Jessica Rivera, Soprano
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CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM Sunday, April 3, 2011, 3pm Hertz Hall Jessica Rivera, soprano Molly Morkoski, piano Ensemble Meme Donato Cabrera, conductor Barry Crawford flute Carol McGonnell clarinet Austin Hartman violin viola Liuh-wen Ting Thom Wedge Thom Caroline Stinson cello Jessica Rivera Molly Morkoski piano Alex Lipowski percussion Mark Grey (b. 1967) Ātash Sorushān (“Fire Angels”) (2010) PROGRAM Libretto by Niloufar Talebi (West Coast premiere) Robert Schumann (1810–1856) Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 (1840) Invocation Voyage Seit ich ihn gesehen Transformation Er, der Herrlichste von Allen Restoration Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben Du Ring an meinem Finger Commissioned by Cal Performances and Carnegie Hall through Meet the Composer’s Helft mir, ihr Schwestern Commissioning Music/USA program, which is made possible by generous support from the Süsser Freund, du blickest Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Ford Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz gethan William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Helen F. Whitaker Fund. Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Ariettes oubliées (1885–1888; rev. 1903) C’est l’extase Il pleure dans mon cœur Funded by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ L’ombre des arbres 2010–2011 Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community. Paysages belges: Chevaux de bois Aquarelles: Green Cal Performances’ 2010–2011 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. Aquarelles: Spleen INTERMISSION 4 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 5 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES Robert Schumann (1810–1856) of these, however, omitting the comforting vers- and sensuality, and woke echoes in this symbol- in English. Green is an expression of young love Frauenliebe und -leben (“Woman’s Love and es of the final poem, so his cycle ends with the ist musician.” Debussy’s earliest Verlaine song that progresses from ardor to repose. Spleen in Life”), Op. 42 sorrow over the beloved’s sudden death, made (1882) was Clair de lune (“Moonlight”), which English means “ill-tempered” but in French deeply poignant by the reprise of the opening he set again a decade later. (The poem also pro- “melancholy,” and the cycle’s closing song sug- Composed in 1840. song, the music of new love, as a piano postlude. vided the milieu for the famous, but musically gests the despair of an abandoned lover and the unrelated, Clair de lune that serves as the third longing for the beloved even among the splen- September 12, 1840—the day he married Clara movement of his Suite bergamasque for piano.) dors of nature. Wieck—was a watershed in Robert Schumann’s Claude Debussy (1862–1918) During the next quarter-century, Debussy set creative life. For years he and Clara had struggled Ariettes oubliées (“Forgotten Ariettes”) eighteen more poems of Verlaine, including the to bring about their marriage against the will of Ariettes oubliées (1888), two sets of Fêtes galantes Mark Grey (b. 1967) her father, even taking him to court, before they Composed in 1885–1888; revised in 1903. (1891, 1904), Trois mélodies (1891) and several Ātash Sorushān (“Fire Angels”) for soprano, could be united. The joy of their victory and the independent pieces. piano, flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, anticipation of their long-delayed life together English musicologist Edward Lockspeiser’s Debussy composed the six songs comprising violin, viola, cello and percussion inspired Schumann to explore whole new worlds statement that “poetry fertilizes the art of Ariettes oubliées (“Forgotten Ariettes”) between Libretto by Niloufar Talebi of expression. For the decade before 1839, he had Debussy” is borne out by the dozens of songs 1885, when he was (grudgingly) fulfilling the limited himself entirely to works for solo piano, that the composer created throughout his ca- terms of winning the Prix de Rome at the Villa Composed in 2010. Premiered on March 29, 2011, though both he and Clara pined for grander reer. French artists at the dawn of the 20th Medici, near the city’s famed Spanish Steps, and in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, by things. “Sometimes I would like to smash my pi- century were seeking to escape the hyperven- 1888, by which time he had returned (early) to soprano Jessica Rivera, pianist Molly Morkoski and ano, it has become too narrow for my thoughts,” tilated expression of Romanticism, specifically Paris. These songs, among the first expressions Ensemble Meme. Robert wrote on April 14 to Heinrich Dorn, his the pervasive influence of Germanic Wagnerian of Debussy’s distinctive creative voice, were composition teacher. His first important move Romanticism, to forge a new art informed by published separately under their individual titles Mark Grey, born in Evanston, Illinois, on New away from the confines of the keyboard came intimation and suggestion, by gossamer image in 1888 and revised and reissued as the Ariettes Year’s Day 1967, earned bachelor’s and master’s during the year of his marriage, when he com- and evocative word. Debussy was profoundly af- oubliées in 1903. The texts are from Verlaine’s degrees in composition and electro-acoustic posed nearly 150 songs. In July, just after he had fected by these quietly revolutionary French ar- Romances sans paroles (“Romances Without music at San José State University, where his learned that Papa Wieck could no longer legally tistic upheavals, and he immersed himself in the Words”), written while he was in London with teachers included electro-acoustic music pioneer keep him and Clara apart, Robert zealously took painting and poetry of his near-contemporaries. Rimbaud in 1872–1873; they were published in Allen Strange and composer Pablo Furman. up the intimate domestic poetry of the German He sought to embody the spirit of his nation in 1874, when Verlaine was in prison for attack- Grey’s parallel careers in composition and sound Romanticist Adalbert von Chamisso (1781– his music—he chose as his personal title mu- ing his companion. The words and aura of C’est design began to develop when he was publish- 1838), setting eight of his verses as Frauenliebe sicien français—and found continual inspiration l’extase (“This Is Ecstasy”), the first of the three ing technical materials and writing a monthly und -leben, two more (Die Kartenlegerin and Die for his work in the painting of the Impressionists poems taken from the portion of Romances sans column as an editorial intern at Keyboard maga- rote Hanne) in his Drei Gesänge, Op. 31, and five and the verses of the Symbolists. All of his songs paroles that Verlaine titled Ariettes oubliées, are zine from 1990 to 1996. His sound designs have of his adaptations of Hans Christian Andersen as use French texts by French authors. perfectly embodied in the song’s voluptuous since been seen and heard in major concert halls, the Fünf Lieder, Op. 40. Frauenliebe und -leben Nearly one-third of Debussy’s songs are set- mood and sylvan harmonic palette. Il pleure dans theaters and opera houses around the world. He and the contemporaneous song cycles Myrthen, tings of poems by Paul Verlaine. Verlaine (1844– mon cœur (“There Is Weeping in My Heart”), was artistic collaborator, sound designer and Dichterliebe and the Op. 39 Liederkreis were 1896) led a rough life—his tempestuous liaison one of Debussy’s rippling “water pieces,” soundscape engineer for John Adams’s criti- Schumann’s wedding presents for Clara. “Few with the poet Arthur Rimbaud ended when equates the gentle rain over a city with sorrow cally acclaimed On the Transmigration of Souls, women in all history,” observed the composer’s Verlaine shot and wounded his companion; experienced “without reason.” The “drowned composed for the opening concert of the New biographer Robert Haven Schauffler, “have re- after two years in jail, Verlaine descended into hopes” of a grieving traveler are reflected in York Philharmonic’s 2002–2003 season in ceived such gifts from their lovers.” drunkenness and debauchery—but his writ- the “pale landscape” described in L’ombre des commemoration of those who died in the trag- Chamisso’s original Frauenliebe und -leben ings possess a rare evocative quality, a “versified arbres (“The Shadow of the Trees”). The exu- edy of September 11, 2001, which received the consisted of a cycle of nine poems encapsulat- music” that provided the perfect verbal core for berant Chevaux de bois (“Wooden Horses”) is 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music as well as three ing a woman’s courtship and married life: awak- Debussy’s tonal wrapping. “[In Verlaine’s po- one of the half-dozen poems in Romances sans Grammy Awards; Grey was the first sound de- ening love, admiration of her lover, proposal, etry] is no hard realism, no exulting, no roman- paroles with which Verlaine evoked Paysages signer to work with the Philharmonic. He has engagement, wedding, pregnancy, maternity, ticism,” wrote James Husst Hall in his histori- belges (“Belgian Landscapes”), this one set in also done sound designs for the Kronos Quartet, bereavement and consolation in children and cal survey of the art song. “Fluid in substance Brussels. The Ariettes oubliées closes with two Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Lyric grandchildren. Schumann set only the first eight and form, his verses moved between mysticism Aquarelles (“Watercolors”), which the poet titled Opera of Chicago and Metropolitan Opera; his 6 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 7 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES collaboration on John Adams’s Dr. Atomic at the Poetry by Iranians Around the World and found- philosophical concepts with human character- Met in October 2008 was the first sound design ing director of the Translation Project. Among istics.