UMS Concert Program, November 9, 1955: Tenth Annual Extra Concert Series -- Herbert Von Karajan And The The Philadelphia Orchestraof London

Season: 1955-1956
Concert: Second
Complete Series: 3167
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Charles A. Sink, President Thor Johnson, Guest Conductor
Lester McCoy, Associate Conductor
Fifth Concert 1955-1956 Complete Series 3169
Seventy-seventh Annual
Choral Union Concert Series
THE ROBERT SHAW CHORALE
and CONCERT ORCHESTRA
ROBERT SHAW, Conductor
Tuesday Evening, November 22, 1955, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Magnificat in D major, for Orchestra, Chorus, and Soloists . Bach
INTERMISSION
King David, Symphonic Drama (after a play by Rene Morax) Honegger
For Narrator, Soloists, Chorus, and Orchestra Narrator: Booth Colman
Soloists with the Robert Shaw Chorale
Sopranos: Mezzo-Sopranos: Contraltos:
Elizabeth Baisch Jane Cramer Gretchen Bexce
Lorraine Smorol Carol Jones Florence Kopleft
Jayne Somogi Barbara Williamson Margery Pearce
Tenors: Basses:
Howard Roberts Eugene Brice
Keith Wyatt Thomas Pyle
Lindsey Bergen Howard Kaiii.
RCA Victor Red Seal Records Steimvay Piano
The organ is a Connsonata made by C. G. Conn, Ltd.
ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS
PROGRAM NOTES
Magnificat.....Johann Sebastian Bach (168S-17SO)
Surely there is no more joyous music in the world than that of Bach's Magnificat. The wonder and praise in Mary's heart, when informed by the angel that she is to bear the Messiah, are reflected in music of unsurpassable warmth and beauty. First performed at Leipsig in 1723, shortly after Bach's arrival there to begin his duties as Cantor of St. Thomas' Church, it has come to be known and loved as one of the most personal and immediately communicative of his major works.
The Canticle of Mary is found in the Gospel according to Saint Luke, Chapter I, verses 46-55. In Bach's setting, each verse becomes a remarkably com?pact, but complete movement, whose spirit shines in a musical language of almost literal pictorial expressiveness. When the mighty are put down from their seats, the music descends most fiercely; and when the rich are "sent empty away" the music dissolves to a plaintively humorous single-note ending. The triumph of the opening and closing choruses renders more poignant, by contrast, the wonder of Quia respexit and the tenderness of Et misericordia and Suscepit Israel.
Magnificat............Chorus
My soul doth magnify the Lord.
Et exultavit..........Mezzo-Soprano
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
Quia respexit.........Soprano and Chorus
For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for behold, from hence forth all generations shall call me blessed.
Quia fecit.............Bass
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.
Et misericordia.........Tenor and Alto
And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
Fecit potentiam...........Chorus
He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
Deposuit potentes...........Tenor
He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.
Esurientes............Contralto
He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
Suscepit Israel.........Women's Chorus
He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy.
Sicut locutus est...........Chorus
As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.
Gloria.............Chorus
Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
King David.......Arthur Honegger (1892)
The phenomenal success of King David at its first performance affirmed that Arthur Honegger had indeed succeeded in his intention to "create an art that addresses itself directly to everyone." With his unerring instinct for the dramatic, and his spontaneous, colorful musical language, King David speaks with an overwhelming power and sincerity.
The events of David's life are briefly and pungently portrayed in scenes that move with an almost cinematic rapidity. A narrator introduces and binds them together, while the psalms serve as moments of reflection, the unforgettable soliloquies of a man engulfed in royal battles. The drama moves with the irre?sistible force of a wave--rising from the humble shepherd boy to the frenzy of the "Dance Before the Ark," and subsiding again through the Psalms of Peni?tence to David's death.
Although Honegger later rescored the work for full symphony orchestra, the work is here performed in the original theatre version which was used at its premiere in Switzerland in June, 1921. To the scoring of woodwinds, brass and percussion instruments of this version have been incorporated some string parts in accordance with Mr. Honegger's later expanded score.
PART I --THE YOUNG DAVID
Scene I: Shepherd
Introduction
Psalm: "God shall be my shepherd kind" (Contralto)
Scene II: Hero -David and Goliath
Entry of Goliath
March
Song of Victory: "David is great!" (Chorus)
Scene III: Prophet -David in the Wilderness
Psalm: "In the Lord I put my faith" (Tenor)
Psalm: "O, had I wings like a dove" (Soprano)
Song of the Prophets: "Man that is born of woman" (Male Chorus)
Psalm: "Pity me Lord in my distress" (Tenor)
Scene IV: Warrior----David Triumphs over Saul
Saul's Camp
Psalm: "God the Light shall be my light" (Chorus)
Incantation of the Witch of Endor
March of the Philistines
Lament over Saul and Jonathan (Contralto, Soprano and Chorus)
PART II --DAVID THE KING Scene I: The Ark is Set in Jerusalem
Psalm: "All praise to Him, the Lord of Glory" (Chorus) Song of the Daughters of Israel (Soprano, Women's Chorus) The Dance before the Ark
Scene II: David and Bathsheba
Song: "Now my voice in song upsoaring" (Chorus)
Song of the Handmaiden: "O, my love, take my hand" (Contralto)
Psalm: "Pity me, God, in my distress" (Chorus)
Psalm: "Behold in evil I was born" (Chorus)
Scene III: The Revolt of Absalom
Psalm: "0 shall I raise my eyes unto the mountains" (Tenor) Song: "O, thou forest of grief" (Soprano and Women's Chorus) March of the Hebrews Psalm: "Thee will I love, O Lord." (Chorus)
Scene IV: Last Days
Psalm: "In my distress" (Chorus)
The Crowning of Solomon
The Death of David (Soprano and Chorus)
E S S I A
First Concert: Saturday, December 3, 8:30 p.m. Repeat Concert: Sunday, December 4, 2:30 p.m.
Ellen Faull, Soprano Howard Jarratt, Tenor
Lillian Chookasian, Contralto Donald Gramm, Bass
University Choral Union
Musical Society Orchestra
Mary McCall Stubbins, Organist
Lester McCoy, Conductor
Tickets (either performance): 75 cents and SO cents
Chamber Music Festival
Rackham Auditorium
BUDAPEST STRING QUARTET, February 17, 18, 19, 1956
Josef Roisman, Violinist Boris Kroyt, Violist
Alexander Schneider, Violinist Mischa Schneider, Cellist Robert Courte, Guest Violist
Season Tickets: $3.50 and $2.50 Single Concerts: $1.75 and $1.25
Choral Union and Extra Series
Boston Pops Tour Orchestra (Extra) . . . Sunday, January 8 Arthur Fiedler, Conductor
Vienna Choir Boys (C.U.) 2:30 p.m. . . . Sunday, January 15 Myra Hess, Pianist (Extra) .... Wednesday, February 15
Toronto Symphony Orchestra (C.U.) . Wednesday, February 22 Sir Ernest MacMillan, Conductor
Artur Rubinstein, Pianist (C.U.) .... Thursday, March 1 Teresa Stich-Randall, Soprano (Extra) . . . Friday, March 9
Virtuosi di Roma (C.U.)......Tuesday, March 13
Walter Gieseking, Pianist (C.U.) .... Monday, March 19 Tickets: $3.50--$3.00--$2.50--$2.00 and $1.50.