Season 2019-2020

23 Season 2019-2020 Sunday, December 15, at 7:30 Vienna Boys Choir Christmas in Vienna Manuel Huber Conductor Plainsong Chant “Domine exaudi orationem meam” Palestrina “Hodie Christus natus est” Duruflé“Tota pulchra es Maria,” from Four Motets on Gregorian Themes, Op. 10, No. 2 Salazar “Tarará qui yo soy Antón” Verdi “Laudi alla vergine Maria,” from Four Sacred Pieces Wirth “Sanctus—Benedictus,” from Missa apostolica Schafer “Gamelan” Copland “I Bought Me a Cat,” from Old American Songs, Set 1 Bernstein “Somewhere,” from West Side Story Gershwin “I Got Rhythm,” from Girl Crazy Beethoven/arr. Warren “Ode to Joy (Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee),” from Sister Act 2 Sherman “I Wanna Be Like You,” from The Jungle Book Intermission 24 Traditional/arr. Praetorius and Wirth “Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen” Wade/arr. Wirth “Adeste fideles” Reidinger/arr. Wirth “Es wird scho glei dumpa” Blanco “El burrito de Belén” Traditional/arr. Rivas “Adorar al niño” Traditional/arr. Wirth “Les Anges dans nos campagnes” Mendelssohn/arr. Wirth “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” Mason/arr. Wirth “Joy to the World” Adam “O Holy Night” Berlin “White Christmas” Styne/arr. Shaw “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow” Marks/arr. Langford “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” Gruber “Stille Nacht” This program runs approximately 2 hours. Tonight’s concert is sponsored by Hotel Residenz Palais Coburg. Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday afternoons at 1 PM, and are repeated on Monday evenings at 7 PM on WRTI HD 2. Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details. 25 Choir Lukas Beck Lukas Boys have been singing at Vienna’s Imperial Chapel since 1296. In 1498 Emperor Maximilian I moved his court to Vienna, thus founding the “Hofmusikkapelle” (Chapel Imperial) and the Vienna Boys Choir. Throughout history such noted composers as Heinrich Isaac, Philippe de Monte, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Johann Joseph Fux, Wolfgang Amadè Mozart, Antonio Caldara, Antonio Salieri, Christoph Willibald Gluck, and Anton Bruckner have worked with the Choir. Jacobus Gallus and Franz Schubert were themselves choristers, and brothers Franz Joseph and Michael Haydn, members of the choir of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, frequently sang with the imperial boys choir as well. Until 1918 the boys sang exclusively for the imperial court. In 1924 the Choir was reestablished as a private organization. Today there are 100 choristers between the ages of 10 and 14, divided into four touring groups. Each spends 11 weeks of the year on tour. The choirs give some 300 concerts each year, performing for half a million spectators around the world. Since 1924 thousands of boys have experienced the joy of making choral music on over 1,000 tours in 98 different countries. The boys’ first tour of the US took place in 1931. Their first world tour was in 1934–35. On Sundays the Choir performs with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Chorus in Vienna’s Imperial Chapel, as it has done for 520 years. In 2012 the Choir opened its own concert hall, MuTh, a state- of-the-art facility. The repertoire includes everything from medieval to contemporary and experimental works. The Choir also performs regularly with major orchestras and the Vienna State Opera, as well as at the Vienna Volksoper and the Salzburg Festival. Since their first recording in 1907, the boys have recorded 376 shellacks, singles, LPs, and CDs. In 2015 the Choir signed a deal with Deutsche Grammophon; their latest release is a CD of music by multiple members of the Strauss family, Strauss for Ever. Numerous films and TV documentaries attest to the Choir’s international appeal. New York filmmaker Curt Faudon has produced three major films about the boys (Silk Road, Bridging the Gap, Songs for Mary), with a fourth, Good Shepherds, currently in production. The Choir’s education and singing tradition is considered so extraordinary that it is listed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage in Austria. 26 Choirmaster Italian-born Manuel Huber, the most recent addition to the ranks of choirmaster of the Vienna Boys Choir, has an extensive experience as voice coach, choir director, and music educator in a variety of positions throughout Europe. Prior to his appointment with the Vienna Boys Choir, he was musical director of the Youth Project at the Gut Immling Opera Festival, a voice coach with the highly regarded Tölzer Knabenchor, and guest conductor of the Kammerphilharmonie Budweis, the Bad Reichenhaller Philharmonie, and Salzburg’s Mozarteum University Symphony Orchestra. Born in Brixen, South Tyrol, Mr. Huber began to play the piano at the age of six and was for years a member, and later chairman, of the Vinzentiner Knabenchor. At 15 he began to conduct, leading the children’s choir, the women’s chorus, and the church choir of Weitental. He continued his piano studies at the Claudio Monteverdi Conservatory in Brixen and went on to study choral conducting, music pedagogy, and orchestral conducting at the Salzburg Mozarteum. To this he added a major in psychology at Salzburg University, from which he graduated with distinction in 2018. Asked about his experiences with the Vienna Boys Choir, Mr. Huber says, “I love the work we do together, and especially how much the boys enjoy their music. My goal is to teach them the tools of the trade, to understand and feel music as best we can, and at the same time, see them grow up and come into their own.” 27 The Music Plainsong Chant “Domine, exaudi orationem meam” (Lord, hear my prayer) Psalm 101:2 (102:2), Tempus per annum—Hebdomada XXIII “Domine, exaudi“ is an Alleluia chant, to be sung after the second lesson but before the gospel in the “ordinary time“ between Pentecost and Advent. Psalm 101 (102) is both a personal, intimate prayer and a lament sung in deep distress. Alleluia. Hallelujah. Domine, exaudi orationem meam, et clamor Lord, hear my prayer, and may my crying meus ad te veniat. come to you. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–94) “Hodie Christus natus est” (Today Christ is born) Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who took his name from his birthplace, started his musical career as a chorister at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. From 1544 to 1551, he worked in his native town as organist and choirmaster. In 1551 Pope Julius III summoned him to Rome as choirmaster of the Cappella Giulia, from which the Sistine Chapel recruited its singers. Palestrina also sang in the choir of the Sistine Chapel. However, in 1555, the new pope, Paul IV, dismissed Palestrina and two others from the choir because they were married. Palestrina then succeeded Orlando di Lasso as choirmaster of St John Lateran. In 1560 he resigned in protest because the choirboys were not fed enough and in 1561 was appointed choirmaster of Santa Maria Maggiore. In 1567 papal reforms declared some of his masses “unliturgical,” because he had used secular songs or words. Disenchanted with the church, Palestrina resigned from this post. He went to work for the Cardinal Ippolito d’Este. In 1571 he accepted the post of director of the Cappella Giulia. Palestrina’s music is characterized by soaring lines, a skillful blend of voices, and a rich sound. Contemporaries saw Palestrina as the embodiment of spirituality and modesty; his compositions were admired as perfect. “Hodie Christus natus est” is a medieval antiphon; part of the vespers on Christmas Day. The text is a paraphrase of Luke 2:11, 13–14, and Psalm 33:1. In the liturgy, it follows the exultant Magnificat, the canticle of the Virgin Mary. Hodie Christus natus est Today Christ is born, hodie Salvator apparuit. today the Savior appears. Hodie in terra canunt angeli, Today the angels sing on earth, laetantur archangeli. and the archangels rejoice. Hodie exsultant iusti, dicentes: Today the just exult and say: Gloria in excelsis Deo. Alleluia. Glory to God in the highest. Hallelujah. Please turn the page quietly. 28 Maurice Duruflé (1902–86) “Tota pulchra es Maria” (You are wholly beautiful, Mary) Maurice Duruflé was introduced to organ music as a chorister at the cathedral in Rouen. At age 17 he moved to Paris, where he became the organ assistant at the church of Sainte-Clotilde, at the same time pursuing his studies at the Paris Conservatory. He left Sainte-Clotilde to become Louis Vierne’s assistant at Notre-Dame. In 1929 Duruflé became the organist of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont and in 1943 professor at the Conservatory. After a car accident in 1975, he gave up performing. “Tota pulchra es Maria” is one of four motets on Gregorian themes, written in 1960. Duruflé’s setting is in three to four parts, with the voices imitating the Gregorian phrase. A frequent change in meter results in an ethereal, suspended quality. The original prayer dates to the fourth century. It is an antiphon for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, inspired by text from the Song of Songs and the Book of Judith. Tota pulchra es, Maria et You are wholly beautiful, Mary, and macula originalis non est in te. the stain of original sin is not on you. Vestimentum tuum candidum quasi nix, et Your clothing is white like snow, and facies tua sicut sol. your face is like the sun. Tota pulchra es, Maria, et You are wholly beautiful, Mary, and macula originalis non est in te. the stain of original sin is not on you. Tu gloria Jerusalem, tu You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the laetitia Israel, tu honorificentia delight of Israel, you are the honoured of populi nostri.

Load more