Friday, March 23, 8PM @ NNU's Swayne Auditorium
Saturday, March 24, 8PM @ Morrison Center
PURCHASE TICKETS - NAMPA
PURCHASE TICKETS - BOISE
Boise Sponsor - Bob and Anne Hay
Nampa Sponsor - 
Brahms - German Requiem Sponsor - John Fiedler & Lesley Bahner
Artist Sponsor - C.K. Haun & Karen Meyer
Robert Franz, conductor
Mary Wilson, soprano
Grant Youngblood, baritone
Boise Philharmonic Master Chorale
Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 5, "Reformation"
Johannes Brahms
Eine Deutches Requiem (A German Requiem)
Soprano Mary Wilson is acknowledged as one of today's most exciting young artists. Cultivating a wide-ranging career singing chamber music, oratorio and operatic repertoire, her “bright soprano seems to know no terrors, wrapping itself seductively around every phrase.” (Dallas Morning News) Receiving consistent critical acclaim from coast to coast, “she proves why many in the opera world are heralding her as an emerging star. She is simply amazing, with a voice that induces goose bumps and a stage presence that is mesmerizing. She literally stole the spotlight…” (Arizona Daily Star)
In high demand on the concert stage, she has most-recently appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Detroit Symphony, Delaware Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, VocalEssence, and at the Hollywood Bowl. She has worked with conductors including Nicholas McGegan, Bernard Labadie, Martin Pearlman, Martin Haselböck, JoAnn Falletta, Michael Stern, Anton Armstrong, Philip Brunelle and Leonard Slatkin. An exciting interpreter of Baroque repertoire, especially Handel, she has appeared with Philharmonia Baroque, Musica Angelica, American Bach Soloists, Boston Baroque, Grand Rapids Bach Festival, Bach Society of St. Louis, Baltimore Handel Choir, Florida Bach Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Casals Festival, and the Carmel Bach Festival. With the IRIS Chamber Orchestra, she sang the world premiere of the song cycle “Songs Old and New” written especially for her by Ned Rorem. She was named an Emerging Artist by Symphony Magazine in 2004 in the publication’s first ever presentation of promising classical soloists on the rise
On the opera stage, she is especially noted for her portrayals of Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Susannah in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Gilda in Rigoletto. She has created leading roles in North American and World premiere performances of Dove’s Flight, Glass’ Galileo Galilei, and Petitgirard’s Joseph Merrick dit L’Elephant Man. She has appeared most recently with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Minnesota Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Dayton Opera, Arizona Opera, Tulsa Opera, Mississippi Opera, Southwest Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Goodman Theatre.
An accomplished pianist, Ms. Wilson holds performance degrees from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. . She currently resides in Memphis, Tennessee, with her husband and son.
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In demand by orchestras for his "smooth lyric baritone voice (while) bringing beautiful shading and color to the score,” Grant Youngblood made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra singing five concert performances of Copland's OLD AMERICAN SONGS under the baton of Miguel Harth-Bedoya. He has also performed REYNARD, MASS, REQUIEM CANTICLES, and CANTICUM SACRUM for the Stravinsky Festival mounted by the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas. He made his international concert debut with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in the 1999 LITURGICA FESTIVAL. Other orchestral highlights include the Dallas Symphony in ten performances of the 1999 HOLIDAY GALA (televised), the Florida Philharmonic, the Bucharest Philharmonic, the Chautauqua Symphony, and the Louisville Symphony. Mr. Youngblood has been praised for his exceptional expressive artistry in recital, with performances in Los Angeles, Wilmington, DE, and Washington, D.C. He is a favorite with the Duke University Chapel Choir where he frequently performs their annual unabridged MESSIAH.
Engagements for Grant Youngblood during the 2010-11 season include Germont in LA TRAVIATA with Austin Lyric Opera; Scarpia in TOSCA with North Carolina Opera; Belcore in L’ELISIR D’AMORE with the Jacksonville Symphony; Count Almaviva in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO with Opera North; and Servant Five in CAPRICCIO with the Metropolitan Opera. Concert engagements during the 2010-11 season include Marcello in LA BOHÈME with the Harrisburg Symphony. Upcoming engagements during the 2011-12 season will include Germont in LA TRAVIATA with Nashville Opera; concert engagements will include the BRAHMS REQUIEM with the Boise Philharmonic.
Hailed as a tall dashing baritone "with a robust sound with ringing top notes,” other recent credits have included Escamillo in CARMEN for Opéra de Monte-Carlo's tour of Japan and a critically-acclaimed debut with San Francisco Opera as Sharpless in MADAMA BUTTERFLY. Appearances with New York City Opera (since his 1995 debut) have included a critically-acclaimed Escamillo in CARMEN, the title role of DON GIOVANNI, Sharpless in MADAMA BUTTERFLY, Thoäs in a new production of Gluck’s IPHIGÉNIE EN TAURIDE, and Germont for their national tour of LA TRAVIATA with the New York City Opera National Company. Additional career highlights have included Thoäs in IPHIGÉNIE EN TAURIDE with Glimmerglass Opera, Count Di Luna in IL TROVATORE with Virginia Opera, Silvio in I PAGLIACCI opposite Diana Soviero with both Florida Grand Opera and Florentine Opera, John Proctor in THE CRUCIBLE with Central City Opera, Enrico in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR and the Count in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO with Cleveland Opera, Valentin in FAUST with both Portland Opera and Minnesota Opera, and a return to Carnegie Hall as Ruggiero in Halevy's LA JUIVE with Opera Orchestra of New York. Mr. Youngblood has appeared in three mountings of CARMINA BURANA, two of them staged. He has also appeared with Houston Grand Opera, Baltimore Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Utah Opera.
Numerous awards and recognition for excellence have included the Shoshana Foundation’s Richard F. Gold Career Grant (presented by New York City Opera), the MacAllister Awards Competition, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council. Mr. Youngblood was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, to parents of full Lumbee heritage.
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Behind The Music
Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 107, “Reformation”
Felix Mendelssohn
Born February 3, 1809, in Hamburg, Germany
Died November 4, 1847, in Leipzig, Germany
This work was first performed on November 15, 1832, at the Singakademie in Berlin with the composer conducting. It is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings.
The "Reformation" Symphony was first performed by the Boise Philharmonic on February 3, 1976.
Felix Mendelssohn’s musical style is quite conservative when judged alongside other works written in the same period. For instance, 1833 was the year that Mendelssohn composed his Italian Symphony, a work familiar to most concertgoers. The same year Wagner composed his first opera (The Fairies) and Chopin was active writing imaginative piano works. Berlioz had composed his outlandish Symphonie fantastique three years before. Borodin and Brahms were born in 1833, and Beethoven had already been dead for six years. Compared to his colleagues, Mendelssohn was not a visionary or an iconoclast, but he pushed the boundaries in his own way by being the most complete musician of his day. He was known as a conductor, teacher, and composer, but was also active as a man of letters and festival administrator. His domestic life was free from significant marital or financial troubles. Fortune granted him the favor of being the happily married son of a highly successful banker.
Much attention is given to the remarkably young age at which Mozart composed his earliest works, overshadowing the equally amazing talents of the young Felix Mendelssohn a few generations later. Mozart was forced to tour Europe as a young child, playing for kings, popes, and princes. Mendelssohn showed his talent at a similarly young age, so his wealthy father invested in the best music teachers available for Felix and his musically gifted sister Fanny (who composed even after she was married, despite the social expectations of the time). Young Felix regularly heard his music performed by the private orchestra that played in the Mendelssohn’s Berlin home every Sunday. This invaluable advantage allowed the composer to develop musical identity and adeptness for orchestration before his age reached double digits. Thirteen early “string symphonies” date from this period – all written before he composed his first numbered symphony at the age of fifteen.
To complicate matters further, the symphonies we know today as numbers one through five are numbered in order of publication, not of composition. Actually these works were composed in the following order – No. 1 (1824), No. 5 “Reformation” (1830), No. 4 “Italian” (1833), No. 2 “Lobgesang” (1840), and No. 3 “Scottish” (1842).
In the case of the “Reformation” Symphony, it is not difficult to understand its delay in publication. It was composed for a special occasion, the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession of 1530 – the document that defined the principles of Lutheranism and launched the Protestant Reformation. Because of this association, publishers felt that the work would not have universal appeal, especially with Mendelssohn’s original unwieldy title, Symphony for the Celebration of a Religious Revolution. Later shortened to “Reformation,” the work was not published until 1868 – twenty-one years after Mendelssohn’s death. The troublesome nickname is reflected in Mendelssohn’s music by his use of two themes that reflect the Lutheran heritage.
The work begins with a slow introduction, which closes with the first of Mendelssohn’s Lutheran themes – the famous Dresden Amen, appearing here as a whisper in the high register of the strings. A bold allegro con fuoco comprises the main body of this agitated movement, but the Dresden Amen returns to signal the beginning of the recapitulation. Mendelssohn’s second movement is a lively scherzo, usually found as the third movement in symphonies of this period, which includes a delightful oboe duet in the trio section. The third movement is a prayerful andante that serves as an introduction to the potent finale. Woodwinds begin the final movement with a lush harmonization of the famous Lutheran hymn, Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress is our God). As the movement progresses through many tempo changes, Mendelssohn weaves threads from the hymn together with new themes. In its final measures, the hymn tune recurs with a grand and powerful treatment for full orchestra.
©2011 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com
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Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem)
Johannes Brahms
Born May 7, 1833 in Hamburg, Germany
Died April 3, 1897 in Vienna, Austria
Different movements of this work were premiered at different times. The premiere of the complete work took place on February 18, 1869, by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Carl Reineke with Emilie Bellingrath-Wagner and Franz Krükl as soloists. It is scored for woodwinds in pairs with added piccolo and contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, organ, and strings. Soprano and Bass-Baritone soloist and SATB chorus comprise the vocal contingent.
Eine Deutches Requiem was first performed by the Boise Philharmonic on March 21, 1987.
In 1853 Robert Schumann lauded the twenty-year-old Johannes Brahms as the “young eagle” among composers. The two young composers became close friends, but the connection was not to last. On February 27, 1954, Schumann attempted suicide by jumping into the wintry Rhine River during an episode of mental illness brought on by advanced syphilis. He was sent to an asylum where he lived out the remaining two years of his life isolated from his loved ones, including his beloved wife, Clara. This situation weighed heavily on the sensitive heart of Brahms, who began work on a D-minor symphony in tribute to his friend – a piece that he could not finish. Much of the material became the First Piano Concerto, but other themes were left unused.
During this ordeal, Brahms had grown to admire Clara and this admiration developed into a deep love. Although this relationship probably never exceeded the limits of honor, he considered her the ideal of womanhood. After Robert’s hospitalization, Brahms knew that Clara could not care for the seven Schumann children [an eighth would be born in June of 1854] without assistance, so he moved into their home and helped with household management and business matters pertaining to Robert’s music. Clara was able to resume her career as the most admired concert pianist of her generation. As years passed, Brahms stayed in contact with Clara, seeking her advice on the fine details of his most important compositions.
On February 2, 1965, Brahms’s beloved mother suffered a stroke and died shortly thereafter. Although the composer was en route to her bedside, she passed away before his arrival. As he had done after Schumann’s death, Brahms turned to composition to ease the pain. One overriding theme was ever-present in his mind – that of comfort for the living when faced with the death of a loved one. Drawing upon the unused sketches he had made after Schumann’s death, along with some new material written in anguish after his mother died, Brahms began work on what became Ein Deutsches Requiem. It was this piece – Brahms’s longest work – that brought him international notice.
Composition of the work took many years and was accomplished in segments. The first three movements were composed between April 1865 and April 1866. These were premiered at a concert in Vienna on December 1, 1867. Although the first two movements were given a polite reception, the third as reviled – all because the timpanist played so loudly he drowned out the rest of the performers. Since the Requiem was not a commissioned work being written for a deadline, Brahms was able to regroup and ruminate as to its final form. By this time he had composed another two movements and felt that the additional text and music would help balance the work as a spiritual and artistic statement. A performance of the six-movement version (the present fifth movement was not yet written) was held in Bremen on Good Friday, April 10, 1868. The reception from the large crowd, many of whom were musicians, was one of adulation. However, Brahms felt that the piece needed something to tie it together into a unified whole. An additional movement for soprano solo would focus on his beloved mother. Ending with the line, “as one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you,” it is the emotional center of the work. By adding the fifth movement, Brahms also achieved perfect symmetry with two meditative outer movements, a dramatic second and sixth movement, a third and fifth movement featuring soloists, and the central fourth movement that is of placid beauty.
Brahms’s text is far removed from the traditional Requiem in nearly every way imaginable. Instead of the regimented Latin text, Brahms compiled biblical verses himself. While the Latin Requiem text, beginning with the words “Grant them eternal rest,” prays for the absolution of the sins of the departed, Brahms’s text calls for the comfort of survivors, starting with the absolution “Blessed are they that mourn.” Brahms expressed some misgivings about the title A German Requiem, saying that his approach was meant to reflect the language and not the nationality. He wanted the work to be humanistic, not necessarily religious, and suggested that a better title might have been A Human Requiem.
©2011 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
www.orpheusnotes.com
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