Harmonia’s 2024-2025 season is here, and this is what’s on tap:
Salvation
BACEWICZ Overture for Orchestra
BARBER Prayers of Kierkegaard
BARTOK Concerto for Orchestra
This program hangs together awfully well, I think: the Bacewicz and the Bartók were written in the same year (1943). Bacewicz was stuck in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, while Bartók had escaped to safety in the U.S. But of course, he was never really comfortable there (here) and was ill basically the whole time. Meanwhile, Barber, a natural-born American citizen, was commissioned by the Boston Symphony in 1943 to write his piece (identical details to Bartók) but it took him 10 years to fulfill the commission. Prayers of Kierkegaard almost never gets performed.
Majesty
HANDEL Zadok the Priest
HANDEL Dixit Dominus
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7
This is an all-banger concert. Handel was Beethoven’s favorite composer and it’s easy to hear why.
Messiah
HANDEL Messiah
I say this every year and I mean what I say: it never gets old. When it all goes well, it’s like riding one of those enormous waves off the coast of Portugal, or so one presumes
Innocence
WEBER Overture to Oberon
MAHLER Selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5
There’s a real train of musical thought and influence here. Mahler was so thoroughly into Weber that he basically recomposed Weber’s opera Die Drei Pintos and I think he was sleeping with Weber’s granddaughter or something? One of you musical history buffs will have to fill me in on that. As we all know, Mahler was the major influence, symphonically speaking on Shostakovich. The Weber and Mahler pieces are both about an age of innocence (i.e. childhood.) The Shostakovich is about professing one’s innocence to parties making accusations of guilt.
Invention
BACH Invention a 3 (arr. Swingle Singers)
LAURIDSEN “Quando son più lontan” from Madrigali
WHITACRE Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine
GARRETT The Lesson
DETT O Holy Lord
BURTON A Prayer
BRISTOW At harbor, waiting for wind [world premiere]
KEYT Nizina [world premiere]
SAMS “Stone” from The Earthmakers
BACH “Confiteor” from Mass in B minor
I may be on the cusp of understanding how to program a choir concert. It’s been a hard road, but I think I’m getting there. Bach bookends can’t be a bad idea. Then there’s three sets: Lauridsen-Whitacre, in which I found pieces by the kings of contemporary choral music that I actually like; Garrett-Dett-Burton, a little tribute to my friend Marques who is very much a Friend of Harmonia and has introduced me to great music; Bristow-Keyt-Sams, three extremely worthy Seattle composers.
Mass in B Minor
BACH Mass in B minor
Do I really need to say anything?
Spring Rites
BELLINI Overture to Norma
R. SCHUMANN Cello Concerto
MENDELSSOHN Die Erste Walpurgisnacht
I have a growing soft spot for Early Romanticism. When’s the last time you heard this — or any — Bellini overture in concert? I chose this overture because of its thematic resonance: Norma is about druids, and so is Die Erste Walpurgisnacht. Speaking of which, that’s got to be the most unjustly neglected piece in Mendelssohn’s output. It’s spooky, silly, campy fun from start to finish. And the Schumann cello concerto? Come on!