UMS Concert Program, November 27: Sixty-seventh Annual Choral Union Concert Series -- Jennie Tourel

Season: 1945-1946
Concert: Fourth
Complete Series: 2912
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
CHARLES A. SINK, PRESIDENT THOR JOHNSON, CONDUCTOR
HARDIN VAN DEURSEN, ACTING CONDUCTOR
Fourth Concert 1945-1946 Complete Series 2912
Sixty-Seventh Annual
Choral Union Concert Series
JENNIE TOUREL, Mezzo-Soprano
ERICH ITOR KAHN at the Piano
Tuesday Evening, November 27, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Per pieta.............Stradeixa
Se tu m'ami............Pergolesi
Chi vuol la zingarella..........Paisiello
Rondo from "La Cenerentola"........Rossini
Trois chansons de Bilitis.........Debussy
La Flute de Pan
La Chevelure
Le Tombeau des naiades
Romance de Petoile.........Chabeier
Toujours..............Faure
INTERMISSION
0 Cease Thy Singing Maiden Fair.....Rachmaninoff
Hopak............Moussorgsky
Lullaby...........Gretchaninoff
Pano murciano.............Nin
El Vito..............Ndst
Air de Lia from "L'Enfant prodigue"......Debussy
1 Wonder as I Wander......American White Spiritual
The Doves..........Theodore Chanler
I Hate Music (Five Kid Songs) .... Leonard Bernstein
(over)
The Steinway piano, furnished through the courtesy of Grinnell Brothers, is the official concert instrument of the University Musical Society
ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS
PROGRAM NOTES
Per pieta............Stradella
Oh, have pity, return now to me! My beloved, where are you wending Sharpest woe my soul is rending, I cannot live without thee. Have pity, return to me.
Se tu m'ami............Pergolesi
If thou lov'st me, if thou art sighing but for me, oh shepherd lad, pity fills my heart replying. Though thy fondness makes me glad, never think to thee I am giving all my glances. Gentle shepherd, living in a dreamer's paradise, Silvia takes today a lover as she plucks a fair, red rose.
Chi vuol la zingarella........' . . Paisiello
Who'll try the gypsy pretty, so winning, wise and witty, as one and all may see For ladies at the window their fortune I can tell. When old men feel love burning, I set their heads aturning.
Rondo from "La Cenerentola"........Rossini
This rondo, which constitutes the finale of Rossini's lovely but little known and seldom given opera "Cinderella," composed in 1817, a year after the "Barber of Seville," is a grand display piece for coloratura mezzo-soprano. Cinderella, about to marry her Prince, exclaims over her good fortune which she still thinks is too wonderful to be true; goes over the past sorrows of her life, and promises not to take vengeance on her step-sisters but to do good to all in turn for her new found happiness.
Trois chansons de Bilitis.........Debussy
La Flute de Pan
For the day of the hyacinths he gave me a syrinx made of beautiful carved reeds joined with the white wax that is sweet as honey on my lips. He taught me to play, sitting gently on his knee; but I tremble a little. He plays after me, so softly that I scarcely hear him. We have naught to say, so close are we one to the other, but our songs wish to answer and now and again our lips meet upon the flute. It is late 1 I hear the song of the green frog coming with the night. My mother will never believe that I stayed so long looking for my lost girdle.
La Chevelure
He told me: "This night, I dreamt that I had your hair bound round my neck. Your hair like a black necklace round my forehead and across my breast. I caressed it and it was my own; and we were together always, thus, by the same necklace, my mouth on your mouth as two laurels have sometimes but one root. And little by little it seemed that our bodies were one; I gave you all and your soul was mine, as in my dreams." When he finished -softly he put his hands upon my shoulders and looked at me so tenderly that my eyes veiled themselves in a shiver of delight.
Le Tombeau des naiades
Along the white frosted wood I walked; my hair floating on my lips dressed itself with frozen dew-drops and my sandals were heavy with the thick muddy snow. He said to me: "What seekest thou" "I follow the trail of the satyr, his little cloven hoofs succeed one another like holes in a white cloak." He said to me: "The satyrs are dead! The satyrs and the water-nymphs also. For thirty years there has not been such a terrible winter. The trail that you see is that of a goat; but let us remain here, near to their tomb." And with the iron of his hoe he broke the ice of the spring where once the water-nymphs played. And taking the big cold pieces, he lifted them towards the pale sky, his look penetrating beyond.
Romance de l'etoile..........Chabrier
Oh, little star of fate, it is through you that I shall be able to lift the veil of the morrow. Oh, little star, answer me and tell me the future. You can, gentle prophet, give me wealth, or you can promise to me all my desires. Or, you can, through the caprice of your will, oh, star protector, make of me a prince, a king!
Toujours.............Faure
You asked me to be silent; to leave you forever and forget that I loved you. Can you ask the stars to fall from the sky, the night to lose her veils, the day to lose the light! Ask the sea to dry its vast waters, the wild winds to appease their sombre sound! But do not hope that my soul will discard the pain and pluck the flames like spring the flowers.
O Cease Thy Singing Maiden Fair.....Rachmaninoff
Oh, never sing to me again, the songs of Georgia, fair maiden. Their tones recall to me in vain far distant shores with sorrow laden. Alas! Those songs remembrance stir, features of another! This image, fatal yet so true at sight of thee will surely vanish, but at thy voice arises anew that all my striving fails to banish.
Hopak............Moussorgsky
With words by the composer, this song is a kind of epic in itself. It opens with an old Russian peasant woman extolling the merits of drink and the forgetfullness it brings. When she is through abusing her old husband the song enters into a second section where she meditates sorrowfully on her lost youth and the dreary emptiness of her life. The song ends with the same call to drink and merriment as heard in the beginning.
Lullaby...........Gretchaninoff
Sleep my baby, the silver moon shines on your cradle. I'll tell you fairy tales and sing you a song. Sleep well, my baby, bye, bye, bye, bye.
Pano murciano.............Nm
Pray tell me, Mr. Silversmith, how much silver do I need to seal a kiss from my beloved I have the idea you would know.
El VitO..............NlN
An old woman is worth nothing; a young woman a little more. But I am so poor, I cannot afford either. I'll dance my dance, but do not tickle me, or I'll blush.
Air de Lia from "L'Enfant prodigue"......Debussy
Sung by Lia, the mother of the Prodigal Son, this air opens the cantata, "L'Enfant prodigue," which won Debussy the Prix de Rome in 18S4.
"Azael, Azael, ah, wherefore did'st thou leave me. On my heart thou art graven. I sorrow for thee. When the elm trees waving above us, homeward the ruddy oxen bore us weary with toil but light of heart, then as shadows softly fell we all the evening hymn did sing, thankfully to God our great King, to God the Lord who gave all things: Sweetly we slept and glad repose, youths and maidens wandered freely. Voices they plighted in sincerity. Evening shadows brought calm and repose. Happy ye parents when to earth your children bind ye. Sadly must I alone drag out the leadened years. Azael, Azael, ah, wherefore did'st thou leave me."
CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL
The SIXTH ANNUAL CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL, consisting of three concerts, will be given Friday evening and Saturday afternoon and evening, January 25 and 26, in Rackham Lecture Hall.
THE BUDAPEST STRING QUARTET
Josef Roismann, Violin Boris Keoyt, Viola
Edgar Ortenberg, Violin Mischa Schneider, Violoncello
Series tickets, including tax: $3.60, $3.00, and $1.50; single concerts, $1.50, $1.20, and $.80.
ANNUAL "MESSIAH" CONCERT
The annual performance of Handel's "Messiah" will be given Sunday afternoon, December 16, at 3:00 p.m., in Hill Auditorium.
Rose Derman, Soprano Arthur Kraft, Tenor
Kathryn Meisle, Contralto Mark Love, Bass
Hugh Norton, Narrator
University Choral Union
Special "Messiah" Orchestra
Frieda Op't Holt Vogan, Organist
Hardin Van Deursen, Conductor
Reserved seat tickets, including tax: main floor, 65 cents; first balcony, 50 cents; and second balcony, 40 cents.
CHORAL UNION CONCERTS
A limited number of tickets are still available for some of the concerts.
Don Cossack Chorus.......Monday, December 3
Serge Jaroff, Conductor
Boston Symphony Orchestra .... Monday, December 10 Serge Koussevuzky, Conductor
Heifetz..........Friday, January 18
Chicago Symphony Orchestra .... Thursday, January 31 Desire Defatjw, Conductor
Artur Schnabel, Pianist.....Wednesday, February 13
Detroit Symphony Orchestra.....Monday, March 11
Karl Kikjeger, Conductor
Tickets now on sale at the offices of the University Musical Society, Burton Memorial Tower. Mail orders should include self-addressed stamped envelope, and be mailed to University Musical Society, Charles A. Sink, President, Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan.