Calbach Apr 2018 Release 3-15, Rev 3-25
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CALIFORNIA BACH SOCIETY Paul Flight, Artistic Director "California Bach [Society] excels in the intricate polyphony of Bach’s choral writing.” Nicholas Jones, “California Bach Society dazzles…” San Francisco Classical Voice, October 2017 “California Bach Society delivers a sublime St. Matthew Passion” Steven Winn, San Francisco Classical Voice, October 2016 April 20-22, 2018 Handel in Rome: Nisi Dominus, Laudate Pueri Dominum, and Dixit Dominus Friday, April 20, 8pm, at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church 1111 O’Farrell at Franklin, San Francisco 94109 Saturday, April 21, 8pm, at All Saints’ Episcopal Church 555 Waverley at Hamilton, Palo Alto 94301 Sunday, April 22, 4pm, at First Congregational Church 2345 Channing at Dana, Berkeley 94704 Doors open 30 minutes prior to each performance. Tickets: $35 (discounts for advance purchase, seniors, students, and under 30) 650-485-1097 | http://www.calbach.org | [email protected] Palo Alto, March 23, 2018 Artistic Director Paul Flight leads the 30-voice California Bach Society in stunning works from GF Handel’s 1707 Vespers service at the Carmelite church of Santa Maria in Montesanto in Rome. The chorus will be joined by soloists and Baroque ensemble for three magnificent Vesper psalms: Nisi Dominus, Laudate Pueri Dominum, and Dixit Dominus. The chamber chorus was recently awarded “Best Baroque Performance” by San Francisco Classical Voice for its 2016 production of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Our stellar soloists are Phoebe Rosquist and Caroline Jou Armitage, soprano; Paul Flight, countertenor; James Hogan, tenor; and Jeffrey Fields, baritone. A fine Baroque orchestra of early music specialists will accompany the singers: Rachel Hurwitz, Lisa Grodin, Noah Strick, Aaron Westman, Anna Washburn, and Addi Liu, violin; Marieke Furnee and Amy Haltom, viola; Amy Brodo, cello, Kristin Zoernig, bass, and Yuko Tanaka, organ. Born in 1685, the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, Handel is regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, with works such as Messiah, Water Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks remaining steadfastly popular. In 1706 Handel travelled to Italy at the invitation of Ferdinando de' Medici, who was trying to make Florence Italy's musical capital by attracting the leading talents of his day. Handel left for Rome and composed sacred music for the Roman clergy. California Bach Society presents “Handel in Rome” on April 20-22, 2018 2 of 4 Italy was the center of European music, and one of the most valuable traits of Italian music was the expressive style in which its composers wrote for the voice. Italian vocal writing was characterized by its qualities of suppleness, expansiveness, flexibility, and lyricism, and Handel would quickly master the art. He was engaged to compose music for the Roman Catholic liturgy within only a few months of his arrival in Rome. An Italianate sound certainly informs all the pieces on this program, yet they also sound very much like Handel, memorable in rhythmic and melodic outlines, imaginative in deployment of voices and instruments, filled with specific character and musical surprise. Dixit Dominus. Handel’s lifelong reputation could have been set on the basis of this stunning motet alone, completed in April 1707. It is Handel's earliest surviving autograph. The work was written in the baroque style and is scored for five vocal soloists (SSATB), five-part chorus, strings and continuo. It is most likely that the work was first performed on 16 July 1707 in the Church of Santa Maria in Montesanto, under the patronage of the Colonna family. Nisi Dominus This setting of the Latin text of Psalm 127, the name drawn from the first two words (the incipit) of the psalm, was completed by 13 July 1707. It is most likely that Nisi Dominus was also first performed on 16 July 1707 in the church of Santa Maria in Montesanto. It is scored for three vocal soloists (contralto, tenor, and bass), chorus, strings (including solo violin in one aria), with basso continuo. Laudate Pueri Dominum Another compelling work, this motet features a veritable catalogue of Italian musical forms, all masterfully employed by Handel. Each movement has a different texture including ritornello form (first movement), trio sonata texture (“Sit nomen Domini” and “Qui habitare facit”), typical imitative polyphony (“A solis ortu usque”), concerto grosso style (“Excelsus super omnes”), homophony (“Quis sicut Dominus”), continuo aria (“Suscitans a terra”), and the hybrid style of the final movement with its predictable return to the music of the first movement at the words “Sicut erat in principio” (“as it was in the beginning”). These concerts are presented in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, https://iicsanfrancisco.esteri.it/iic_sanfrancisco/en/ Program: Dixit Dominus Nisi Dominus Laudate Pueri Dominum Biographies: To download photos, please go to http://www.calbach.org/press/ The California Bach Society, a 30-voice chamber chorus, was recently awarded “Best Baroque Performance” by San Francisco Classical Voice for its 2016 production of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Founded in 1971, CBS has specialized in historically informed performances since 1998 and has established a reputation for its interpretations of Renaissance and Baroque choral music. The appointment of artistic director Dr. Paul Flight in 2006 has resulted in highly California Bach Society presents “Handel in Rome” on April 20-22, 2018 3 of 4 successful concert seasons. Dr. Flight has enthralled audiences and critics with his thoughtful and refreshing programming, and has become well respected for bringing lesser-known Baroque masterworks to Bay Area stages. Under his direction, the chorus has garnered critical acclaim. In February 2013, Leon Chisholm of San Francisco Classical Voice wrote: “In recent years, the California Bach Society has become a prospector of Baroque gold. Its concerts haVe brought forth exquisite, rarely heard Works by forgotten masters from the lost frontier, to the delight of its audiences.” In 2016 another SFCV reviewer raved, “California Bach Society delivers a sublime St. Matthew Passion.” Artistic Director Dr. Paul Flight—a noted choral conductor, teacher, and singer—is in his twelfth season with the California Bach Society. A former member of such distinguished ensembles as the Waverly Consort, Theatre of Voices, Pomerium Musices, and the New York Collegium, he brings a wealth of expertise to CBS. Critics have praised Dr. Flight’s conducting acumen, stating: “Flight has made of the choral group a professional ensemble capable of every expressive nuance and glorious ensemble sound.” In addition, he is the artistic director of Schola Cantorum San Francisco, a professional chamber choir, and the founding director of Berkeley-based Chora Nova. For nine years Dr. Flight was principal conductor of the Madison Early Music Festival, where he directed masterworks by Bach, Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi, Purcell, Dufay, and Guerrero. He has twice been a visiting professor of music at the University of California at Berkeley, directing the music department’s top choral ensembles. As a visiting professor at Mills College, he has lectured on opera, and music history and form. He conducted an operatic double-bill production of Gustav Holst’s Savitri and Darius Milhaud’s Les malheurs d’Orphée for Mills College. Dr. Flight received his doctorate from Indiana University, where he studied conducting with Robert Porco. He has recorded a program featuring the music of Croce for Harmonia, a nationally syndicated radio show, and appeared as a guest on KALW radio’s performing arts program My Favorite Things as well as KALW’s Open Air. A renoWned countertenor, Dr. Flight has performed works by John Adams, Leonard Berstein, and Unsuk Chin with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony, the Cincinnati May Festival, and the Norwegian State Opera. In 2003 he sang the title role in Philip Glass’ Akhnaten for Oakland Opera Theater. He made his debut at the Kennedy Center in 2008, singing the first countertenor role in Adams’ El Niño, and in August 2010, he made his debut at the Edinburgh International Festival singing the third countertenor role in that work. At California Bach Society’s award winning performances of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in 2016, Dr. Flight sang the Erbarme Dich aria. Soprano Phoebe JeVtoVic Rosquist was born in Germany and grew up in Ohio. She began her undergraduate studies in Louisville, Kentucky intent on becoming a jazz singer, but quickly discovered that early music was her true calling. After completing graduate studies at University of Southern California in Early Music Performance, Phoebe has appeared as a soloist with the Waverly Consort, Voices of Music, American Bach Soloists, Musica Angelica, Bach Collegium San Diego, and North Holland Opera. Roles Phoebe has performed include Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Filia in Carissimi’s Jephte, soloist in Stravinsky's Les Noces (Svadebka), Amphitrite in Locke’s Tempest, Cupid in Purcell’s Timon of Athens, Josephine in Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, the title role in Rossi’s Orfeo and various Virtues in Hildegard’s Ordo Virtutum. Among her collaborations are the baroque ensemble La Monica; medieval ensemble Cançonièr; art song with celebrated pianist Robert Thies; and early music and dance with Italy’s visionary Art Monastery Project and Bologna-based Cappella Artemisia. Phoebe has also toured the US and Indonesia with Gamelan X and sung Balkan & folk music with Kitka and VOCO. Phoebe California Bach Society presents “Handel in Rome” on April 20-22, 2018 4 of 4 transcribed a book of seventeenth-century solo songs by Tarquinio Merula for A&R Editions. She has recorded for Naxos, Nonesuch, Delos, Dorian, Decca and Sony labels. Soprano Caroline Jou Armitage started singing in her crib before the age of one, according to her mother, but studied piano and violin from kindergarten through high school instead, as was customary for most children of Taiwanese immigrants.