CLASSICS 2025/26
Lobgesang, Op. 52
I. Symphonie
Maestoso con moto – Allegro
Allegretto un poco agitato
Adagio religioso
II. Kantate
Chorus: Alles, was Odem hat
Solo/Chorus: Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele
Recit./Aria: Saget es, die ihr erlöst seid
Chorus: Sagt es, die ihr erlöst seid
Duet/Chorus: Ich harrete des Herrn
Tenor solo: Stricke des Todes
Chorus: Die Nacht ist vergangen
Chorale: Nun danket alle Gott
Duet: Drum sing ich mit meinem Liede
Chorus: Ihr Völker, bringet her dem Herrn
CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR AND 57 MINUTES INCLUDING A 20 MINUTE INTERMISSION.
RUNE BERGMANN, conductor
Norwegian conductor Rune Bergmann is currently the Music Director of the Peninsula Music Festival in Wisconsin and has served as the Artistic Director of Norway’s innovative Fjord Cadenza Festival since its inception in 2010. He was the Music Director of Canada’s Calgary Philharmonic from the 2017/18 season through 2024/25, Switzerland’s Argovia Philharmonic from 2016/17 through 2024/25, and Poland’s Szczecin Philharmonic from 2016/17 through 2023/24.
While being a regular guest performing with the Baltimore, Colorado, Utah, Houston, Pacific, Buffalo Symphony Orchestras in North America, he has collaborated with the Oslo Philharmonic, Norwegian National Opera Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Beethovenorchester Bonn, ADDA Simfonica, Orquesta de Valencia, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Staatskapelle Halle, Wrocław Philharmonic as well as the symphony orchestras of Malmö, Helsingborg, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Trondheim, Karlskrona, and Odense.
Bergmann has also led performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia and La traviata at the Norwegian National Opera, and made his US operatic debut in Yale Opera’s production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as staged by Claudia Solti.
He has been collaborating with some of todays most acclaimed and legendary soloists including Truls Mørk, Leif Ove Andsnes, Jefim Bronfman, Yo-Yo Ma, Mischa Maisky, Renée Fleming, Joshua Bell, Itzhak Perlman, James Ehnes, Branford Marsalis, Ole Edvard Antonsen, Albrecht Mayer, Anna Fedorova, just to name a few.
2018 saw the release of Bergmann’s first recording with the Szczecin Philharmonic, which featured the “Resurrection” Symphony in E-minor by Mieczyław Karłowicz, a piece which has since become a major focus of Bergmann’s repertoire. He has also released recordings with the Argovia Philharmonic, including Ravel’s G-Major Piano Concerto and Mozart’s Bb-Major Bassoon concerto.
Earlier in his career, Rune Bergmann served as First Kapellmeister and deputy-Music Director of the Theater Augsburg, where he led performances of numerous operas, including such titles as La Traviata, Der fliegende Holländer, and Die Fledermaus and was Principal Guest Conductor of the Kaunas City Symphony.
Rune Bergmann studied choir and orchestra conducting under Anders Eby, Jin Wang and Jorma Panula at Sweden’s Royal College of Music. He graduated with high honours from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, where he studied conducting under Chief Conductor Emeritus of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/former principal conductor of the Vienna Radio, Finnish Radio, and Danish National symphony orchestras, Leif Segerstam.
PAUL HUANG, violin
Recipient of the prestigious 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2017 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, violinist Paul Huang is considered to be one of the most distinctive artists of his generation. The Washington Post remarked that Mr. Huang “possesses a big, luscious tone, spot-on intonation and a technique that makes the most punishing string phrases feel as natural as breathing,” and further proclaimed him as “an artist with the goods for a significant career” following his recital debut at the Kennedy Center.
Known for his “unfailing attractive, golden, and resonant tone” (The Strad), Mr. Huang’s recent highlights have included acclaim debut at Bravo!Vail Music Festival stepping in for violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter in the Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.4 with Chamber Orchestra Vienna-Berlin, Rotterdam Philharmonic with Lahav Shani, BBC Symphony Orchestra with Marie Jacquot, Detroit Symphony with Leonard Slatkin, Houston Symphony with Andres Orozco-Estrada, NHK and Dallas Symphonies with Fabio Luisi, Mariinsky Orchestra with Valery Gergiev, Baltimore Symphony and Seoul Philharmonic with Markus Stenz, San Francisco Symphony with Mei-Ann Chen, and recital debuts at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland and Aspen Music Festival. In Fall 2021, Paul also became the first classical violinist to perform his own arrangement of the National Anthem for the opening game of the NFL at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina to an audience of 75,000. An exclusive recording artist with France’s Naïve Records, his second album “Mirrors” was released worldwide to critical acclaim in January of 2025 with Gramophone Magazine remarked as “musical storytelling of such virtuosity and conviction”.
During the 2025/26 season, Mr. Huang makes debuts in Finland with Tampere Philharmonia, Barcelona at Palau de la Musica Catalana with Franz Schubert Filharmonia, London Philharmonic, Phion Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Naples Philharmonic, as well as returns to Rotterdam Philharmonic with Lahav Shani, Vancouver Symphony with Otto Tausk, Pacific Symphony with Carl St. Clair, Colorado Symphony with Rune Bergmann, North Carolina Symphony with Carlos Miguel Prieto, Omaha Symphony with Jose Luis Gomez, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan in the Brahms Double Concerto with cellist Daniel Muller-Schott.
2025/26 season recital, chamber music, and festival performances will include Mr. Huang’s return to both the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Camerata Pacifica. In addition, Mr. Huang will make debut in Miyazaki International Music Festival in Japan. In January 2026, Mr. Huang will launch the 4th edition of “Paul Huang & Friends” International Chamber Music Festival in Taipei, Taiwan, in association with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan.
Mr. Huang’s recent recital engagements included Lincoln Center’s “Great Performers” series and debuts at the Wigmore Hall, Seoul Arts Center, and the Louvre in Paris.
A frequent guest artist at music festivals worldwide, he has performed at the Seattle, Music@ Menlo, Savannah, Caramoor, La Jolla, Santa Fe, Moritzburg, Kissinger Sommer, Sion, Orford Musique, and the PyeongChang Music Festival in South Korea. His chamber music collaborators have included Gil Shaham, Cho-Liang Lin, Nobuko Imai, Mischa Maisky, Jian Wang, Lynn Harrell, Yefim Bronfman, Kirill Gerstein and Marc-Andre Hamelin.
Winner of the 2011 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Huang made critically acclaimed recital debuts in New York at Lincoln Center and in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center. Other honors include First Prize at the 2009 Tibor Varga International Violin Competition Sion-Valais in Switzerland, the 2009 Chi-Mei Cultural Foundation Arts Award for Taiwan’s Most Promising Young Artists, the 2013 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and the 2014 Classical Recording Foundation Young Artist Award.
Born in Taiwan, Mr. Huang began violin lessons at the age of seven. He is a recipient of the inaugural Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School, where he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees under Hyo Kang and I-Hao Lee. He plays on the legendary 1742 “ex-Wieniawski” Guarneri del Gesù on extended loan through the Stradivari Society of Chicago and is on the faculty of Taipei National University of the Arts. He resides in New York.
YULIA VAN DOREN, soprano
Yulia Van Doren has thoughtfully cultivated a unique career as one of the foremost concert singers of her generation and has been presented as a guest artist by a majority of the premiere North American orchestras and festivals.
Performance highlights include the world premiere of Shostakovich’s Orango with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, directed by Peter Sellars and released on Deutsche Grammophon; the modern revival of Monsigny’s Le roi et le fermier at Opera de Versailles, the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center; Alessandro Scarlatti’s rarely-performed opera Tigrane at Opera de Nice; Handel’s Acis and Galatea in Macau with Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and at the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam; eclectic 20th-century repertoire as the featured soprano of the 2013 Ojai Music Festival; several world premieres at Carnegie Hall; and nationally-televised performances at the Cartagena International Music Festival with soprano Dawn Upshaw. Since 2007 she has sung many national and international performances with the Mark Morris Dance Company.
Ms. Van Doren’s graduate degree was supported by a PD Soros Fellowship, postgraduate study in Paris by a Beebe Fellowship, and she is an Astral Artist laureate. Yulia is also the founder of a holistic wellness brand, and author of three award-winning international bestsellers, with over a quarter-million copies sold in eight translations.
WALLIS GIUNTA, mezzo-soprano
Irish-Canadian mezzo soprano, Wallis Giunta, has been nominated for the 2025 International Opera Awards “Readers’ Award”. She has been praised by Opera News for her “delectably rich, silver-toned mezzo-soprano”, and in 2018 was named both “Young Singer of the Year” at the International Opera Awards, and “Young Artist of the Year” by The Arts Desk. Wallis made debuts this past year at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti (Bernstein), at Teatro alla Scala as Lilian Holiday in Happy End (Weill), and at the Vienna Volksoper as the title role in Carmen, where she will soon also debut the role of Muse/Niklausse in Les Contes D’Hoffmann.
BIOGRAPHIES
In the 23/24 season, Wallis made an acclaimed debut at Carnegie Hall in her signature role of Anna I in Die Sieben Todsünden (Weill), and appeared in the same work with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, along with debuts at the Wiener Symphoniker in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, at Opéra de Lausanne as Dorabella, and at the Maison Symphonique in Montreal as Carmen. She also debuted at the Landestheater Linz as Cherubino, at the Staatstheater Darmstadt as the Gymnasiast in Lulu (Berg), and at the Opèra Comique in Paris reprising the role of Dodo in Breaking the Waves (Mazzoli). She starred at the Vienna Volksoper as the title role in the Austrian premiere of The Gospel According to the Other Mary (Adams), and debuted at the Komische Oper Berlin in concert singing Berio’s Folk Songs.
Previous seasons have seen Wallis debut as the title role in Rossini’s Cenerentola with Opéra national de Montpellier, Oper Leipzig, The Royal Swedish Opera, Seattle Opera, the Vienna Volksoper and Opera North. She is often sought after as an interpreter of early music, joining the Philharmonia Baroque as Tigrane in Radamisto (Händel), the Concentus Musicus Wien as the title role in Dido & Aeneas, and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein as Bradmante in Alcina (Händel), with the latter two roles also taking her to Toronto, with Opera Atelier. She has performed in concert at the Sydney Opera House, and with the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, among many others, along with multiple recent appearances at the BBC Proms Festival at Royal Albert Hall.
She has joined the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Opera North and the Oregon Music Festival as Anna I in new productions of Die Sieben Todsünden, and has sung the title role in Maria de Buenos Aires with Opera de Lyon. She debuted at The Metropolitan opera in Rigoletto and returned in their Merry Widow, while making her role debut at The Canadian Opera Company as Mozart’s Sesto. She has sung Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Oper Leipzig and The Dallas Opera, and made her role debut as Dodo in the acclaimed 2019 Scottish Opera production of Breaking the Waves (Mazzoli) at both the Edinburgh and Adelaide Festivals. She has debuted with Teatro Communale di Bolzano, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Le Théâtre du Châtelet, Oper Frankfurt, L’Opéra de Montréal, and Fort Worth Opera.
Wallis is a 2013 graduate of both the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program & the Juilliard School’s Artist Diploma in Opera Studies, and a 2011 graduate of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio.
JOHN MATTHEW MYERS, tenor
Praised for his “strong, pleasant timbre with textual command and expressiveness” (Opera Magazine), John Matthew Myers has garnered acclaim for his “lovely, warm tenor of considerable promise” (Opera News) in recent collaborations with the New York Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, Verbier Festival, Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Teatro alla Scala, and Teatro La Fenice. His critically acclaimed solo debut album of works by American and American émigré composers titled Desiderium with pianist Myra Huang, was released on AVIE Records in 2022. This season, Myers returns to the Opéra National de Paris alongside Renée Fleming. He sings Florestan in Fidelio at Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Prince in The Love for Three Oranges
BIOGRAPHIES
at Semperoper Dresden. On the concert stage, he joins the Pittsburgh, Houston, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras.
Last season, Myers performed twice at Carnegie Hall, plus appearances with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Opera, the Richmond Symphony, at the Opera Carlo Felice Genova, and the Opernhaus Zürich. During the summer, he joined the Bard Festival twice to critical acclaim.
Myers made his surprise Los Angeles Philharmonic debut in 2017 as Mao in John Adams’s Nixon in China conducted by the composer. In 2023, he reprised the role with the Opéra National de Paris under Gustavo Dudamel, “handling Mao’s tessitura with seeming ease and limning a convincing portrayal both imposing and humorous” (Classical Voice North America). Recently, Myers has covered roles for the Metropolitan Opera in productions of Britten’s Peter Grimes, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, and more.
Highlights of Myers’ extensive opera repertoire include Pollione in Norma (LA Opera), Cavaradossi in Tosca (Arizona Opera), Cassio in Otello (Portland Summer Fest), Flavio in Bellini’s Norma (Teatro Regio di Parma), Trin in La Fanciulla del West (Santa Fe Opera), Valerio in Mercadante’s Virginia (Wexford Festival Opera), Der Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten (San Francisco Opera), Aufide in Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon (Collegiate Chorale/Carnegie Hall), and countless roles as a Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts.
Myers has been a soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Fairfield Chorale, Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes with Performance Santa Fe, and many more. He recently performed Dvořák’s Stabat Mater at the Grant Park Music Festival, about which the Chicago Tribune wrote, “He astonished from his thrilling entrance…and kept listeners at the edge of their seats whenever he appeared, his voice a thing of poignance and power.”
Originally from Southern California, Myers received his graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, was a Gerdine Young Artist with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, an Apprentice Artist with Santa Fe Opera, an alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy, and a fellow with Music Academy of the West. He won Third Prize and the Richard Tauber Prize for the best interpretation of Schubert Lieder at the 2022 Wigmore Hall Bollinger International Song Competition.
TAYLOR MARTIN, chorus director and conductor, Colorado Symphony Chorus
Taylor Martin is the Director and Conductor of the Colorado Symphony Chorus and Artistic Director of ELUS Vocal Ensemble. In 2019 Taylor made his debut with the Colorado Symphony conducting their staged version of Handel’s Messiah, titled Messiah: Awakening. Now in his tenth season with the Colorado Symphony Chorus, he has frequently taken the podium during the holiday season for productions of A Colorado Christmas and Messiah. Taylor has prepared the Chorus for productions with the Colorado Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Dallas Symphony, and he recently conducted a concert tour of Austria featuring works for chorus and organ, leading Anton Bruckner’s Te Deum with the Salzburg Domorchester. Known for his musical versatility, Taylor has prepared choruses for Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, Al Green, and Josh Groban, among other critically acclaimed artists. Now in his eighth season with ELUS Vocal Ensemble, Taylor has led performances of great a cappella repertoire through imaginative programming of new music and major works, such as David Lang’s the little match girl passion and Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem to considerable acclaim.
COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS
The Colorado Symphony’s 2025/26 Season marks the 42nd year of the Colorado Symphony Chorus. Founded in 1984 by Duain Wolfe, our chorus has earned a reputation as one of the finest symphonic choruses in the United States. This outstanding chorus of volunteers joins the Colorado Symphony for numerous concerts each year, performing the great Masterworks, as well as pops concerts, movies and special projects, all to repeated critical acclaim.
Additionally, the Chorus has been featured annually at the Bravo!Vail Music Festival, performing with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra or Dallas Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of notable conductors Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jaap van Zweden, Alan Gilbert, Fabio Luisi, Hans Graf, as well as 25 years with the Aspen Music Festival.
In 2009, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the chorus, Duain Wolfe conducted the chorus on a concert tour of Europe, presenting the Verdi REQUIEM in Budapest, Vienna, Litomysl and Prague; in 2016 the chorus returned to Europe for concerts in Paris, Strasbourg and Munich featuring the Fauré Requiem. In the summer of 2022, the Chorus toured Austria, performing to great acclaim in Vienna, Graz and Salzburg.
BIOGRAPHIES
COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS
Taylor Martin, Director and Conductor
Mary Louise Burke, Associate Director and Conductor
Jared Joseph, Assistant Conductor
David Rosen, Chorus Manager
Barbara Porter, Associate Manager
Duain Wolfe, Founding Director and Conductor Laureate
Hsiao-Ling Lin and ShaoChun Tsai, Pianists
Eric Israelson, Chorus Manager Emeritus
SOPRANO
Lori Ascani
Jude Blum
Susan Brown
Emily Burr
Denelda Causey
Ruth Coberly
Suzanne Collins
Angie Collums
Kerry Cote
Claudia Dakkouri
April Day
Madalyn Farquhar
Lisa Fultz
Amy Gallegos
Andria Gaskill
Jenifer Digby Gile
Lori C. Gill
Stacey Haslam
Elizabeth HedrickCollins
Erin Hittle
Angela Hupp
Kaitlyn Jones
Lauren Kennedy
Meghan Kinnischtzke
Leanne Lang
Catherine Look
Rebecca Machusko
Anne Maupin
Shannon McAleb
Wendy Moraskie
Jackie Oldham
Jeanette O’Nan
Jodie Peterson
Kimberly L. Pflug
Julie Plouffe
Barb Porter
Grace Reilly
Lori A. Ropa
Roberta Sladovnik
Nicole J. Stegink
Syd Timme
Susan von Roedern
Marcia Walker
Alison Wall
Karen Wuertz
Cara Young
Joan Zisler
ALTO
Priscilla Adams
Liz Arthur
Brenda Berganza
Mary Boyle Thayer
Charlotte Braud-Kern
Michelle Brown
Isabel Cavosie
Jayne Conrad
Martha Cox
Janie Darone
Debbie Davies
Barbara Deck
Kate Friedlander
Michelle Fronzaglia
Sharon Gayley
Daniela Golden
Gabriella Groom
Sheri Haxton
Kaia Hoopes
Olivia Isaac
Brandy Jackson
Christine Kaminske
Annie Kolstad
Andrea LeBaron
Carole A. London
Tinsley Long
Joanna K. Maltzahn
Jenaé Martinez
Susan McWaters
Anna Nelson
Kristen Nordenholz
Christine Nyholm
Jill Parsons
Syder Peltier
Jennifer Pringle
Donneve S. Rae
Leanne Rehme
Kathi Rudolph
Wendy Ho-Schnell
Melanie Stevenson
Deanna Thaler
Clara Tiggelaar
Pat Virtue
Beth York
TENOR
Jordan Antonio
Gary Babcock
Jim Carlson
Dusty Davies
Nicholas Dietrich
Jack Dinkel
John Gale
Frank Gordon, Jr.
David Hodel
Sami Ibrahim
James Jensen
Ken Kolm
Sean Lund-Brown
Andy Marner
Tom Milligan
Richard Moraskie
Garvis J. Muesing
Tim Nicholas
Dallas Rehberg
Tyler Richardson
David Rosen
Andrew Seamans
Evan Secrist
Jerry E. Sims
P.J. Stohlmann
Danny Thompson
Hannis Thompson
Max Witherspoon
Kenneth Zimmerman
BASS
John Adams
Grant Carlton
Bob Friedlander
Tim Griffin
Chris Grossman
Nic Hammerberg
Douglas Hesse
David Highbaugh
Leonard Hunt
Terry Jackson
Tom Jirak
Jared Joseph
Matthew KerstenGray
Nalin Mehta
Matthew Molberg
Greg Morrison
Gene Nuccio
John R. Phillips
Ben Pilcher
Tom Potter
Jacob Pullen
Ken Quarles
Joshua Richards
Adam Scoville
Russ Skillings
Matthew Smedberg
Riley Somo
Matt Steele
Wil Swanson
Tom Virtue
Mike West
Marc Whittington
Lu Wu
Jeffrey Zax
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791)
Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218
COMPOSITION & PREMIERE OF WORK:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the D major Violin Concerto in October 1775, the fourth of five such works dating from that year, and was probably soloist with the Salzburg court orchestra in a performance soon thereafter.
CSA LAST PERFORMANCE:
February 6-7, 2009 with violinist Cho-Liang Lin and conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero.
INSTRUMENTATION:
Two oboes, two horns, and strings.
DURATION:
About 26 minutes.
The name of Mozart brings to mind the breathtaking array of compositions he left to posterity. To his contemporaries, however, he was also known as one of the foremost instrumental performers of the day. His masterful piano playing was lauded in Vienna, London, Paris and elsewhere, and his reputation for tasteful virtuosity persisted for several decades after his death. Less known than Mozart’s keyboard ability was his extraordinary talent on the violin. His father, Leopold, was a renowned teacher of the instrument who issued a popular tutor for violin instruction in 1756, the year of Wolfgang’s birth. It was therefore probably inevitable that young Mozart learned the violin early and well, and he displayed it as one of his chief accomplishments when he dazzled the listeners on his first tour in 1763. He was seven. On his debut trip to Italy in 1770 (age fourteen), two of the greatest violinist-composers of the day, Giovanni Sammartini and Pietro Nardini, were so impressed with his playing that they wrote special sets of exercises for him. Back home in Salzburg, Mozart was appointed concertmaster of the Court Orchestra on November 27, 1770, a position he held until moving to Vienna in 1781. Leopold had a justifiably high opinion of his son’s ability, and told him, “You have no idea how well you play the violin. If you would only do yourself justice, and play with boldness, spirit and fire, you would be the first violinist in Europe.” Wolfgang was, however, more interested in the keyboard than in the violin, and he shot back at his father, “When performing is necessary, I decidedly prefer the piano and I probably always shall.” Even Leopold’s argument that, since the violin was the most popular instrument of the time, he could gain greater financial success as a violinist-composer than as a pianist-composer did not sway Wolfgang. After he left Salzburg in 1781, Mozart never picked up the violin again, preferring to play the viola in his string quartet sessions in Vienna.
Mozart’s five authentic violin concertos were all products of a single year, 1775. At nineteen, he was already a veteran of five years’ experience as concertmaster in the Salzburg archiepiscopal music establishment, for which his duties included not only playing, but also composing, acting as co-conductor with the keyboard performer (modern conducting did not originate for at least two more decades), and soloing in concertos. It was for this last function that he wrote these concertos. He was, of course, a quick study at all that he did, and each of these concertos
builds on the knowledge gained from its predecessors. It was with the last three (K. 216, K. 218, K. 219) that something more than simple experience emerged, however, because it is with these compositions that Mozart indisputably entered the age of his mature works. These are his earliest pieces now regularly heard in the concert hall.
The opening movement of the D major Concerto begins with a mock-military fanfare on the notes of the D major chord, answered immediately by a balancing phrase full of grace and characteristic Mozartian suavity. The orchestral introduction continues with a sweetly lyrical contrasting theme presented by oboe and violins before the soloist enters to embroider the melodic material with tasteful ornamentation. The central section of the movement is less a true development of earlier motives than a free fantasia of pearly scales and flashing arpeggios. The recapitulation begins without fuss as the soloist tosses off an altered version of the main theme. (How Mozart loved to vary, even slightly, repeated material!) The remaining themes are recalled before the soloist is allowed a cadenza, after which a brief coda draws the movement to a lively close.
The second movement is sonatina in form (sonata-allegro without development section) and moonlight-tender in mood. Like so many slow concerto movements of the late 18th century, it contains music that would not be out of place in an operatic love scene. In contrast, the finale is dance-like and outgoing, an ingenious international blend of open-faced Italian melody, French elegance (Mozart used the French title “Rondeau” for the movement) and German structural sophistication in its blend of rondo and sonata forms.
PHOTO: EDUARD_MAGNUS
FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major for Two Soprano and Tenor Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 52, “Lobgesang” (“Hymn of Praise”)
COMPOSITION & PREMIERE OF WORK:
The Lobgesang was composed in 1840, and premiered on June 25, 1840 in Leipzig, conducted by the composer, Felix Mendelssohn.
CSA LAST PERFORMANCE:
This is the premiere performance by the orchestra.
INSTRUMENTATION:
The score calls for woodwinds in pairs, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, organ, and strings.
DURATION:
About 70 minutes.
When Edward George Bulwer-Lytton devised the axiom “The pen is mightier than the sword” for his drama Richelieu in 1838, the power of the written word had already been evident for centuries. History’s most significant technological advance in the dissemination of the written word occurred in Strasbourg around 1440, when Johann Gutenberg developed a system of printing from “movable type” — one piece of reusable type representing each character rather than the arduous earlier method of carving a block of wood to imprint an entire page. Gutenberg established a shop in Mainz, chose as his first commercial publication (1456) an edition of magnificent hand-illuminated Bibles, and set in motion a social, political and intellectual revolution that has lost none of its potency to this day.
In 1840, observances were planned across Germany to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg’s achievement. Leipzig, then the country’s leading center of book and music
publishing, was not to be outdone by any other city in this endeavor, and the town fathers ordered that a statue of Gutenberg be erected in the market square and then commissioned three musical works for the festivities: an opera by Albert Lortzing about the Nuremberg cobbler and poet Hans Sachs (a character from German history forever fixed on the operatic stage two decades later by Wagner with Die Meistersinger) and a men’s chorus with trombone accompaniment and a grand choral symphony from Felix Mendelssohn, Leipzig’s driving musical force since coming to the city five years before as conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts. Mendelssohn, who regarded the invention of printing as a victory of the human spirit over oppression and darkness, eagerly accepted the commissions.
The text for the Festgesang (“Festival Song”), the men’s chorus that would accompany the unveiling of the Gutenberg statue, was specified as a patriotic and honorific poem about the famous inventor by the Freiburg University professor Adolphus Prolls (Gutenberg, der Deutsche Mann — “Gutenberg, the German Man”), but Mendelssohn was apparently allowed to select the words for the choral symphony himself. Following a precept from Luther — “I would gladly see all the arts, especially music, serving Him who has given them and made them what they are,” a phrase he placed at the head of the score — Mendelssohn chose verses from Luther’s translation of the Old Testament, and added to them the hymn Nun Danket Alle Gott (“Now Thank We All Our God”), long associated with Easter and other festive observances in Leipzig. The imposing work, titled Lobgesang (“Hymn of Praise”), was written quickly that spring, and Mendelssohn conducted its premiere at the Thomaskirche, Johann Sebastian Bach’s church, on June 25th to “the highest enthusiasm, although, of course, this was not expressed in audible tones, it being given in the church,” reported Wilhelm Adolf Lampadius, a Leipzig music lover who wrote a firsthand biographical “Memorial for His Friends” following Mendelssohn’s death in 1847.
Mendelssohn was then the darling of British music lovers as well, and the clamor across the Channel to hear his latest creation was satisfied when he presented the Hymn of Praise at the Birmingham Festival on September 23rd. The work was rapturously received in England, but Mendelssohn deemed it in need of revision, and he made a second version of the composition before conducting it at a command performance in Leipzig for King Friedrich Augustus II of Saxony on December 4th. The work was published the following year as Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2, with a dedication to Friedrich Augustus. (The Lobgesang was actually the fourth symphony that Mendelssohn had composed, but he withheld both the “Reformation” [1829-1831] and the “Italian” [1831-1833] from publication for years; his last symphony, the “Scottish,” published third, dates from 1841-1842.) The Hymn of Praise was greatly admired and much performed throughout the 19th century, but it has been heard infrequently in recent decades. “Yet the work as a whole is emotionally strong and structurally interesting,” wrote Roger Fiske in a preface to his authoritative 1980 edition of the score. “A reappraisal in due.”
Though Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony, first heard only sixteen years before Mendelssohn received the commission for his Gutenberg piece in 1840, must be counted as an influence on the Lobgesang, the tradition of the Lutheran cantata stands even more decisively behind the work. Indeed, the ten vocal sections here occupy fully two-thirds of the work’s duration, while the three instrumental movements, played without pause and grouped together into what Mendelssohn labeled a “sinfonia,” serve principally as a spacious gateway to the vocal music. To open the Symphony, the trombones, instruments associated with church music since before Gutenberg’s time, chant a noble strain derived from an intonation for the Magnificat. The
phrases of this theme are echoed by the full orchestra to form the movement’s introduction and recur as a motto throughout the work. A full sonata form occupies the rest of the first movement: the main theme’s vigorous dotted rhythms recall the motto; a lyrical, arching melody provides the second subject; and the development section uses all of the movement’s thematic materials. Some inconclusive harmonies and a clarinet cadenza based on the motto lead without pause to the second movement, a wistful scherzo with a central trio that alternates chorale-like phrases in the winds (into which are woven reminiscences of the motto theme) with fragments of the scherzo melody in the strings. The Adagio suggests a solemn religious ceremony. The choral movements that comprise the remainder of the Lobgesang reach a peak of dramatic intensity in the sequence begun by the tenor soloist’s impassioned plea: The bonds of death had closed around us.... We wandered in darkness.... Watchman, will the night soon pass? To which the soprano soloist and chorus respond: The night has departed, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. The songs of praise resume with the chorale Now Thank We All Our God, first in a simple chordal setting and then in an elaborated version, and continue with joyous music from the soloists (Thus in my hymn I sing Thy everlasting praise) and the chorus (Ye peoples, offer to the Lord glory and might). The Lobgesang closes with a final choral acclamation based on the work’s motto theme: All that hath breath praise the Lord! Hallelujah!
No. 1 SINFONIA
Maestoso con moto — Allegro Allegretto un poco agitato Adagio religioso
Alles, was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn!
Halleluja, lobe den Herrn!
No. 2 CHORUS
All that hath breath, praise the Lord!
Hallelujah, praise the Lord!
Lobt den Herrn mit Saitenspiel, Praise the Lord with stringed instruments, lobt ihn mit eurem Liede! extol Him with your song!
Und alles Fleisch lobe seinen heiligen Namen. and let all flesh praise His holy name. Alles, was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn.
All that hath breath, praise the Lord.
Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, Bless the Lord, O my soul, und was in mir ist, and all that is within me, seinen heiligen Namen! bless His holy name!
Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, Bless the Lord, O my soul, und vergiss es nicht, and forget not was er dir Gutes getan! all His benefits.
SOPRANO and WOMEN’S CHORUS
No. 3: Recitative TENOR
Saget es, die ihr erlöst seid durch den Herrn,
Tell it forth, ye that are redeemed, die er aus der Not errettet hat, that He freed you from your distress, aus schwerer Trübsal, aus Schmach from dire affliction, shame, and bondage, und Banden, die ihr gefangen im Dunkel waret, ye who sat in the power of darkness, alle, die er erlöst hat aus der Not. all whom He hath redeemed from distress, Saget es! Danket ihm und rühmet tell it forth! Give thanks to Him and proclaim seine Güte! His goodness. Er zählet unsre Tränen in der Zeit der Not, He counteth our sorrows in the time of need, er tröstet die Betrübten mit seinem Wort. He comforteth the bereaved with His regard.
No. 4 CHORUS
Sagt es, die ihr erlöset seid
Tell it forth, ye that are redeemed von dem Herrn aus aller Trübsal. of the Lord from all affliction. Er zählet unsre Tränen in der Zeit der Not. He counteth our sorrows in the time of need.
No. 5
SOPRANO SOLOISTS and CHORUS
Ich harrete des Herrn, I waited on the Lord und er neigte sich zu mir and He inclined unto me und hörte mein Flehn. and heard my cry.
Wohl dem, der seine Hoffnung setzt
Blessed is the man that maketh auf den Herrn! the Lord his trust!
Wohl dem, der seine Hoffnung setzt auf ihn!
Blessed is he that putteth his hope in Him!
No. 6 TENOR
Stricke des Todes hatten uns umfangen, The bonds of death had closed around us, und Angst der Hölle hatte uns getroffen, the sorrows of hell prevented us, wir wandelten in Finsternis. we wandered in darkness.
Er aber spricht: Wache auf!
But He spake: Awake!
Wache auf, der du schläfst, Awake, thou that sleepest, stehe auf von den Toten, arise from the dead, ich will dich erleuchten! I will enlighten thee!
Wir riefen in der Finsternis:
We called through the darkness: Hüter, ist die Nacht bald hin?
Watchman, will the night soon pass?
Der Hüter aber sprach:
But the watchman said: Wenn der Morgen schon kommt, Though the morning cometh, so wird es doch Nacht sein, so also doth the night; wenn ihr schon fraget, though you enquire, so werdet ihr doch wieder kommen ye shall return und wieder fragen: and enquire again: Hüter, ist die Nacht bald hin? Watchman, will the night soon pass?
SOPRANO
Die Nacht ist vergangen.
The night has departed.
No. 7 CHORUS
Die Nacht ist vergangen,
The night has departed der Tag aber herbeigekommen. the day is at hand. So lasst uns ablegen die Werke der Finsternis Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness und anlegen die Waffen des Lichts and put on the armor of light, und ergreifen die Waffen des Lichts! let us gird on the armor of light!
No. 8: Chorale CHORUS
Nun danket alle Gott
Now thank we all our God mit Herzen, Mund und Händen, with heart and hands and voices, der sich in aller Not who wondrous things hath done, will gnädig zu uns wenden, in whom this world rejoices; der so viel Gutes tut; who from our mother’s arms von Kindesbeinen an hath blessed us on our way uns hielt in seiner Hut with countless gifts of love, und allen wohlgetan. and still is ours today.
Lob, Ehr’ und Preis sei Gott,
All praise and thanks to God dem Vater und dem Sohne the Father now be given, und seinem heil’gen Geist the Son, and Him who reigns im höchsten Himmelsthrone. with them in highest heaven, Lob dem dreiein’gen Gott, the One eternal God der Nacht und Dunkel schied whom earth and heaven adore, von Licht und Morgenrot, for thus it was, is now, ihm danket unser Lied. and shall be evermore.
Drum sing’ ich mit meinem Liede
No. 9
TENOR and SOPRANO
Thus in my hymn I sing ewig dein Lob, du treuer Gott!
Thy everlasting praise, O one true God, Und danke dir für alles Gute, and thank Thee for all the goodness das du an mir getan! Thou hast done.
Und wandl’ ich in Nacht und tiefem Dunkel, And though I wander in night and deep darkness und die Feinde umher stellen mir nach: and mine enemies surround me, so rufe ich an den Namen des Herrn, yet I call upon the name of the Lord, und er errettet mich nach seiner Güte. and He saves me with His goodness.
Drum sing’ ich mit meinem Liede
Thus in my hymn I sing ewig dein Lob, du treuer Gott!
Thy everlasting praise, O one true God, Und wandl’ ich in Nacht, and though I wander in night, so ruf ich deinen Namen an, yet ever will I call upon Thy name, ewig, du treuer Gott! Thou only God.
No. 10
CHORUS
Ihr Völker, bringet her dem Herrn
Ye peoples, offer to the Lord Ehre und Macht! glory and might!
Ihr Könige, bringet her dem Herrn Ye kings, offer to the Lord Ehre und Macht! glory and might!
Der Himmel bringe her dem Herrn Heaven, offer to the Lord Ehre und Macht! glory and might!
Die Erde bringe her dem Herrn Earth, offer to the Lord Ehre und Macht! glory and might!
Alles danke dem Herrn!
Let all give thanks to the Lord! Danket dem Herrn und rühmt seinen Namen Thank the Lord and praise His name und preiset seine Herrlichkeit! and extol His majesty!
Alles, was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn, All that hath breath praise the Lord! Halleluja, lobe den Herrn! Hallelujah, praise the Lord!
