Intermezzo Sunday Concert, January 26, 2014 @ 3 p.m.

James Hall, tenor
Michael Mastronicola, piano

• Benjamin Britten: Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op. 22
     1. Sonetto 16: Sì come nella penna e nell' inchiostro
     2. Sonetto 31: A che più debb io mai l'intensa voglia
     3. Sonetto 30: Veggio co' bei vostri occhi un dolce lume
     4. Sonetto 55: Tu sa' ch'io so, signior mie, che tu sai
     5. Sonetto 38: Rendete a gli occhi miei, o fonte o fiume
     6. Sonetto 32: S'un casto amor, s una pietà superna
     7. Sonetto 24: Spirto ben nato, in cui si specchia e vede
  [YouTube: #1-2 ; #3-7]

• Reynaldo Hahn: Venezia
     1. Sopra l’acqua indormenzada
     2. La Barcheta
     3. L’Avertimento
     4. La Biondina in gondoleta
     5. Che pecà!
  [SCORE @ imslp.org][RECORDING @ YouTube]

• Franz Liszt: Tre sonetti di Petrarca
     1. Pace non trovo
     2. Benedetto sia 'l giorno
     3. I’ vidi in terra angelici costume
  [SCORE @ imslp.org][RECORDINGS @ instantencore.com]

  

Dr. James Hall, tenor, enjoys an active and varied career that includes opera, oratorio, chamber music, and solo recital. His artistic versatility is evident through a diverse repertoire that spans baroque to contemporary music. Consistently praised for his elegant musicality and soaring high register, Hall has performed as a soloist throughout the United States with groups such as Mercury Baroque, Masterworks Chorus and Orchestra of Washington, D. C., Shepherd School of Music Chamber Orchestra, and St. Matthew’s Cathedral. A new music advocate, Hall has participated in projects with renowned composers Kirke Mechem, Daniel Catan, Carlisle Floyd, and Ann Gebuhr. Recent and upcoming engagements include appearances with Miami Bach Society as haute-contre soloist in Andre Campra’s Requiem and as tenor soloist in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with The University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory Dancers, Choirs, and Wind Symphony. Well-regarded as an accomplished pedagogue, Dr. Hall has presented master classes in Los Angeles, Kansas City, Washington, D.C., and throughout Texas. He maintains an active voice studio at the University of North Florida, where he joined the faculty in 2011. Dr. Hall holds advanced degrees from The Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland as well as Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.

Dr. Michael Mastronicola teaches Accompanying, Piano Pedagogy, and Class Piano at the University of North Florida, and has taught at Jacksonville University and Front Range Community College.  He is the chair of the annual Outstanding Young Pianists Competition, was artist-coach at the Friday Musicale Emerging Young Artist Chamber Music Festival in 2011,  and has conducted and served as guest clinician for piano festivals in Colorado and Florida. Dr. Mastronicola often adjudicates music competitions, and he is proud of his award-winning students. Among his own awards, Mastronicola received the Harold A. Norblom award in recognition of his “outstanding dedication and exemplary community service” while collaborating with Opera Colorado.  With extensive performance credits as both solo and collaborative pianist, Dr. Mastronicola has appeared in recitals and concerts throughout the United States and Europe, including with the Boulder Philharmonic. Praised for his “intelligent, skilled” and “expressive” playing (Daily Camera), his most recent recording is Then Sings My Soul with soprano Tresa Waggoner.  Additionally, he maintains a busy lecture schedule, and has authored reviews for American Music Teacher.  Dr. Mastronicola holds degrees from the University of Colorado-Boulder (D.M.A), the University of Wisconsin-Madison (M.M.), and Ithaca College (B.M.), with additional training in the Taubman Approach at the Golandsky Institute in Princeton, New Jersey.  He is Organist/Choirmaster at Jacksonville's All Saints Episcopal Church, and is a Colleague with the American Guild of Organists.


PROGRAM NOTES by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

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JAXCAT entries for Benjamin Britten

SEVEN SONNETS OF MICHELANGELO, Op. 22 : Song Cycle by Benjamin Britten 

Sir Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) is widely regarded as among the most significant composers of 20th-Century concert music, with an extensive catalog including vocal and choral music, instrumental solo and chamber music, orchestral music, and music for the stage and screen. The British composer first came to international prominence with his opera, Peter Grimes (1945), and his operas remain more frequently performed than those of any other composer born after 1900. Among his best-known works are the orchestral song cycles Les illuminations (1939) and Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (1943);  the choral A Ceremony of Carols (1942) and War Requiem (1961); and the orchestral The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (1946).  Also a gifted pianist and conductor, Britten performed and recorded his own music, as well as works by other composers. 

Britten lived in the United States between 1939 and 1942, and although he composed the Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940) during these “American years,” the premiere had to wait until September 1942, after his return to England.  Composed for and dedicated to Britten’s partner, tenor Peter Pears, the Sonnets proved to be so challenging that Pears decided he needed additional vocal coaching to improve his stamina and range before putting them before the public. The delay paid off: London critics declared the cycle to contain the finest examples of art songs by an Englishman since Henry Purcell (as they similarly would observe about English opera after the premiere of Peter Grimes). And as soon as the applause died down for the Sonnets, literally, Decca Records approached Britten and Pears about recording the cycle. The recordings became a best-seller, and began a life-long association between the composer and recording company.

Texts: Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). Translations: John Addington Symonds (1840-1893)

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JAXCAT entries for Reynaldo Hahn

VENEZIA : Chansons in Venetian Dialect, by Reynaldo Hahn

By his fourth birthday, Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947) had moved with his wealthy family from Venezuela to Paris, France, but not before his prodigious musical talents had already begun to manifest—in 1878, Venezuelan poet José Maria Samper published A Reinaldo Hahn (niño a tres años y medio), an ode about the three-and-a-half-year-old singer “Foretelling the symphonies / Of another Beethoven perhaps.” By the age of six Hahn was making the rounds as a salon singer, accompanying himself at the piano in the apartments of Parisian socialites, and by eight he had begun composing his own songs. At 11 he entered the Paris Conservatory, where he excelled as conductor and composer, with Massenet and Saint-Saëns as his particular champions. As conductor, Hahn was a recognized Mozart specialist, and in 1906 he conducted Don Giovanni at the first Mozart Festival in Salzburg, Austria. In addition to composing and conducting, in 1909 he began a career as a respected music critic, and in 1945-1946 was named director of the Paris Opéra. He was an intimate friend of author Marcel Proust, who, in his unfinished early novel Jean Santeuil, portrayed the witty Hahn as a genius. But even less personal observers recalled Hahn’s extraordinary charisma, and how as a singer he was so attuned to the meaning behind the words that he could make poets weep when he performed—this though Hahn’s baritone voice was not in itself particularly memorable nor well-disciplined, with him going so far as to sing with a cigarette dangling from his lips (which, one supposes, was pretty memorable all by itself). Hahn wrote a variety of dramatic, instrumental and vocal music, and is remembered especially for his art-song mélodies.

Although the Venezia cycle was published in 1919, the songs date from 1901, when Hahn first visited Venice while travelling with his mother. As Thea Sikora Engelson observes in The Mélodies of Reynaldo Hahn (2006), the composer made a point of distinguishing the folksy chansons of Venezia, meant to mimic the style of Venetian popular songs, from the rest of his more classically-inspired mélodies, and the set includes a sixth piece, La primavera, for soprano and tenor soloists with chorus. In addition to setting verses in the local dialect (for which he provided a pronunciation guide), to pay further homage to his beloved Venice Hahn opens with the barcarolle rhythm of the gondoliers; and in the second song Engelson suggests he uses the piano to conjure oar strokes rippling through the canals that lace the city.

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JAXCAT entries for Franz Liszt

TRE SONETTI DI PETRARCA : Song Cycle, by Franz Liszt

Hungarian-born Franz Liszt (1811-1886) is widely regarded as the greatest pianist of all time, and his performances excited an hysteria that today is reserved for only the most popular of rock stars. Despite great fame following a sometimes impoverished youth, Liszt remained unspoiled and donated great sums of his concert earnings to a wide variety of charitable causes, and in later life he even took orders in the church. His generosity extended to helping increase the fortunes of struggling musicians, among them Hector Berlioz and Liszt’s future son-in-law, Richard Wagner. An innovative composer, Liszt is credited with creating the symphonic tone poem as a form, developing the technique of thematic transformation, and he even anticipated some of the harmonic devices of Impressionist composers.

Liszt prepared four different versions of his Tre sonetti di Petrarca (Three Sonnets of Petrarch), the first for tenor and piano, two for piano solo, and one for mezzo-soprano or baritone and piano. The original tenor version and the first piano transcription most likely were composed between 1843-45, and it was the piano version that was published first, in 1846. [The second piano version became numbers 4-6 in Liszt's suite, Années de pèlerinage, Deuxième année: Italie (Years of Pilgrimage, Second Year: Italy), completed in 1849 and published in 1858. The second vocal version is from 1865, and is perhaps less impetuous and showy than the other versions.] As originally conceived, the Sonetti are operatic in nature, incorporating both a sustained lyricism and more dramatic, declamatory passages. In addition to the interpretive challenges for both performers, as one might expect the virtuosic piano writing offers technical complexities for the pianist, and Liszt provides a couple of opportunities for the tenor to show off high D-flats (above the staff), if so inclined. The composer is ever respectful of the verse of Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), which teeters between ecstatic joy and hopeless despair, with a touch of reverential awe thrown in for good measure. Liszt's then cutting-edge chromatic harmonies highlight the poet's searching uncertainty, and helped lay the foundation for the tenuous tonality of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (1857-59).

Intermezzo Sunday Concert, 4/17/2011 @ 2:30 p.m.

Krzysztof Biernacki, Baritone
Denise Wright, Piano

Dr. Krzysztof Biernacki, renowned baritone and head of vocal studies at UNF, is joined by pianist Denise Wright, one of the First Coast's most sought-after collaborative artists, for an afternoon of art songs sung in German, Polish, Russian, and English.


Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Sechs Lieder, Op. 48
1. Gruß
2. Dereinst, Gedanke mein
3. Lauf der Welt
4. Die verschwiegene Nachtigall
5. Zur Rosenzeit
6. Ein Traum

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937)
Łabędz, Op. 7
We Mgłach, Op. 2, No. 3
Czasem gdy długo na pól sennie marzę, Op. 2, No. 4

Piotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Нет, толко тот, кто знал, Op. 6, No. 6
Средь шумного бала, Op. 38, No. 3
Растворил я окно, Op. 63, No. 2

Roger Quilter (1877-1953)
My life’s delight, Op. 12, No. 2
Damask roses, Op. 12, No. 3
Fair house of joy, Op. 12, No. 7

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Baritone Krzysztof Biernacki has established a strong reputation as a powerful performer, versatile stage director, and talented teacher. Born and raised in Poland, his professional credits include opera, oratorio, concert, and recital performances in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Dr. Biernacki has sung principal roles with Vancouver Opera, Manitoba Opera, Calgary Opera, Orchestra London Canada, Theater of Usti nad Labem (Czech Republic), as well as opera ensembles of University of British Columbia and University of Western Ontario. Dr. Biernacki’s commitment to contemporary music is highlighted by world premiere performances heard on CBC Radio and CBC Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, including a highly acclaimed production of Filumena, co-produced by the Calgary Opera and Banff Centre for Performing Arts. Dr. Biernacki frequently performs song recitals with repertoire ranging from Haydn to Szymanowski, Shostakovich, and Britten. Dr. Biernacki made his Carnegie Hall debut with th UNF Wind Ensemble performing works of Tchaikovsky and Tosti, and was reengaged for a recital of opera arias and duets at Carnegie Zankel Hall. His summer engagements have included solo recitals in Italy and Poland, concerts with North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and stage directing engagements at the European Music Academy in the Czech Republic. Dr. Biernacki holds degrees from the University of Manitoba (B. Mus.), University of Western Ontario (M. Mus.), and University of British Columbia (D.M.A). He is the head of Applied Voice and Director of UNF Opera Ensemble at the University of North in Jacksonville.

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Jacksonville native Denise Wright received her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and her Master of Music in Piano Performance from Indiana University. As a young artist, Ms. Wright was active in a myriad of events sponsored by the Jacksonville Music Teachers Association. While at Samford, she served as a pianist for the Baptist Festival Singers European Tour. she was a Professor of Piano at Bethel College, and was accompanist at both Indiana University and at St. Mary’s College. Returning to Jacksonville in 1991, Ms. Wright assumed the position of pianist at First Baptist Church. Highly sought after as accompanist, she joined the staff of the University of North Florida where she is the accompanist for several voice studios, as well as for the UNF Opera Ensemble. She also serves as accompanist at Douglas Anderson Scool of the Arts, Jacksonville University, and for RC Arts Management. Ms. Wright balances her many artistic endeavors with raising her five children: Sarah, Victoria, Joshua, Anna, and Daniel.

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PROGRAM NOTES, by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

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Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was a nationalistic Norwegian composer and virtuoso pianist best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, and the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play, Peer Gynt. Among his most original works are the Lyriske stykker ("Lyric Pieces") for piano solo, for which he became touted as "The Chopin of the North." But Grieg’s 170 songs likewise demonstrate his originality, and Grieg wrote that he considered song writing central to his work as composer. His wife, Nina, was a talented singer, and Grieg credited her as the primary inspiration for his songs. The majority of them are in Norwegian, which perhaps explains why they are not better known here in the United State. Of Grieg's settings of German poetry, the 6 Lieder, Op.48 (1884-88, pub. 1889), are regarded as among the very finest. The were dedicated to the Swedish dramatic soprano Ellen Norgren, who became internationally famous under her married name, Ellen Gulbranson, and who also eventually became a Norwegian citizen.

Sechs Lieder, Op. 48 (English translation versions ©2011, by E. Lein)

Gruß       (Text: Heinrich Heine) Leise zieht durch mein Gemüt Liebliches Geläute, Klinge, kleines Frühlingslied, Kling hinaus ins Weite. Zieh hinaus bis an das Haus, Wo die Veilchen sprießen, Wenn du eine Rose schaust, Sag, ich laß sie grüßen.	Greeting Soft-perfused throughout my being Wafts sweetly mellow bell-song; Resound, thou pithy song of Spring, Ring through the great beyond. Venture forth to that abode Where violets are sprouting; If thou shouldst espy a rose, Say, I send love's greeting.
Dereinst, Gedanke mein       (Text: Emanuel von Geibel) Dereinst, dereinst, Gedanke mein, Wirst ruhig sein. Läßt Liebesglut Dich still nicht werden, In kühler Erden, Da schläfst du gut, Dort ohne Lieb' Und ohne Pein Wirst ruhig sein. Was du im Leben Nicht hast gefunden, Wenn es entschwunden, Wird's dir gegeben, Dann ohne Wunden Und ohne Pein Wirst ruhig sein.	One Day, My Troubled Mind One day, someday, My troubled mind, Peace thou shalt find. Love's burning heat Peace doth disavow; In frigid earth thou Shalt soundly sleep, There, without love And without pain, At peace remain. What by thou whilst living Could not be found, When from life unbound, To thee shall be given; Then, without a wound And without pain, At peace remain.
Lauf der Welt       (Text: Ludwig Uhland) An jedem Abend geh' ich aus Hinauf den Wiesensteg. Sie schaut aus ihrem Gartenhaus, Es stehet hart am Weg. Wir haben uns noch nie bestellt, Es ist nur so der Lauf der Welt. Ich weiß nicht, wie es so geschah, Seit lange küss' ich sie, Ich bitte nicht, sie sagt nicht: ja! Doch sagt sie: nein! auch nie. Wenn Lippe gern auf Lippe ruht, Wir hindern's nicht, uns dünkt es gut. Das Lüftchen mit der Rose spielt, Es fragt nicht: hast mich lieb? Das Röschen sich am Taue kühlt, Es sagt nicht lange: gib! Ich liebe sie, sie liebet mich, Doch keines sagt: ich liebe dich!	The Way of the World Each evening I go heading out Along the meadow lane. She gazes from her summer house, Which stands beside the way. We've neither wondered why 'tis so, 'Tis but the way the world doth go. I know not how, it happens thus, At length I kiss her so, I ask her naught; she says not, "Yes!" But neither says she, "No!" If lip on lip doth wish to rest, We stop them not, we think it best. The gentle breeze plays 'mid the roses, But, "Lovest thou me?" it asks them not. When cooling dew embraces those posies, They seldom say: "Please stop!" I do love her, she doth love me, Yet neither says: "I do love thee!"
Die verschwiegene Nachtigall       (Text: Karl Joseph Simrock) Unter der Linden, an der Haide, wo ich mit meinem Trauten saß, da mögt ihr finden, wie wir beide die Blumen brachen und das Gras. Vor dem Wald mit süßem Schall, Tandaradei! sang im Tal die Nachtigall. Ich kam gegangen zu der Aue, mein Liebster kam vor mir dahin. Ich ward empfangen als hehre Fraue, daß ich noch immer selig bin. Ob er mir auch Küsse bot? Tandaradei! Seht, wie ist mein Mund so rot! Wie ich da ruhte, wüßt' es einer behüte Gott, ich schämte mich. Wie mich der Gute herzte, keiner erfahre das als er und ich - und ein kleines Vögelein, Tandaradei! das wird wohl verschwiegen sein.	The Secretive Nightingale Under the linden tree upon the heath, where I beside my darling sat, there you just might see how thus, beneath us both, were crush'd both blooms and grass. Sweet came sounds from the wooded vale, "Tan-da-ra-dye!" whence sang yonder nightingale. I had retreated to the river plain, where my love had preceded me. I was greeted like a noble dame, which made me ever so happy. But did he offer me a kiss? "Tan-da-ra-dye!" See, how red are now my lips! While napping, shouldst one know what I had done, merciful God, ashamed I'd be. How I was by my beau embraced, may none ever know, save for him and me - and a dear little bird, "Tan-da-ra-dye!" who'll well keep secret what occurred.
Zur Rosenzeit       (Text: Wehmut, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) Ihr verblühet, süße Rosen, Meine Liebe trug euch nicht; Blühtet, ach! dem Hoffnungslosen, Dem der Gram die Seele bricht! Jener Tage denk' ich trauernd, Als ich, Engel, an dir hing, Auf das erste Knöspchen lauernd Früh zu meinem Garten ging; Alle Blüten, alle Früchte Noch zu deinen Füßen trug Und vor deinem Angesichte Hoffnung in dem Herzen schlug. [NOTE: Grieg setting omits this verse, but instead repeats the first verse] Der auf erste Knöspchen lauernd früh zu seinem Garten ging, ach der Tage denk ich trauernd, als ich Engel an dir hing.	To the Time of Roses (Wistfulness) You are fading, sweetest roses, My love could not keep thee whole; O Bloom then! for that which is hopeless, For him whose sorrow shatters the soul! Sadly, I remember those days, When, Angel, o'er thee I'd attend, On the first dear bud I'd await While early through my garden I'd wend; All blooms, all fruitful abundance Were laid there before thy feet, And there before thy countenance Such hope through my heart yet beat. On that first dear bud I'd await While early through his garden I'd wend, Ah, sadly I remember the days, When, Angel, o'er thee I'd attend.
Ein Traum       (Text: Friedrich Martin von Bodenstedt) Mir träumte einst ein schöner Traum: Mich liebte eine blonde Maid; Es war am grünen Waldesraum, Es war zur warmen Frühlingszeit: Die Knospe sprang, der Waldbach schwoll, Fern aus dem Dorfe scholl Geläut - Wir waren ganzer Wonne voll, Versunken ganz in Seligkeit. Und schöner noch als einst der Traum Begab es sich in Wirklichkeit - Es war am grünen Waldesraum, Es war zur warmen Frühlingszeit: Der Waldbach schwoll, die Knospe sprang, Geläut erscholl vom Dorfe her - Ich hielt dich fest, ich hielt dich lang Und lasse dich nun nimmermehr! O frühlingsgrüner Waldesraum! Du lebst in mir durch alle Zeit - Dort ward die Wirklichkeit zum Traum, Dort ward der Traum zur Wirklichkeit!	A Dream Once I dreamt a beautiful dream: I did love a maiden fair; 'Twas in a forest glade of green, With balmy springtime weather there: Fresh buds sprang forth, the brook full-swelled, From the village bells rang sweetly - With great delights we were full-filled, Immersed in bliss completely. And lovelier than once-upon-a-dream In reality did yet occur - 'Twas in a forest glade of green, In balmy springtime weather: The brook full-swelled, new buds had sprung, Bells from the town rang sweetly - I held thee fast, I held thee long And nevermore shall release thee! O forest glade of spring's fresh green! Live thou in me eternally - Whence reality became a dream, Whence the dream became reality!

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Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), sometimes called the father of modern Polish music, is the most important Polish composer of the early 20th Century. He perhaps is best-known in this country for his solo piano music and his Stabat Mater for chorus and orchestra, although now his four symphonies, two violin concertos, chamber music, vocal music, and stage works are becoming better known as new recordings become available. Szymanowski's early works show the decided influences of Chopin, Wagner, Scriabin, Reger and Richard Strauss, but as he traveled extensively through Europe and Mediterranean Africa, the influences from the different cultures he encountered, along with exposure to works by Debussy and Ravel, as well as to Stravinsky's early ballets, began to color his work. In 1926, Szymanowski was appointed director of the Warsaw Conservatory, and as he became enthralled with Polish folk music his later works grew more nationalistic, celebrating his Polish heritage. Suffering from tuberculosis, Szymanowski retired to a sanitorium in Switzerland in 1935, and died there in 1937.

Labedz, Op. 7 (Text: Waclaw Berent, 1873-1940) Obloczna góra ciagnie ptak W bezgwiezdna cisze przyszlych burz, Ponura groza krwawych zórz, W daleki, chmurny zwatpien szlak. Labedziu mój, z tesknoty mórz polotem twym daj bozy znak, Ty, bialych marzen bledny ptak, O dole, dole, moja wróz! Labedziu mój z marzenia wód, We snach sie isci bytu cud I snuje piekno rojem mar! Labedziu mój z nadziei stron, Ty zycia zludy wiescisz skon. I przedmogilnej piesni czar.	The Swan (Translation: Krzysztof Biernacki) A bird is flying in the cloudy heights Into the starless silence of upcoming storms, Through the grim terror of the bloody dawn, Into the distant, cloudy trail of doubts. My Swan, from the yearning of the seas, With your flight give me a divine sign, You, the errant bird of white dreams, Tell me, o tell me my fate! My swan, from waters of fancy, In dreams the wonder of being comes to life And spins beauty with the swarm of phantasms! My swan, from the world of hope, You herald the agony of life’s illusion. And the magic of pre-mortal song!
We mglach Op. 2, No. 3 (Text: Kazimierz Przerwa Tetmajer, 1865-1940) We mglach strumienie szumia wód, po skale biegnac scietej, we mglach wieczorny opadl chlód na sennych fal odmety. We mglach zalobny pomruk z hal i z ciemnych szedl krzesanic, i we mglach splywa zal, ach zal! Bez dna, bez dna, bez granic!	In the mists (Translation: Krzysztof Biernacki) In the mists streams of water murmur, running down the steep, chiseled rock, in the mists the evening chill has fallen over the sleepy waves of the deep. In the mists the mourning murmur from mountain meadows has descended from dark precipices, and in the mists flows my sorrow, oh sorrow! Unfathomable, unfathomable, unbounded!
Czasem, gdy dlugo na pól sennie marze Op. 2, No. 4 (Text: Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer) Czasem, gdy dlugo na pól sennie marze, cudny kobiecy glos mie skads dolata, anielskie spiewajacy piesni, piekniejsze nizeli wszystkie piesni swiata. W glos ten sie cala zasluchuje dusza; serce mi tesknota wyrywa, poszedl bym za nim wszedzie! Nie wiem czy to milosc, czy smierc sie tak odzywa	Sometimes when at length I drowsily dream (Translation: Krzysztof Biernacki) Sometimes when at length I drowsily dream, a beautiful female voice flows to me from somewhere, singing angelic songs, more beautiful than all songs of the world. I listen to this voice with all my soul; nostalgia tears the heart out of my breast, I would follow the voice anywhere! I don’t know if this is love or death that calls me

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Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) is an enduringly popular Russian composer whose melodic invention and orchestral brilliance remain unsurpassed. Among his best loved works are The 1812 Overture, Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture, Symphonies No. 4-6, and the ballets Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker; plus, his Violin Concerto and Piano Concerto No. 1 are cornerstones of the repertoire. Given his gift for singing melodies, it is not surprising that Tchaikovsky created some memorable songs, and the best-known, at least in the English-speaking world, is None but One Who Knows Longing, frequently performed in English as None but the Lonely Heart, and recorded by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan. And among Russians, Amidst the Din of the Ball, is said to be so well-known that just its first few notes are enough to instantly conjur thoughts of “love at first sight” throughout the populace.

Нет, толко тот, кто знал, Op. 6, No. 6
None but One Who Knows Longing
Text: Lev Aleksandrovich Mey (1822-1862), after a German poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
English translation from the Russian version ©2011, by E. Lein

Нет, только тот, кто знал Свиданья жажду, Поймет, как я страдал И как я стражду! Гляжу я вдаль, нет сил! Тускнеет око! Ах, кто меня любил И знал, далеко!.. Ах, только тот, кто знал Свиданья жажду, Поймет, как я страдал И как я стражду. Вся грудь горит! Кто знал Свиданья жажду, Поймет, как я страдал И как я стражду.

None, but one who knows The longing of farewell, Can know how much I've suffered And how I suffer still! I gaze into the distance, Helpless! The vision fades! O, the one who loved And knew me best--e'er far away! ... Ah, only one who knows The longing of farewell Can know just how I've suffered And how I suffer still. My whole breast burns! Who knows The longing of farewell Knows just how much I've suffered and how I suffer still.

Средь шумного бала, Op. 38, No. 3
Amidst the din of the ball
Poem by Count Aleksei Konstantinovitch Tolstoy (1817-1875)
English version, ©2011 by E. Lein
Hear it on YouTube

Средь шумного бала, случайно, В тревоге мирской суеты, Тебя я увидел, но тайна Твои покрывала черты. Лишь очи печально глядели, А голос так дивно звучал, Как звон отдалённой свирели, Как моря играющий вал. Мне стан твой понравился тонкий И весь твой задумчивый вид, А смех твой, и грустный, и звонкий, С тех пор в моём сердце звучит. В часы одинокие ночи Люблю я, усталый, прилечь; Я вижу печальные очи, Я слышу веселую речь, И грустно я, грустно так засыпаю, И в грёзах неведомых сплю... Люблю ли тебя, я не знаю, Но кажется мне, что люблю!

Amidst the din of the ball, by chance, And by the madding crowd dismayed, I didst see thee yon, yet thy mood Lay masked behind thy mysterious gaze. Through thine eyes alone shown sadness, For thy voice sounded wondrously sweet, Like music performed by a distant flute, Or waves dancing upon the sea. Thy slender form enthralled me, As did thy pensive glance, And thy sad yet musical laughter Filled my heart, which has sung ever since. In nighttime's loneliest hours, When I've grown tired and long for sleep, I envision thy pensive eyes And thy merry, lilting speech. I feel sad then, succumbing to slumber, And then dreaming mysterious dreams ... I know not if this means I love thee, But "in love" is indeed how it seems!

Растворил я окно, Op. 63, No. 2
I Opened Wide My Window
Original poetry by Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia (1858-1915);
English translation ©2011, by E. Lein

Растворил я окно - стало грустно не в мочь, опустился пред ним на колени, и в лицо мне пахнула весенняя ночь благовонным дыханьем сирени. А вдали где-то чудно запел соловей; я внимал ему с грустью глубокой... И с тоскою о родине вспомнил своей; об отчизне я вспомнил далекой, Где родной соловей песнь родную поёт и, не зная земных огорчений, заливается целую ночь напролёт над душистою веткой сирени...

I opened wide my window - it was unbearably warm - I sank there before it, onto my knees, and upon my face the spring night breathed the fragrant perfume of sweet lilac blooms. And from afar a wondrous nightingale sang out; I listened to him then with growing sadness ... and with longing as my thoughts were carried home; I remembered my dear Fatherland, so very far away, Where the native nightingale recites our native lays, and, unknowing of the sorrows of the world, he fills as yet the sultry night with song, perched there upon a fragrant lilac bough ...

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Although some of the lighter orchestral pieces by Roger Quilter (1877-1953) are still performed, outside his native Great Britain Quilter's reputation is sustained primarily through his art songs, which number more than a hundred. Quilter began his studies at Eton College, and in the 1890s he continued his musical education in Germany. In addition to Quilter, there were several other English-speaking composers who studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt (although not all at the exact same time), including Percy Grainger and Cyril Scott, and together they became known as the "Frankfurt Group." In 1900, Quilter published his first songs, and following performances the next year he quickly became established as a composer with a special gift for creating melodies that enhanced the natural rhythm of the words, while also providing fully-realized accompaniments that nonetheless allowed the singer to make expressive use of rubato. As an interpreter of his own songs, Quilter sometimes provided the piano accompaniment for public performances, and he even recorded several of them. The Seven Elizabethan Lyrics, Op. 12, date from 1908, and contributed favorably to Quilter’s growing reputation.

Three selections from Seven Elizabethan Lyrics, Op. 12

No. 2: My life's delight (Words: Thomas Campion)

Come, O come, my life's delight!
Let me not in languor pine:
Love loves no delay, thy sight
The more enjoyed, the more divine.
O come, o come and take from me
The pain of being deprived of thee.
Thou all sweetness dost enclose,
Like a little world of bliss:
Beauty, beauty guards thy looks:
The rose in them pure and eternal is.
Come then! Come then, o come and make thy flight
As swift, as swift to me as heavenly light!

No. 3: Damask Roses (Words: Anonymous)

Lady, when I behold the roses sprouting,
Which clad in damask mantles deck the arbours,
And then behold your lips where sweet love harbours,
My eyes present me with a double doubting;
For, viewing both alike, hardly my mind supposes
Whether the roses be your lips or your lips the roses.

No. 7: Fair House of Joy (Words: Anonymous)

Fain would I change that note
To which fond Love hath charm'd me
Long, long to sing by rote,
Fancying that that harm'd me:
Yet when this thought doth come
“Love, love is the perfect sum
Of all delight!”
I have no other choice
Either for pen or voice
To sing or write.

O Love! They wrong thee much
That say thy sweet is bitter,
When thy rich fruit is such
As nothing can be sweeter.
Fair house of joy and bliss,
Where truest pleasure is,
I do adore thee:
I know thee what thou art,
I serve thee with my heart,
And fall before thee,
And fall before thee.

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5/26 @ 6:15 p.m.: Anne Elise Richie

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Anne Elise Richie, mezzo-soprano
Bonita Sonsini Wyke, piano
With guest artist Mary Richie, piano

HECTOR BERLIOZ: Three songs from Les nuits d’ été Villanelle - Le spectre de la rose - Lîle inconnu
Anne Elise Richie & Bonita Sonsini Wyke

JOSEPH HAYDN: Sonata in B minor, Hob. XVI:32 1. Allegro Moderato - 2. Tempo di Minuetto - 3. Presto
Mary Richie, piano

MICHAEL HEAD: Three Songs of Venice The Gondolier - St. Mark’s Square - Rain Storm

FRANCESCO SANTOLIQUIDO: I canti della sera L’assiolo canta - Alba di luna sul bosco
Tristezza crepuscolare - L’incontro

RICHARD PEARSON THOMAS
      The Spinster of Chelsea Embankment (from Cabaret Songs, Vol.3)
      Two songs from Ladies of Their Nights and Days I Left You in Florence - The Queen Elizabeth Blues
Anne Elise Richie & Bonita Sonsini Wyke

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Known for her warm, rich mezzo-soprano voice and gracious performing style, Anne Elise Richie has distinguished herself as an opera singer, concert artist and devoted teacher. A Metropolitan Opera District Winner, Ms. Richie has toured Italy, France and Germany in addition to her many performances in the United States. She has appeared in a wealth of diverse operas and theatrical productions including Madama Butterfly, Hansel and Gretel, The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, The Pirates of Penzance and 1776, and fine intonation and committed character portrayal are hallmarks of her performances. In addition to appearing as a soloist with the Birmingham Symphony Mozart Celebration, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Milwaukee Catholic Symphony Orchestra, University of Chicago Orchestra and Winston-Salem/Piedmont Triad Orchestra, Ms. Richie sang for four seasons with the New York City Opera Chorus and Opera Orchestra of New York. Upcoming local performances include a June 22nd appearance as soloist for Maurice Durufle's Requiem, part of Jacksonville Masterworks Chorale's Summer Sings choral workshop series. She was a Visiting Professor of Voice at the University of North Florida and an adjunct professor at New Jersey City University, Wagner College and Bergen Community College. In addition to maintaining a private studio, Ms. Richie was the Head of Vocal Studies at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts from August 2005 to May 2007. She received her undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Masters in Opera Performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts, and she is now nearing the completion of her doctoral degree in Vocal Performance with an emphasis on Vocal Pedagogy from Florida State University.

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Bonita Sonsini Wyke has been an active part of the Jacksonville music community since 1985, and in working with many of the First Coast's leading vocalists, instrumentalists and musical ensembles she has earned the reputation as a musician of unsurpassed sensitivity, technical skill and artistry. Originally from Los Angeles, California, she has performed for more than thirty years as a collaborative pianist and harpsichordist for choral groups, orchestral and instrumental ensembles, and for stage productions including opera, music theater, ballet and modern dance. In 2007, Bonita joined the Piano Department at Jacksonville University as full-time Staff Accompanist for Opera, Music Theater, Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, and student and faculty recitals. A founding member of the San Marco Chamber Music Society, Ms. Sonsini Wyke is a seasoned chamber player, and especially enjoys four-hand piano literature.

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Pianist Mary Richie has been performing since age 16, and divides her time between teaching and accompanying in Tampa, where she resides, and traveling to Orlando, Jacksonville and the Jersey Shore to be with family. Throughout her extensive career as an organist and Minister of Music in Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Charlotte (North Carolina) and Tampa she has maintained a successful private studio, teaching aspiring pianists of all ages. A graduate of Alverno College (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), she completed Master’s level courses in accompanying and performance at Winthrop College (Charlotte, North Carolina) and is presently studying performance technique and chamber repertoire with Dr. Averill Summer at the University of South Florida in Tampa. In December 2007, the mother of five and grandmother of seven performed with the St. Timothy Catholic Church Adult Choir (Lutz, Florida) at Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano and La chiesa di Sant'Ignazio di Loyola in Rome, Italy.

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Program Notes, by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

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The French Romantic Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was among the most progressive composers of his era, and his original blending of symphonic forms with dramatic narrative, coupled with his keen insight into orchestration, had profound influence on the creative development of such luminaries as Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. As a composer, Berlioz was never very popular with the French musical establishment, and despite his early successes he had difficulty getting his later works performed unless he paid for the concerts himself. But he did enjoy success as an author and music critic, and gained international fame as a conductor. In 1850 he was appointed Head Librarian of the Paris Conservatoire, which provided not only financial stability, but also something of an ironic twist to his biography. As a youth Berlioz had been sent to Paris to attend medical school, but rather than study human anatomy (which repulsed the young Hector) he preferred to study music scores, so he would sneak into—and then be kicked out of—the very library he would later manage. Especially famous for his Symphonie fantastique (1830) and Grande Messe des morts (Requiem Mass, 1837), Berlioz wrote about 50 songs with piano or guitar accompaniment, and among these the six songs from Les nuits d’ete (“The Nights of Summer”), Op. 7 (1841, orchestrated 1856) are easily the best known. Although the lyrics of all the opus 7 songs are by the influential French poet and critic Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), apparently the composer’s original intent was not that they be performed as a song cycle. Instead, he conceived them as separate songs to be performed variously by tenor, baritone, contralto, and mezzo-soprano, and was only later (but easily) convinced to orchestrate the whole set by an admiring music publisher. The selections this evening are the first, second and sixth songs from the set. Villanelle, a rustic song, joyously welcomes the returning spring with renewed hopefulness as the countryside begins to reawaken. In Le spectre de la rose (“The Ghost of the Rose”), a fading blossom at first seems to lament having been cut down in its prime, only to rejoice in its happy fate of having adorned the belle of the ball as its perfume lingers on. In the concluding barcarolle, L'île inconnue ("The Unknown Island"), a flirtatious gondolier asks his pretty young passenger to imagine which exotic shores she'd like to be whisked away to--she responds, "To the faithful shore where we're always in love!"

• Texts & translations of  Les nuits d’été.

 

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Genial Austrian composer (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) is the musician most credited with establishing the “Classical” style that his two younger contemporaries Mozart and Beethoven built upon, and by the time of his death "Papa" Haydn had become the most widely celebrated composer in Europe. Known as both “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet,” Haydn began his career as a choirboy and never developed into a keyboard virtuoso, so his (at least) 51 keyboard sonatas were mostly composed in the early part of his career as a court musician. His Piano Sonata No. 47 (1776) is one of only seven he wrote in a minor key, and its three-movement scheme is representative of the instrumental sonata forms he pioneered.

 

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British composer Michael Head (1900-1976) became famous as a classical singer who accompanied himself at the piano, so it is not surprising that the great majority of his works are for voice and piano. His three Songs of Venice (1976), on texts by his sister Nancy Bush (1907-1991), were composed for the great British mezzo-soprano Janet Baker. The songs were among Head’s very last works—sadly, the composer died before Dame Janet premiered them in 1977. Head is considered especially gifted in his ability to conjure images using music, demonstrated here as he assumes in turn the roles of biographer, travel guide, and naturalist philosopher.

 

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Italian composer Francesco Santoliquido (1883-1971) completed the music and lyrics of his earliest surviving songs, I canti della sera (“The Songs of the Evening”) in 1908. They were published by Ricordi in 1912, and the journal Musical America recommended them “as the finest of modern concert songs” in 1922. But in addition to composing, Santoliquido published books of verse and short stories, and in 1937 and 1938 he penned several fascist, anti-Semitic articles, and also decried musical modernism. As a result he was effectively ostracized from the progressive arts community. Ironically, his third wife, pianist Ornella Pulti Santoliquido, had been a student of Alfredo Casella (a prominent Jewish-Italian composer and a particular target of Francesco's), and she became known as an advocate of modern music. As these four evocative "evening songs" demonstrate, Santoliquido’s early style blends characteristics of Debussy and Richard Strauss (by way of Puccini!), but they do not yet show the influence of the Arabic music that colored his later works, the result of a nine-year sojourn to North Africa which began in 1912. The first song, L’assiola canta (“The Horned Owl Sings”), is an invitation to share an intimate walk through the woods on a still, starry evening, interrupted only by the mournful sigh of an owl. Alba di luna sul bosco (“Moonrise over the Woods”) artfully depicts the appearance of a red moon over the forest and it’s shimmering reflection caught on the surface of a pond; this in turn leads the poet to reflect on the surrounding vast stillness and peace, and how such a perfect sense of communion mirrors, or perhaps even inspires newly found love. As its title suggests, the mood of Tristezze crepuscolare (“Twilight Gloom”) changes from peaceful contemplation to sorrowful angst and agitation as the incessant pealing of evening church bells unearths painful memories of a lost love. The final song, L’incontro (“The Encounter”), ends the cycle on a more hopeful note as it relates the happy reunion of a couple who years before had enjoyed a similar twilight flirtation, with evening bells and sqwaking seabirds now heard in the distance, just the same as before. The accompaniment includes rhythmic patterns similar to those used in the preceding songs, perhaps suggestive of the imperfectly-recalled memories mentioned in the lyrics.

 

•  Texts & translations of I canti della sera ("The Songs of the Evening")

 

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The versatile New York pianist and composer Richard Pearson Thomas (b. 1957) is at home in both the musical theater and the concert hall. In addition to accompanying recitals with singers at major U.S. and international venues, he composes for films and the stage, including the Off-Off-Broadway shows Parallel Lines (2005) and Ladies in a Maze (1996). The Montana native is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the University of Southern California, was on faculty at Yale, and currently is on the faculty at Teachers College/Columbia University. He has composed more than 80 operas with students in New York City public schools as composer-in-residence of the Gold Opera Project, Young Audiences/New York. Writing the words as well as the music, Mr. Thomas began issuing collections of his Cabaret Songs in 1995. Published in 2006, The Spinster of Chelsea Embankment comes from Volume 3, and has been described as depicting “a figure apparently on intimate terms with more than a century-and-a-quarter's worth of literary luminaries, like Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) and Charles Dickens (1812-1870).” Composed between 1980 and 1988 and also with texts by the composer, Ladies of Their Nights and Days is a cycle of 11 songs, subtitled “a musical tour for mezzo-soprano.” In the context of the whole cycle Windsor: The Queen Elizabeth Blues is the first song, and I Left You in Florence is the last, but each song is strong enough to be performed independently. About his cycle the composer says, “[it] is designed for a singing actress with great musical and dramatic skills. Each song is a different character in a different European setting,” and he adds, “The piano accompaniments are orchestral and challenging, but a lot of fun for an accomplished pianist."

 

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2/10/2009 @ 6:15 p.m. : Mu Phi Epsilon Student Recital

 

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University of North Florida students from the Delta Eta Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon Music Honor Fraternity will present a recital featuring pianists, vocalists, and instrumentalists from their chapter. This recital is free and open to the public.

 

About Mu Phi Epsilon

 

Mu Phi Epsilon is an International Professional Music Fraternity whose purposes are the recognition of scholarship and musicianship and the promotion of friendship. Its aims are the advancement of music throughout the world, the promotion of musicianship and scholarship, loyalty to the Alma Mater, and the development of a true bond of friendship. The Fraternity is composed of Collegiate Chapters, Alumni Chapters and Allied Members.

 

The History of Mu Phi Epsilon dates from November 13, 1903. Today, Mu Phi has 136 collegiate chapters including two in the Philippine Islands and one in Canada, 74 alumni chapters and more than 75,000 members.

 

Mu Phi Epsilon has several fraternity affiliations and is also a member of the National Interfraternity Music Council, the Professional Fraternity Association and the National Interfraternity Foundation.

 

Program Selections

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Wedding Day at Troldhaugen Chris Fry, piano	Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1681/2-1732) Il mio bel foco [previously attrib. to B. Marcello] Barbee Monk, soprano Jamar A. Woods, piano
Philippe Gaubert (1879-1941) Madrigal Hannah E. Sharron, flute Chris Fry, piano	Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) Donde lieta from “La Boheme” Elyse Matthews, soprano Jamar A.Woods, piano
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Notturno, Op. 54, no. 4 Quinton Rhodes, piano	Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921) The Swan from “Carnival of Animals” Brittany Maroney, cello Jamar A. Woods, piano
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) Chi bel il sogno from “La Rondine” Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) Ne poy, krasavitsa, pri mne (O never sing to me again)

Angelique Perretta, soprano

Jamar A. Woods, piano

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Deuxieme Annees de Pelerinage

V. Sonnetto 104 del Petrarca

Jamar A. Woods, piano

Stephen Yarbrough (b. 1946)
Heartsong

Anna Wilson, cello

Jamar A. Woods, piano

Richard Rodgers (1902-1979)
My Funny Valentine from “Babes in Arms”

Leelynn Osborn, tenor

Jamar A. Woods, piano

Jarell Harris, alto saxophone

Alec Degnats, drums

 

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Before moving to Jacksonville in 2008 from his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, drummer Alec Degnats was a member of The Pine Room Jazz Band, the Underground Jazz Band, and Atlanta Youth Jazz Orchestra. Now a sophomore in the Jazz Studies program at the University of North Florida, Alec is a student of the great jazz drummer Danny Gottlieb and a member of the band REDlight. In addition to music Alec is studying philosophy.	Jacksonville native Christopher Fry began studying piano at age three with a local Suzuki Talent studio. A graduate of Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, he earned the school's Seal of Arts and was inducted into the Tri-M Music Honor Society. After high school Chris began teaching elementary and intermediate level piano students, and at UNF he studies with Dr. Sandra Stewart, majoring in classical piano with a focus in piano pedagogy. Building upon his experience and professional training, Mr. Fry plans to expand his private piano studio. Chris joined Mu Phi Epsilon in 2008, and was invited to perform at their international convention; he is now President of UNF’s Delta Eta Chapter. BACK
Jarell Harris, a sophomore at the University of North Florida studying with Prof. Bunky Green and Dr. Michael Bovenzi, has specialized in the alto saxophone since he was in middle school, but he also plays flute, clarinet, trumpet, piano, and percussion. During his freshman year Jarell was appointed Principal Alto Saxophone of the UNF Wind Ensemble and he performed in their Carnegie Hall debut on June 1, 2008, under the baton of Dr. Gordon Brock. The versatile Mr. Harris performs classical, jazz, smooth jazz, R&B, and gospel styles, and together with other UNF students has formed a band that plays for various University, corporate and private functions. In addition to teaching privately, Jarell is a teacher's assistant at Mayport Middle School and he participates in the music ministry at The Potter's House in Jacksonville.	Cellist Brittany Maroney is a Scheidel Music Scholar at the University of North Florida working toward her Bachelor's Degree in Music Performance, and she is the Principal Cellist in the UNF String Ensemble and Orchestra. Ms. Maroney was Principal Cellist at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, and she has played in the pit orchestra for a number of stage productions, including Honk, Cabaret, Trial by Jury, The Mikado, and Amahl and the Night Visitors. Her accomplished solo performances have included sharing the spotlight with her teacher, Dr. Nick Curry, for Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Cellos. After completing her undergraduate work, Brittany will pursue graduate studies and a career in music therapy.   BACK
Soprano Elyse Matthews, is a Vocal Performance major at the University of North Florida. Originally from the northeast, Ms. Matthews moved to Florida in 1992 and has been actively involved in music throughout Jacksonville for more than seven years. She began vocal training at the age of 19 with Mark Shaw, and continued her studies at UNF with Marilyn Smart in her Freshman year, and Dr. Kandie Smith in her Sophomore year. Elyse is currently a student of Professor Kimberly Beasley, and in February 2008, she placed second in her category at the NATS North Florida Chapter Student Auditions. Ms. Matthews is a member of both the UNF Opera Ensemble under the leadership of Dr. Krzysztof Biernacki and the UNF Chorale under the direction of Dr. Cara Tasher. She served as Worship Arts Administrator at Christ the Redeemer Church from 2005 to 2007 under Rev. Dr. Steve Bowersox, and upon earning her Bachelor of Music Degree Elyse intends to pursue a career in opera, while continuing her interest in Worship Arts and working toward a graduate degree.	Barbee Monk, soprano, is a sophomore pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Voice from the University of North Florida and a voice student of Prof. Kimberly Beasley. In March she will sing the role of "Hansel" in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with the UNF Opera Ensemble under Dr. Krzyzstof Biernacki, and recently she appeared in UNF’s production of Puccini’s Suor Angelica. Barbee is an active member of the UNF Chorale under the direction of Dr. Cara Tasher, where she serves as Tour Coordinator and Section Leader, and she is a singer in the UNF Women’s Chorus. Ms. Monk is also a member of the UNF Chamber Singers, with whom she performed Monteverdi’s Vespers (1610) as a soprano soloist. Barbee is the Corresponding Secretary for the Delta Eta chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon International Professional Music Fraternity. Upon receiving her B.M., Barbee plans to attend graduate school and pursue a career in choral music. BACK
Hailing from Atlantic Beach, Florida, Leelynn Osborn is a singer, actor and ballroom dancer. Formerly a voice major at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts where he excelled in classical music and music theater, Leelynn is expanding his talents and studying jazz at the University of North Florida. In addition to his studies, performing with UNF Chamber Singers, and his local singing engagements, Leelynn served on the Host Committee for the 2008 Mu Phi Epsilon International Convention.	Angelique A. Perretta, soprano, is a Senior Voice Performance major at UNF. As a member of the UNF Opera Ensemble Ms. Perretta recreated the title role of Puccini's Suor Angelica, "The Mother" in Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, and both "Dido" and "Second Witch" in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Angelique has been involved in local theater and music productions since the age of 12, with roles including "Helen O’Toole" in Fred Carmichael’s farce Exit the Body, and "Piti-Sing" in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. Her oratorio repertoire includes Rutter’s Requiem, Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Faure’s Requiem. Angelique is a student of Dr. Krzysztof Biernacki, and has participated in Master classes with renowned author and pedagogue Richard Miller of Oberlin Conservatory, international opera star Sherrill Milnes, and former Orlando Lyric Opera Director Robert Swedberg. BACK
After retiring from 30 years with the Federal Government, pianist and composer Quinton Rhodes is expanding his musical skills and working toward a Bachelor of Arts in Music, studying piano with Dr. Sandra Stewart and composition with Dr. Gary Smart at the University of North Florida. Mr. Rhodes' forte is composition and theory, and he aspires to compose educational music for young people, as well as sacred music for the Church. He sings tenor in the UNF Chorale and is employed as a church musician at Christ Episcopal Church in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Quinton is honored to be a member of Mu Phi Epsilon and excited to be performing at the Library.	Originally from Pensacola, Florida, Hannah E. Sharron, is in her sophomore year at the University of North Florida studying flute as a Music Performance major. In 2008, Hannah performed in New York City at Carnegie Hall with the UNF Wind Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Gordon Brock. She was initiated as a member of Mu Phi Epsilon at the fraternity's 2008 International Convention, for which she also served as a member of the Host Convention Committee. BACK
Cellist Anna Wilson is a sophomore Music Performance major and a Scheidel Classical Music Scholar at UNF. A student of Dr. Nick Curry, Anna performs with the UNF String Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Simon Shiao, and she is Assitant Principal Cello in the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra. Born and raised in Jacksonville, Ms. Wilson is a graduate of Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, and an alumna of the studio of Vernon Humbert, a cellist with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and conductor of the Coastal Symphony of Georgia. She also studied with Paul York, from the University of Louisville, while attending the Sewanee Summer Music Festival in Tennessee. Anna recently was elected Historian of UNF's Mu Phi Epsilon chapter.	Pianist and composer Jamar A. Woods is working towards his Bachelor's Degree in Arts Education with an emphasis in Music, and the emphasis seems particularly strong. In addition to his coursework, "Jammer" performs with the UNF Wind Ensemble, sings in a barbershop quartet and chorus, is much in demand as an accompanist, and is a church musician at Fleming Island United Methodist Church. Plus, this son of Crestview, Florida, is a ballroom dancer. After a recent local concert performance, Don Westwood, a Friday Musicale Board Member with 35 years experience working in classical music, predicted of Mr. Woods, "He is someone I think not just Jacksonville but the world will hear from."   BACK

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PROGRAM NOTES & translations by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was a Norwegian composer and virtuoso pianist best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor and the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, but it is with his Lyriske stykker (Lyric Pieces) for piano solo that Grieg perhaps shows his originality most convincingly. These 66 short works were composed between 1864 and 1901 and published in 10 separate volumes. Among them, Wedding Day at Troldhaugen (1896) is one of the most famous. The titular “Troldaugen” (literally, “Troll’s Hill”) is the name of Grieg’s house in Bergen, and the piece is said to be a recollection of the composer’s 25th wedding anniversary celebration held there in 1892. Another favorite Lyric Piece is the hauntingly beautiful and evocative Notturno, published in 1891, which, in addition to capturing the essence of a moonlit evening, provides an effective study in two-against-three cross rhythms.

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Although Il mio bel foco has long been attributed to Venetian composer and statesman Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739), recent scholarship now identifies the Florentine Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1681?-1732) as the likely composer of this lovely song. The confusion arose with the misattribution first given in the 1890 publication, Arie antiche, compiled and arranged by Alessandro Parisotti (1853-1913), and reedited and published in this country by G. Schirmer as 24 Italian Songs and Arias—virtually every classically-trained singer has performed at least a couple of selections from this famous set. Parisotti took the old Italian melodies, but wrote new accompaniments according to Victorian fashion, and in some cases he deliberately identified his own compositions as “newly-discovered” works of baroque masters. In fact, there is still debate as to whether the recitative that begins Il mio bel foco is by Conti, Parisotti, or even by another 19th Century musician, Carl Banck! Regardless, the controversy surrounding Il mio bel foco does not diminish the emotional impact of the oft-sung song.

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• Text and translation

 

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In 1919 at age forty, the French flutist, conductor and composer Philippe Gaubert (1879-1941) became one of the most prominent musicians in France by earning three important appointments almost simultaneously: Professor of Flute at the Conservatoire de Paris, and Principal Conductor of both the Paris Opéra and the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire. Gaubert composed a wide variety of instrumental, orchestral and vocal music, plus two operas, and it is not surprising that many of his most effective compositions are for flute. Gaubert’s Madrigal for flute and piano (1908) demonstrates the composer’s affinity with Franck and Fauré.

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Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) came from a long line of Italian church musicians, and it was assumed he’d inherit the “family business” in Tuscany. But a fateful trek from Lucca to Pisa to see Verdi’s Aïda convinced Puccini to give up organ pedals for footlights, and he became the only real successor of Verdi in the realm of Italian opera. When Puccini died of throat cancer the whole of Italy went into mourning, and no opera composer since has enjoyed the same kind of sustained international following that he still has. Puccini’s La bohème (1896), one of the most frequently staged operas in the repertoire, relates the tragic story of Parisians “Mimì,” a struggling seamstress, and “Rodolfo,” a struggling artist, and their on-again off-again relationship. In Mimì’s 3rd Act aria, Donde lieta, the consumptive heroine resigns herself to the notion that it might be best if they separated amicably, alluding to souvenirs of happier times. (But by the end of the scene they decide not to part until spring—who could be sad then, when the world is in bloom?)

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Puccini’s one foray into operetta has had less success, but for La rondine (“The Swallow”) Puccini created one of his most memorably soaring arias. In context, Chi bel il sogno di Doretta (“Doretta's beautiful dream”) is a newly composed song introduced at a cocktail party by “Prunier,” a poet and composer. But he has no ending for his song, so he invites “Magda,” a demimondaine who harbors her own romantic dreams, to join him at the piano to make up an ending. Magda’s contribution becomes one of those tunes you can’t get out of your head (despite being almost impossible to sing), so one might assume that the song became a hit!

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By the age of three, the French composer and keyboard virtuoso Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) could read and write and had penned his first piano piece; by seven he had mastered Latin; and by ten he could perform from memory all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas upon request. An expert mathematician and a successful playwright, he published poetry, scholarly works in acoustics and philosophy, and popular travelogues. He was a confidant of Berlioz, Liszt, and Fauré (his most famous student), and a notorious enemy of Franck, Massenet, and especially of Debussy. Although first performed in 1886, Saint-Saëns withheld from publication all but Le cygne (“The Swan”) from The Carnival of the Animals until after his death because he felt that the overall comic tone of the suite would diminish his standing as a “serious” composer. Ironically, the imagination and wit on display in The Carnival have kept it at the top of the dozen or so of his works (out of over 300!) that are still performed with any regularity, and The Swan, an obvious favorite of cellists, is performed even more frequently on its own.

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The lush harmonies and sweeping melodies that characterize the orchestral music of Russian composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) assure him a continuing place in the world’s concert halls. Astonishingly, Rachmaninoff had what might be called a “phonographic” memory in that, upon hearing virtually any piece, he could play it back at the piano, even years later—and if he really liked the piece it would sound like a polished performance! Although his songs are not nearly as well known as his solo piano music and concertos, Rachmaninoff’s melodic talent was perfectly suited to vocal music, and he composed songs throughout his career. The six songs of Rachmaninoff’s Opus 4 are student works dating from 1890-93, but this is around the same time as the famous Prelude in C# minor, Op. 3, so elements of his mature style are already in play.

Ne poy, krasavitsa, pri mne (Do not Sing for Me) (1892)

Text by Aleksander Pushkin (1799-1837)

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Hungarian-born Franz Liszt (1811-1886) is widely regarded to as the greatest pianist of all time, and his performances excited an hysteria that today is reserved for only the most popular of rock stars. Despite great fame following a sometimes impoverished youth, Liszt remained unspoiled and donated great sums of his concert earnings to a wide variety of charitable causes, and in later life he even took orders in the church. His generosity extended to helping increase the fortunes of struggling musicians, among them Hector Berlioz and Liszt’s future son-in-law, Richard Wagner. An innovative composer, Liszt is credited with creating the symphonic tone poem as a form, developing the technique of thematic transformation, and he even anticipated some of the harmonic devices of Impressionist composers. Naturally, piano music is central to his output, and he was equally gifted in writing introspective poetical works and extroverted virtuoso pieces. Liszt’s Sonnet 104 of Petrarch combines both aspects of his musical personality. The fifth piece in Years of Pilgrimage, 2nd Year: Italy, it started out as song setting of Petrarch’s poem, and it ably reflects the unsettled and conflicted feelings expressed in the verse.

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American composer Stephen Yarbrough (b.1946) has been teaching music at the University of South Dakota since 1982, following a stint as a flutist and arranger for the United States Air Force Academy Band. The winner of numerous national composition awards and grants, Dr. Yarbrough writes for a wide variety of vocal and instrumental combinations, ranging from solo vocal and choral pieces to chamber music and works for orchestra and symphonic band. Heartsong, inspired by Bible verses Luke 4:18-19, is performed by cello and piano on a CD of the composer’s “17 most requested works,” but the piece was also published in 1987 as a solo for hand bells and piano!

 

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Composer Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) wrote over 900 songs and his collaborative work with different lyricists, mainly Lorenz Hart (1895-1943) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960), pretty much defined the Broadway musical for four decades. The Rodgers & Hart showtune My Funny Valentine originated in the 1937 musical Babes in Arms, and it has since become a jazz and pop standard, reportedly appearing on more than 1300 albums recorded by over 600 artists.

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Notes ©2009, Edward Lein -- Please attribute if quoting.

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