Central City Chorus

entral city chorus Central Presbyterian Church 593 Park Avenue, New York City Tu e s d ay, Ma rc h 30, 1999, 7 pm Via crucis Franz Liszt 1811–1886 Introduction Station 1 Jesus is condemned to death Station 2 Jesus takes up his cross Station 3 Jesus falls for the first time Station 4 Jesus meets his holy mother Station 5 Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry his cross Station 6 Saint Veronica Station 7 Jesus falls for the second time Station 8 The women of Jerusalem Station 9 Jesus falls for the third time Station 10 Jesus is undressed Station 11 Jesus is nailed to the cross Station 12 Jesus dies on the cross Station 13 Jesus is taken down from the cross Station 14 Jesus is laid in the tomb Meditations compiled by The Rev. Dr. Thomas Hughart Interval Stabat Mater Franz Liszt from Christus Joan Eubank Phyllis Jo Kubey soprano mezzo-soprano David Vanderwal Anthony Turner tenor baritone Robert Frisch Jonathan Oblander narrator organist David Friddle, conductor for Him, and the yearning of our souls for His love. That is Notes on the Program enough for me, and I ask nothing more to remain a believer until my dying breath.” ranz Liszt (1811–86) continues to be one of the most Liszt’s job at Weimar kept him busy both composing fascinating personalities of the nineteenth century. He and producing music, especially the new, the innovative in Fwas the ultimate performer, a brilliant, lionized, larger- music, which he championed. He revised his earlier pieces than-life virtuoso, yet he remained a deeply religious man of for piano; he developed a new orchestral form, the his time. Liszt recognized this disparity when he described Symphonic Poem; and he actively promoted the then little- himself as “half-gypsy and half-Franciscan friar,” and, regret- known operas of Richard Wagner. It was in Weimar, too, that tably, it is the “gypsy” that has often come to dominate the Liszt began to compose his long series of sacred choral popular image of the man, what with his disregard of con- works. ventional behavior, his great charisma, and his irresistible This activity continued when he moved to Rome to join effect on women. In the long run, however, it was the Princess Carolyne, since she hoped that he would distinguish “Franciscan” that counted most. himself as a composer of sacred music. It was in Rome that Liszt matured in Paris at a time when liberal reli- he also formalized his relation to the Catholic Church— gious thinkers based their hopes for the future in at least to some extent; in 1865 he received the a broader, more humanistic religion; that is, a tonsure and the four minor orders of the priest- faith rooted not so much in dogma as in hood. Even if these minor orders imposed no the sufferings, heart and aspirations of lasting obligation, they allowed him to use humanity itself. Young Liszt, who had the title Abbé and wear a black cassock, a once thought of becoming a priest, style he affected for the rest of his life. took the new faith enthusiastically Eventually, in the last decade of his life, to heart and wrote an impas- Liszt became something of a wander- sioned, idealistic essay on Religious er, dividing his time among Weimar Music of the Future. Such music, he (where he held his famous piano said, was to be a “new music,” an master classes), Budapest (where he expression of“all classes of people” supervised the Music Academy), that would “sum up the theatre and the Eternal City. and the churchon a colossal scale;” All told, Liszt’s abiding religious a religious music that was “both instincts manifested themselves not dramatic and sacred, stately and only in his instrumental pieces (such simple, moving and solemn, fiery as the Benediction of God in Solitude or St. and unruly, tempestuous yet calm, Francis Preaching to the Birds he wrote for serene and gentle.” (How else to sum piano) but more especially in the sixty up the emotions of humankind?) plus sacred choral works he composed in But Liszt, at 24, had little chance to the last three decades or so of his life. His realize his ideal. Putting his religious feelings efforts cover the full spectrum of church music: on hold instead, he had an affair with the married including four wonderfully diverse masses and a Countess Marie d’Agoult, sired three children, and then set requiem, two full-scale oratorios (St. Elizabeth and Christus), off on a decade-long, whirlwind tour of Europe. The excite- several dozen motets (usually to Latin texts), six psalm set- ment his persona and piano virtuosity generated were so tings, as well as hymns and prayers. unprecedented that poet Heinrich Heine had to coin a new Diverse as they may be, these works are all rooted in word to describe it—Lisztomania. Liszt’s intensely held personal faith coupled with his early Before long, however, Liszt still in his mid-thirties retired and ever-present idealism. He did his best to give the faithful from the concert stage and settled down as Music Director a music that went beyond pious platitudes to reflect the total- at Weimar, the small Thuringian capital where Goethe had ity of human emotions and aspirations. The pieces are not all lived and worked. His new companion during these years masterpieces by any means, yet even the best of them had was a Polish noblewoman, Princess Carolyne Sayn- trouble establishing themselves in the repertory. The reason Wittgenstein. As she was something of a super-religious basically is that Liszt’s idea of the sacred can sometimes be devotee, there is little doubt that she helped revivify Liszt’s unconventional; not exactly the style nor the sound that own religious sentiments, sentiments that led to the highly Sunday worshippers expected to hear in church. Innovative personal avowal he made in a letter to her: “Even if it were and highly individual, his sacred pieces presuppose an open established that all the metaphysical proofs supporting the mind and ear, which is perhaps easier to achieve these days existence of God were nullified by philosophical arguments, than it was in Liszt’s day. one absolutely invincible truth would always endure, the —Charles Suttoni affirmation of God by our lamentations, the need we have 2 ia crucis, which dates from 1878–79, is one of Liszt’s iszt received the initial inspiration for Christus while most interesting sacred works. The texts of the four- working in Weimar as the Grand Ducal Director of teen movements, correlated to the Roman Catholic Music Extraordinary, and completed it in 1866 in fi L Stations of the Cross, were compiled by Liszt’s ancée— Rome. Liszt hoped that his sacred music would “express reli- Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein. The work is harmonically gious absorption, Catholic devotion and exaltation … austere and it effectively breaks down traditional notions of Where words cannot suffice to convey the feeling, music harmonic theory. Using whole tone scales and augmented gives them wings and transfigures them.” triads, Liszt paints an aural picture of each station. Opening Christus is in three parts: Christmas Oratorio, a collec- with the Latin hymn Ve x i l l a reg i s , he points to the central dra- tion of scenes from the life of Christ, and Passion and matic role of the cross. He also includes fragments of the Resurrection. The first part, the Christmas section, is based sacred hymn Ave crux, spes unica throughout the work. on Latin hymns and is pastoral in character. The Beatitudes Liszt effectively employs the organ as a surrogate orches- opens the second part of the work and was written in 1855. tra, providing great latitude in choosing sounds for each The third part begins with the Tristis est anima mea (My soul movement; the clues, though, are definitely included in the is sad) for baritone and orchestra. Next comes tonight’s score. In Station 2, where Jesus takes up his cross, the slow, Stabat mater, followed by O Filii et Filiæ (O Sons and ponderous, and heavy quarter note rhythm denotes the Daughters) and Resurrexit, which closes this powerful and plodding footsteps of Jesus as he begins his sad journey. monumental work. Later, when Jesus encounters Simon of Cyrene in b œ œ#œ œ œ œ. œœ. œ œ œœœ Station 5, Liszt employs a different kind of rhythmic pat- œ œ œ œ œ œ. œ. œ œœ. tern—stumbling—emphasized by off-beat syncopation. Above this tripping motive is a plaintive solo voice, haunting The Latin hymn Stabat mater figures prominently in in its pain and loneliness. After an interlude in which Simon both the Via crucis and Christus. Liszt divides the lengthy comforts Jesus, the steady rhythmic pattern returns, indicat- hymn (ten stanzas of six lines each, written by the Italian ing that Simon has taken up Jesus’ cross. poet Jacopone da Todi—author of Respighi’s Lauda per la Interestingly, in both sections where the cross is being Natività del Signore) into two main sections. Following the out- carried (at least aurally) there is a curious compositional line provided in the poem, Liszt begins a quasi recapitulation device: a long cantus firmus-like motive. On first hearing, one with stanza seven: “Make me weep lovingly with you To could hardly distinguish it from any plainsong; careful suffer with the crucified As long as I will live.” inspection, however, reveals that the motive is the famous Overall there are ten major themes in this movement, B-A-C-Hn motive.

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