SEATTLE SYMPHONY Richard Sparks Seattle Symphony Chorale COLLECTION Richard Sparks is Professor of Music at the University of North Texas, where he joined The Seattle Symphony Chorale, offi cial chorus of Seattle Symphony, was founded as the Seattle Chorale in the faculty in 2009. In addition to his work with the Seattle Symphony Chorale from 1953 by Leonard Moore. The Chorale began its formal affi liation as the Symphony’s offi cial chorus in 1976 and 1990–94, he founded Seattle Pro Musica and conducted three ensembles in seventy consists of approximately 120 members who together volunteer more than 30,000 hours each year. The singers different programs with them from 1973–80. He founded and conducted Choral Arts are chosen by audition and perform throughout the season with Seattle Symphony. from 1993–2006 (three recordings on the Gothic label), and was also Director of Choral Activities at Pacifi c Lutheran University (PLU) in Tacoma from 1983–2001, where he made eight recordings. He has also been active professionally, conducting the Seattle Symphony Anchorage Music Festival, Portland Symphonic Choir, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Exultate Chamber Singers in Toronto, and the The Seattle Symphony, founded in 1903, has gained international prominence with more than 140 recordings, ©Kathryn Sparks Swedish Radio Choir. He prepared the Radio Choir for a DVD of the Brahms Requiem twelve GRAMMY® nominations, two Emmys and numerous other awards. Under the leadership of Music with Valery Gergiev conducting. In 2008 he led Monteverdi’s Orfeo in Edmonton with period instruments, and Director Ludovic Morlot since September 2011, the Seattle Symphony performs in one of the world’s fi nest Felix from 1999-2011 was Artistic Director of Pro Coro Canada (Edmonton, AB), a professional chamber choir. concert venues – the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall – in downtown Seattle. Gerard Schwarz led the orchestra from 1985 to 2011, and is now Conductor Laureate. The Seattle Symphony is internationally recognized for its innovative programming and extensive recording history. From September through July, the Gerard Schwarz Symphony is heard live by more than 315,000 people. For more information on the Seattle Symphony, visit www.seattlesymphony.org. Gerard Schwarz has a vast repertoire that includes major commitments to Germanic, Russian and American music. He was Music Director of the Seattle Symphony from MENDELSSOHN 1985 to 2011. He currently serves as Seattle Symphony Conductor Laureate and Gerard Schwarz conducts the Seattle Symphony in Benaroya Hall, Seattle Music Director of the Eastern Music Festival. Previously, he was Music Director of Photo courtesy of Yuen Lui Studio New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony No. 2 ‘Lobgesang’ Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and New York Chamber Symphony, as well as Artistic Advisor to Tokyu Bunkamura with the Tokyo Philharmonic. His considerable discography of over 330 releases showcases his collaborations with some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Czech ©Yuen Lui Studio ©Yuen Philharmonic, the London Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Tokyo Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony and the Seattle Symphony, among others. Schwarz has served on the National Council on the Arts. He has received two Emmy Awards, thirteen GRAMMY® nominations, six ASCAP Awards, and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation Margaret Chalker, Soprano Awards. In addition, he holds the Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University, was the fi rst American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America, and has received numerous honorary doctorates, including Madeline Rivera, Soprano one from his alma mater, The Juilliard School. In 2002, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers honored Schwarz with its Concert Music Award, and, in 2003, the Pacifi c Northwest branch of the Vinson Cole, Tenor National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences gave Schwarz its fi rst “IMPACT” lifetime achievement award. Seattle Symphony Chorale Seattle Symphony Gerard Schwarz 8.571209 5 6 8.571209 Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) the score he quoted the words of Luther, Sondern ich uns umfangen (The bonds of death had held us) Margaret Chalker wöllt alle künste, sonderlich die Musica, gern sehen provides a moving episode of some intensity, with the Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 52, ‘Lobgesang’ (Hymn of Praise) im dienst des der sie geben und geschaffen hat (I watchman’s question „Ist die Nachte bald hin?“ (Will It was at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio that Margaret Chalker sang her first rôle as would happily see all the arts, especially Music, in the the night soon pass?) finally answered positively by the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, followed by a career that took her to many concert Born in Hamburg in 1809, eldest son of the his gifted and beloved sister Fanny. service of Him who has given and created them). The a solo soprano, words that link the movement to the halls and opera houses in the United States. Her career in Europe began in 1985 at banker Abraham Mendelssohn and grandson of Mendelssohn wrote his second symphony, work opens with a celebratory introduction, starting following D major chorus, Die Nacht ist vergangen the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. In 1987 she made her début at the Zurich the great Jewish thinker Moses Mendelssohn, ‘Lobgesang’ (Hymn of Praise), in 1840 as part of with a trombone motif that is to return, derived, it has (The night is gone), a contrapuntal triumph, Opera as Jemmy in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell. Since then she has appeared in more than Felix Mendelssohn, who took the additional name the musical celebration of the quartercentenary of been suggested, from plainchant. The introduction celebrating also the enlightenment that Gutenberg twenty rôles in over four hundred performances of works by Mozart, Puccini, Strauss, Bartholdy on his baptism as a Christian, Heine’s Gutenberg’s invention of printing with movable type. leads to a sonata-allegro movement, with a leaping might be seen to have brought. Suggestions of Bach Wagner, Menotti and others. In 1991/92 she sang Fiordiligi and Donna Anna, and in ticket of admission to European culture, was brought For the same occasion he wrote his Festgesang, first subject, followed by a secondary theme are pursued in the G major chorale Nun danket alle 1995 sang her first Donna Elvira. She appeared as a guest artist at the State Theatres in up in Berlin, where his family settled in 1812. Here he the source of the English Christmas hymn Hark, introduced by woodwind and divided violas, a theme Gott (Now thank we all our God), its second verse Meiningen, Leipzig, Zurich, Dresden and Prague, with her début in 1998 at the Hanover enjoyed the wide cultural opportunities that his family the herald angels sing, originally a song in praise that hints at Beethoven. The unifying motif, already more elaborately accompanied. The original key State Theatre. In contemporary music she has sung Dallapiccola’s Concerto per la notte offered, through their own interests and connections. of Gutenberg. Mendelssohn had in fact already heard in the exposition, has a part to play in the of B flat major returns for the duet for tenor and di Natale dell’anno 1956 with Zurich Opera and Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the Opera Nova Ensemble. Mendelssohn’s early gifts, manifested in a completed three symphonies but discounted the central development, together with other elements soprano, Drum sing ich mit meinem Liede (Therefore number of directions, included marked musical fifth, the Reformation Symphony, which he saw as a of the earlier thematic material. A diminuendo brings I sing with my song). The basses introduce the final precocity, both as a player and as a composer, at failure, and the Italian Symphony, which he intended the return of the second subject, followed by the chorus with Ihr Völker! bringet her dem Herrn (You a remarkably early age. These exceptional abilities to revise. The Scottish Symphony was eventually recapitulation. A clarinet, with a reminiscence of the nations, bring to the Lord), returning from G minor Madeline Rivera received every encouragement from his family completed in 1842. Lobgesang enjoyed immediate opening motif, links the first movement to the second, to an inevitably contrapuntal conclusion to the words Madeline Rivera made her debut with Seattle Symphony in February 1989 in a New Music series concert that and their friends, although Abraham Mendelssohn popularity at its first performance in Leipzig in June a lilting G minor replacement of a scherzo, its opening Danket dem Herrn und rühmt seinen Namen und featured Schoenberg’s Quartet in F-sharp minor for Soprano and Strings and Nicholas Maw’s La Vita Nuova. A entertained early doubts about the desirability of 1840, followed by a performance in Birmingham melody doubled at the octave by the first violin and preiset seine Herrlichkeit (Give thanks to the Lord native of New Jersey, Rivera received her Bachelor of Music degree from Westminster Choir College. Her honors his son taking the profession of musician. These and, by command of the King of Saxony, a further the cello, followed by oboe and bassoon. There is and extol his name and praise his glory), providing and awards include first place in the 1984 Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions in New Jersey, and regional reservations were in part put to rest by the advice of performance in Leipzig in November, for which a G major chorale-like central section, before the a splendid ending, capped by the unifying motif and finalist standing at the 1986 McAllister Opera Awards in Indianapolis. Rivera has performed many operatic rôles, Cherubini in Paris and by the increasing signs of the Mendelssohn made some revisions, notably in the return of the original key in a final section that is a words of the first chorus.