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program notes
Philadelphia Orchestra , San Francisco Symphony Orchestra , St . Louis Symphony Orchestra , North Carolina Symphony and the National Art Centre in Ottawa . He also makes his debut as the title role in Oedipus Rex with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London at Cal Performances and his recital debut at the Wigmore Hall in London .
Mr . Phan has appeared with many of the leading orchestras in North America and Europe . He has toured extensively throughout the major concert halls of Europe with Il Complesso Barocco and has appeared with the Edinburgh , Ravinia , Rheingau , Tanglewood and Marlboro music festivals and at the BBC Proms . In opera , he has appeared with the LA , Houston Grand , Seattle , Glyndebourne and Frankfurt operas , and the Maggio Musicale in Florence . In recital , he has been presented by Carnegie Hall , the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center , the Metropolitan Museum of Art , Boston ’ s Celebrity Series , the Library of Congress in Washington , DC and Atlanta ’ s Spivey Hall . He is also a founder and the artistic director of the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago , an organization devoted to promoting the art song and vocal chamber music repertoire .
Mr . Phan ’ s most recent solo album , A Painted Tale , was released on Avie Records in February of 2015 . His solo album , Still Falls the Rain ( Avie ), was named one of the best classical recordings of 2012 by The New York Times . His discography also includes the Grammy-nominated recording of Stravinsky ’ s Pulcinella with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra ( CSO Resound ) and the world premiere recording of Elliott Carter ’ s orchestral song cycle , A Sunbeam ’ s Architecture ( NMC ).
Nicholas Phan last appeared with the BSO in March 2015 , performing Mozart ’ s Mass in C minor , Masaaki Suzuki , conductor .
Luca Pisaroni
Since his debut at age 26 with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival ,
Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni has continued to appear at the world ’ s leading opera houses , concert halls and festivals .
Pisaroni begins the 2016 – 2017 season as Leporello in Mozart ’ s Don Giovanni at the Berlin Staatsoper , followed by his role debut as Méphistophélès in Gounod ’ s Faust at Houston Grand Opera . He will sing the role of Conte Rodolfo in Bellini ’ s La Sonnambula and will return to the Metropolitan Opera to debut as Giorgio in Bellini ’ s I Puritani , led by Maurizio Benini . He will then make his highly anticipated debut at Teatro alla Scala as Leporello in Mozart ’ s Don Giovanni , under the baton of Paavo Järvi .
Mr . Pisaroni ’ s concert appearances include Rossini ’ s Stabat Mater at the Musikverein Wien , Händel ’ s Messiah with Les Violons du Roy , Beethoven ’ s Missa Solemnis for the Elbphilharmonie Opening , Mozart ’ s Concert Arias and Schubert ’ s Orchestrated Songs with the Wiener Virtuosen and the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker . He will perform Berlioz ’ s Romeo and Juliet with Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony as well as a series of recitals with pianist Maciej Pikulski throughout Europe .
Mr . Pisaroni ’ s discography includes Don Giovanni and Rinaldo from the Glyndebourne Festival ; Le nozze di Figaro with the Opéra National de Paris ; Così fan tutte , Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro from the Salzburg Festival ; and a recording of Don Giovanni with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin .
He lives in Vienna with his wife , Catherine . Their golden retriever Lenny 2.0 and miniature dachshund Tristan are the singer ’ s constant traveling companions .
Luca Pisaroni is making his BSO debut .
About the concert :
Messiah
George Frideric Handel
Born in Halle , Saxony ( now Germany ), February 23 , 1685 , died in London , April 14 , 1759
Handel ’ s great oratorio Messiah has become such a beloved musical icon in the nearly 270 years since its birth in 1741 that it is not at all surprising that many myths and legends have grown up around it . We have been told that Handel himself compiled its mostly Biblical text or , alternatively , that it was sent to him by a stranger ; that its success transformed him overnight from a bankrupt operatic hasbeen to England ’ s most revered composer ; that at its London premiere the king himself rose during the “ Hallelujah Chorus ” to express his approbation . But Messiah ’ s real story is much more complicated , though no less fascinating .
In the early 1740s , Handel was indeed in considerable professional and financial trouble . After emigrating from Germany to England as a young man , he had enjoyed a celebrated career as the country ’ s leading composer of operas , mostly in Italian and enhanced by spectacular costumes and scenic effects . But by the end of the 1730s , Handel ’ s serious grand operas were falling out of fashion . The success of John Gay ’ s much simpler , English-language The Beggar ’ s Opera fueled a new enthusiasm for popular-style comic operas . Unable to fill London ’ s opera houses anymore , Handel retreated from the field and turned his genius to sacred dramas or oratorios .
He was not a novice in this genre . Even while busy writing operas , Handel had composed a number of oratorios , notably Israel in Egypt and Saul . Typically , his oratorios were not so very different from his operas ; they told a dramatic story — in this case drawn from the Bible or other sacred literature — and their soloists played actual characters . They were performed in theaters and concert halls , not churches . But Israel in Egypt took a new musical approach with the chorus becoming the central character . And Messiah , while giving the soloists more to do , still used the chorus for its climactic moments . Moreover , it broke with Baroque oratorio tradition as a meditation on the coming of the Messiah and his promise for humanity rather than a narrative of events in his life . Handel himself did not compile the group of texts drawn from the Bible ’ s Old and New Testaments for Messiah . Instead , this was the work of Charles Jennens , a
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