SALIERI REQUIEM BEETHOVEN - MEERESSTILLE UND GLÜCKLICHE FAHRT SCHUBERT - INTENDE VOCI GULBENKIAN CHORUS AND ORCHESTRA LISBON LAWRENCE FOSTER Antonio Salieri (1885 – 1935) Requiem in C minor (1804) For Soloists, Chorus, Orchestra and Organ 1 Introitus / Kyrie – Larghetto-Allegretto-Larghetto 6. 36 2 Sequenz (Dies Irae) – Andante maestoso-Allegro molto- Adagio-Andante con moto-Andante maestoso-Larghetto 14. 48 3 Offertorium – Andante maestoso ma con moto-Larghetto 4. 05 4 Sanctus – Largo e maestoso-Allegretto non molto 2. 03 5 Benedictus – Andante con moto-Allegretto non molto 2. 52 6 Agnus Dei / Communio – Larghetto – Poco Allegro 5. 26 7 Libera me, Domine – Andante 3. 08 Arianna Zukerman, Soprano Simona Ivas, Mezzo-soprano Adam Zdunikowski, Tenor Luís Rodrigues, Baritone Alice Caplow-Sparks, English Horn António Esteireiro, Organ Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt Op. 112 (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage) For Chorus and Orchestra Poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 8 Meeresstille – Poco sostenuto 4. 50 9 Glückliche Fahrt – Allegro vivace 2. 39 Franz Schubert (1797-1828) 10 Intende voci (Offertorium) in B flat, D 963 9. 30 Tenor-Aria with Chorus Marius Brenciu, Tenor • Pedro Ribeiro, Oboe Coro Gulbenkian Chorus Master: Jorge Matta Orquestra Gulbenkian Concert Master: Mihaela Costea conducted by Lawrence Foster Recorded live at the Grande Auditório of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon Nov. 2009 Executive Producer: Job Maarse Recording Producer: Job Maarse Balance Engineer: Erdo Groot Recording Engineer: Carl Schuurbiers Editing: Carl Schuurbiers; Roger de Schot Total playing time: 56.22 Biographien auf Deutsch und Französisch finden Sie auf unserer Webseite. Pour les versions allemande et française des biographies, veuillez consulter notre site. www.pentatonemusic.com Antonio Salieri Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) was first and foremost a significant opera com- lthough Antonio Salieri most certainly poser, for which intensive patronage was Adoes not stand in the front row of the granted by Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. He great composers of West European musi- also achieved great success with his stage cal historiography, he had been granted works in Italy and in Paris. Salieri worked as one of few something quite special: to in Vienna in the post of Hofkapellmeister, compose his own requiem. Not even Mozart, an appointment that he held until a year Brahms or Verdi, whose Requiem composi- before his death. In this position he took tions count among the most major of the care of administration tasks in particular and genre, could claim that for himself. How mainly composed church music. From 1790 few of Salieri’s sacred works have to date Salieri counted among the most significant been absorbed in the general works and persons in the music life of the European concert canon (excepting the operas), can music metropolis Vienna – which is also be confirmed by a simple internet search. reflected in his line-up of pupils: Ludwig For instance, if one “googled” the concepts van Beethoven, Franz Liszt and Franz “Salieri” and “Requiem”, much more than Schubert here count among the most well- 80% of the detected entries establish no known. From Salieri’s quill flowed about 100 relation to Salieri’s Requiem, but rather to sacred works, among which four orchestral Mozart’s incomplete Requiem! However, an masses, a requiem and an a capella mass. absolutely fascinating although untenable If Salieri had created the sacred music first connection has persisted most stubbornly and foremost “for God and my Emperor”, he since Peter Shaffer’s play “Amadeus” and had with the requiem a quite special motive Milos Forman’s film of the same name: both in mind - his own funeral rites. And so the fictional works want to have us believe that work also resounded during the funeral in Mozart directly dictated his Requiem to his 1825. This individualisation is “self-centred” embittered rival Salieri during the night of (Riekel), and thus the words of the text his death. Forman’s fascinating images still set to music are throughout “Requiem affect numerous literary writings and the eternam dona ei Domine” [Rest eternal fantasy of authors more than 25 years later. grant him, O Lord]. Salieri entrusted the requiem predominantly to the choir. The typical Italian musical pure melody lines are seem to me very appropriate for expression noteworthy; the extremely effective invo- through music.” The intensity of the dynam- cation of Judgement Day (“Dies irae) [Day ics transcribed into music is remarkable, of wrath] (in this paving the way for Verdi almost abrupt. The beginning of “Calm Sea” with pompous trombone tones and mighty portrays the motionless sea in its restrained, kettledrum rumbles), the steadfastness of soft and almost emotionless tenor, before faith in the complex fugues and the har- the “stillness of death” grows into a fright- monious closeness of the appealing tonal ening fortissimo chorus scream. It moves pictures in particular. The end of the work is seamlessly into “Prosperous Voyage” with praiseworthy: the strings fall silent in “Libera an acceleration of tempo; “the mists lift”. me” [Deliver me] and the wind instruments However, the “Prosperous Voyage” is also accompany the choir colla parte. threatened by storms – melodies rising Ludwig van Beethoven’s Cantata “Calm up and down depict the movement of the Sea and Prosperous Voyage” op. 112, based waves and with joyous trumpet calls and on two of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s kettle drum booms the ship finally reaches poems, was composed between the end safe regions. of 1814 and the summer of 1815. The Franz Schubert’s Offertory “Intende voci” work for four-part chorus and orchestra D 963 is a tenor aria with chorus support. It was first performed in Vienna on the 25th was composed in 1828 as a commissioned of December 1815 along the lines of a work, probably due the intercession of his charity concert. Already very early, in fact brother Ferdinand, four weeks before the already during his Bonn period, Beethoven death of the composer. Here Schubert had been attracted to the lyrical poetry of seems to have found an extremely indi- Goethe which lends itself to the composi- vidual style: delicate harmonic nuances, tion of Lieder [songs in the Lieder style]. with sounds drifting into nothingness, and The mood of the two poems could not be subtle wind movements. The work was in greater antithesis – which particularly composed in the same period as the C accommodated the stylistic device of the major Symphony, the C major Quintets, the dramatic principle of contrast so typical of E flat major Mass and of course the three Beethoven. Beethoven wrote to Goethe in last piano sonatas. Verses 2 and 3 of Psalm 1822: “Because of their contrast both [poems] 5 form the basis of the “Intende voci”. The short plea to God to answer the prayer is Lawrence Foster portrayed in the interplay between tenor, chorus and instrumental episodes with dif- awrence Foster has been Music Director ferent emotional interpretations. Lof the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon since 2002. Franz Steiger Highlights with this orchestra to date english translation: DaVinci vertalingen have included Beethoven Piano Concerto cycles with Evgeny Kissin in Madrid, Munich and Berlin in 2005; a project with Hélène Grimaud in 2006 in Paris, Amsterdam and Madrid and German tours with Arcadi Volodos and Lang Lang in 2007. Starting from the 2009/10 season he will also become Music Director of the Orchestre et Opéra National de Montpellier. Other Music Directorships have been with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte-Carlo. Lawrence Foster is a prolific guest conductor. His engagements include the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Nationale de Lyon, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Amsterdam and the NDR Radio Orchestra Hamburg. He is also a passionate opera conductor Antonio Salieri conducting in major houses throughout the world including the New York Metropolitan uch wenn Antonio Salieri sicherlich Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Azurecht nicht in der ersten Reihe der Garden, the Bastille in Paris and the großen Komponisten der westeuropäi- Deutsche Oper Berlin. schen Musikgeschichtsschreibung steht, Born in Los Angeles to Romanian par- so war es ihm doch als einem der Wenigen ents, Lawrence Foster has been a major etwas ganz Besonderes vergönnt: seine champion of the music of Georg Enescu. eigene Totenmesse zu komponieren. He served as Artistic Director of the Georg Weder Mozart, Brahms noch Verdi, deren Enescu Festival and his discography Requiem-Kompositionen ja zu den wich- includes a recording of Enescu’s “Oedipe”- tigsten der Gattung zählen, können das featuring José van Dam and Barbara von sich behaupten. Wie wenig vor allem Hendricks – awarded the prestigious “Grand Salieris geistliche Werke bis heute in den Prix du Disque” from the Académie Charles allgemeinen Werk- und Konzertkanon Cros. In 2005, to celebrate the Enescu anni- eingedrungen sind (die Opern bilden da versary, a boxed set of works by Enescu, eine Ausnahme), vermag eine einfache recorded by Lawrence Foster with the Internetrecherchesuchmaschine zu bele- orchestras of Monte-Carlo and Lyon, was gen. „Googelt“ man etwa die Begriffe „Salieri“ released. und „Requiem“, so stellen weit mehr als 80 In 2003 Mr. Foster was decorated by % der gefundenen Einträge keinen Bezug the Romanian President for services to zu Salieris Totenmesse, sondern vielmehr zu Romanian music. Mozarts unvollendetem Requiem her! Eine durchaus spannende, wenn auch faktisch unhaltbare Verbindung, die sich allerdings seit Peter Shaffers Schauspiel „Amadeus“ und Milos Formans gleichnamigem Film äußerst hartnäckig hält: So wollen uns beide fiktionale Werke glauben machen, dass Mozart in der Nacht seines Todes dem erbitterten Rivalen Salieri sein Requiem in Antonio Salieri die Feder diktiert habe.