Miller Chapel,
Princeton Theological Seminary. General
Admission ($30.)
Program
Beatus Vir, SV 268 by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643).
Kyrie, RV 587 by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741).
Miserere, ZWV 57 by Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745).
Chanos Anthem no. 11a, “Let God Arise,” HWV 256a by
Handel (1685-1759).
Conductors
Michael Duryea,
Maria Hagan, Kyle Hanson, Shohei Kobayashi, Simon Shiao.
During the
Festival a group of conductors (mostly but not all young) attended master
classes conducted by Jan Harrington, retired Chair of the Choral Conducting
Department at the Indiana University.
This concert is the result of their hard (I assume) work for the last
several weeks.
A couple of the
pieces were conducted by a single conductor, and the other by a combination of
them, sometimes with a switch after a short movement (e.g., Miserere.)
I had time the
day prior to listen to all the pieces on YouTube, and managed to find scores
for three of them (couldn’t find Vivaldi’s Kyrie.) The music, with solo, choral, and orchestral
parts, looked quite a bit more complicated.
Instead of
getting bored, or only using my “left brain” to listen, I found today’s concert
generally more captivating. Perhaps the addition of lyrics helped a lot. Although I do not know Latin, and had some
trouble getting the words in the Handel piece, I had some idea what the pieces
were about. Beatus Vir was based on
Psalm 112 which begins with “Blessed is the man;” Kyrie has three simple
phrases: “Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison,” meaning Lord and
Christ have mercy, yes one phrase is repeated; Miserere is based on the Psalm
of repentance by David (Psalm 51), and Handel’s lyrics are from Psalm 68 and
76.
Here are some
details:
Monteverdi. He also lived in Venice, and preceded Vivaldi
by 100 years.
Vivaldi. Three segments are Kyrie eleison, Christe
eleison, and Kyrie eleison.
Miserere. Zelenka was more Bohemian in style (per our
friend David). Today’s piece consists
of: Miserere I, Miserere II, Gloria Patri I, Gloria Patri II, and Miserere
III. M I and M III are very similar (M
III appears to be an abbreviated I), yet they sounded very different with two
different conductors. M I was serene, M
III was agitated. I don’t know how Zelenka intended it, but I am sure M III
hews more to the taste of today’s listener.
Handel. This is the longest of the four, and the
movements are Symphony, Let God Arise, Like as the Smoke, Let the Righteous be
Glad, O Sing unto God, Praised be the Lord, At the Rebuke O God, and Blessed be
God. I thought there was a part that
sounded very much like Messiah, Chung Shu also pointed out it sounded like one
of his coronation anthems.
There were on
occasion some voice ensembles, some involved the soloists we heard earlier
(Johnson and Bello). Our seats were in
the first occupied row, so everything sounded loud and clear, and I got to
observe how critical technique was in their delivery.
At the end of the concert. Eventually other conductors and soloists would join these people in the front.
Many of the
conductors also sang in the chorus, which also included Richard Tang Yuk, the
Artistic Director of the Festival. One
string player played the viola da gamba, the viola, and the violin. (A search of the web identifies her as
Stephanie Raby.)
Indeed Chung Shu
and Shirley decided to join us, so we carpooled out together. The six of us stopped by the reception (can’t
turn down free food) and had a simple dinner at Mamoun’s before we went our
separate ways. During the reception I
really wanted to ask one of the string players why their instruments go out of
tune so easily, but couldn’t find anyone standing there alone. Anne told me many of them had changed out of
their black clothes; so they were around.
The group dates back to the 1970s, when were were students at Cornell (Anne and I were undergrads, the others were graduate students.)
We left some
food on our boat yesterday, so had to stop by to dispose of it – otherwise it
would really reek given the hot weather we expect to get. So it was about 10:30 pm that we got home.
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