UMS Concert Program, July 14, 1985: Ann Arbor Summer '85 Festival --

Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

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THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
presents
Maureen Forrester
Contralto and
Orford String Quartet
ANDREW DAWES, Violinist TERENCE HELMER, Violinist
KENNETH PERKINS, Violinist DENIS BROTT, Cellist
Sunday Afternoon, July 14, 1985, at 4:00 Rackham Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110..............................Shostakovich
Largo
Allegro molto Allegretto Largo Largo
Songs of Contemplation......................................Alexander Brott
Strangers Yet (Richard Monckton Milnes Lord Houghton]) Let All Things Grieve (Anonymous) Cradle Song (Alfred Lord Tennyson) The Sun's Shame (Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
Maureen Forrester and the Quartet
II Tramonto (The Sunset) ..........................................Respighi
Miss Forrester and the Quartet INTERMISSION
Quartet in C major, Op. 59, No. 3.................................Beethoven
Introduzione, allegro vivace Andante con moto quasi allegretto Menuetto: grazioso Allegro molto
Tlie Orford String Quartet is generously supported by the Canada Council, the Touring Office of the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Department of External Affairs of Canada.
Songs of Contemplation
Songs of Contemplation is a cycle of four songs written for strings and voice, based on the lyrical poetry of a period generally referred to as Victorian. In it, I have tried to capture the subjec?tive temper of the age, the contemplation, the selfindulgence in the assessment of values, the im?pulse, and above all, the reason. I was moved by the inner confession of the perplexed and over?burdened heart in search for relief by selfexpression.
-Alexander Brott Strangers Yet (Milnes)
Strangers Yet! After years of life together. After fair and stormy weather, After travel in far lands. After touch of wedded hands, Why thus join'd Why ever met. If they must be strangers yet
Strangers Yet!
After childhood"s winning ways, After care and blame and praise, Counsel ask'd and wisdom given, After mutual prayers to Heaven Child and parent scarce regret When they part are strangers yet.
Strangers Yet!
After strife for common ends, After title of "old friends," After passions fierce and tender, After cheerful and selfsurrender, Hearts may beat and eyes be met And the souls be strangers yet.
Strangers Yet!
Oh! the bitter thought to scan
All the loneliness of man:
Nature by magnetic laws
Circle unto circle draws,
But they only touch when met,
Never mingle--Strangers Yet.
Let All Tilings Grieve (Anonymous)
Let all things grieve that share my pain
The wind and the trees and the quiet rain
Not the Sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor these,
But the rain in the night and the windswept trees.
The shining stars, what know they of grief But the tree that watches her last curled leaf Shrivel, shrivel and die when winters come Is the one with the heart bereft and dumb.
Cradle Song (Tennyson)
What does little birdie say In her nest at peep of day Let me fly says little birdie, Mother, let me fly away.
Birdie, rest a little longer, Till the little wings are stronger, So she rests a little longer. Then she flies away.
What does little baby say. In her bed at peep of day Baby says, like little birdie. Let me rise and fly away.
Baby, sleep a little longer. Till the little limbs are stronger. If she sleeps a little longer. Baby too shall fly away.
Vie Sun's Shame (Rossetti)
Beholding youth and hope in mockery caught From life; and mocking pulses that remain When the soul's death of bcxlily death is fain;
Honour unknown, and honour known unsought;
And penury's sedulous selftorturing thought On gold, whose master therewith buys his bane; And long'dfor woman longing all in vain
For lonely man with love's desire distraught;
And wealth and strength and power and pleasantness Given unto bodies of whose souls men say, None so poor and weak, slavish and foul, as they:
Beholding these things, I behold no less
The blushing morn and blushing eve confess The shame that loads the intolerable day.
Alexander Brott has long been acknowledged as Canada's prime example of the total musician -conductor, composer, and violinist. He is the founder and conductor of the McGill Chamber Orchestra, which celebrates this year its 45th anniversary of consecutive concert series. Dr. Brott has served the cause of music in Montreal as concertmaster and assistant conductor of the Montreal Synphony Orchestra, as professor of music and conductorinresidence at McGill's Faculty of Music, and as composer. His compositions number over 100, most of which were commissioned, and have been performed by such outstanding conductors as Otto Klemperer, Sir Thomas Beecham, Pierre Monteux, and Leopold Stokowski. Most recently his Ritual for string quartet and strings was recorded by the Orford Quartet and Vancouver Orchestra, as well as his Critic's Corner with percussionist Louis Charbonneau, and Songs of Contemplation with Maureen Forrester.
Dr. Brett's honors include honorary doctorates from the universities of Chicago, Queens, and McGill, the Sir Arnold Bax Gold Medal as composer of the Commonwealth, the Canadian Music Council medal for his contributions to music in Canada, the Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Medal, the Order of Canada medal, and most recently was bestowed with the title and decoration of "Knight of Malta" for his services to music.
Dr. Brott's son Denis is cellist of the Orford String Quartet.
II Tramonto (The Sunset)
Ottorino Respighi (18791936) was one of the best masters of modern Italian music in orchestra?tion. His power of evocation of the Italian scene was vividly portrayed in his two most famous sym?phonic poems, The Pines of Rome and The Fountains of Rome. In addition to these and other or?chestral works, Respighi wrote several operas, two choral works, 45 songs, and several chamber works. Tramonto (after Shelley), for mezzosoprano and string quartet, was written in 1917.
There late was One within whose subtle being As light and wind within some delicate cloud That fades amid the blue noon's burning sky Genius and death contended. None may know The sweetness of the joy which made his breath Fail, like the trances of the summer air, When, with the Lady of his love, who then First knew the unreserve of mingled being. He walked along the pathway of a field Which to the east a hoar wood shadowed o'er, But to the west was open to the sky. There now the sun had sunk, but lines of gold Hung on the ashen clouds, and on the points Of the far level grass and nodding flowers And the old dandelion's hoary beard. And, mingled with the shades of twilight, lay On the brown massy woods -and in the east The broad and burning moon lingeringly rose Between the black trunks of the crowded trees, While the faint stars were gathering overhead. "Is it not strange, Isabel," said the youth, "I never saw the sun We will walk here Tomorrow; thou shalt look on it with me."
That night the youth and lady mingled lay
In love and sleep--but when the morning came
The lady found her lover dead and cold.
Let none believe that God in mercy gave
That stroke. The lady died not, nor grew wild,
But year by year lived on--in truth I think
Her gentleness and patience and sad smiles.
And that she did not die, but lived to tend
Her aged father, were a kind of madness,
If madness 'tis to be unlike the world.
For but to see her were to read the tale
Woven by some subtlest bard, to make hard hear
Dissolve away in wisdom--working grief;
Her eyes were black and lustreless and wan:
Her eyelashes were worn away with tears.
Her lips and cheeks were like things dead--so pale.
Her hands were thin, and through their wandering
And weak articulations might be seen
Day's ruddy light. The tomb of thy dead self
Which one vexed ghost inhabits, night and day.
Is all, lost child, that now remains of thee!
Inheritor of more than earth can give, Passionless calm and silence unreproved, Whether the dead find, oh, not sleep! but rest, And are the uncomplaining things they seem, Or live, or drop in the deep seas of Love, Oh, that like thine, mine epitaph were--Peace! This was the only moan she ever made.
Maureen Forrester will be featured in tomorrow night's concert with the Northwood Orchestra in the Power Center at 8:00. She will sing Les Nuits d 'e'te, a cycle of six songs by Hector Berlioz, and Three Metis Songs from Saskatchewan. Tickets may be purchased from 11:00 a.m. to concert time at the Power Center box office.
About the Artists
One of the leading contraltos of our time, Maureen Forrester has been heard by audiences on five continents as soloist with virtually every major orchestra in the world. Recognized as one of the great interpreters of Gustav Mahler, she has performed that composer's Second Symphony (Resurrection) in recent years with the New York Philharmonic at the orchestra's gala celebration of its 10,000th performance, with the American Symphony in Carnegie Hall, and with the London Symphony. Miss Forrester has also performed in Mahler's Third Symphony with the National Sym?phony Orchestra of Washington, D. C., and Songs of a Wayfarer with The Philadelphia Orchestra. Her 198586 season will include an appearance with the Cleveland Orchestra, multiple performances with the Toronto Symphony, performances of Mahler's Second Symphony with the Cincinnati Sym?phony, and numerous other orchestral and recital engagements throughout the United States and Canada.
On the operatic stage, Maureen Forrester will appear next season with the Canadian Opera Com?pany in Toronto in several different roles. In 1984 she sang the Witch in Hansel and Grelel with the San Diego Opera, and in the summer of that year she captivated audiences in Gilbert and Sullivan's lolanthe at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Her return to the New York City Opera the previous year as Mme de la Haltiere in Massenet's Cendrillon was one of the highlights of that production.
Born in Montreal, Miss Forrester made her debut at the Montreal YWCA and was immediately engaged to sing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Montreal Symphony under the baton of Otto Klemperer. Word of her talent soon reached Bruno Walter in New York, and in February 1957 she made her first Carnegie Hall appearance singing in Mahler's Resurrection Symphony. She has since become a favorite of many of the world's greatest conductors, performing under the batons of Eugene Ormandy, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, and James Levine, among others.
In 1983 Maureen Forrester was elected Chairman of the Canada Council. Among her many honors are the Companion of the Order of Canada, which she received in 1967, the year it was created; she was the first artist to be so honored. She is also the recipient of no less than fifteen honorary doctorates.
As the Orford String Quartet celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year, it is recognized internationally as one of the finest string quartets in the world. Adopting its name from the Orford Arts Centre on Mount Orford in Quebec, where the founding members met in the summer of 1965, the ensemble was soon established in 1968 as quartetinresidence at the University of Toronto, a post it still holds with distinction today. The Orford's career was enhanced when, in 1974, it won the European Broadcasting Union's International String Quartet Competition in Stockholm. Now it performs in the major concert series of the world's music capitals, and its busy touring schedule includes regular tours of Eastern and Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Australasia.
The Quartet's exceptionally broad repertoire includes over 150 works, ranging from the classical masters to the most innovative of contemporary composers. Its discography numbers 40 discs, several of which have won prestigious international awards. It is currently recording the major quartets of Mozart and rerecording the complete Beethoven cycle on digital disc.
Andrew Dawes, from Western Canada, studied with Clayton Hare, Murray Adaskin, Lorand Fenyves, and Oscar Shumsky. A prizewinner in many national and international violin competi?tions, he has appeared as soloist with all the major orchestras of Canada and has given recitals in Canada, the United States, and Europe. His violin is a J. B. Guadagnini made in 1770.
Kenneth Perkins has been a member of the Montreal Symphony and the McGill Chamber Or?chestra and has taught at McGill University. He has toured Canada with chamber groups and ap?peared with orchestras in Canada, Italy, and Switzerland. Also a native of Western Canada, Mr. Perkins studied in New York with Ivan Galamian and subsequently in Geneva with Lorand Fenyves. His violin is a Matteo Gofriller, circa 1726.
Terence I Miner was born in Northern Ontario and studied with Geza de Kresz, Kathleen Parlow, Joseph Gingold. and Arthur Grumiaux. He is a graduate of the University of Indiana and also has a Diplfime supcrieur from the Brussels Royal Conservatory. Mr. Helmer made his debut with the Toronto Symphony at the age of fifteen and has played with the Stratford Orchestra and the Chicago Chamber Orchestra.
Denis Brott was the recipient of the first prize at the 22nd International Cello Competition in Munich, Germany. Born in Montreal, he was a protege of Gregor Piatigorsky at the University of Southern California and began his solo career in 1971. He has appeared with every major Cana?dian orchestra and his solo engagements have taken him throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe. Mr. Brott has taught at Interlochen Arts Academy, the North Carolina School of the Arts in WinstonSalem, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. His cello is a Giovanni Batista Ceruti, circa 1799.
THE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
presents
Assisted by
Leonard Turton, Lezlie Waker Alexis Brown, Kim Wood, Donna Buck
Sunday Afternoon, July 14, 1985, at 4:00
Power Center for the Performing Arts
Ann Arbor, Michigan
This afternoon Brian Glow will guide you into the realm of the mysterious: ' 'Fantasy Unlimited" -magic, illusions, and dreams, filled with stunning dance and incredible music to enhance his art of illusion. Fully choreographed by Sandra Neels of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, this concert includes all the magical arts from mystifying sleight of hand to baffling largescale illusions. With a wave of his hand, Brian make his assistants float on air, appear, disappear, and change places magically. Some are even cut into several pieces and restored to nearperfect condition. Everything will convince you -it is Magic!
Brian Glow is the master of Canada's largest magic production. His international performances have taken him throughout Canada and the United States, and to Western Europe, Greece, Africa, and the Middle East. His future tours will take him to Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and China. Brian's ten years in magic theatre have brought recognition in magicians' circles as an innovator and creator of new illusions. He also uses his talents to design illusions for businesses, trade shows, rock bands, and television. He has created special theatre effects for such major companies as the Manitoba Theatre Centre, where, as special effects designer and consultant, he helped MTC's produc?tion of Dracula to become its longest run?ning show to date. His appearances on na?tional television have been numerous and varied -from hosting several children's series to a special film commemorating the last solar eclipse of the century, entitled "Magic, Music, and the Eclipse of the Sun." He also serves as a magic consultant and teacher for the National Film Board of Canada. As a university graduate with a
Photo: Dalin Woolley
degree in physiological psychology, Brian's contact with academic circles has led to several lectures in which he has dealt with everything from schizophrenia to percep?tion, illustrating his points with magic.
You have one more chance to enjoy Brian Glow before he leaves Ann Arbor, when he performs his ' 'Classical Magic'' tomorrow night with the Northwood Orchestra and Maureen Forrester. The concert begins at 8:00, here in the Power Center.