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The Music of Johannes Brahms
Even 110 years after his death, Brahms’ choral music, with its stirring texts and rich harmonies, remains at the core of this great art. The Chamber Ensemble
will begin the season with a variety of his great works, including selections from his quartets with piano, a cappella part-songs, sacred motets and folk songs arrangements.
We will also perform Brahms’ double choir setting Fest- und Gedenksprüche and his first cycle of Liebeslieder Waltzes. Please be our guest at a post-concert
reception.
 
Gloria in Excelsis Deo
This year’s annual holiday concert will leave you breathless with its majesty and beauty, ushering in this season filled with joy, hope and the promise of
peace. The Chorale and Chamber Ensemble will join forces, accompanied by full orchestra and organ, to present Vaughan Williams double-choir setting of the Gloria,
Shaw/Bennett’s The Many Moods of Christmas, Suite 1, Bach’s Sanctus, BWV238, Mendelssohn’s Thanks Be to God, and pieces by Rutter, Lauridsen,
Rachmaninoff, Wilberg, Sandström, Glick among others. And you, the audience, get to join the choirs, orchestra and organ in singing carols and other seasonal songs.
Come Together Right Now
When the United States was at its lowest following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, in came a rock band from Britain that would change the music
world. The Beatles are indisputably the most influential rock band of the twentieth century, with twenty-seven songs reaching number one on the Billboard chart. Blackbird,
Can’t Buy Me Love, Eleanor Rigby, Strawberry Fields Forever, Michelle, Yesterday, Norwegian Wood, Penny Lane, Goodnight,
The Long and Winding Road and several other pieces will take you on a memorable visit to this musical time. This wonderful concert, in a table setting, will include
desserts, beverages and the opportunity for you to join in singing other favorite Beatle tunes.
Sacred Service (Avodath Hakodesh)
Ernest Bloch, the foremost creator of Jewish music in the twentieth century, was born in Geneva Switzerland in 1880. In 1917 he came to America and in a short
time established his reputation as a composer. He became the teacher of a whole generation of American composers, among them Roger Session, Douglas Moore, Quincy Port, George
Antheil and Randall Thompson. Bloch was the founding director of the Cleveland Institute of Music (1920-20), the Director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
(1925-30), and Professor of Composition at UC Berkeley from 1940 until his retirement in 1952. He died quietly in 1959 at his home in Oregon.
Psalm 13
Zemlinsky’s psalm settings are the only works in his repertoire that bear a pronounced sacred character. These go back to the great tradition of Austrian choral music, to
the great masses and oratorios of Haydn. Psalm 13, composed in 1935 and whose manuscript eventually found its way into the Library of Congress in Washington, remained
unknown until its first performance in 1971. It must be seen against this background as a highly personal document of faith: bowed down with grief, one turns to God and
ultimately finds such deep comfort that s/he will forever “Sing to the Lord.”
Killer B’s
Following on Brahms and The Beatles, the Chamber Ensemble will present an enjoyable selection of works by other composers whose family name begins with “B.”
The central work is Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia providing a brilliant setting for W H. Auden’s poems honoring the patron saint of music. Also included are
Barber’s Reincarnations cycle, Bruckner’s Os justi, and selections by Busto, Bennett, Byrd, Basler, and Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock fame. And, once
again, we invite you to be our guest at a post-concert reception.
Waters Ripple and Flow
Our season finale will once again feature American composers in a variety of works including classical, folk, popular, African American spirituals and gospels,
and show music. Composers will include Stephen Foster, Gershwin, Berlin, Barber, Lauridsen, Whitacre, Staheli, Hawley, Wilberg, and Moses Hogan among others. We will also
present a collection of songs from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria, countries the Chorale will be touring in mid-June. With the best from the 120 singers in both
adult choirs, this will certainly prove to be a soul-stirring event.
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