Saturday, May 13, 2017 • 5:00 p.m
Daina Fischer
Graduate Recital
DePaul Concert Hall 800 West Belden Avenue • Chicago
Saturday, May 13, 2017 • 5:00 p.m. DePaul Concert Hall Daina Fischer, mezzo soprano Graduate Recital Lisa Zilberman, piano Mary Arendt, soprano Justine Scarbrough, soprano Madeleine Ehlinger, soprano Ian Hosack, baritone Andrew Raymond Groble, baritone Sebastian M. Armendariz, tenor
PROGRAM
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) Stabat Mater (1736) Stabat Mater Quae Moerebat Eja Mater Fac ut Portem
Mary Arendt, soprano
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Trois Chansons de Bilitis (1897) La Flute de Pan La Chevelure Tombeau des naïades
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Sechs Gesange, Op. 3 (1853) Liebestreu Liebe und Frühling In der Fremde Lied
Intermission
Daina Fischer • May 13, 2017 Program
Lithuanian Songs Arr. Robertas Varnas (1930-2015) Lėk gervelė Juozas Tallat-Kelpša (1889-1949) Ne raiboji Gegutė (c. 1940s) Faustas Strolia (1931-2014) Partizano Mirtis (1965) The Platters; arr. B.Remas (unk.) Tik Tau (c. 1960s)
Mary Arendt, soprano Justine Scarbrough, soprano Ian Hosack, baritone Madeleine Ehlinger, soprano Andrew Raymond Groble, baritone Sebastian M. Armendariz, tenor
William Bolcom (1938) Cabaret Songs (1978-1983) Song of Black Max (as told by the deKooning Boys) Amor George
Johann Strauss (1894-1849) “Mein Gott es war nicht mehr eine farce” and “Hab Mir’s Gelobt” from Der Rosenkavalier (1911)
Mary Arendt, soprano Justine Scarbrough, soprano
Daina Fischer is from the studio of Elizabeth Byrne. This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of the degree Master of Music.
As a courtesy to those around you, please silence all cell phones and other electronic devices. Flash photography is not permitted. Thank you.
Daina Fischer • May 13, 2017 PROGRAM NOTES
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) Stabat Mater Duration: 13 minutes Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater is one of the most famous compositions ever written in honor of Mary. The text dates from the medieval era, and describes Mary, the sorrowful mother, witnessing the suffering of her Son from the base of the cross. Commissioned by the Most Noble Order of the Knights of Our Lady of Sorrows in Naples for performance during devotional services on each Friday of Lent, Pergolesi’s setting replaced a Stabat Mater by Alessandro Scarlatti that had been performed in Naples for twenty years, and had become outdated. The significance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, however, extends far beyond the Catholic church tradition for which it was originally intended. Here is a moving, profoundly human picture of a grieving mother. Pergolesi completed the Stabat Mater in the last few weeks of his life.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Trois Chansons de Bilitis Duration: 10 minutes The Chansons de Bilitis (The Songs of Bilitis) uses the poetry of Pierre Louÿs, who was fascinated with themes of Greek mythology and feminine sexuality. He published his various collections of Bilitis poems in 1894, claiming them to be translations of works by the companion of the famous Greek poet Sappho. In reality, they were fakes. The free verse and unrhymed lyrics were immediately attractive to a number of composers, including Louÿs’ friend Claude Debussy, who composed this three-song cycle in 1897. The songs have a highly sensual quality to them and experiment with impressionistic, whole-tone harmonies to create an atmosphere of magic. The three songs follow Bilitis from childhood to adulthood, musically capturing her sexual awakening and eventually to the loss of her youth.
Daina Fischer • May 13, 2017 Program notes
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Sechs Gesange Op.3 Duration: 7 minutes Brahms's first set of songs, six settings of poems by four different poets, shows that he was already a sensitive reader of lyric poetry and a composer who could write Romantic songs in which the smallest details bear considerable significance. These six songs are elegantly woven together to tell the story of a young woman and her journey through life. Brahms emulated Schumann in his musical settings, as he was only a teenager when we began composing this set.
Various composers Lithuanian Folk Songs Duration: 13 minutes These four songs show a wide range of Lithuanian music that is not often performed on a classical stage. Located between Poland and Latvia, Lithuania is a small country with a rich history of music and poetry. The first song is a traditional song from Žemaitija (northwestern Lithuania) that was used for family gatherings. In Lithuanian this type of singing style is called “Sutartines” or rounds. Faustas Strolia was a prolific Lithuanian composer who lived a large portion of his life in Chicago. His song memorializes“partizanai” or partisans, civilians who sought to defend Lithuanian independence during WWII. Many of the partisans were young men aged 16-21. An estimated total of 30,000 Lithuanian partisans and their supporters were killed during the Second World War. “Ne raiboji gegeli” by Juozas Tallat-Kelpša is in the style of a more typical art song with a sweeping vocal and piano line. The last song “Tik Tau” has a very familiar melody. Originally known as “Only You” recorded by The Platters in 1955 it has been adapted over the decades into different languages and some of the words have been changed in this setting.
Daina Fischer • May 13, 2017 Program notes
from Rotterdam where they had both grown up. They reminisced together about the bohemian life in their home city in the 1930s. The artists and prostitutes section of the city was the same quarter, with a robust street life. One of the most picaresque characters on the streets was “Zwarte Max” ( Black Max). Amor was one of the few published poems by Weinstein. After several failed attempts to set it to music, Bolcom asked Arnold to sing what he had in mind and he paused after “the” in “it wasn’t the…” and so it was set as a salsa. George is a tragic tale of a transvestite falsetto singer who specialized in the female operatic repertoire. The kind of murder mentioned in George was very common in the 1960s.
Johann Strauss (1894-1849) “Mein Gott es war nicht mehr eine farce” and “Hab Mir’s Gelobt” from Der Rosenkavalier Duration: 12 minutes Strauss began his opera Der Rosenkavalier, a “comedy for music” on a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, in 1909 and completed it on September 26, 1910. The action in Der Rosenkavalier revolves around the Marschallin, who has taken the seventeen-year-old Count Octavian as her lover, and the lecherous Baron Ochs who lacks both money and social graces, and who has arranged to marry Sophie von Faninal. When Octavian is selected to present Sophie with a silver rose—an elaborate engagement “custom” devised by Hofmannsthal—the two fall in love. Der Rosenkavalier is filled with lush waltzes and sheer melodic splendor. The celebrated trio (actually three separate, simultaneous monologues) for the Marschallin, Octavian, and Sophie, reflects on love from their different points of view. In the end, inevitably, Octavian leaves the Marschallin for the pretty, young Sophie. This is one of opera’s most touching and glorious scenes.
Notes by Daina Fischer.