OVERTURE TO BERENICE

George Frederic Handel

Quick facts:
Born: 1685, Halle, Germany
Died: 1759, London, United Kingdom
Composed: 1736
Premiere: May 18, 1737, Covent Garden Theatre, London
Length: 8 minutes

Set in Egypt around 80 BC, Handel's Berenice tells the story of the Egyptian Queen's involvement in a convoluted romantic web which is happily resolved in the end. The three-act opera premiered at London's Covent Garden Theater on May 18, 1737, but proved to be unsuccessful, and closed after only four performances.

In the Baroque period, the French overture provided a familiar formal template. It begins with a stately slow introduction propelled and enlivened by regal dotted rhythms, and proceeds on to a lively Allegro section. Handel's Berenice Overture follows this model. The Allegro erupts with a vibrant imitative dialogue between the strings and oboes. The elegant Menuetto which follows may be the most recognizable music from the Overture. The work concludes with a joyful, celebratory Gigue. Perhaps it is no surprise that Dr. Charles Burney, who chronicled Handel's musical activities in London, described Berenice Overture as "happy and pleasing to an uncommon degree."

SUITE FOR LOWER STRINGS

Clarice Assad

Quick facts:
Born: 1978, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Composed: 2009
Premiere: 2009, New Century Chamber Orchestra
Length: 15 minutes

A powerful communicator renowned for her musical scope and versatility, Brazilian American Clarice Assad is a significant artistic voice in the classical, world music, pop, and jazz genres. A Grammy-nominated composer celebrated pianist, inventive vocalist, and educator, she is renowned for her evocative colors, rich textures, and diverse stylistic range. As an innovator, her award-winning education program, Voxploration, has been presented throughout the United States, Brazil, Europe, and Qatar. With her talent sought-after by artists and organizations worldwide, the multi-talented musician continues to attract new audiences both onstage and off.

Assad writes, 

“Suite for Lower Strings” (2009) is a five-movement fantasy on well-known themes by J.S. Bach. The work emphasizes the string section’s lower voices, such as the viola, cello, and bass. Typically in Baroque music, the melody was given to the higher instruments — but the suite, commissioned by the New Century Chamber Orchestra, was specifically tasked to showcase the often under-used lower instruments. Each of the suite’s short movements presents Bach’s popular and recognizable melodies, often varying and combining them with elements from twentieth-century styles.

"TUNE YOUR HARPS" FROM ESTHER

GEORGE FREDERIC HANDEL

Quick facts:
Born: 1685, Halle, Germany
Died: 1759, London, UK
Composed: 1718
Premiere: 1718 (original version), 1732 (oratorio version)
Length: 4 minutes

Handel's 1732 oratorio, Esther, tells the story of a Jewish orphan who becomes Queen of Persia. When the villainous Haman becomes enraged by a personal slight and, in retaliation, orders the extermination of all Jews throughout the Persian Empire, Esther saves her people from massacre.

The work originated in 1718 as a semi-staged masque, performed for the Duke of Chandos, who employed Handel as resident composer for two years. Later, Handel expanded it into a full oratorio for performance in London. Handel's Coronation Anthems, written for the coronation of King George II in 1727, and performed with large instrumental and choral forces, had caused a public sensation. The playbill which advertised Esther five years later promised that "The music will be disposed after the manner of the Coronation Service."

The aria, "Tune Your Harps," is sung by the First Israelite in Act I, Scene 2. The harp's "cheerful strains" are depicted by continuously flowing pizzicati, while the oboe weaves a gentle duet with the tenor.

Tune Your Harps Text:

Tune your harps to cheerful strains,
Moulder idols into dust!
Great Jehovah lives and reigns,
We in great Jehovah trust.

"KOMM, SÜSSES KREUZ" FROM ST. MATTHEW PASSION

Johann Sebastian Bach

Quick facts:

Born: 1685, Eisenach, Germany
Died: 1750, Leipzig, Germany
Composed: 1727
Premiere: April 11, 1727, Leipzig
Length: 6 minutes

J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion, a sacred oratorio composed in 1727, musically interprets the narrative of the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 26-27, through a complex design of solo voices, double choir and double orchestra. It's premiere likely took place at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, and it remains one of the two extant passions, following the St. John Passion.

The bass aria, Komm, süsses Kreuz ("Come, sweet Cross"), comes near the end of the second part of J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244. The setting of the text speaks of the suffering of Christ in his final days.

Arriving in the story's most desolate moments, the veiled accompaniment of the viola da gamba (often played by the cello in modern performances) hovers as a gloomy and inescapable presence. The bass line progresses in halting, stumbling steps.

Komm, süsses Kreuz Text:

German Text:
Komm, süßes Kreuz, so will ich sagen,
Mein Jesu, gib es immer her!
Wird mein Leiden einst zu schwer,
So hilfst du mir es selber tragen.

English Translation:
Come, sweet Cross, this I want to say:
My Jesus, give it always to me!
If my suffering becomes too heavy one day,
you yourself will help me bear it.

"ENDLESS PLEASURE" FROM SEMELE

George Frederic Handel

Quick facts:
Born: 1685, Halle, Germany
Died: 1759, London, United Kingdom
Composed: 1743
Premiere: February 10, 1744, Royal Opera House, London
Length: 3 minutes

Handel's Semele, first performed at Covent Garden Theater in 1744, falls somewhere between an opera and a three-part oratorio. It is based on a mythological story from Ovid's Metamorphoses which centers around Semele, the mother of Bacchus.

At the end of the first act, Semele expresses delight in her role as the new mistress of the god, Jupiter. Her elation is expressed in the aria, "Endless Pleasure." Dancing accompaniment lines swirl around the soprano's euphoric leaps into the stratosphere.

Endless Pleasure Text:

Endless pleasure, endless love,
Semele enjoys above!
On her bosom Jove reclining,
Useless now his thunder lies;
To her arms his bolts resigning,
And his lightning to her eyes.

CANTATA 140, WACHET AUF, RUFT UNS DIE STIMME ("SLEEPER'S AWAKE")

Johann Sebastian Bach

Quick facts:
Born: 1685, Eisenach, Germany
Died: 1750, Leipzig, Germany
Composed: 1731
Premiere: November 25, 1731, Leipzig
Length: 29 minutes

J.S. Bach's Cantata, BWV 140, Wachet auf ("Sleepers Awake") has been called "a cantata without weakness, without a dull bar, technically, emotionally and spiritually of the highest order, its sheer perfection and boundless imagination rouse one's wonder time and time again" (William G. Whittaker). German musicologist Alfred Dürr described it as an expression of Christian mysticism in art, with the uniting of "earthly happiness in love and heavenly bliss." Bach composed this music, cast in seven movements, in Leipzig for the 27th Sunday following Easter, the last of the church year. It was first performed on November 25, 1731.

The chorale on which the Cantata is based was written by Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608) amid a plague outbreak in 1599. The melody and text, relating to the parable of the Ten Virgins from the Book of Matthew, appear in the first, fourth, and seventh movements. The inner movements are based on the love poetry of the Song of Songs.

The opening movement begins with the stately dotted rhythms of a French overture. Unfolding as a vibrant chorale fantasia, it is a setting of the chorale's first stanza: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme ("Awake", we are called by the voice [of the watchmen]). English conductor John Eliot Gardiner writes,

“From this a rising syncopated figure emerges, taken up later on by the altos as they lead off with their funky 'alleluia' figure and adopted by all the other singers. If anyone in the posh world of classical music ever doubted that JS Bach could also be considered the father of jazz, here is the proof.”

Following the tenor's recitative, Er kommt ("He comes"), we hear the first of two duets: Wann kommst du, mein Heil?("When are You coming, my Salvation?"). It is a dialogue between the Soul (soprano) and Christ (bass). The solo violin (originally performed by the smaller violino piccolo) weaves an elaborate obligato. Its darting lines evoke "the flickering of lamps 'lit with burning oil.”

The fourth movement, Zion hört die Wächter singen ("Zion hears the watchmen singing"), is based on the chorale's second stanza. Bach later transcribed this famous chorale prelude for the organ (BWV 645).

A harmonically wandering bass recitative, So geh herein zu mir ("Then come in to me"), leads into the sixth movement: Mein Freund ist mein! ("My Friend is mine!"). Accompanied by the bright, pastoral voice of the oboe, this is the joyful second soprano-bass love duet between Soul and Christ.

The Cantata concludes with a homophonic setting of the chorale, intended to be sung by the congregation: Gloria sei dir gesungen ("Let Gloria be sung to You").

Program notes by Timothy Judd, thelistenersclub.com

O MAGNUM MYSTERIUM

Morten Lauridsen

Quick Facts:
Born: 1943, Colfax, Washington, U.S.
Composed: 1994
Premiere: December 18, 1994 by Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Paul Salamunovich
Length: 6 minutes

Born in 1943, Lauridsen has been a teacher at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California since 1967. In 2006, Lauridsen was named an 'American Choral Master' by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007 he received the National Medal of Arts from the President in a White House ceremony, "for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide."

When the Los Angeles Master Chorale commissioned Morten Lauridsen’s setting of “O Magnum Mysterium” in 1994, few people anticipated that it would elevate the composer’s career as it did. It was at that very first concert that music director Paul Salamunovich told the audience, “Until now, Vittoria’s O Magnum Mysterium has been the most beautiful and well recognized setting of this text composed to date. I predict that will change after tonight.”

Inspired by a 1633 painting, Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose by Francisco de Zurbarán, Lauridsen wrote in the Wall Street Journal (2/21/2009):

"...the objects in this work are symbolic offerings to the Virgin Mary. Her love, purity and chastity are signified by the rose and the cup of water. The lemons are an Easter fruit that, along with the oranges with blossoms, indicate renewed life. The table is a symbolic altar."

It is a setting of the responsorial chant from the service of Matins on Christmas day, which describes the ‘great mystery’ of the work’s title where the animals see the newborn Lord lying in a manger.

The composer said he wanted to be simple and direct in the music, and was inspired by Palestrina and other early Renaissance composers. The melodies come out of chant, and he uses primary chords (I, IV, and V) for the most part, sometimes in first inversion, and with parallel triads.

Lauridsen worked on the piece for six months, at his home on Waldron Island, Washington. He said that the work is meant as "a quiet song of profound inner joy", with music expressing both the mystery of the Incarnation and Mary's tenderness for her child. His biggest challenge, he says, was how to represent the sorrow of Mary, knowing her son would be killed. Inspiration hit him one night and, in his words, the “most important note in the piece - G# - is used on the word virgo.” It is the only note outside of the key (D Major) and needs resolution, which he does, into a minor triad. Lauridsen says “it shines a sonic spotlight on the importance of that word (virgin).”

Lauridsen program notes by Patricia Anderson

O Magnum Mysterium Text:

Latin Text:
O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
iacentem in praesepio!
O beata virgo, cuius viscera
meruerunt portare
Dominum lesum Christum.
Alleluia!

English Translation:
O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the newborn Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Alleluia!