Arthur Rubinstein Centenary Concert
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ARTHUR RUBINSTEIN CENTENARY CONCERT 25th January, 1987 lîîfe, ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL ' X Sunday 25th January 1987 at 7.30 p.m. INSTITUTE FOR POLISH-JEWISH STUDIES, OXFORD In association with the Royal Academy of Music presents ARTHUR RUBINSTEIN CENTENARY CONCERT in the presence of HRH The Princess of Wales POLISH REQUIEM KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI (First performance in Great Britain) BBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Leader: BELA DEKANY BBC SYMPHONY SINGERS BBC SYMPHONY CHORUS Mariana Nicolesco soprano Christine Cairns mezzo-soprano Wieslaw Ochman tenor Kurt Rydl bass H.R.H. THE PRINCESS OF WALES Principal Guest: Mrs. Arthur Rubinstein Honorary Management: Victor Hochhäuser CHRISTINE CAIRNS was bom in Ayrshire, Scotland. She studied violin and singing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. Whilst at the Academy, she won several major awards. Since then she has enjoyed a very busy concert schedule both at home and abroad, with engagements ranging from recital performances of Elgar's Sea Pictures and the Brahms Alto Rhapsody. She has appeared in opera at La Scala, Milan and at the Edinburgh Festival, which won her great critical acclaim. Recent operatic engagements include Bridget in Colomba by Kenneth Leighton and Cherubino in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro at the Perth Festival. Christine Cairns had a very successful debut in Los Angeles where she gave a performance of Britten's Spring Symphony with André Previn. She returns this autumn to work with them in performances of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky and Handel's Messiah and, next season, she makes her debut in Paris with the Ensemble Intercontemporain. MARIANA NICOLESCO. Among today's most highly acclaimed young leading sopranos, Rumanian bom Mariana Nicolesco has won renown for her performances at the world’s leading opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York. La Scala in Milan, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Lyric Opera in Chicago and the opera houses of Hamburg, Munich, Barcelona and Florence. Her vast repertory includes the roles of Desdemona, Leonora. Mimi, Liu, Violetta, Marguerite, Manon, Tatiana. Donna Elvira as well as the great bel canto roles such as Maria Stuarda, Beatrice di Tenda and Anna Bolena. As well as the classic lyric repertory, which she has sung in all five continents, Miss Nicolesco took part in the world premiere of Luciano Berio's La Vera Storia at La Scala in 1982. Amongst performances in 1986 have been Penderecki’s Requiem at the Carnegie Hall in New York and in Boston, Berio’s Un Re in Ascolto at the Scala conducted by Maazel, Ravel’s cantatas in concerts at the Musikverein in Vienna and Don Giovanni with Munich Opera, and further performances of Pagliacci with the Metropolitan Opera. KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI, one of Poland's Bologna, Venice, and at the festivals of Bergen, WIESLAW OCHMAN has performed in all great opera houses of the foremost living composers and one of the most Flanders, Florence, Goteborg, Helsinki, Moscow and world including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, dynamic creative musicians of his generation is also a Warsaw. Bolshoi in Moscow, Great Theatre in Warsaw, Opera Houses in Hamburg. celebrated conductor. His Symphony No. 2, written at Bom in Debica, Poland, in 1933, Krzysztof Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Festivals in Salzburg and Orange. He has sung in the request ofZubin Mehta and dedicated to him, was Penderecki studied composition at the State College of concerts with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras and in the given its world premiere by the New York Music in Cracow. He graduated with honours in 1958 Royal Albert Hall in London. He has recorded for Polskie Nagrania, Muza- Philharmonic in 1980. Many of his works reflect the and, since 1972, has held the position of rector of the Veriton, Polydor International DGG, EMI. under Karl Bohm, Herbert von tragic and heroic events of history and Mr. Penderecki Music Academy in Cracow. He studied composition Karajan. Eugen Jochum, Claudio Abbado, Rafael Kubelik and others. has been called "the musical personification of with F. Skolyszeswski, A. Malawski, and S. He has taken part in films for television and has frequently recorded for Poland". Krzysztof Penderecki frequently conducts Wiechowicz. In 1959, he rose to prominence virtually radio. His repertoire covers operatic, oratorio and chamber music. performances of his compositions world-wide and, overnight when he was awarded the three top prizes during the past four years, has appeared with the in the Youth Circle of the Association of Polish Berlin Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra of Composers competition for his Emanations for string Leipzig, Orchestre de Paris. Munich Philharmonic, orchestra, Strophes for soprano, narrator, and ten Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio, and the instruments, and Psalms of David for chorus and KURT RYDL was bom in Vienna in 1947 and studied singing in Vienna BBC Symphony Orchestra. Other guest conducting percussion. His vast artistic output includes operas, and Moscow. In 1971, he won first prize in the Vinas Competition in engagements included appearances in Palermo, concertos, cantatas, oratorios and chamber music. Barcelona and, in 1972, was the second prizewinner in the Grand Prix du Chant in Paris. Since his first engagement in Linz in 1972, he has appeared at many of the world's leading Festivals, including Bayreuth, Lyon and Salzburg. He has appeared under the baton of Bernstein, Bohm, Dohnanyi, Karajan, Maazel, Sawallisch, Solti, Muti, Sinopoli and others in most ofthe famous opera houses of Europe and the United States. He has also made recordings with these conductors. His repertoire includes over 60 major roles sung in Italian, French, Russian and German, in 40 of which he has appeared at the Vienna State Opera. as that of his earlier works. This is not to suggest that he Kennedy Center concerts of 1983, in celebration of turned his back on his earlier style: there are elements of it in Penderecki's 50th birthday. The "Agnus Dei. Quid sum KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI (b. 1933) several of his recent works, though the overall character is miser. Rex tremendae, Recordare, Ingemisco, Preces meae, more in keeping with the change described here, and this is Confutatis and Lacrimosa were performed on that occasion. true of the Polish Requiem in particular. The world premiere of the completed work, now POLISH REQUIEM Having made himself a national symbol in his personal comprising 14 sections, was given in Stuttgart on and musical outspokenness, Penderecki acknowledges that September 28. 1984. religious and political feelings have played a part in (At the time of the Stuttgart premiere Penderecki told an stimulating his creative energies, but he maintains that they interviewer why he h?d chosen Stugttgart for the event. He have been less important than certain broader moral and had earlier accepted a commission from the Württemberg philosophical considerations. Several years ago he declared; State Opera and the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra for an opera "1 am a Catholic, but membership in a given church is not onjarry's UbuRoi-. it was something he genuinely wanted to really the point; it is rather that 1 am very much concerned do, but for some reason he simply could not get started. with these topics... in an essential moral and social way, not When he conceived the Polish Requiem, he offered its in either a political or a sectarian religious way". premiere to Stuttgart in lieu of the opera, and extended the This outlook is an amplification of Penderecki's identity as option on Ubu Roi as well. "I agreed the more readily", he a Polish composer unrestricted by any narrow interpretation said, "because I had complete faith in Stuttgart and even, I of “nationalism", and it is not in conflict with his religious suppose, a warm spot in my heart, for it was there that the convictions. "I have always been a religious person", he failure, two days earlier in Hamburg, of my Devils of Loudun says. "Two-thirds of my earlier works are religious, and had been redeemed by a magnificent and triumphal Requiem (Lento) and Kyrie (Lento molto) production, there that the first European performance of Dies Irae very fashionable. I feel it is especially important to have s radise Lost had been staged, and there that festivals of Rex tremendae (Adagio meno mosso) affirmation now, and I am happy that now many Polish I music had been organised ...") Dies Irae (Vivo) composers are writing sacred and Biblical-inspired must Of the 14 sections of the completed work, the first five - Tuba Mirum (Maestoso) Recordare, Jesu pie (Lento - Maestoso) What I predicted in my music has been fulfilled now; th; aetemam, Kyrie, Dies irae, Tuba mirum. Mors Mors stupebit (Maestoso - Vivo) Ingemisco tanquam reus (Allegro assai) church has never been so strong in our history. I feel, tc nd the last three Lux aetema, Libera me, Finale Quid sum miser (Andante) Lacrimosa (Lento) that the listener need not be a Catholic, or even a religious posed in 1984. (Even now, after producing what agards as the "definitive version" of the Polish Agnus Dei after all, is a personal expression, and the form is wha . Penderecki advises that he is considering a further composer selects to convey his thoughts and feelings" n the form of a long orchestral Adagio to follow the Lux Aetema (Lento) The Te Deum (1981) stands apart from Pend unaccompanied Agnus Dei.) Ubera me, Domine (Lento espressivo con sostenuto - Vivace - Allegro assai) I of further specific memorials, it may be noted that shows the new t; rdare for solo quartet, chorus and orchestra is Finale (Recitativo - Lento) that he had by th memory of Father Maximilian Kolbe, the compositions; in the second place, o in 1941 gave his own life for that of ascension of the first Polish Pope (] r at Auschwitz.