Viduals Reflect, Izens O Act
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Oct_TSO_fpg_TFS1828_Gabriel.qxp 2018-09-0711:00AMPage2 wh Ind B i l I i wh n N citizens g u T N a C E l o O · U p o R i e B V n L N W i h E I o A o N r u M v l T S d A e r I B S o R O c n E h o Y N iduals o v R o 1 eflec A l 5 S · · E L c C n ac o o D - I V v e E d I 2 I T 1 · N S · a I O g n I T e o O I v N 2 S 2 N t t 9 o T A g r R . a d Y e 1 2 t , S T E E F T H S E I R . S C T O R A I E S 98174 / TFS – Canada’s International School docket / client APPROVED BY TSO House Programme publication November Edition insertion date Saturday, November 10, 2018 at 8:00pm at 2018 10, November Saturday, 8:00pm at 8, November 2018 Thursday, Russell Braun’s appearance is generouslyRussell supported Braun’s by The November 8performance is generously supported by intermission. an performed without be will concert This VI. Libera me AgnusV. Dei IV. Sanctus III. Offertorium II. Dies irae I. Requiem aeternam Requiem,War Benjamin Britten Chorus Children’s Toronto Mendelssohn Choir Toronto Russell Braun Spence Toby Pavlovskaya Tatiana Bramwell Tovey Sir Andrew Davis, Interim ArtisticSir Andrew Davis, Interim Director To Full Page = 6.5'' x 9.5" ad size 4C process magazine quality colour ronto Symphony Orchestra Symphony ronto TFS-18-29 ad number Friday September 7, 2018 file released , tenor , baritone Op. 66 , conductor , soprano Earlaine Collins Blake and Belinda Goldring and Blake . 9 NOVEMBER 8 & 10, 2018 ABOUT THE WORKS Benjamin Britten (Lord Britten of Aldeburgh) War Requiem, Op. 66 Born: Lowestoft, England, November 22, 1913 82 Died: Aldeburgh, England, December 4, 1976 min Composed: 1961 The première took place in Coventry the same causes that concerned Britten: peace Cathedral, England, on May 30, 1962, with the and brotherhood. conducting duties shared by the composer The boldness and ingenuity of the War and Meredith Davies. The medieval cathedral Requiem continue through the nature and in Coventry had been heavily damaged by layout of the performing forces. Britten calls bombing during the Second World War. Britten for three separate groups—soprano solo, agreed to compose a choral work for the mixed chorus, and full orchestra to perform arts festival celebrating its reconstruction. the Mass texts; chamber orchestra, and tenor He decided it would involve the text of the and baritone solos, representing an English traditional Latin Mass for the Dead. But since and a German soldier, respectively, for the he wished to relate it specifically to the tragedy Owen poems; and a boys’ chorus (in this of war, he sought out other words, to comment case a mixed children’s chorus) with organ, upon and intensify the Mass text. The poetry offering disembodied commentary on the of Wilfred Owen, the most gifted English poet proceedings. of the First World War era, provided precisely what Britten needed. In a further gesture toward universality and post-war reconciliation, he conceived the “I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject music with three specific vocal soloists in is War, and the pity of War,” Owen had written. mind: English tenor Peter Pears, German “The Poetry is in the pity. Yet these elegies are baritone Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, and Russian to this generation in no sense consolatory. soprano Galina Vishnevskaya (a distinction They may be to the next. All a poet can do that will be mirrored in the linguistic today is warn. That is why the true Poets must heritages of the three soloists in these TSO be truthful.” performances of the work). Owen died in action, aged 25, one week before The first section, Requiem aeternam (Eternal the WWI Armistice of which this year marks the Rest), opens as a slow, anguished funeral 100th anniversary. His poems, as they appear procession. Britten quickly establishes the on the score of Britten’s War Requiem, help differences in tone that characterize the make Britten’s piece a strong candidate for performing groups. The soprano, mixed the most eloquent and moving of all anti-war chorus, and children’s chorus, singing in Latin, compositions. It uses Owen’s poems to plead operate on a formal level. The tenor soloist 10 TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA then addresses listeners face to face, walking The first half of the Sanctus develops as a the ground and breathing the air of our own glorious paean to God. The second half is a planet, in our own time, in the words of the heartrending baritone solo, Owen’s sonnet Owen sonnet “Anthem for Doomed Youth”. “The End”, stressing the cold finality of death. Britten then offers a degree of consolation, The opening fanfares of the Dies irae (Day albeit ambivalent, in Agnus Dei (Lamb of of Wrath) section grow more insistent God), with the tenor soloist, in the words and menacing, as the Day of Judgment is of Owen’s “At a Calvary Near the Ancre”, announced. The baritone soloist offers a drawing comparisons between the spirit of quieter but equally unsettling portrait of self-sacrifice represented by Christ and that of soldiers waiting to be called into battle. those who have died in war. Soprano and semichorus ask for guidance, followed by another Owen sonnet, “The Next The final section, Libera me (Deliver Me), War”, a duet between tenor and baritone. With begins with a funeral march recalling the chilling, satiric heartiness, they sing of the War Requiem’s opening pages, building to a false bravado that soldiers of all nations have catastrophic climax. This is followed by the text forced upon them by their superior officers. of Owen’s “Strange Meeting”, in which tenor The chorus then performs an increasingly and baritone are left in some timeless, distant fervid apostrophe to Christ for salvation. This location where earthly suffering no longer flows into the baritone’s account of a piece has meaning. Differences have no place here, of heavy artillery being wheeled into battle, only mutual understanding and tenderness. here symbolizing all weaponry, past, present, Their words are addressed not only to each and future. The Dies irae returns in all its fury, other but to all. “I am the enemy you killed, my counterpointed by the tenor’s plea (Owen’s friend.” Britten accompanies them sparely but “Futility”) to move a dying soldier into the sun. with great colouristic resource. Offertorium begins with the children’s chorus’s The work concludes with all three groups call for the deliverance of the faithful from the performing together for the only time, offering sufferings of hell. The mixed chorus then sings a final benediction. Britten gives the closing a rhythmically buoyant introduction to Owen’s words to the chorus, unaccompanied: “May “The Parable of the Old Man and the Young”, a they rest in peace. Amen.” bitterly ironic retelling, by baritone and tenor, Program note by Don Anderson of the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. TEXT AND TRANSLATIONS The text of War Requiem that follows is by Benjamin Britten himself, including the translations to English of sections from the Latin Mass. Texts of Wilfred Owen’s poetry are from the 1931 Complete Poems of Wilfred Owen (ed. Edmund Blunden) as transcribed, and in some cases altered or abridged, by the composer. NOVEMBER 8 & 10, 2018 11 TEXT AND TRANSLATIONS I. Requiem aeternam Chorus Chorus Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine; Lord, grant them eternal rest; et lux perpetua luceat eis. and let the perpetual light shine upon them. Children’s Chorus Children’s Chorus Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion: Thou shalt have praise in Zion, of God: et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem; and homage shall be paid to thee in Jerusalem; exaudi orationem meam, hear my prayer, ad te omnis caro veniet. all flesh shall come before Thee. Chorus Chorus Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine; Lord, grant them eternal rest; et lux perpetua luceat eis. and let the perpetual light shine upon them. Tenor What passing bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,— The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. Chorus Chorus Kyrie eleison Lord, have mercy upon them Christe eleison Christ, have mercy upon them Kyrie eleison Lord, have mercy upon them II. Dies irae Chorus Chorus Dies irae, dies illa, This day, this day of wrath Solvet saeclum in favilla: Shall consume the world in ashes, Teste David cum Sibylla. As foretold by David and Sibyl. Quantus tremor est futurus, What trembling there shall be Quando Judex est venturus, When the judge shall come Cuncta stricte discussurus! To weigh everything strictly. Tuba mirum spargens sonum The trumpet, scattering its awful sound 12 TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Per sepulchra regionum Across the graves of all lands Coget omnes ante thronum.