Grant Youngblood, Baritone Aurelien Eulert, Piano

Baltimore Concert Opera and OperaDelaware present SUNDAY ARTIST SPOTLIGHT Grant Youngblood, baritone Aurelien Eulert, piano See the raging flames arise George Frideric Handel From Joshua (1685-1759) L’invitation au voyage Henri Duparc Extase (1848-1933) La vie antérieure Galop Don Quichotte à Dulcinée Maurice Ravel 1. Chanson romanesque (1875-1937) 2. Chanson épique 3. Chanson à boire All the Way ThrouGh EveninG Chirs DeBlasio 1. The Disappearance of Light (1959-1993) 2. Train Station 3. An Elegy to Paul Jacobs 4. Poussin 5. Walt Whitman in 1989 Before my window, op. 26 Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) Sunday Spotlight Recital Notes February 21, 2021 Georg Frideric Handel Georg Frideric Handel’s oratorio Joshua premiered in March of 1748 and was the fourth oratorio he had composed in a span of less than two years. It is one of his shortest oratorios, telling the BiBlical story of the Israelites siege of Jericho and the city’s final destruction. Handel wrote it in part to celeBrate England’s military success in putting down the JacoBite reBellion. As was his standard, Handel composed the work very quickly, and he reused several previously written numBers and melodies in the score. Nevertheless, Joshua contains some thrilling and original chorus music, including the famous “See, the Conq’ring Hero Comes,” proBably his second most famous chorus after “Hallelujah” from Messiah. The oratorio also includes the sparkling aria “Oh, had I JuBal’s Lyre”, a popular concert showpiece for coloratura sopranos, and this recitative and aria for Bass that vividly depicts the final destruction of the city. Henri Duparc Henri Duparc's puBlished legacy consists of sixteen famous mélodies, a duet, a motet, a symphonic poem, and two short orchestral excerpts — Barely an hour and a half of music. But that Brief span encompasses the apex of the French song repertoire. Duparc’s songs were all completed By the time he was 30 years old, and he constantly returned to them, revising, polishing and (unfortunately) discarding many of his scores. Over-inclined to self-criticism, he destroyed composition after composition, some of them after they had Been performed in puBlic and received favorably. For singers they are amongst the most challenging and the most fulfilling French songs to perform (in my humBle opinion, at least!) Duparc’s only teacher of piano and composition was Cesar Franck, who considered him to Be his greatest pupil. Franck introduced the young Duparc to the music of Richard Wagner, and this influence carried through his compositions. Nearly every song Duparc wrote is a repudiation of the world. Where the poem expresses a desire for happiness, it is not merely for personal happiness – as in the poems set By SchuBert, Schumann and Brahms – But for a world of happiness, a mystical world of bliss as unlike the actual world as possiBle. Thus, Duparc is – in his own way – a child of the restless-minded France of the revolutionary 19th century. Maurice Ravel In 1932, the musical world was Buzzing with excitement about an expected new composition By a man internationally regarded as France's greatest composer, Maurice Ravel. Ravel had Been commissioned to write four songs and some Background or incidental music for a new cinema version of the literary classic Don Quixote, starring the legendary Russian Bass Fyodor Chaliapin. Unfortunately, as early as 1927 his close friends had Begun to notice his growing absent- mindedness. He had Begun work on the score, But in OctoBer 1932 he suffered a Blow to the head in a traffic accident, which seems to have aggravated a pre-existing cereBral condition. He started to experience symptoms of aphasia, losing the ability to speak or write. Eventually the composer Became unable to even sign his own name. He could hear music in his head But couldn't communicate it or write it down. I can only imagine how terriBle it would Be for a great musician to Become incapacitated that way. The film's producers finally hired Ravel's friend Jacques Ibert to write the songs for the movie. Friends and colleagues were able to help Ravel finish his score, and a Belated premiere of his song cycle Don Quichotte à Dulcinée took place in DecemBer 1934, sung By the great French Baritone Martial Singher. You can hear the Spanish dance rhythms from Ravel's Boyhood home in the Basque country in this music. Ravel lived for another 3 years, But he was never able to compose again. Chris DeBlasio DeBlasio was Born in West Long Branch, New Jersey in 1959, But it was the metropolitan New York City arts scene that formed his creative life. He studied piano and composition as a teenager and was exposed to a variety of musical experiences, from musical theater and pop music through classical orchestral music and grand opera. He composed pop songs and musical theater works of his own through his high school years, and he initially enrolled at New York University to study Acting. Despite that strong theatrical Bent, after only a year at NYU DeBlasio transferred to the Manhattan School of Music majoring in composition, though still working as an accompanist and arranger for musical theater productions in the City. There, he studied composition with Giampaolo Bracali and John Corigliano and eventually Became a professional choral singer at Calvary Episcopal Church in Gramercy Park, where he Befriended its music director, organist and composer Calvin Hampton. Later, DeBlasio would sing in the choir of Trinity-Wall Street Episcopal Church, working with its music director Larry King, where he entered a wide circle of artists and musicians, including Harry Huff and composer Lee HoiBy. Throughout his adult life, DeBlasio consistently demonstrated an interest in projects with some connection to the gay community. Living in a major metropolitan area such as New York City afforded him many opportunities to pursue work that openly addressed the gay male experience. As the AIDS crisis Began to engulf the City’s gay community, DeBlasio realized that many of the men in his own close circle of friends and colleagues likely would not survive it. His friend Calvin Hampton succumBed to the disease in 1984, and DeBlasio’s own HIV+ diagnosis in 1987 led to him Becoming one of the founding memBers of ACT-UP in New York City. Despite the still ongoing tug of war at the time Between atonal/experimental methods of composition versus traditional tonality – and a Brief period after his diagnosis of questioning the value of Being a composer/artist at all as the pandemic spread through the community – DeBlasio refocused his composing on art and concert music, emBracing tonality in his compositional voice. His song cycle All the Way Through Evening is DeBlasio’s musical response to the AIDS crisis and to the disease that he knew would take his own life. DeBlasio met the poet Perry Brass in 1982, and he set several of Brass’ poems in his three completed song cycles. Brass had Been cajoling DeBlasio to write “something about AIDS,” and in the summer of 1990 the composer completed a cycle of five songs. Of the cycle, Brass said: “Chris made these poems that were once so personal to me universal; he made them sing from his own heart things that are difficult for us to express: the struggle to give up consciousness (‘The Disappearance of Light’); to Be open emotionally to another person in a world that controls and dismisses our attachments (‘Train Station’); to identify with another artist who has died of AIDS (‘An Elegy to Paul JacoBs’); to Become part of a community of men (‘Poussin’); and finally to merge oneself with a hidden story of grief and its transcendence (‘Walt Whitman in 1989’).” All the Way Through Evening received its world premiere in December 1990 with the composer accompanying Baritone Michael Dash. A major factor in the dissemination of the cycle was the inclusion of “Walt Whitman in 1989” in the original 1992 version of the AIDS Quilt Songbook. After hundreds of performances, the song has Become one of the most popular in the entire Songbook. Chris DeBlasio died of AIDS in March 1993. Sergei Rachmaninov Sergei Rachmaninov was Born in Russia in 1873 into a musically talented family, who immediately acknowledged his musical gifts even as a child. Although he would go on to international acclaim as one of the greatest composers for piano and symphony orchestra in history (and as one of the great virtuoso pianists of his generation), his Boundless gift for melody was equally well expressed in his song compositions. His generally gloomy disposition and attraction to sentimental texts allowed him to pair his expressive piano writing with equally expressive vocal lines. Though originally set in Russian, these songs were performed and recorded in English translation By the great Irish tenor John McCormack, and they were a tremendous success for his many American recital tours. - Grant Youngblood TEXT AND TRANSLATIONS “The walls are levell’d … See the raging flames arise” (George Frideric Handel) The walls are levell’d… Pour the chosen bands, with hostile gore imbrue your thirsty hands! Set palaces and temples in a blaze. Sap the foundations and the bulwarks raze! But, oh, remember in the bloody strife to spare the hospitable Rahab’s life! See the raging flames arise! Hear the dismal groans and cries! The fatal day of wrath is come: proud Jericho hath met her doom! L’invitation au voyage (Henri Duparc) Invitation to journey Poetry by Charles Baudelaire Mon enfant, ma soeur, Songe à la douceur My child, my sister, consider the sweetness D’aller là-bas vivre ensemble, Of going there to live together, Aimer à loisir, Aimer et mourir to love at our leisure, to love and to die Au pays qui te ressemble! in the land that resembles you! Les soleils mouillés de ces ciels brouillés The dampened suns of the cloudy skies Pour mon esprit ont les charmes Si mystérieux to my mind have the charms, so mysterious, De tris traîtres yeux, of your treacherous eyes, Brillant à travers leurs larmes.

Load more