UMS Concert Program, February 4, 1984: International Presentations Of Music & Dance --

Season: 105th
Concert: Thirtieth
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Leontyne Price
Soprano DAVID GARVEY, Pianist
Saturday Evening, February 4, 1984, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Dimando a voi pieta............................................Marcello
Bel piacere from Agrippina......................................... Handel
Ach, ich fiihl's, from Die Zauberflote............................... Mozart
Zueignung Der Stern
Standchen ..................................................Strauss
Die Nacht Ich Hebe dich
La mamma morta from Andrea Chenier............................Giordano
INTERMISSION
Oh! quand je dors.................................................. Liszt
Comment, disaient-ils.............................................. Liszt
C'est ainsi que tu es............................................. Poulenc
Le printemps...................................................... Hahn
Evening...................................................... Lee Hoiby
Snake....................................................... Ned Rorem
Minstrel Man.......................................... Margaret Bonds
i thank You God...................................... Celius Dougherty
..................................... an. Hall Johnson
Two Spirituals......................................
Witness
Ride on King Jesus
RCA Red Seal, London, and Angel Records.
Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith has generously provided fiinds to defray the printing costs of this concert program and those that follow in the 1983-84 Choral Union Series.
Thirtieth Concert of the 105th Season
105th Annual Choral Union Series
TRANSLATIONS AND TEXTS
Dimando a voi pieta................................ Benedetto Marcello
(1686-1739)
1 ask of you pity, my idol, for the many tears I have shed. Even stones, hard and insensible, would melt at my anguish.
Bel piacere from Agrippina......................... George Frideric Handel
(1685-1759)
What beautiful happiness to enjoy a faithful love! How it contents the heart. Beauty is not even valued as is a faithful heart.
Ach, ich fuhl's from Die Zauberjlote..............Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791)
Oh, 1 feel that all has vanished, the happiness of love has flown from my heart. Forever banished are the blissful hours I have known. Tamino, see my tears, they flow alone for thec. If you do not feel the longing of love, only death will give me peace.
Zueignung (Hermann von Gilm)........................... Richard Strauss
(1864-1949)
Yes, you know it, dear soul, that when I am away from you I am miserable; love makes the heart sick. Take my thanks. Did not 1, the tippler of liberty, hold high the amethyst cup, and you bless the draught Take my thanks. And you exorcised the veils within it, until I, blessed, as I had never been, sank upon your heart. Take my thanks.
(Translated by Philip L. Miller. Reprinted from The Ring of Words.)
Der Stern (Achim von Arnim)...................................... Strauss
I sec it again, the wonderful star; it twinkles down and approaches gladly. It warms and glows, the closer it comes. The others darken, their hearts broken. My hair is flying -the star passes me by -the crowd thinks of victory -I dream only of rest!
Standchen (Adolph Friedrich von Schack)............................Strauss
Oh come, oh come but softly, my child. Do not wake the others who arc sleeping. How silent the brook. The air is so mild. No leaf is stirring. Make no sound but open the door. Tread softly, my love, in the moonlit night. Come now in the garden's deep shadow. Only love is awake to weave us in its mystic spell. Let nightingales in the branches tell of kisses sweet unending. And the roses awakened by dawn's golden light glowing, shall recall the bliss of this night.
Die Nacht (Gilm)................................................. Strauss
Out of the forest enters the night, out of the trees it creeps softly, looks all around -now take care! All the lights, all flowers, all colors of this world it extinguishes and steals the sheaves from the fields. It takes all that glows -the silver from the rivers, the gold from the copper roof of the cathedral. Plundered bare stand the shrubs; draw near, soul to soul! O the night, I am so afraid it will steal you from me, too!
Ich Hebe dich (Detlev von Liliencron)................................Strauss
Four steeds before our carriage; we live in a castle and we own all we sec around us! Should you be forsaken and friendless, I'd share all your misfortunes and make my heart your home. Should your coffin be of marble laid before the altar, I would lie there beside you on the bier. Should you die a beggar, your grave the open field, I would follow you in death!
La mamma morta from Andrea Chenier................... Umberto Giordano
(1867-1948)
Having offered to give herself to Gerard to save Chcnicr from execution, Madeleine sings the aria: Ere death took my mother, leaving me forsaken, she strove to save me. I fled with Bcrsi, who nursed me through sickness and spent all her savings on me. To such as love me, I bring misfortune. 'Twas in such sorrow that I first heard the voice of Love, promising to guard me and to guide me.
Oh! quand je dors (Victor Hugo)................................ Franz Liszt
(1811-1886)
Oh come to me as I lie sleeping as Laura came to Petrarch, and when you pass, your breath will touch me, suddenly my mouth will open! In my worried mind, where perhaps a nightmare is finishing which lasted too long, as your face like a star uplifts me, suddenly my dream shall become radiant! Then on my lips where a flame ignites and makes clear a love that God, himself, approves. Place a kiss on my lips and become a woman, suddenly my soul wakes up! Oh come, as to Petrarch came Laura.
Comment, disaient-ils (Hugo)........................................ Liszt
"Oh how," murmur'd he, "can we with our light bark flee the alguazils" "Oh row, swiftly row," answer'd she.
"Oh how," murmur'd he, "e'er we forget our perils and grief and misery" "Oh sleep, softly sleep," answer'd she.
"And how," whisper'd he, "can we win the maidens without magic charm" "By love, only love," answer'd she.
"Oh row, Oh sleep, Oh Love!" Came her answer.
C'est ainsi quc tu es (de Vilmorin).......................... Francis Poulenc
(1899-1963)
Your body, mixed with soul -tousled hair -your foot beating time, your shadow stretching out and murmuring at my temples. There it is -it is thus that you are. This is your portrait -and I want to write it to you so that at night you can believe and say that I have known you well.
Le printemps (Theodore de Banville)........................Reynaldo Hahn
(1875-1947)
There you are, smile of Spring! The lilacs are in full bloom! A million fabulous hopes are nourished in our throbbing hearts!
Evening (Wallace Stevens).......................................Lee Hoiby
(b. 1926)
Evening, when measures skip a beat, and then another, one by one, and all to a seething mirror swiftly modulate, bare night is best. Bare earth is best. Bare, bare, except for our own houses, huddled low beneath the arches and their spangled air, beneath the rhapsodies of fire and fire, where the voice that is in us makes a true response, where the voice great within us rises up, as we stand gazing at the rounded moon.
Snake (Theodore Roethke)..................................... Ned Rorem
(b. 1923)
1 saw a young snake glide out of the mottled shade and hang limp on a stone, a thin mouth and a tongue stayed, in the still air. It turned; it drew away; its shadow bent in half; it quickened and was gone. I felt my slow blood warm. I longed to be that thing, the pure, sensuous form, and I may be, some time.
Minstrel Man (Langston Hughes, from Dreamkeeper)..........Margaret Bonds
(b. 1913)
Because my mouth is wide with laughter and my throat is deep with song, you do not think I suffer after I have held my pain so long.
Because my mouth is wide with laughter, you do not hear my inner cry.
Because my feet arc gay with dancing, you do not know, I die. You do not know, I die.
i thank You God (e.e. cummings)........................ Celius Dougherty
(). 1902)
i thank You God for most this amazing day, for the leaping, greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky, and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.
(i who have died am alive again today and this is the sun's birthday; this is the breathing of life and of love and wings and of gay great happenings illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any lifted from the no of all nothing human merely being doubt unimaginable You
(now the cars of my cars awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened.)
About the Artists
Leontyne Price, described by Harold Schonbcrg in the New York Times as "The Stradivarius of singers," is universally regarded as one of the greatest of American-trained singers. After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree from Central State College in Wilbcrforce, Ohio (her youthful goal was to become a music teacher), she studied at Thejuilliard School and soon was heard in the premieres of works by Stravinsky, Barber, La Montaine, and other composers. In 1952 she made her Paris debut in Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts, and the following year she was touring Vienna, Berlin, and Paris as Bess in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. At her Town Hall debut recital in 1954 she sang the first performance of Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs with the composer at the piano, and then made her operatic debut on television with the NBC-TV Opera Company in the title role of Tosca. In 1958 came her smash portrayal of Aida at the Vienna State Opera and later at La Scala, prompting a critic to write that "our great Verdi would have found her the ideal Aida." Triumphant engagements followed at Salzburg, Covent Garden, Verona, Chicago Lyric, Paris, Teatro Colon, and in 1961 at the Metropolitan Opera, which presented her in seven different roles during her first year with the company. She has starred in the leading roles of Aida, Don Giovanni, Tosca, II Trovatore, Madama Butterfly, The Girl of the Golden West, Turandot, La Forza del Destino, Un Ballo in Maschera, Manon Lescaut, and Ariadne auNaxos. In addition, she created the role of Cleopatra in Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, written for the opening night of the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. Miss Price is also internationally renowned as a recitalist and oratorio singer, and many of her performances have been widely seen on special telecasts. Most recent of these include the Metropoli?tan Opera's Centennial Celebration, and a telecast from the White House, at the invitation of President and Mrs. Reagan, where she performs and serves as host of a program presenting young Metropolitan Opera artists in concert.
Leontyne Price is the recipient of many honors and awards, among them America's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Republic of Italy's Order of Merit, and the Silver Medal of the San Francisco Opera. She received an Emmy Award for a 1979 televised recital at the White House, and her numerous recordings have won many prizes, including 17 Grammy Awards. She represented American musicians at the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty signing ceremo?nies and at the welcoming ceremonies for Pope John Paul II, both held at the White House. In 1980 she was a Kennedy Center Honor recipient and the following year was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1983 she again represented American musicians when she sang at the International Economic Summit Conference held in Colonial Williamsburg. She has received nine honorary doctorates, and a new library was named for her in her home state of Mississippi.
Tonight is Miss Price's seventh appearance in Ann Arbor.
David Garvey has been pianist for Leontyne Price since their meeting at Thejuilliard School, including Miss Price's recitals here in 1978 and 1980. Together they have toured and performed in the major cities and concert halls of North and South America, Europe, Australia, Canada, and India. Mr. Garvey has conducted master classes at the University of Illinois, Drake University, The School of Fine Arts in North Carolina, and currently at the University of Texas at Austin.
Remaining Concerts
Vienna Philharmonic Leonard Bernstein.......Wed., Thurs. Feb. 15, 16
Takacs String Quartet ................................... Tues. Feb. 28
Peter Zazofsky, Violinist .................................... Sun. Mar. 4
Oakland Ballet.................................... Mon.-Wed. Mar. 5-7
Orchestre National de France Lorin Maazel............Thurs. Mar. 8
Faculty Artists Concert (free admission)................... Sun. Mar. 11
Jury's Irish Cabaret........................................ Fri. Mar. 16
Czech Philharmonic Vaclav Neumann................... Sun. Mar. 25
Hungarian National Folk Ensemble....................... Wed. Mar. 28
Northwood Orchestra Don Jaeger.....................Thurs. Mar. 29
Karen Emons Smith, Soprano
The Canadian Brass........................................ Fri. Mar. 30
Yo-Yo Ma, Cellist........................................... Wed. Apr. 4
Orpheus Chamber Ensemble..................................Fri. Apr. 13
May Festival....................................... Wed.-Sat. Apr. 25-28
Free brochure with complete information available upon request.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1270 Phones: (313) 665-3717, 764-2538