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De Profundis: out of the Depths

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De Profundis: out of the Depths Thursday Evening, May 2, 2019, at 7:00 Isaac Stern Auditorium / Ronald O. Perelman Stage and Present DE PROFUNDIS: OUT OF THE DEPTHS LEON BOTSTEIN, Conductor Performance #123: Season 4, Concert 29 VIRGIL THOMSON De Profundis (1920, rev. 1951) (1896–1989) JOACHIM RAFF De Profundis, Psalm 130, Op. 141 (1868) (1822–82) NYC Premiere Introduction: Andante De Profundis: Andante con moto Si iniquitates: Andantino Quia apud te: Allegretto A custodia matutina: Andante con moto Et ipse redimet: Allegro ELIZABETH DE TREJO, Soprano Intermission PLEASE SWITCH OFF YOUR CELL PHONES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES. 05-05 Orchestra Now.indd 1 4/18/19 4:04 PM LERA AUERBACH De Profundis, Concerto for Violin and (B. 1973) Orchestra No. 3 (2015) NYC Premiere Andante sognando Allegro marcato Adagio pesante VADIM REPIN, Violin LILI BOULANGER Psalm 130: Du fond de l’abîme (1893–1918) (De Profundis) (1914–17) ELIZABETH DE TREJO, Soprano SEAN FALLEN, Tenor BARD FESTIVAL CHORALE JAMES BAGWELL, Choral Director This evening’s concert will run approximately 2 hours and 35 minutes including one 20-minute intermission. PSALM 130: DE PROFUNDIS Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice: O, let Thine ear consider well the voice of my complaint. If Thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O, Lord who may abide it? For there is mercy with Thee, therefore, shalt Thou be feared. I look for the Lord, my soul doth wait for Him. In His word is my trust. My soul fleeth after the Lord before the morning watch, I say before the morning watch. O, Israel, trust in the Lord, for with Him there is mercy, And with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his sins. 05-05 Orchestra Now.indd 2 4/18/19 4:04 PM Notes ON THE MUSIC VIRGIL THOMSON’S De Profundis MATT DINE MATT the U.S. he established himself in New York City and stayed there for the rest of his life. He lived with his partner, Maurice Grosser, in the Chelsea Hotel, a center of cultural activity. An American Style Thomson was key in the development of an American style of classical music. His use of hymns is a characteristic trait, as it is in the music of Charles Ives, but Thomson stayed as close to tonality as possible. He wrote music for movies and documentaries, perhaps most famously Pare Lorentz’s The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936). His style utilized popular TON’¯¯ s Guillermo García Cuesta on songs, hymns, and a new way of orches- Virgil Thomson’s De Profundis trating. Thomson could also be a contro- versial author, writing about hot topics, A Religious Beginning like the suffragette Susan B. Anthony in Virgil Thomson was born in Kansas his opera The Mother of Us All, and in- City, Missouri. He grew up in a reli- cluding a tango ballet in Four Saints in gious environment and was very famil- Three Acts, which premiered with an all- iar with the Latter-day Saint movement. black cast. He learned piano with the organist of the Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, De Profundis and went on to play organ there him- Tonight we will listen to his choral self. All this would eventually influence work De Profundis, the Psalm 130. I his style, since hymns were in his DNA. don’t know this as a fact, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had chosen this Psalm From Paris to New York after the famous letter “De Profundis,” Thomson lived in Paris from 1925 to which Oscar Wilde wrote while impris- 1940 and studied for a while with Nadia oned for being homosexual. Thomson Boulanger. He was acquainted with the received a copy of that letter as a birth- group of influential composers there day gift when he was 17-years-old and known as Les Six. When he returned to he kept it for the rest of his life. 05-05 Orchestra Now.indd 3 4/18/19 4:04 PM JOACHIM RAFF’S De Profundis, Psalm 130, Op. 141 MATT DINE MATT ing with Liszt, Raff decided to leave and successfully established his own ca- reer as a composer. Even after the split Liszt always approached discussions of Raff with supportive, fatherly intent. De Profundis seems to have played a role in mild reconciliation between the two composers, highlighting a change in Raff after the war—a tip of the hat to Liszt’s wish for him to explore and write in a more religious style. In the words of his daughter, Helene Raff: It is “worshipfully dedicated to Franz Liszt.” Since Vienna (1862) Raff overcame his nature, his distrustful TON’¯¯ s Emily Buehler on Joachim Raff’s bitterness that had grown in him… De Profundis, Psalm 130, Op. 141 Liszt with his familiar personality is supposed to have made certain re- De Profundis marks regarding Raff in 1856 or 1857 Written for soprano, small choir, which Raff discovered…Through the and orchestra, Joachim Raff’s 1868 dedication of the De Profundis, Raff De Profundis, Op. 141 is a setting showed that the old personal devo- of Psalm 130: “Out of the depths, Oh tion survived despite everyday dis- Lord, have I cried unto thee.” Raff had agreements…Liszt took pleasure in multiple notable compositions including the dedication and in the work; in a the patriotic Germany’s Resurrection letter to the Princess Sayn-Wittgen- and his version of Sleeping Beauty, stein (Liszt’s long-time companion) which was, in the opinion of Franz he mentions it as an important work. Liszt, some of his best musical writing. A Re-discovery Raff’s Relationship with Liszt Once popular among festivals and Raff left Weimar for Wiesbaden in orchestras, Raff’s De Profundis is no 1856, creating a somewhat bitter rift longer widely performed. According to between him and Liszt, amidst an al- Helene, one of the last performances of ready complicated relationship. The two its time was after Raff’s death, at the composers had blurred lines between city church of Weimar. This piece has roles of apprentice and partner. Raff was since been performed in Europe, but to- unclear of his position with Liszt, while day will be the NYC premiere. Liszt was clear on the idea that Raff was his protégé. After spending time work- 05-05 Orchestra Now.indd 4 4/18/19 4:04 PM LERA AUERBACH’S De Profundis, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 3 In lieu of concert notes, Ms. Auerbach has requested that the following poem be printed to accompany her music. ABYSS It is always there, waiting, waiting. As I wake, as I walk my dog in the morning or re-read my favorite poem (the one which struck me as true in adolescence) the Abyss is always just a step away. If you stare at anything with burning intensity— you can see the edge of its bottomless mouth. Keep on looking through your tears and sweat, without turning your gaze even once— soon you will notice nothing else. The Abyss tempts you to lean even closer. Others may think you must have gone blind, but you start distinguishing black on black, you start seeing the distant valleys. Once you’ve managed to really focus, so much that the noisy light can’t disturb your full concentration—at last—you see deep within the Abys—the Sun, and stars of another great Universe, calling to you with their flickering dance. Now you may take this final step, one step that still keeps you away. As you stand on the edge, leaning ever closer to the great expanse—the empty wow of nothing-ness— you see how the Abyss, with its wrinkled topography of a world alien to comprehension, rearranges its valleys and mountains— to form your own face. 05-05 Orchestra Now.indd 5 4/18/19 4:04 PM LILI BOULANGER’S Psalm 130: Du fond de l’abîme (De Profundis) MATT DINE MATT The Music Although it is rarely performed this is a great orchestral work. Performing this piece is difficult, given the magnitude of instrumentalists and singers required. Boulanger uses the organ and choir as representatives of her Catholic faith. The piece also makes use of the sarru- sophone, which was used for outdoor military band concerts at the time. Her compositional mastery is made clear by her combination of dense harmonies ar- ticulated by horizontal juxtaposed lines. Beautiful melodies richly ornamented in chromaticism can be found in contrast with melodies that bring to mind early TON’¯¯ s Rodrigo Orviz Pevida on Lili Gregorian Chants. Toward the end of Boulanger’s Psalm 130: Du fond de the piece, the beautiful interaction be- l’abîme (De Profundis) tween the contralto and the tenor nar- rates what could be if the composer met The Composer her father in heaven. Marie-Juliette Olga “Lili” Boulanger finished her setting of the penitential An Emotional Journey Psalm 130, Du fond de l’abîme, in In my opinion this masterwork is a 1917, on the cusp of World War I. The beautiful way to express a personal con- dense and thick orchestration that Bou- nection between the real world and the langer chose for this work could easily divine in a very emotional journey. Even depict the deadly tussles related to the though the orchestration suggests a very European conflict of the time. At the religious background, I feel it represents time the 24-year-old composer was at in a very versatile manner the human the peak of her suffering from a pulmo- philosophy between life and death.
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