UMS Concert Program, December 12, 1949: Seventy-first Annual Choral Union Concert Series -- Ris

Season: 1949-1950
Concert: Sixth
Complete Series: 3017
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
CHARLES A. SINK, PRESIDENT THOR JOHNSON, GUEST CONDUCTOR
LESTER MCCOY, ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR
Sixth Concert 1949-1950 Complete Series 3017
Seventy-first Annual
Choral Union Concert Series
RISE STEVENS
Assisted by BROOKS SMITH at the Piano
Monday Evening, December 12, 1949, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
"Where'er You Walk," from Semele......Handel
"II est doux, il est bon" from Herodiade .... Massenet
Negro Spirituals:
Oh, What a Beautiful City . . . Arr. by Edward Boatner
Were You There......Arr. by H. H. Burleigh
My Good Lord Done Been Here . . Arr. by Hall Johnson
Widmung...........Schumann
Traum durch die Dammerung.......Strauss
Meine Liebe ist griin.........Brahms
Das verlassene Magdlein.........Wolf
?Mausfallen-Spriichlein..........Wolf
INTERMISSION
Sonata in G major..........Scarlatti
Nocturne in E minor..........Chopin
Capriccio in F minor.........Dohnanyi
Brooks Smith
To the Children.........Rachmaninoff
April ... ... .... Frank St. Leger
The Ash Grove......Arr. by Benjamin Britten
An Ocean Idyll.........Brooks Smith
Excerpts from Carmen.........Bizet
Habanera Seguidilla Gypsy Song
Columbia Masterworks Records
The Steinway is the official piano of the University Musical Society
ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS
PROGRAM NOTES "Where'er You Walk" from Semele......Handel
This melody of beautiful simplicity and great dignity is one of the most famous pieces of legato singing. The accompaniment moves forward steadily, with a convincing suggestion of the actual rhythm of walking.
"Where'er you walk, cool gales fan the glade Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade. Where'er you tread, the blushing flowers shall rise, And all things flourish where'er you turn your eyes."
"II est doux, il est bon" from Herodiade .... Massenet
Salome confides to Phanual, the chief adviser of Herod, how she was saved in the desert by the Prophet John, and how she longs to tell him of her love for him. "I was suffering sad and lonely, and my heart found peace in listening to his voice, so soft, so tender. Oh, prophet, loved above all, I cannot live without thee!"
Widmung............Schumann
"Widmung" expresses the ecstacy of the poet's soul opening to his newfound love. "Thou art my life, my soul, my heart! Thou, all my joy and sadness art!"
Traum durch die Dammerung.......Strauss
"Spreading meads in the dusk of eve!
The sun has gone down, the stars appear-And I now go to the beauteous maid,
Far o'er the meads in the dusk of eve,
Deep in the sweet jasmine bow'r.
Through shades of eve to lover's land;
I speed not too fast, nor haste to leave;
I'm led by a soft and velvet band
At close of day, to the lover's land,
In the twilight blue of eve."
Meine Liebe ist griin..........Brahms
"My love is in bloom like the lilac tree,
And my love glows like a sunbeam;
She has but to glance at my lilac tree,
And lo, into blossom it bloweth!
My soul has the wings of a nightingale;
Hid 'mid the lilac flowers,
In ecstasy singing his rapturous lay,
For joy of his perfumed bowers."
Das verlassene Magdlein.........Wolf
"When stars are shining yet,
Out of bed I get. Often I sit and stare,
Heavy my heart with care. Ah, then it comes to me
That I did dream of thee. Then do my tears fall fast
The day hath dawned at last.-Would it were ended!"
Mausfallen-Spruchlein...........Wolf
A little girl peering into a mouse hole says, "Dear Mr. and Mrs. Mouse, please be careful tonight when you come out. We are having a dance after dinner, and my old cat probably will be dancing too. Do you hear"
To the Children.........Rachmaninoff
"How often at midnight in days long since fled, Dear children, I've watched with deep joy by your bed; How often your brows have I sign'd with the cross, And pray'd there; God keep you from sorrow and loss. The love of the Father protect you . . . ."
April...........Frank St. Leger
During a visit to Chicago, Mr. St. Leger, assistant to the director of the Metropolitan Opera Association, was shown some poems written by Mrs. Ruth Campbell and among them was "April," which especially interested him. Although it was originally conceived with orchestral accompaniment, he later revised it to its present form, which is still in manuscript.
"What naughty phantom of delight is April!
Creeping to you in the night comes April.
Her fragrant arms at morn enfold,
Her tenderness, her kisses hold,
And tales of love are sung and told by April . . . ."
The Ash Grove......Arr. by Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten, the 35-year-old from Suffolk, England, well-known for his operas, Peter Grimes, The Rape of Lucretia, and still more recently, Albert Herring, is here represented in a smaller form of composition--his arrangement of a Welsh folk song.
An Ocean Idyll.........Brooks Smith
"If I were a mermaid, I know what I'd do;
I'd rise from the ocean and swim out to you . . . ."
Excerpts from Carmen..........Bizet
Habanera--Seguidilla--Gypsy Song
In Prosper Merimee's romance, Carmen, Georges Bizet found the material for one of the most completely effective music-dramas ever written. Setting, story, and characters fired Bizet's imagination. Throughout the opera, the listener is a witness to Bizet's art in using music to heighten dramatic tension, to color a situation, to punctuate climactic points, and to establish character and mood.
The girls from a nearby cigarette factory crowd into a public square of Seville. Among them is Carmen, surrounded by admirers; however, Carmen is attracted to Don Jose, who pays no attention to her. Annoyed by this indifference, she tauntingly sings the "Habanera," at the end flinging a rose in his face and rushing into the factory with a parting "If I love you--beware."
At the end of Act I, Carmen, accused of attacking one of the factory girls, has been arrested and placed in the charge of Don Jose. She sings to her captor, using all her arts of coquetry to tempt him. "I'll dance the gay "Seguidilla"; Who loves me, him shall I love."
Carmen has joined the gypsy smugglers in their revelry at the tavern (Act II) and there sings her "Gypsy Song." "Hark, 'tis the triangles shrill sound, and at the joyous, merry jingle, each zingarella hastens to mingle."
PROGRAMS
Carroll Glenn, Violinist
and Eugene List, Pianist .... Friday, January 6, 8:30
Concerto for Violin and Piano in F major......Haydn
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28.....Saint-Saens
Ondine...............Ravel
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6...........Liszt
Sonata in A major for Piano and Violin.......Franck
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Thor Johnson, Conductor ¦ . Tuesday, January 17, 8:30
Suite from "The Water Music".........Handel
"Joseph's Legend," a Symphonic Fragment......R. Strauss
Symphony in D minor...........Franck
Tenth Annual
GHnmBER music festiubl
Rackham Auditorium
BUDRPEST QUHRTET
JOSEF ROISMAN, BORIS KROYT
First Violin Viola
JAC GORODETZKY MISCHA SCHNEIDER
Second Violin " Violoncello
Friday, January 13, 8:30 P.M.
Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 76, No. 4 .............................. Haydn
Grand Fugue, Op. 133 .......................................... Beethoven
Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 67 .....................................Brahms
Saturday, January 14, 8:30 P.M.
Quartet in E-flat major, K. 428 ..................................... Mozart
Quartet No. 3 ...................................................... Piston
Quartet in F major, Op. 135 .................................... Beethoven
Sunday, January 15, 2:30 P.M.
Quartet in F major, Op. 18, No. 1................................ Beethoven
Quartet, Op. 22, No. 3 .......................................... Hindemith
Quartet in D minor ............................................. Schubert
Ticket Prices (Including tax)
Season Tickets (3 concerts): $3.60 and $2.40.
Single Concerts: $1.80 and $1.20.
CONCERTS
Carroll Glenn, Violinist
and Eugene List, Pianist .... Friday, January 6, 8:30
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra . . Tuesday, January 17, 8:30
Thor Johnson, Conductor Myra Hess, Pianist.....Friday, February 17, 8:30
Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra . Thursday, February 23, 8:30
Paul Paray, Guest Conductor Chicago Symphony Orchestra . . . Sunday, March 12, 7:00
Fritz Reiner, Guest Conductor
Zino Francescatti, Violinist . . . Monday, March 20, 8:30 Single Concerts (inc. tax): $3.00--$2.40--$1.80
MAY FESTIVAL season ticket orders are being accepted and filed in sequence--Unclaimed seats in Block A, $12.00; Block B, $10.80; Block C, $9.60--at University Musical Society, Charles A. Sink, President, Burton Memorial Tower.