Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season March-April 2016 | Page 20
{ program notes
The Requiem’s peaceful, lyrical oasis,
the fourth movement, “How lovely are
Thy dwelling places,” is a vision of untroubled faith. The key is a warm E-flat
Major, the meter a gently swaying 3/4,
and the orchestra a chamber ensemble
of great beauty and delicacy.
Movement five, “You now have sorrow,” is a radiant expression of mother
love enduring beyond the grave. It was
the last movement Brahms composed,
added only in 1868 at the suggestion
of the composer’s old teacher Eduard
Marxsen. But perhaps this was the
soonest after his mother’s death he
could bear to write music expressing his
own loss so openly. Muted strings and
woodwinds, with occasional soft interjections from the chorus, accompany
the soprano soloist’s beautiful, arching
lines, an idealized representation of the
voice of Christiane Brahms.
In the sixth movement, “For we have
here no continuing city,” the chorus
wanders like homeless refugees through
a forest of harmonically unstable lines;
this bewildered search is intensified by
the entrance of the baritone soloist
intoning the famous words from First
Corinthians. Here we have the Requiem’s
only reference to the Day of Judgment,
but the chorus and orchestra greet this
prospect with confidence and jubilation:
“Death is swallowed up in victory!”
Movement seven, “Blessed are the
Dead”: Having found hope for the living,
the Requiem now turns its attention for
the first time to the dead. This music —
which begins with the sopranos singing a
reversal of the Bach chorale tune — relates
back to movement one, but is now bigger
and more confident. And the dramatic
change of mood is brought home clearly
when the altos lead a reprise of the Requiem’s opening music. At the work’s
end, a harp — an instrument Brahms
rarely used — wafts sweetly upward.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes,
two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon,
four horns two trumpets, three trombones, tuba,
timpani, two harps, organ, and strings.
Notes by Janet E. Bedell, Copyright ©2016
18 O v ertur e |
www. bsomusic .org
All-Beethoven
Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
Friday, March 11, 2016 — 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 13, 2016 — 3 p.m.
Music Center At Strathmore
Saturday, March 12, 2016 — 8 p.m.
Markus Stenz, Conductor
Lars Vogt, Piano
Kwame Kwei-Armah, Narrator
Lauren Snouffer, Soprano
Ludwig van Beethoven
Leonore Overture No.2, opus 72a
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, opus 15
Allegro con brio
Largo
Rondo: Allegro
LARS VOGT
INTERMISSION
Ludwig van Beethoven Overture and Incidental Music to Egmont, opus 84
Overture
Lied: Vivace
Entr’acte I: Andante – Allegro con brio
Entr’acte II: Larghetto
Lied: Andante con moto – Allegro assai vivace
Entr’acte III: Allegro – Allegretto – Marcia vivace
Entr’acte IV: Poco sostenuto e risoluto – Larghetto –
Andante
Larghetto
Melodrama: Poco sostenuto
Siegessymphonie: Allegro con brio
KWAME KWEI-ARMAH
LAUREN SNOUFFER
Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
The concert will end at approximately 9:55 p.m. on Friday,
and 4:55 p.m. on Sunday.
Music Center At Strathmore
The concert will end at approximately 10 p.m.