de Paule marchant sur les flots Les Jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este Though he made a name for himself as a demonically virtuosic pianist, late in life Franz Liszt (1811-1886) retreated into his Catholic faith. He spent two years living in a monastery outside Rome, where Pope Pius IX visited him and performed a Bellini aria with Liszt accompanying at the piano. Liszt in turn premiered for the Pontiff his recent religiously inspired work, St. Francis of Paola Walking on the Waters (1863). Legend has it that St. Francis of Paola, Liszt’s patron saint, was turned away trying to cross the Straits of Messina, for want of the fare. “If he is a saint, let him walk,” declared the scornful boatman. So St. Francis lifted up his cloak, which lofted like a sail and bore him safely to the other side. The surging waters roil in the left hand underneath a hymn-like theme that represents the saint. As a stately, solemn conclusion, Liszt quotes a passage from a choral work he had written also as a devotion to the saint, reusing music that sets the words “O let us preserve Love whole.” The composer explained that the story and his musical setting are meant to extol “the law of faith, which governs the laws of nature.” In 1867, Liszt accepted an invitation from a Roman Cardinal to visit the Villa d’Este, a 16th- century palace some twelve miles from Rome, perched on the site of a former Benedictine monastery.
    [Show full text]
  • 1) Aspects of the Musical Careers of Grieg, Debussy and Ravel
    Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Biographical issues and a comparison of their string quartets Juliette L. Appold I. Grieg, Debussy and Ravel – Biographical aspects II. Connections between Grieg, Debussy and Ravel III. Observations on their string quartets I. Grieg, Debussy and Ravel – Biographical aspects Looking at the biographies of Grieg, Debussy and Ravel makes us realise, that there are few, yet some similarities in the way their career as composers were shaped. In my introductory paragraph I will point out some of these aspects. The three composers received their first musical training in their childhood, between the age of six (Grieg) and nine (Debussy) (Ravel was seven). They all entered the conservatory in their early teenage years (Debussy was 10, Ravel 14, Grieg 15 years old) and they all had more or less difficult experiences when they seriously thought about a musical career. In Grieg’s case it happened twice in his life. Once, when a school teacher ridiculed one of his first compositions in front of his class-mates.i The second time was less drastic but more subtle during his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory until 1862.ii Grieg had despised the pedagogical methods of some teachers and felt that he did not improve in his composition studies or even learn anything.iii On the other hand he was successful in his piano-classes with Carl Ferdinand Wenzel and Ignaz Moscheles, who had put a strong emphasis on the expression in his playing.iv Debussy and Ravel both were also very good piano players and originally wanted to become professional pianists.
    [Show full text]
  • Berlioz's Les Nuits D'été
    Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été - A survey of the discography by Ralph Moore The song cycle Les nuits d'été (Summer Nights) Op. 7 consists of settings by Hector Berlioz of six poems written by his friend Théophile Gautier. Strictly speaking, they do not really constitute a cycle, insofar as they are not linked by any narrative but only loosely connected by their disparate treatment of the themes of love and loss. There is, however, a neat symmetry in their arrangement: two cheerful, optimistic songs looking forward to the future, frame four sombre, introspective songs. Completed in 1841, they were originally for a mezzo-soprano or tenor soloist with a piano accompaniment but having orchestrated "Absence" in 1843 for his lover and future wife, Maria Recio, Berlioz then did the same for the other five in 1856, transposing the second and third songs to lower keys. When this version was published, Berlioz specified different voices for the various songs: mezzo-soprano or tenor for "Villanelle", contralto for "Le spectre de la rose", baritone (or, optionally, contralto or mezzo) for "Sur les lagunes", mezzo or tenor for "Absence", tenor for "Au cimetière", and mezzo or tenor for "L'île inconnue". However, after a long period of neglect, in their resurgence in modern times they have generally become the province of a single singer, usually a mezzo-soprano – although both mezzos and sopranos sometimes tinker with the keys to ensure that the tessitura of individual songs sits in the sweet spot of their voices, and transpositions of every song are now available so that it can be sung in any one of three - or, in the case of “Au cimetière”, four - key options; thus, there is no consistency of keys across the board.
    [Show full text]
  • Claude Debussy in 2018: a Centenary Celebration Abstracts and Biographies
    19-23/03/18 CLAUDE DEBUSSY IN 2018: A CENTENARY CELEBRATION ABSTRACTS AND BIOGRAPHIES Claude Debussy in 2018: A Centenary Celebration Abstracts and Biographies I. Debussy Perspectives, 1918-2018 RNCM, Manchester Monday, 19 March Paper session A: Debussy’s Style in History, Conference Room, 2.00-5.00 Chair: Marianne Wheeldon 2.00-2.30 – Mark DeVoto (Tufts University), ‘Debussy’s Evolving Style and Technique in Rodrigue et Chimène’ Claude Debussy’s Rodrigue et Chimène, on which he worked for two years in 1891-92 before abandoning it, is the most extensive of more than a dozen unfinished operatic projects that occupied him during his lifetime. It can also be regarded as a Franco-Wagnerian opera in the same tradition as Lalo’s Le Roi d’Ys (1888), Chabrier’s Gwendoline (1886), d’Indy’s Fervaal (1895), and Chausson’s Le Roi Arthus (1895), representing part of the absorption of the younger generation of French composers in Wagner’s operatic ideals, harmonic idiom, and quasi-medieval myth; yet this kinship, more than the weaknesses of Catulle Mendès’s libretto, may be the real reason that Debussy cast Rodrigue aside, recognising it as a necessary exercise to be discarded before he could find his own operatic voice (as he soon did in Pelléas et Mélisande, beginning in 1893). The sketches for Rodrigue et Chimène shed considerable light on the evolution of Debussy’s technique in dramatic construction as well as his idiosyncratic approach to tonal form. Even in its unfinished state — comprising three out of a projected four acts — the opera represents an impressive transitional stage between the Fantaisie for piano and orchestra (1890) and the full emergence of his genius, beginning with the String Quartet (1893) and the Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune (1894).
    [Show full text]
  • Simon O'neill ONZM
    Simon O’Neill ONZM Tenor “Simon O'Neill made a tremendous debut in the title-role, giving notice that he is the best heroic tenor to emerge over the last decade.” Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, UK. A native of New Zealand, Simon O’Neill is one of the finest helden-tenors on the international stage. He has frequently performed with the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Berlin, Hamburg and Bayerische Staatsopern, Teatro alla Scala and the Bayreuth, Salzburg, Edinburgh and BBC Proms Festivals, appearing with a number of illustrious conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, James Levine, Riccardo Muti, Valery Gergiev, Sir Antonio Pappano, Pietari Inkinen, Pierre Boulez, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Colin Davis, Simone Young, Edo de Waart, Fabio Luisi, Donald Runnicles, Sir Simon Rattle, Jaap Van Zweden and Christian Thielemann. Simon’s performances as Siegmund in Die Walküre at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Pappano, Teatro alla Scala and Berlin Staatsoper with Barenboim, at the Metropolitan Opera with Runnicles in the celebrated Otto Schenk production returning with Luisi in the Lepage Ring Cycle and in the Götz Friedrich production at Deutsche Oper Berlin with Rattle were performed to wide critical acclaim. He was described in the international press as "an exemplary Siegmund, terrific of voice", "THE Wagnerian tenor of his generation" and "a turbo-charged tenor". During this season’s engagements Simon makes his debut at: Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony and Andris Nelsons and the Toronto Symphony with Sir Andrew Davis and Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana with Henrik Nánási as Siegmund in concert performances of Die Walküre.
    [Show full text]
  • The Development of English Choral Style in Two Early Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Connecticut College Digital Commons @ Connecticut College Music Department Honors Papers Music Department 1-1-2011 The evelopmeD nt of English Choral Style in Two Early Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams Currie Huntington Connecticut College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/musichp Recommended Citation Huntington, Currie, "The eD velopment of English Choral Style in Two Early Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams" (2011). Music Department Honors Papers. Paper 2. http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/musichp/2 This Honors Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Music Department at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Music Department Honors Papers by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author. THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH CHORAL STYLE IN TWO EARLY WORKS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS An Honors Thesis presented by Currie Huntington to the Department of Music at Connecticut College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in the Major Field and for the Concentration in Historical Musicology Connecticut College New London, Connecticut May 5th, 2011 ABSTRACT The late 19th century was a time when England was seen from the outside as musically unoriginal. The music community was active, certainly, but no English composer since Handel had reached the level of esteem granted the leading continental composers. Leading up to the turn of the 20th century, though, the early stages of a musical renaissance could be seen, with the rise to prominence of Charles Stanford and Hubert Parry, followed by Elgar and Delius.
    [Show full text]
  • De Claude Debussy -De L’Aube À Midi [Extraits]- Tous Cycles
    L'oeuvre musicale du mois octobre 2009 Principe : Découvrir chaque mois une oeuvre musicale ou un instrument pour : − favoriser l'ouverture culturelle des élèves − soutenir une séquence de travail en éducation musicale − s'approprier des éléments du lexique en musique « La Mer » de Claude Debussy -De l’aube à midi [extraits]- Tous Cycles L’œuvre : « La Mer » est datée de 1905. C’est une des compositions pour orchestre les plus célèbres de Debussy avec le « Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune ». Claude Debussy (1862-1918) est un musicien français qui a développé un langage très personnel, basé sur des recherches de sonorités particulières. Il a été impressionné par les musiques extra- européennes entendues à l’Exposition Universelle de 1889 à Paris. Il s’est libéré de l’influence de la musique de Wagner. Tant sur le plan historique que musical, les points de vue français et allemand étaient opposés. Et Debussy se faisait alors appeler « Claude de France ». Les oeuvres de Debussy témoignent d’un goût original pour les couleurs harmoniques subtiles, rares et délicates, pleines de mystère. A travers sa musique, Debussy ne cherche pas à décrire mais souhaite nous faire partager des impressions qui lui ont plu. Sa musique est souvent construite par superpositions de fines touches sonores et associations de couleurs instrumentales qui laissent des impressions auditives au goût délicieusement étrange. Avec Ravel et Fauré, il a participé au renouveau de la musique française du début du XXe siècle. Debussy a commencé à composer « La Mer » alors qu’il séjournait en Bourgogne. A propos de sa musique, il écrit alors à Massenet, un ami musicien : « …cela pourrait bien ressembler aux paysages d’atelier, mais j’ai d’innombrables souvenirs ; cela vaut mieux à mon sens qu’une réalité dont le charme pèse généralement trop lourd sur votre pensée.» Toutefois, peu de temps après, il retrouvera les rivages marins au cours de vacances à Jersey et à Dieppe, avant de finir sa composition.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Program Notes
    Notes on the Program By James M. Keller, Program Annotator, The Leni and Peter May Chair Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) Nocturnes Claude Debussy laude Debussy achieved his musical produced. This work is too exquisite, alas! It Cmaturity in the final decade of the 19th is too exquisite.” century, a magical moment in France when partisans of the visual arts fully embraced the gentle luster of Impressionism, poets navi- In Short gated the indirect locutions of Symbolism, Born: August 22, 1862, in Saint-Germain- composers struggled with the pluses and mi- en-Laye, just outside Paris, France nuses of Wagner, and the City of Light blazed Died: March 25, 1918, in Paris even more brightly than usual, enflamed with the pleasures of the Belle Époque. Works composed and premiered: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune begun in 1892 — Several early Debussy masterpieces of perhaps as early as 1891 — and completed the 1890s have lodged in the repertoire, by October 23, 1894; premiered December 22, including, most strikingly, the Prélude à 1894, at a concert of the Société Nationale de l’après-midi d’un faune. Debussy was hardly Musique in Paris, Gustave Doret, conductor. a youngster when he composed it. He had Nocturnes composed 1897–99, drawing on begun studying at the Paris Conservatoire material sketched as early as 1892; dedicated to in 1872, when he was only ten; had served the music publisher Georges Hartmann; Nuages as resident pianist and musical pet for Na- and Fêtes premiered on December 9, 1900, dezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky’s myste- at the Concerts Lamoureux in Paris, Camille rious patron, in Russia and on her travels Chevillard, conductor; the complete three- during the summers of 1880–82; had finally movement Noctunes was premiered on October 27, 1901, by the same orchestra and conductor.
    [Show full text]