OPEN SING of HANDEL'S MESSIAH

November 28, 2009 7:30pm

Welcome to Berkshire Bach's fifth annual Open Sing of Handel's Messiah. Please be seated in your proper section: facing front, right to left: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass. If you have brought your own score or purchased one of ours, you have been handed a Score-Pass at the door. You may also borrow one of our scores. On your way out, you will be asked to return to us either your Score-Pass or your borrowed score. You may purchase one of our scores before or after the program. It is our plan to enjoy the profound delight and power of this great work, and to enjoy it in something like its original form, with instruments, with some solos (sung by you) and many of the choruses. We encourage you to sing this vital music with passion and enthusiasm.

PROGRAM

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685-1759) MESSIAH (1741)

ENSEMBLE

Violin I: Cynthia Ogulnik, Lucy Mino, Heidi Burger;

Violin II: Miriam Shapiro, Cavanaugh Wolski, Lily Sexton; Viola: Eric Martin;

Cello: Lucy Bardo, Elizabeth Lombardi, Samya Stumo; Trumpet: Allan Dean; Timpani: Ben Harms;

Piano: Anne Chamberlain

Conductors: Christine Gevert, Ben Harms, Jack Brown

Overture Recitative, Tenor: Comfort ye my people

Air, Tenor: Every valley shall be exalted Chorus: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed

Chorus: And He shall purify the sons of Levi Recitative, Alto: Behold, a virgin shall conceive

Air, Alto & Chorus: O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion Chorus: For unto us a child is born

Pifa Recitative, Soprano: There were shepherds abiding Chorus: Glory to God in the highest in the field

Recitative, Alto: Then shall the eyes of the blind Air, Alto: He shall feed His flock

Air, Soprano: Come unto Him Chorus: His yoke is easy

Chorus: Lift up your heads Chorus: Their sound is gone out

Chorus: Since by man came death Chorus: Hallelujah!

Chorus: Amen (second half of 53)

**Many thanks to Lucy Bardo, to our friends here at the First Congregational Church,

to our guest instrumentalists, to our Executive Director, Paula Hatch,

and to the Berkshire Bach Society Board of Directors***

DONATIONS TO THIS FREE EVENT ARE FULLY TAX DEDUCTIBLE AND GREATLY APPRECIATED.

MEMBERSHIP IN THE BERKSHIRE BACH SOCIETY

We invite you to become a member and supporter of the Berkshire Bach Society. For information, please ask one of our folks at the door, or contact us at www.berkshirebach.org.

BACH AT NEW YEAR’S

We would also like to invite you to spend New Year’s with our renowned Berkshire Bach Ensemble, directed by Kenneth Cooper, which this year feature Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti complete.

New Year’s Eve: 6 PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Gt Barrington (413 528-0100)

New Year’s Day: 3 PM at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield (413 997-4444)

January 2: 4 PM at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Troy, NY

(Tickets are available exclusively through the theater box offices.)

“Difficult” music, executed by the most skillful musicians for the enjoyment of connoisseurs, is the putative definition of great musical art. Perhaps Bach’s great contrapuntal choral works can be so described. However, the obverse seems to conflate the “popular,” with the “dispensable,” connoting mere light fare. In the canon of choral music, masterpieces of great genius, well suited for amateur performance, but esteemed by almost all, might be reduced to only two works: Handel’s Messiah and Brahms’s Requiem. In particular, Messiah has enjoyed an almost unique position as, perhaps, the most frequently performed work in classical literature. The chorus, “Hallelujah,” the five most quintessential minutes of grandeur known in music, thralls us, stirs us, and as Shakespeare might say, “thunders like a Jove.” The legends that have cropped up about this movement alone convey how much reverence the work inspires. For example, one story goes that George II rose in his seat upon hearing it, impelling all present to do the same – thus, it has become a concert ritual to stand when the chorus delivers. Another tale describes Joseph Haydn weeping upon hearing it in 1791, and uttering that Handel was the “master of us all.” Almost all choruses in Messiah have an infectious pomp. The choruses selected today combine magical doses of archaic splendor with warm jocular dignity that both enchant and coax listeners to sing along. Thus, for generations, “sing-a-long” Messiahs, often termed “Scratch Messiahs,” crop up during Advent with a regularity as the very season itself.

Messiah is also one of the most hastily composed works, occupying Handel a mere twenty-four days in 1741. That it is such a treasure is astonishing. The first public performance took place in Dublin, April 13, 1742. The text, compiled by Charles Jennens, a wealthy landowner and amateur theologian, draws from both the Old and New Testaments. In particular, prophetic sections of Isaiah are combined with various Psalm texts, and are juxtaposed with messianic passages from Luke, Corinthians, Romans, and Revelation. The hurried manner of composition, in part due to Handel’s deteriorating financial condition, is belied by the consistent quality of each aria, recitative and chorus. Handel’s textual colorations were never so skillful and subtle.

In today’s “Sing-In,” fourteen sections from Part I (Advent and Christmas) are presented with choruses from Parts II and III. The evening is capped off with the thrilling final choruses.

But wait; don’t leave: one more Hallelujah for good measure! Seth Lachterman

CHRISTINE GEVERT holds a master’s degree in organ and early music performance from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hamburg, Germany. After earning a bachelor’s degree in music theory, basso-continuo and choral conducting from the Conservatorio Nacional de Chile, she studied choral and orchestral conducting in Berlin and harpsichord in London. She has taught at the Berlin Church Music School, the Universidad de Chile, and the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile. She has led master classes and workshops in early music, harpsichord, and baroque vocal technique at music festivals in Germany and Chile. The founder and artistic director of Crescendo, Christine is organist and choir master at Trinity Church, Lime Rock. Early in his career, BEN HARMS sang professionally in various church and reformed synagogue choirs.  He is presently director of the New Marlborough Community Chorus.  As a timpanist and singer he has probably performed the Messiah over 150 times;  he is looking forward to this evening's event, when he will be conducting sections of this wonderful composition for the first time. JACK BROWN is Artistic Director of Berkshire Lyric, directing the Berkshire Lyric Chorus and the Blafield Children's Chorus. He is well known locally as a singer, having appeared as a soloist with every choral society in the region. Nationally he continues to perform as a soloist, most recently in the Brahms Requiem in Georgia and in Beethoven's Ninth in Illinois. His early training as an instrumentalist was followed by his primary vocal study with Richard Cross at Juilliard and choral conducting with Robert Baker of Yale and Union Theological Seminary. Jack is on the faculty at Simon's Rock College in Great Barrington, where he directs the Simon's Rock Chorus and Anonymous 10, a select a cappella women's ensemble. He also teaches voice at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville CT. and at The Berkshire Music School in Pittsfield.

THE BERKSHIRE BACH SOCIETY IS A 501(C)(3) NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION.