Echoes of Greek Antiquity Three Centuries of the Classics in Music

Andrew Robert Munn, bass Rami Sarieddine, piano

IMMORTALS AND THEIR REALMS, Schubert Die Götter Griechenlands Fahrt zum Hades Der Atlas Gruppe aus dem Tartarus

HEROES AND THEIR DEEDS, Schubert An die Leier Der ensühnte Orest Memnon

TWO OPERA ARIAS, Handel Hercules “Alcides’ name in the latest story” Polyphemus “Ruddier than the cherry”

INTERMISSION

MORTALS An Schwager Kronos, Schubert

ANAKREON AND XENOPHON FRAGMENTS, Eisler Geselligkeit betreffend Dir auch wurde Sehnsucht Die Unwürde des Alterns Später Triumph In der Frühe Die Götter (von Xenophon)

GOEHTE TRYPTIC, Schubert Ganymed Prometheus Grenzen der Menschheit

SPRING 2019 GREECE PRELIMINARY PROGRAM NOTE

“Today, I read through the lenses of experience. You know, we read the classics five times; we read and reread them. After significant events I always listen differently to Beethoven. I read in different ways before and after the Great War. After the great revolutionary events… During the great crisis of capitalism before fascism took over, I read them differently once more. And in the emigrations, I re-read them with the greatest passion, because then I saw a completely new element of humanity that I’d never observed before because I’d been interested in other qualities in the classics. After my return to Germany in 1948, I read for the fifth time, once more making fresh discoveries, because again I was seeing things in a different light – not my personal light but the light of historical developments.” - Hans Eisler on reading Goethe and the classics, July 13, 1961 -

Opera originated as a rereading and reimagination of the classics. In the centuries since, composers have filled operatic stages with the plights of Greek gods, heroes, and monsters, all rendered in the specific light of their time. Reinterpreted stories, symbols, and ideas from Greek antiquity also found a home in lieder, classical music’s distilled synthesis of poetry and music. Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was the wellspring of lieder, writing over 600 songs to poems by 115 poets. Of the dozens of songs that Schubert wrote on themes form Greek antiquity, this program centers on Schubert’s settings of Johann von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, and Johann Mayrhoffer. Schiller’s poems gave Schubert a thick oil paint of language to portray vivid scenes of Hades and the modern world bereft of divinity. Mayrhoffer, Schubert’s close friend, adopts familiar symbols and characters of Greek mythology to give coded voice to his life’s central contradiction: a poet who earned his living as a censor for the anti-Enlightenment Metternich regime. Goethe brings us into his expansive pantheism and seeks to define the mortal relationship to omnipotence in Ganymed, Prometheus, and Grenzen der Menschheit. In Ganymed, we are ecstatically subsumed by Zeus; in Prometheus we rail against the authority of divinity and crown humanity above the Gods; and in the philosophical poem Grenzen der Menschheit we arrive at an understanding of our place in the cosmos.

The two Handel arias are show pieces for bass voice, selected from his operas Hercules and Acis and Galatea.

Hans Eisler (1898-1962) composed over 200 lieder during the most tumultuous decades of the 20th century. Born in Germany to Jewish parents, Eisler served in World War I, studied composition with Arnold Schönberg, and became a leading figure in the new artistic and socialist political movements of the Weimar Republic. With the election of Hitler, Eisler fled Germany and moved to the United States, where he lived and worked with the many German luminary exiles in Los Angeles. His tribulations however were not through. In 1948, Eisler was brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee on charges of communism, effectively ending his career in the US. He returned to East Berlin, where he spent the last decades of his life attempting to realize the liberatory promises of socialism within the increasingly repressive tides of authoritarian communism. Eisler’s choice of texts was constantly informed by his evolving answers to the question “what is politically or culturally necessary at this time?” While in exile during the second World War, he turned to Eduard Mörike’s translations of Anakreon. They are published as part of the Hollywood Liederbuch, or as Eisler called it, the “song diary” of his years in exile.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Bass Andrew Munn completed his studies at The Juilliard School in 2018. He made his Lincoln Center debut with Juilliard Opera under the direction of Laurence Cummings in Handel's Agrippina. Hailed for his “sonorous bass and sensitive phrasing” on the concert stage, Mr. Munn’s recent engagements include Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, and Mozart’s Requiem and soloist and cast member in New York Festival of Song’s Protest! with Steve Blier. He was a 2017 Vocal Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center where he was featured in recitals curated by Stephanie Blythe and Dawn Upshaw. He was a 2016 Young Artist at Bel Canto at Caramoor, and 2015 Fellow at the Aspen Opera Theater Center. Mr. Munn holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Michigan and Masters in Music from The Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program.

Rami Sarieddine is an active collaborative pianist, chamber musician, soloist, and music educator in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Arabian Peninsula. He served as a Piano Fellow at the Bard College Conservatory of Music under Dawn Upshaw, as well as a Marc and Eva Stern Piano Fellow at SongFest in Los Angeles. Under the tutelage of pianist John Perry, Mr. Sarieddine was awarded the DMA with distinction, by the Thornton School of Music, USC and was inducted into the Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society. He also attended the New England Conservatory, and the Royal Academy of Music. An avid advocate of music by living composers, Mr. Sarieddine has premiered works by James Primosch and Nina C. Young. Additionally he has worked with Mark Carlson, Libby Larsen and Steve Reich.

CONTACT +49 (0)174.58.96.054 [email protected] www.andrewrobertmunn.com