Poulenc Rachmaninoff Gloria the Bells
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Poulenc Rachmaninoff Gloria The Bells JOANN FALLETTA, Conductor 2017 Dorothy Albrecht Gregory Visiting Conductor* with the Crane Chorus and the Crane Symphony Orchestra ELIZABETH CABALLERO, Soprano CHARLES REID, Tenor KEVIN DEAS, Bass-baritone Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 7:30 pm Hosmer Hall at SUNY Potsdam *The partnership of the Dorothy Albrecht The Lougheed-Kofoed Festival of the Gregory Visiting Conductor Fund, established Arts is made possible by the generosity by Dorothy Albrecht Gregory ’61, and the and artistic vision of Kathryn (Kofoed) Adeline Maltzan Crane Chorus Performance ’54 and Donald Lougheed (Hon. ’54). Tour Fund, established by Dr. Gary C. Jaquay ’67, brings distinguished conductors to The Crane Media Sponsor School of Music for festival performances by the Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra, and funds travel for major performances to venues outside of Potsdam. Greetings from the Crane School of Music On behalf of The Crane School of Music and SUNY Potsdam, I welcome you as we open the sixth LoKo Festival of the Arts, a continuation of our campus’ historic Spring Festival generously supported by the visionary gifts of Kathy Kofoed Lougheed ’54 and her husband Don Lougheed Hon. ’54. Tonight’s performance of The Bells by Rachmaninoff marks the first time this work has been included in a festival performance at Crane. The other work, Poulenc’s Gloria, has been featured on four previous Spring Festival occasions, beginning with a performance under the baton of Nadia Boulanger in 1962, and most recently under Dr. Heather Eyerly, in 2007. It was also performed two additional times when Crane Chorus and Orchestra performances occurred in November (1994 and 2000). In addition to the Lougheeds, we are deeply grateful for generosity of many supporters who help sustain the work of the School, especially Dorothy Albrecht Gregory ’61, whose funding enables us to invite distinguished visiting conductors annually, and Dr. Gary C. Jaquay ’67, whose partner gift permits us to take the Crane Chorus and Orchestra performance periodically to major venues such as Carnegie Hall, where last year we were proud to hear the Crane Chorus and Orchestra in a special performance linked to SUNY Potsdam’s bicentennial celebration. Our ability to provide live video and audio streaming not only this evening but for many concerts throughout the season is made possible by the gift of Gail (Haynes) Stradling ’64 and Richard Stradling. I would also like to note the generosity of Charles ’75 and Claudia (Thomas) Ayer ’75, whose gift has made possible the purchase and installation of new choral risers for Hosmer Hall, which are in use tonight for the first time in a LoKo Festival performance. We look forward to next year’s performance by the Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra, which will return to its location near the close of the LoKo Festival, on Saturday, May 5, 2018. Keep in mind that the Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra also perform each year during the holiday season for our annual Candlelight Concert, which this year will be on Sunday, December 3, with performances at 3 PM and 7:30 PM, and with broadcasts on WPBS in our region and other public stations nationally. We take great pride in the achievements of students in the Crane Chorus and the Crane Symphony Orchestra, prepared respectively by Dr. Jeffrey Francom and Dr. Ching Chun-Lai, and supported by the work of all our faculty, who develop the abilities of our students daily. Welcome, on behalf of the School and the College, to this very special evening. Sincerely, Michael Sitton Dean Program Gloria (1959) Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) I. Gloria II. Laudamus te III. Domine Deus IV. Domine fili unigenite V. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei VI. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris Intermission The Bells, Op. 35 (1913) Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) I. Allegro, ma non tanto II. Lento—Adagio III. Presto—Prestissimo IV. Lento lugubre—Allegro—Andante—Tempo I JOANN FALLETTA, Conductor ELIZABETH CABALLERO, Soprano CHARLES REID, Tenor KEVIN DEAS, Bass-baritone CRANE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Ching-Chun Lai, Director CRANE CHORUS Jeffrey Francom, Director Texts & Translations Gloria Gloria in excelsis Deo. Glory to God in the highest. Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. And on earth peace to all of good will. Laudamus te, benedicimus te, We praise Thee, we bless Thee, adoramus te, glorificamus te; We adore Thee, we glorify Thee. Gratias agimus, agimus tibi, We give Thee thanks Propter magnam gloriam tuam. for Thy great glory. Domine Deus, Rex coelestis! Lord God! Heavenly King! Deus, Pater omnipotens! God, the father Almighty! Domine, Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe! Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son! Domine Deus! Agnus Dei! Filius Patris! Lord God! Lamb of God! Son of the Father. Qui tollis peccata mundi, Thou, who takest away the sins of the world, miserere nobis. have mercy upon us. Qui tollis peccata mundi, Thou, who takest away the sins of the world, suscipe deprecationem nostram. receive our prayer. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, Thou, who sits at the right hand of the Father, miserere nobis. have mercy upon us. Quoniam tu solus sanctus. For Thou alone art holy, Tu solus Dominus. Thou alone art Lord, Tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe! Thou alone art the most high, Jesus Christ. Cum Sancto Spirtitu in With the Holy Ghost in the gloria Dei patris. glory of God the Father. Amen. Amen. The Bells I. Listen, hear the silver bells! Silver bells! Hear the sledges with the bells, How they charm our weary senses with a sweetness that compels, In the ringing and the singing that of deep oblivion tells. Hear them calling, calling, calling, Rippling sounds of laughter, falling On the icy midnight air; And a promise they declare, That beyond Illusion’s cumber, Births and lives beyond all number, Waits an universal slumber—deep and sweet past all compare. Hear the sledges with the bells, Hear the silver-throated bells; See, the stars bow down to hearken, what their melody foretells, With a passion that compels, And their dreaming is a gleaming that a perfumed air exhales, And their thoughts are but a shining, And a luminous divining Of the singing and the ringing, that a dreamless peace foretells. II. Hear the mellow wedding bells, Golden bells! What a world of tender passion their melodious voice foretells! Through the night their sound entrances, Like a lover’s yearning glances, That arise On a wave of tuneful rapture to the moon within the skies. From the sounding cells upwinging Flash the tones of joyous singing Rising, falling, brightly calling; from a thousand happy throats Roll the glowing, golden notes, And an amber twilight gloats While the tender vow is whispered that great happiness foretells, To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells, the golden bells! III. Hear them, hear the brazen bells, Here the loud alarum bells! In their sobbing, in their throbbing what a tale of horror dwells! How beseeching sounds their cry ‘Neath the naked midnight sky, Through the darkness wildly pleading In affright, Now approaching, now receding Rings their message through the night. And so fierce is their dismay And the terror they portray That the brazen domes are riven, and their tongues can only speak In a tuneless, jangling wrangling as they shriek, and shriek, and shriek, Till their frantic supplication To the ruthless conflagration Grows discordant, faint and weak. But the fire sweeps on unheeding, And in vain is all their pleading With the flames! From each window, roof and spire, Leaping higher, higher, higher, Every lambent tongue proclaims: I shall soon, Leaping higher, still aspire, till I reach the crescent moon; Else I die of my desire in aspiring to the moon! O despair, despair, despair, That so feebly ye compare With the blazing, raging horror, and the panic, and the glare, That ye cannot turn the flames, As your unavailing clang and clamour mournfully proclaims. And in hopeless resignation Man must yield his habitation To the warring desolation! Yet we know By the booming and the clanging, By the roaring and the twanging, How the danger falls and rises like the tides that ebb and flow. And the progress of the danger every ear distinctly tells By the sinking and the swelling in the clamour of the bells. IV. Hear the tolling of the bells, Mournful bells! Bitter end to fruitless dreaming their stern monody foretells! What a world of desolation in their iron utterance dwells! And we tremble at our doom, As we think upon the tomb, Glad endeavor quenched for ever in the silence and the gloom. With persistent iteration They repeat their lamentation, Till each muffled monotone Seems a groan, Heavy, moaning, Their intoning, Waxing sorrowful and deep, Bears the message, that a brother passed away to the endless sleep. Those relentless voices rolling Seem to take a joy in tolling For the sinner and the just That their eyes be sealed in slumber, and their hearts be turned to dust Where they lie beneath a stone. But the spirit of the belfry is a somber fiend that dwells In the shadow of the bells, And he gibbers, and he yells, As he knells, and knells, and knells, Madly round the belfry reeling, While the giant bells are pealing, While the bells are fiercely thrilling, Moaning forth the word of doom, While those iron bells, unfeeling, Through the void repeat the doom: There is neither rest nor respite, save the quiet of the tomb! Program Notes by Dr. Gary Busch The ebullient optimism of Francis Poulenc’s Gloria inhabits a world as distant as can be imagined from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s fatalistic vision expressed in The Bells.