UMS Concert Program, Wednesday Oct. 27 To Nov. 06: University Musical Society: Fall 2010 - Wednesday Oct. 27 To Nov. 06 --

Season: Fall 2010
Hill Auditorium

Fall 2010 Season
132nd Annual Season
General Information
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Children of all ages are welcome at UMS Family and Youth Performances. Children under the age of 3 will not be admitted to regular, full length UMS performances. All children must be able to sit quietly in their own seats without disturbing other patrons. Children unable to do so, along with the adult accompanying them, will be asked by an usher to leave the audito?rium. Please use discretion in choosing to bring a child.
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In the interests of saving both dollars and the environment, please either retain this program book and return with it when you attend other UMS performances included in this edition or return it to your usher when leaving the venue.
Event Program Book
Wednesday, October 27 through Saturday, November 6, 2010
Venice Baroque Orchestra Robert McDuffie, violin
Wednesday, October 27, 8:00 pm Hill Auditorium
Django Reinhardt's 1OOth Birthday Celebration 11
The Hot Club of San Francisco The Hot Club of Detroit
Friday, October 29, 8:00 pm Michigan Theater
The Tallis Scholars 13
Thursday, November 4, 8:00 pm St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church
Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan 17
Friday, November 5, 8:00 pm Hill Auditorium
Assi El Helani 19
Doris Farhat and Leilena
Saturday, November 6, 8:00 pm Hill Auditorium
ums University Musical Society
Fall 2010
I September 9I
Oct 3 j Susurrus
25
30
Rosanne Cash
La Capella Reial de Catalunya with
Hesperion XXI and
Tembembe Ensamble Continuo
7-9 9
10
14
21
23-24
27
29
31
October
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Family Performance
Mariinsky Orchestra with
Denis Matsuev, piano
Takacs Quartet: Schubert Concert 1
Jerusalem Quartet
Sankai Juku: Hibiki: Resonance from
Far Away
Venice Baroque Orchestra with
Robert McDuffie, violin
Django Reinhardt's 1OOth Birthday
Celebration: The Hot Club of San
Francisco and The Hot Club of Detroit
NT Live: A Disappearing Number
November
2 ; ONCE. MORE.: ONCE THEN 4 ONCE. MORE.: ONCE NOW
i The Tallis Scholars
i Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan
Assi El Helani
10 i Murray Perahia, piano 18-20 Stew & The Negro Problem
December
3 i Carolina Chocolate Drops 4-5 : Handel's Messiah
Winter 2011
@@@@ January
2 ! NT Live: Hamlet
14-15 Laurie Anderson's Delusion
16 Renee Fleming, soprano
21-22 Grupo Corpo
23 Joanne Shenandoah
27 Sequentia

30 ; Baby Loves Salsa Family Performance 30 I NT Live: FELA!
February
1 i The Cleveland Orchestra with
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis 4 New Century Chamber Orchestra with Nadja Salemo-Sonnenberg, violin
10 Blues at the Crossroads: The Robert Johnson Centennial Concert
: Rafat Blechacz, piano
; Vijay Iyer Trio and Rudresh Mahanthappa's I Apex
13 Concertante with Rafat Blechacz, piano 1-19 Merce Cunningham Dance Company:
i The Legacy Tour
20 i Takacs Quartet: Schubert Concert 2 20 NT Live: King Lear
23 Kodo
March
9 ; Scharoun Ensemble Berlin 1-13 Druid and Atlantic Theater Company: Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan
19 i Detroit Symphony Orchestra with the ! UMS Choral Union: ; Mahler's Symphony No. 8
24 I Bach Collegium Japan:
Bach's Mass in b minor
Propeller: Shakespeare's Richard III and The Comedy of Errors
April
2 I St. Petersburg Philharmonic with
Nikolai Lugansky, piano
i NT Live: Frankenstein
i Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Pineiro i de Cuba
I Takacs Quartet: Schubert Concert 3
i Tetzlaff Quartet
16 I Tony Allen's Afrobeat Tour 23 Liebeslieder Waltzes (Songs and Waltzes of Love)
14
May
Breakin' Curfew
July
17 I NT Live: The Cherry Orchard
UMS Educational and Community Events ns,wo
All UMS educational activities are free, open to the public, and take place in Ann Arbor unless otherwise noted. For complete details and updates, please visit www.ums.org or contact the UMS Education Department at 734.615.4077 or umsed@umich.edu.
Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan
Neutral Zone Performance Exchange
Wednesday, November 3, 7:00 pm Neutral Zone, 310 E. Washington Street
Two award-winning youth Mariachi vocalists and a member of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan will work with and play for a group of teens from the Neutral Zone. In addition to sharing their musical traditions with local youth and exposing them to new cultural intersections, select area teens will perform their own works for those in attendance.
visit www.ums.org for more information {
urns
presents
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Robert McDuffie, Violin and Leader
Program
Wednesday Evening, October 27, 2010 at 8:00 Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor
Antonio Vivaldi
Le quattro stagioni "The Four Seasons": Four Violin Concertos, Op. 8, Nos. 1-4
Concerto in E Major, RV 269, La primavera (Spring) Allegro Largo Allegro
Concerto in g minor, RV 315, L'estate (Summer) Allegro non molto--Allegro Adagio alternating with Presto Presto
Concerto in F Major, RV 293, L'autunno (Autumn) Allegro--piano e larghetto--Allegro assai Adagio molto Allegro
Concerto in f minor, RV 297, L'inverno (Winter) Allegro non molto Largo Allegro--Lento
NTERMISSION
Philip Glass
Violin Concerto No. 2 "The American Four Seasons"
Prologue Movement I Song No. 1 Movement II Song No. 2 Movement III Song No. 3 Movement IV
13th Performance of the 132nd Annual Season
132nd Annual Choral Union Series
The photographing or sound and video recording of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
This evening's performance is hosted by Jane and Edward Schulak and Sesi Lincoln Mercury Volvo Mazda.
Media partnership is provided by WGTE 91.3 FM.
Special thanks to Andrew Jennings, Professor of Violin and Chamber Music, U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, for speaking at tonight's Prelude Dinner.
Special thanks to Tom Thompson of Tom Thompson Flowers, Ann Arbor, for his generous contribution of lobby floral art for this evening's performance.
The Venice Baroque Orchestra appears by arrangement with Columbia Artists Management, LLC, New York, NY.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Now that you're in your seat...
A
fter Astor Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, Philip Glass puts another Western-Hemisphere spin on the beloved Vivaldi classic. (By the way, do you know what Piazzolla and Glass have in common At different times, they both studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.) One thing masterpieces often do is inspire new masterpieces, while they also remain present in their original form for subsequent generations of listeners to enjoy. Here, then, is a symbolic handshake across continents and centuries, featuring an Italian orchestra and an American soloist, and string instruments both Baroque and modern--a true meeting of hands and minds!
Le quattro stagioni "The Four Seasons"
(1723)
Antonio Vivaldi
Born March 4, 1678 in Venice, Italy Died July 28, 1741 in Vienna
Snapshot of History... In 1723:
J.S. Bach is appointed Thomaskantor in Leipzig
Architect Andrea Tirali installs the pavement of St. Mark's Square in Venice
Antonio Stradivari makes one of his celebrated violins, known as the "Jules Falk"
The Upper Belvedere Palace is completed in Vienna
The 17-year-old Ben Franklin runs away from Boston to Philadelphia, and the same year sails for London
Antonio Vivaldi was without a doubt the most original and influential Italian composer of his generation. His contributions to musical style, violin technique, and the practice of orchestration were substantial. Vivaldi could also be credited as being one of the pioneers in the creation of programmatic orchestral music, his Op. 8 "Four Seasons" concerti being the most salient example. His most important achievement, however, was laying the foundations for the mature Baroque concerto. Vivaldi's influence on the form was so strong that even many of the older, established composers of the time felt obliged to modify their style in mid-career to conform with Vivaldi's developments. Practically all of the composer's concerti are in three movements-quick, slow, quick; this "Vivaldian mode" was adopted in most of Italy and in France by 1725 and remains to this date as the standard form throughout Western culture.
Vivaldi's cimento dell'armonia e del invenzione, Op. 8 ("The Contest Between Harmony and Invention") was first published in Amsterdam in 1725; this Opus is a collection of 12 concerti, the first four of which are known as "The Four Seasons." These "seasonal" concert are "programmatic" as each one describes the events in an anonymous sonnet, these poems suspected of having been written by the composer himself. Vivaldi, while not the first to employ such a device, was unique in his care to make the music agree with the subject matter of the poetry, within the stylistic parameters of the day. The murmuring stream, the approaching storm indicated by lightning and thunder, the oppressive atmosphere of the summer heat, the melody depicting the hunter's call, or the snow propelled by freezing winds--all this is made a living experience by Vivaldi's music.
"The Four Seasons" represents the peak of Vivaldi's work. Most likely introduced by the composer (who was a virtuoso violinist himself), these concerti became immediately successful throughout Europe. With the combination of descriptive detail, the outpouring of melody and the brilliant, virtuosic writing for the violin, all within an elegant formal framework, it is no wonder that the concerti that make up "The Four Seasons" are among the best-loved works of all time.
Program note courtesy of Columbia Artists Management Inc., O 7996
Violin Concerto No. 2 "The American
Four Seasons" (2009) Philip Glass Born January 31, 1937 in Baltimore, MD
Snapshot of History... In 2009:
Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the US
James Cameron's Avatar becomes the highestgrossing film in history
Herta Muller, a German writer from Romania, receives the Nobel Prize for Literature
Philip Glass's opera Kepler premieres in Linz, Austria
Composer-conductor-pianist Lukas Foss dies at the age of 86
The Violin Concerto No. 2 was composed for Robert (Bobby) McDuffie in the summer and autumn of 2009. The work was preceded by several years of occasional exchanges between Bobby and I. He was interested in music that would serve as a companion piece to the Vivaldi "Four Seasons" concert. I agreed to the idea of a four-movement work but at the outset was not sure how that correspondence would work in practice--between the Vivaldi concerti and my own music. However, Bobby encouraged me to start with my composition and we would see in due time how it would relate to the very well-known original.
When the music was completed I sent it onto Bobby, who seemed to have quickly seen how the movements of my Violin Concerto No. 2 related to "The Four Seasons." Of course, Bobby's interpretation, though similar to my own, proved to be somewhat different. This struck me as an opportunity, then, for the listener to make his her own interpretation. Therefore, there are no instructions for the audience, no clues as to where Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall might appear in the new concerto--an interesting, though not worrisome, problem for the listener. After all, if Bobby and I are not in complete agreement, an independent interpretation can be tolerated and even welcomed. (The mathematical possibilities, or permutations, of the puzzle are in the order of 2'.)
Apart from that, I would only add that, instead of the usual cadenza, I provided a number of solo pieces for Bobby--thinking that they could
be played together as separate concert music when abstracted from the whole work. They appear in the concerto as a "prelude" to the first movement and three "songs" that precede each of the following three movements.
Program note by Philip Glass.
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ounded in 1997 by Baroque scholar and harpsichordist Andrea Marcon, the Venice Baroque Orchestra (VBO) is recognized as one of the premier ensembles devoted to period instrument performance. The Orchestra has received wide critical acclaim for its concert and opera performances throughout North America, Europe, South America, and Japan. Since their US debut in 2001 at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the VBO has performed in more cities in the US than any other period instrument orchestra.
Committed to the rediscovery of first-rate 17th-and 18th-century masterpieces, the VBO has given the modern-day premieres of Francesco Cavalli's L'Orione, Vivaldi's Atenaide and Andromeda liberata, and Benedetto Marcello's La Morte D'Adone and trionfo della poesia e della musica. With Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Orchestra staged Handel's Siroe in 2000, followed by equally successful stagings of Cimarosa's L'Olimpiade in 2001 and Galuppi's L'Olimpiade in 2006. The VBO reprised Siroe at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York in its first full staging in the US. In Spain in 2009, the VBO gave the modern-day premiere of Boccherini's La Clementina.
In addition to this 27-city tour with violinist Robert McDuffie, highlights of the current season include a tour to Japan and Korea with violinist Giuliano Carmignola; concerts with soprano Patricia Petibon in Austria, France, Germany, and Turkey; a tour in Germany with cellist Gautier Capucpn, and concerts with mezzo-soprano Romina Basso in Italy and Poland. The VBO will perform Pergolesi's Stabat Mater in Paris and the Monteverdi Vespers in Leipzig. In recent seasons, the Orchestra has also performed with Cecilia Bartoli, Anna Netrebko, Sara Mingardo, and Andreas Scholl. A highlight of Summer 2011 will be a festival tour in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland with mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena singing arias of Vivaldi and Handel.
The VBO has an extensive discography with Sony and Deutsche Grammophon. Their world-premiere recording of Andromeda liberata for DGG was followed by two recordings of violin concertos
with Giuliano Carmignola; an album of Vivaldi sinfonias and concertos for strings; Vivaldi motets and arias with soprano Simone Kermes; two discs with Ms. Kozena--Handel arias and Vivaldi arias; and Vivaldi concertos for two violins with Viktoria Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola. Their newest album of Italian arias with Ms. Petibon has just been released. The VBO's earlier discography on Sony includes Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons," two albums of previously unrecorded Vivaldi concertos, Locatelli violin concertos, and a collection of Bach arias featuring Angelika Kirchschlager. The VBO has been honored for its recordings with the Diaspason d'Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Echo Award, and the Edison Award.
The VBO appears on this US tour courtesy of Alliance Artist Management.
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rammy-nominated artist Robert McDuff ie has appeared as soloist with most of the major orchestras of the world. In 2009, he gave the world premiere performance of Philip Glass's Violin Concerto No. 2, "The American Four Seasons"--a work written for Mr. McDuffie--with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
During the 1011 season, Mr. McDuffie will embark on a 30-city US tour with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, pairing Glass's "The American Four Seasons" with the Vivaldi "Four Seasons." He will also perform "The American Four Seasons" as soloist with the Dusseldorf Symphony, Prague Philharmonia at the Prague Spring Festival, National Symphony of Mexico, Poznan Philharmonic of Poland, and the Nashville, Louisiana, and San Antonio Symphonies. Additional engagements this season include performances of the Barber Violin Concerto with the Utah and Madison symphonies as well as performances with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra at the Zurich Tonhale and a US tour with the McDuffie-Dutton-Kirshbaum Trio.
Mr. McDuffie recorded "The American Four Seasons" with the London Philharmonic and Marin Alsop on the Orange Mountain Music label. His acclaimed Telarc and EMI recordings include the violin concertos of Mendelssohn, Bruch, Adams, Glass, Barber, Rozsa, Bernstein, William Schuman, and Viennese violin favorites. He has been profiled on NBC's Today, CBS Sunday Morning, PBS's Charlie Rose, A&E's Breakfast with the Arts, and in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Mr. McDuffie is the founder of the Rome Chamber Music Festival. He was recently awarded
the prestigious Premio Simpatia by the Mayor of Rome in recognition of his contribution to the city's cultural life. Mr. McDuffie holds the Genelle and Mansfield Jennings Distinguished University Professor Chair at Mercer University in his hometown of Macon, Georgia, and this season, the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University will celebrate its fourth academic year with concerts conducted by Maestro Robert Spano. Mr. McDuffie lives in New York with his wife and two children. He plays a 1735 Guarneri del Gesu violin, known as the "Ladenburg."
Venice Baroque Orchestra
First Violin
Luca Mares Michele Lot Stefano Zanchetta Giuseppe Cabrio Nicola Mansutti
Second Violin
Giorgio Baldan Gianpiero Zanocco Daniele Ruzza David Mazzacan
Viola
Alessandra Di Vincenzo Meri Skejic Paolo Pasoli
Cello
Daniele Bovo Giuseppe Barutti Ludovico Takeshi Minasi
Double Bass
Alessandro Sbrogib
Lute
Ivano Zanenghi
Harpsichord Synthesizer
Luca De Marchi
UMS Archives
T
his evening's performance marks the Venice Baroque Orchestra's second appearance under UMS auspices. The Orchestra made its UMS debut in October 2002 at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in a performance of works by Antonio Vivaldi.
Robert McDuffie makes his third UMS appearance this evening. Mr. McDuffie made his UMS debut in November 1988 at Rackham Auditorium in a performance celebrating Olivier Messiaen's 80th birthday. He last appeared in November 2008 at Hill Auditorium as soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leon Botstein.
urns
presents
The Hot Club of San Francisco
Paul Mehling, Leader, Guitar Clint Baker, Bass Isabelle Fontaine, Guitar
Evan Price, Violin Jeff Magidson, Guitar
The Hot Club of Detroit
Evan Perri, Guitar Paul Brady, Guitar Carl Cafagna, Saxophones
Julien Labro, Accordion Andrew Kratzat, Bass
Program
Friday Evening, October 29, 2010 at 8:00 Michigan Theater Ann Arbor
Silent Surrealism: A Centennial Celebration of Django Reinhardt
Tonight's program will be announced from the stage by the artists and will be performed with one intermission. The Hot Club of San Francisco will perform original scores to the following silent films:
It's a Bird
Directed by Harold Muller
The Land Beyond the Sunset
Directed by Harold M. Shaw
Photo CytoeHe Codh
14th Performance of the 132nd Annual Season
17th Annual Jazz Series
The photographing or sound and video recording of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Media partnership is provided by WEMU 89.1 FM, Metro Times, and Ann Arbor's 107one.
Hot Club of San Francisco appears by arrangement with Baylin Artists Management.
Hot Club of Detroit appears by arrangement with Jim Wadsworth Productions.
Large print programs are available upon request.
It's a Bird (1930)
Harold L. Muller, Director
Lowell Thomas, Writer
(Produced by Charley Bowers, 14 minutes)
Bowers is a recently rediscovered contemporary of Charlie Chaplin who is virtually unknown in the US. He directed, wrote, and starred in his own original films, yet he was and still is extremely obscure. Though an American, all but one of his films were found in Europe. Many turned up in the hands of some gypsies in Europe and Eastern Europe (who would go from town to town showing films in years passed). In Europe he is still somewhat of a favorite (perhaps owing to his mother being born in France) and is known by the nickname "Bricolo" (Mr. Do-it-yourself). Currently, 11 of his 20 short comedies are lost; none of the original negatives are known to exist.
The Land Beyond the Sunset (1912)
Harold M. Shaw, Director Dorothy G. Shore, Writer (The Edison Company, 14 minutes)
Directed by Harold Shaw, this disarmingly brief film is best described by the American Film Archives (who are responsible for restoring and therefore preserving this piece): "An unhurried story through diverse genres: from a social problem drama through a pastoral fantasy and into an unclassifiable poetic finale."
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he Hot Club of San Francisco is an ensem?ble of accomplished and versatile musicians celebrating the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli's pioneering Hot Club de France. The ensemble borrows the all-string instrumentation of violin, bass, and guitars from the original Hot Club, but breathes new life into the music with innovative arrangements of classic tunes and original compositions from the group's superb lead guitarist Paul Mehling. Hearing the ensemble live, or on any of their 11 albums, carries the listener back to the 1930s and to the small, smoky jazz clubs of Paris or the refined lounges of the famous Hotel Ritz. Often called gypsy jazz, the music of The Hot Club of San Francisco has entranced audiences around the globe for over
18 years. Critics have hailed the group's playing as "intricate, scorching, and often brilliant..." (Acoustic Guitar). From American festivals such as Monterey and Chautauqua to festivals in Mexico, Iceland, and France, plus concert halls across North America, the Hot Club of San Francisco keeps this historic music fresh and alive.
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ore than seven decades after the inno?vations of the Quintette du Hot Club de France, featuring guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt, combos called Hot Clubs carry on the gypsy jazz sound around the globe--in Tokyo, San Francisco, Seattle, Sweden, Norway, Austria, and many other locales. None, however, offers a fresh?er take on the tradition than does the Hot Club of Detroit, led by fast-fingered Reinhardt disciple Evan Perri.
Unlike the instrumentation of the original Paris-based quintet, comprising Reinhardt, violinist Stephane Grappelli, two rhythm guitarists, and a bassist, the current Hot Club of Detroit is made of guitarist Perri, accordionist Julien Labro, soprano and tenor saxophonist Carl Cafagna, rhythm guitarist Paul Brady, and bassist Andrew Kratzat. The fibrous accordion tones of Mr. Labro, a native of Marseilles, France, links the Detroit quintet to the French musette style from which gypsy jazz partially sprung, while Mr. Cafagna's robust saxophone work introduces bop and post-bop elements to gypsy jazz.
Tonight's concert marks the UMS debuts of the Hot Club of San Francisco and the Hot Club of Detroit.
Hot Club of San Francisco
ums University Musical Society
presents
The Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips, Director
Program
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Arvo Part Thomas Tallis Gregorio Allegri
Hieronymous Praetorius
William Byrd
Byrd
Part
Part
Thursday Evening, November 4, 2010 at 8:00 St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church Ann Arbor
Magnificat for Double Choir
Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen
Miserere nostri
Miserere
INTERMISSION
Magnificat II Miserere Mei Miserere Mihi, Domine Nunc Dimittis Magnificat
15th Performance of the 132nd Annual Season
Divine Voices
The photographing or sound and video recording of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Media partnership is provided by WRCJ 90.9 FM.
The Tallis Scholars appear by arrangement with Hazard Chase Ltd., Cambridge, UK.
Special thanks to Jerry Blackstone, Director of Choral Activities and Professor and Chair of Conducting, U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, for his participation in events surrounding tonight's concert.
Large print programs are available upon request.
My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
Now that you're in your seat...
T
he Magnificat for Double Choir, Mary's song of exaltation following the annunciation, sits together with the Nunc Dimittis at the core of the Christian liturgy, whether in the Anglican rite of Evensong or the Catholic Offices of Evening Prayer and Compline. Together they frame the scope of the Christian experience--from the joyous anticipation of Christ's birth to the calm acceptance of death and resurrection. Their certainty however leaves little room for the human errors and doubts that also shape the Christian journey, errors for which Ash Wednesday's Psalm 51--the Miserere--is perhaps the most impassioned plea for forgiveness.
Taking these three texts as touchstones, this evening's program explores the musical responses of composers divided by age and nationality, but united by a common spiritual inspiration.
The program opens with a classic 16th-century Magnificat from the height of Rome's polyphonic flourishing. Written characteristically for double choir, the punchy, dynamic exchanges of Palestrina's two SATB groups follow convention; each is heard first in antiphonal isolation before coming together climactically in the full eight parts. Despite its straightforwardly consonant harmony, the piece gains descriptive impact and drama through the composer's textural manipulation of his forces. The second choir entry, "omnes generationes," for example--the piece's first eight-part section-crowds in unexpectedly upon choir one, joyously enacting the abundant image of "all generations" described in the text.
In direct contrast to Palestrina's vibrant polyphonic complexity, the music of contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Part is stark indeed--an exercise in aural simplicity. Derived, mongrel-like, from his studies of Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, and Russian Orthodox music, Part's signature technique--a reverberant choral homophony he terms "tintinnabuli"--places his voices in a constantly shifting yet strangely static harmonic relationship. With any conventional sense of harmonic trajectory denied, it is by varying vocal textures (including absolute silence) that he achieves his meditative musical drama.
Composed in 1988, Part's Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen brings together the seven "0 Antiphons" that traditionally preface the Magnificat on the last days of Advent into a single musical set. Despite his unusual use of vernacular German text, Part's vocal writing remains deliberately distant and
austere, using the smallest of textural gestures to characterize the very different moods of each piece. We open with the meditative mixed-voice chanting of "0 Weisheit," moving through the darker, more pained male-voice "0 Adonai" with its extremes of range, to "O SproB aus Isais Wurzel," its female voices hovering obsessively around a semitone clash. In many ways "0 Schlussel Davids" is the climax of the cycle--the relentless eight-part homophony both triumphant and affirmative--prefiguring the ecstatic close, the set finally reaches in "0 Immanuel" after the restless uncertainty of "0 Konig Aller Volker."
The Miserere formed as much a part of the Elizabethan musical tradition in England as the liturgy. It became common practice for composers to use its texts as the basis for canonic settings, settings specifically designed to showcase their technical skills and polyphonic mastery. Both Tallis's Miserere Nostri and Byrd's Miserere Mihi fall into this category, and appeared alongside one another in the Cantiones Sacrae of 1575--the first volume of music ever to be published in England. This collection of Latin motets brought together the work of the younger Byrd with that of Tallis, a juxtaposition that provoked some of their most inventive writing.
Though short and deceptively lyrical, Tallis's seven-part Miserere Nostri is a double canon of incredibly lightly-worn complexity. The single tenor part provides a freely composed cantus firmus around which the other voices spin their polyphony. Most obvious to the ear is the close canon at the unison between the two soprano
parts, but the most interesting writing is found in the lower four parts, who follow the Alto I theme at increasingly elaborate canonic removes from the original.
Of the many settings of Psalm 51 it is Allegri's that casts the longest shadow. Said to date from 1638, the Miserere was the papal choir's greatest musical triumph, its status and mystique heightened out of all proportion by a papal ban preventing any copy from leaving the Sistine Chapel. Composed in traditional fauxbourdon style, it alternates its Holy Week psalm text between a full SSATB choir, a solo SSAB group, and a third ensemble of unison male voices. While all three vocal groups sing what is essentially a harmonized psalm chant, the music of the solo quartet is embellished with melodic ornaments, including the famous top "C" in the treble part--a 19th-century addition only adopted as standard as late as the 1930s.
Bearing the influence of the Italian polyphony with which we opened, Praetorius's Magnificat II is written in the traditional alternatim style-alternating polyphonic verses with chanted verses based on the hypodorian Tone II. Its double-choir, eight-part texture is typical of the composer, yet within familiar constraints Praetorius achieves moments of real expressive flexibility and joy. The fragmented "dispersit" passage for example, playfully evokes the "scattering" of the proud, and the floridly imitative "sicut locutus est" for upper voices provides an ecstatic lyric release before the more stolidly homophonic "in semini eius" which follows. The traditional collapse into three-time is delayed until the very final bars, heightening its joyous release of tension into a dance-like celebration.
Byrd's Miserere Mei was published in the second Cantiones volume of 1591. Its somber mood and contained simplicity typify a collection that bears the marks of the Catholic composer's increasing struggles in Protestant England. After a declamatory opening, the motet gives way to increasingly impassioned polyphonic pleas for mercy, its anguish heightened by the strategic use of chromaticism.
Byrd's Miserere Mihi, like the Miserere Nostri by Tallis, is also a double-canon. While the polyphonic manipulations are less extreme than those of Tallis, the work's skill lies in its inventive treatment of the very simple (and thus challenging to rework) Miserere Mihi cantus firmus chant, heard most
clearly in its long-note version in the bass.
Although not originally composed as a set, Part's canticles work naturally together--a pair of textural variations on a spiritual theme. His Magnificat--surely the most daringly stark of all Part's choral works--places a solo soprano voice chanting on a single pitch against a series of homophonic choral ensembles: a contemporary take on the Renaissance fauxbourdon technique of harmonized chant. The Nunc Dimittis by contrast sees Part's voices deployed in rather more flexible units, sustaining by turns a rocking dialogue between upper voices over chanted men's-voice pedal notes, and latterly a denser chorale-like homophony, collapsing ultimately back into the familiar waves of echoing sound for the "Gloria."
Program note by Alexandra Coghlan.
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he Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and concert performances, they have established themselves as the leading expo?nents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create, through good tuning and blend, the pu?rity and clarity of sound which he feels best serve the Renaissance repertoire, allowing every detail of the musical lines to be heard. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which The Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned.
The Tallis Scholars perform in both sacred and secular venues, giving around 70 concerts each year. The group continues to commission living composers and gave the world premieres of two works written for 40 voices, have thee by the hand, O Man by Robin Walker and When the Wet Wind Sings by Errollyn Wallen. In January 2006, they premiered Sir John Tavener's Tribute to Cavafy (the full realization of In the Month of Athyr, the work he wrote for their 2 5th anniversary), narrated by Vanessa Redgrave.
Much of The Tallis Scholars' reputation for their pioneering work has come from their association with Gimell Records, set up by Peter Phillips and Steve Smith in 1980 solely to record them. Gimell Records celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2010 with the release of three specially-priced box sets--one set for each decade of recordings. Recent and future engagements include hugely successful tours of Australia, the US, and Japan and
multiple performances across Europe, highlights of which include performances at the BBC Proms, the Edinburgh Festival, and the Moscow Pushkin Museum.
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eter Phillips has made an impressive if unusual reputation for himself in dedicating his life's work to the research and performance of Renaissance polyphony. Having won a scholarship to Oxford in 1972, Mr. Phillips studied Renaissance music with David Wulstan and Denis Arnold. He founded The Tallis Scholars in 1973, with whom he has now appeared in over 1600 concerts and recorded over 50 discs, encouraging interest in polyphony all over the world.
Apart from The Tallis Scholars, Mr. Phillips continues to work with other specialist ensembles including the BBC Singers, Collegium Vocale of Ghent, the VoxVocal Ensemble of New York, and Musix of Budapest. He has made numerous television and radio appearances on BBC Radio 4 and the World Service as well as on German, French, Canadian, and North American radio.
As well as leading numerous master classes and choral workshops every year, Mr. Phillips is Artistic Director of The Tallis Scholars Summer Schools--annual choral courses based in Oakham (UK), Seattle (US), and Sydney (Australia) dedicated to exploring the heritage of Renaissance choral music, and developing an appropriate performance style. Mr. Phillips has recently been appointed Reed Rubin Director of Music at Merton College, Oxford, overseeing the setting up of a new Choral Foundation.
In 2005, Mr. Phillips was made a Chevalier de I'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, a decoration intended to honor individuals who have contributed to the understanding of French culture in the world.
UMS Archives
T
onight's performance marks The Tallis Scholars' and Peter Phillips's seventh UMS appearances. The ensemble and Mr. Phillips made their UMS debut in April 1996 at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church. They last appeared in December 2007 at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.
The Taliis Scholars
Director
Peter Phillips
Soprano
Janet Coxwell Amy Haworth Amy Wood Cecilia Osmond
Alto
Patrick Craig Caroline Trevor
Tenor
Mark Dobell Christopher Watson
Bass
Donald Greig Rob Macdonald
Tallis Scholars
Photo Enc Richmond
urns
presents
Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan
Jose "Pepe" Martinez, Sr, Violin, Vocals
Federico Torres, Trumpet
Victor "Pato" Cardenas, Vihuela
Daniel "Dany" Martinez, Violin, Vocals
Enrique de Santiago, Guitarron
Gustavo Alvarado, Trumpet
Jose "Pepe" Martinez Perez, Jr., Violin, Vocals
Julio Martinez, Harpist
Steeven Sandoval, Violin, Vocals
Alberto "Beto" Alfaro, Violin, Vocals
Juan "Arturo" Pedro Vargas, Guitar, Vocals
Andres "Andy" Gonazlez, Violin, Vocals
Fernando Velazquez, Trumpet
'rogram
Friday Evening, November 5, 2010 at 8:00 Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor
Tonight's program will be announced by the artists from the stage and will be performed with no intermission.
16th Performance of the 132nd Annual Season
UMS Global:
Americas and Americans
The photographing or sound and video recording of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Funded in part by the Performing Arts Fund, a program of Arts Midwest funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, General Mills Foundation, and Land O'Lakes Foundation.
The residency activities and youth performance of Mariachi Vargas de TecalitlSn are sponsored by Rachel Bendit and Mark Bernstein.
Media partnership is provided by WEMU 89.1 FM and Metro Times.
Special thanks to Ismael Duran and the Center of Music and Performing Arts Southwest, U-M Gifts of Art, Target, and the Neutral Zone for their support of and participation in events surrounding tonight's concert.
Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan appears by arrangement with Mufioz Public Relations, LLC.
Large print programs are available upon request.
M
ariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan represents the history of the mariachi genre with their traditional, consistent, and exceptional performance style that dates back to 1898. They have performed for five generations and have recorded over 100 CDs with numerous original songs and arrangements that set the standard for the mariachi music industry. Much of this is due to the phenomenal talents of Maestro Ruben Fuentes, the group's leader since the 1950s, and Jose "Pepe" Martinez, Sr, musical director for Mariachi Vargas. Together Mr. Fuentes and Mr. Martinez have written numerous songs and arrangements that have resulted in the sound mariachi music is known for today.
Mariachi Vargas combines traditional huapangos, boleros, rancheras, and sones with operatic and symphonic influences. The 13 members of the group make up the finest mariachi musicians and vocalists in all of Latin America. The combination of six violinists, three trumpets, one vihuela, one guitar, one guitarron, and one harp make up a sound that is unique, versatile, classical, and traditional. Their elegant
stage presence, formal mariachi attire, majestic voices, and musicianship give live audiences an experience beyond the imagination.
The internationally acclaimed Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan is based out of Mexico City and has performed throughout the US and Latin America and most recently in Spain and the Czech Republic. Their music continues to shape cultures, influence people, attract multiple generations, and entertain audiences throughout the world. For more information, please visit www.mariachimusic.com.
Tonight's concert marks the UMS debut of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan.
ums University Musical Society
presents
Assi El Helani
Vocals
Dureid Abou AN, Keyboard
Maher AN, Flute
Habib Al Khansa, Keyboard
Abdul Karim Chikh Alard, Kanoun
Ziad Chalhoub, Drums
Mohamad El Helani, Vocals
Riad Hamouche, Chorus
Hussein Kiki, Guitar
Bahaa Mansour, Chorus
lhab Mazbouh, Percussion
Hassan Rahal, Keyboard
AN Sabra, Percussion
Ziad Said, Guitar
AN Saif Eddine, Chorus
Toufic Saleh El Rifai, Percussion
Mohamad Adib Shikh Alard, Violin
with
Doris Farhat vocals Leilena
Program
Saturday Evening, November 6, 2010 at 8:00 Hill Auditorium Ann Arbor
Tonight's program will be announced by the artists from the stage. There will be one intermission following Doris Farhat and Leilena's opening set.
17th Performance of the 132nd Annual Season
The photographing or sound and video recording of this performance or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Tonight's performance is co-sponsored by Global Education Excellence. Media partnership is provided by ArabDetroit.com.
Special thanks to Warren David and the UMS Arab Advisory Committee for their support of and participation in events surrounding tonight's performance.
Special thanks to the U-M Office of the Provost and its recognition of Mr. El Helani through its King-Chavez-Parks Visiting Professorship.
Special thanks to Sam Zahr and Luxury Live Productions, Dearborn, Michigan, for their help in the coordination and presentation of tonight's concert.
Large print programs are available upon request.
A
ssi El Helani was born in Baalbeck, Lebanon in 1970. He grew up in a large family with 13 brothers and sisters, of
whom he was the third youngest. He began singing Lebanese songs at an early age with his family and friends. At the age of 17, he began his life as a singer when he participated in the Art Studio TV program for young artists, and was the winner in the Lebanese popular song category. Mr. El Helani studied music from 1985-1990 at the Higher Institute of Music in Lebanon concentrating in oud performance and Arab vocal techniques.
Mr. El Helani has starred in many concerts and festivals including the Jarash Festival, the Carthage Festival, and in a number of concerts around the Arab World, Europe, and America. Despite his soaring popularity, he has remained consistently involved in humanitarian issues. He regularly performs at fundraising concerts throughout the Middle East in support of a range of charities in the region, including the Women's Development Association Hayati. In August 2005, Mr. El Helani added his voice to the growing roster of celebrities helping the World Food Programme raise awareness about global hunger and poverty.
Mr. El Helani is married to Colette Boulous, Miss Lebanon 1989, and together they have three children: daughters Marita and Dana, and son Alwalid. He is a devoted father and loves horseback riding and hunting.
Tonight's concert marks Assi El Helani's UMS debut.
Assi El Helani