March 18, 2012 & April 22, 2012
Toccata from Symphony No. 5 in F minor, Op. 42 No. 1 | Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)
Paul Skevington, organ
Kyrie from Messe Solenelle | Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
Washington Master Chorale, Thomas Colohan, director | Paul Skevington, organ
Quatre motets sur des thèmes grégoriens, Op. 10 | Maurice Duruflé (1902- 1986)
Ubi caritas | Tota pulchra es | Tu es Petrus | Tantum ergo
Washington Master Chorale
Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11 | Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Washington Master Chorale | Mark Vogel, piano
Jesu, dulcis memoria, Op. 78 No. 4 | Pierre Villette (1926-1998)
Washington Master Chorale
Gloria from Missa cum Jubilo | Maurice Duruflé
Washington Master Chorale | Scott Humburg, baritone | Paul Skevington, organ
Prélude from Le tombeau de Couperin | Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Mark Vogel, piano
Two chansons from Clairières dans le Ciel | Lili Boulanger (1893-1918)
Vous m’avez regardé avec toute votre âme
Un poète disait…
Deborah Sternberg, soprano | Mark Vogel, piano
Hymn au soleil | Lili Boulanger
Washington Master Chorale
Martina Wheeler-Lutz, alto (March 18) | Jennifer Randall, alto (April 22) | Mark Vogel, piano
Soir sur la plaine | Lili Boulanger
Washington Master Chorale
Laura Stuart, soprano | Andrew Hill, tenor | Brian Henry, baritone | Mark Vogel, piano
Calme des nuits, Op. 68, No.1 | Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Washington Master Chorale
Beau Soir | Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Scot Humburg, baritone | Mark Vogel, piano
Selections from Trois chansons bretonnes | Henk Badings (1907-1987)
La nuit en mer
Soir d’ete
Washington Master Chorale | Mark Vogel, piano
Yver, vous n’estes qu’un villan | Claude Debussy (No.3 from Trois chansons de Charles d’Orléans L. 9)
Washington Master Chorale
Amy Broadbent, soprano | Erica Haman, alto, | Doug Gaddis , tenor | Brian Henry, bass
About the Music
Tonight’s program is drawn from the French impressionistic music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the sacred church music that followed in its wake. As with their English counterparts, the French composers of this period were colleagues and friends, studying at the same schools with the same teachers, working in the same churches, and even socializing it the same cafes. The influence of the “impressionistic” style they pioneered, with its emphasis on symbolism, color, timbre, and the blurring of keys and lines spread far beyond France and endured well into the 20th century.
The first half of our program focuses on the French church music of the later period. These works are rooted in the ancient tradition of Gregorian chant yet infused with impressionist techniques. The composers represented were the foremost organists and composers of their time. Gabrielle Faure and Maurice Durufle are the most prominent among them, known best for their respective Requiems, both of which are widely known as masterpieces.
We begin with Charles Marie Widor’s jubilant Toccata from his Organ Symphony No. 5 Op. 42 No.1. Widor was friend and colleague of Faure’s and teacher to Vierne, who in turn taught Durufle. Frequently heard at weddings and other festive occasions, it is probably the most famous piece French organ literature from the period.
Louis Vierne is best known for his organ works, his impact as a teacher, and his dramatic life and death. Legally blind from birth, Vierne relied on outsize manuscript paper, large pencils, and later Braille to complete is his work. Having served assistant to Widor at Saint-Sulpice, he ultimately became principal organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral from 1900-1937. He taught many of the French musicians of this day including both Lili and Nadia Boulanger. Of his limited choral output, the Kyrie from his Messe Solennelle is the most riveting. Famously, while the young Maurice Durufle was assisting him during a recital, Vierne suffered of a heart attack and died at the console of the great organ at Notre Dame.
Maurice Durufle’s choral work was brilliant but also limited, perhaps due to his self-critical nature. He was most famous during his lifetime as an organist and he and his wife were a popular organ duo who toured the United States and Europe in the 1960’s and 70s. His exquisite set of motets from 1960 Quatre motets sur des thèmes grégoriens (Four motets on Gregorian themes) form the core of the first half of the concert. We follow that set with Faure’s sublime Cantique de Jean Racine. The short piece is his first notable work, written at the age of nineteen while he was a student at L’Ecole Neidermeyer.
The newest work on our program is Pierre Villette’s lovely Jesu Dulcis Memoria Op.78 no. 2. It is the second in a set of three motets written in 1994 near the end of his life. Villette was a student of Durufle’s who studied at the Paris Conservatory and spend most of his musical life in northeastern and southern France. Durufle’s influence in his writing is unmistakable.
Durufle’s Missa Cum Jubilo is an effective and compelling mass setting notable for its scoring; organ and a chorus of baritones and tenors entirely in unison. Written in 1968 and dedicated to his wife, it features supple chant lines embedded in a rich organ texture. The rousing “Gloria” serves to bring our first half to a dramatic close.
We open the second half with the touching “Prélude” from Maurice Ravel’s piano suite Le tombeau de Couperin — tombeau was generally understood in Ravel’s time as a musical memorial to an individual. In this case, the term served a dual purpose. Ravel was indeed paying homage to the great French Baroque composer François Couperin by composing a suite in his style. More poignantly, Ravel served as an ambulance driver in World War I and each of the movements of the suite are dedicated to a friend he lost in the war. The “Prélude” we hear today is dedicated to his friend Lieutenant Jacques Charlot, who transcribed some of Ravel’s work before his untimely death in 1915.
We open the second half with the little known and profoundly beautiful music of Lili Boulanger. The younger sister to the famed teacher Nadia Boulanger, Lili was the first woman to win the Paris Conservatory’s prestigious “Prix de Rome” in 1913, at the age of 19. Affected by what we now know as Crohn’s disease, Boulanger lived only until she was 24. Nurtured and tutored by her sister Nadia, she produced a significant amount of music before her early death. In her vocal and choral writing she is noted for sensitive text settings, and the strong influence of symbolist poetry.
We begin with two songs from her vocal cycle Clairières dans le ciel, on poems of symbolist Francis Jammes. These are followed by two superb choral settings Hymn au Soleil and Soir sur la plain on poems by Delavgine and Samain respectively. In the second choral work we turn our attention to the subject of evening and the theme at the heart of tonight’s program. It is not surprising that these symbolist poets and impressionist composers where naturally drawn to this time of day. The sunset hour is the time when the line between light and dark is blurred, when the color and light are the most rich, and everyday forms take on an almost mystical quality.
The work that follows was composed by Faure’s teacher and close friend Camille Saint Saens touching Calmes des nuits, and is probably the oldest work on the program. The text speaks directly of the evening as an inspiration for poets.
We continue in this vein with Claude Debussy’s hauntingly beautiful Beau soir for solo voice and piano. As we near the end of the program we move to Dutch composer Henk Badings’ La nuit en mer and Soir d’ete, two stunning settings of Botrel, a popular poet of the day. Badings is the only composer on today’s program not born in France, but it is clear from these works that he thoroughly absorbed the impressionist style during his time studying in the Paris. It is in the second of these gorgeous poems that we are invited “to flee this life at the ravishing hour of a beautiful summer evening.”
We end our program a bit tongue in cheek, with Debussy’s tour-de-force for chorus Yver vous n’estes q’un villain. Debussy himself disliked the term “impressionism” and referred to people who apply it to his music as imbeciles. While Debussy’s music is indeed in a class by itself, he remains the chief exponent of the style, and this brief, delightful work serves to bring our program to a humorous and rousing finish.
NOTES
Politoske, Daniel T.; Martin Werner (1988). Music, Fourth Edition. Prentice Hall. p. 419.
Thompson, Oscar Debussy: Man and Artist, Tudor Publishing Company, 1940. P. 70, 161
Translations from: Deborah Williamson, “A performer’s analysis of Lili Boulanger’s Clairières dans le ciel: song cycle for high voice and piano : a lecture recital together with the role of Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites by F. Poulenc and two recitals of selected works by H. Purcell, F. Schubert, S. Prokofieff, E. Chausson, W.A. Mozart, R. Schumann and G. Fauré.” PhD diss., University of North Texas, 2001. <http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3022/m1/1/high_res_d/dissertation.pdf>
