Year Seven, Concert One
Sunday, November 10, 2002 4 p.m.

Seventeen Ländler (D. 366)

Judith Gordon, piano

Songs to texts of Schiller
Der Alpenjäger (D. 588)
Des Mädchens Klage (D. 389)
Der Kampf (D. 594)
An den Frühling I (D. 283)
An den Frühling II (D. 587)
Der Pilgrim (D. 794)

Frank Kelley, tenor
Donald Wilkinson, baritone
Judith Gordon, piano

INTERMISSION

Songs to texts of Baumberg
Cora an die Sonne (D. 263)
Lob des Tokayers (D. 248)
Der Morgenkuss (D. 246)
Abendständchen: An Lina (D. 265)
An die Sonne (D. 270)

Frank Kelley, tenor
Donald Wilkinson, baritone
Judith Gordon, piano

Fantasie in F Minor (D. 940) for Piano 4-Hands

Judith Gordon and
John Harbison, piano 4-hands

The best-known sets of Schubert Ländler were published with an opus number. Our group today has several dances in common with other sets and was gathered together by Schubert in 1824. It was first published in 1869 and was edited anonymously by Brahms. These are clearly some of Schubert’s greatest piano dances, and their relative obscurity is curious. The last Allemande is an arrangement by Schubert of a four-hand dance.

“Der Alpenjäger” is a big, bravura song. Its placid, almost casual, opening doesn’t begin to indicate its melodramatic seriousness. We are performing today Schubert’s third setting of “Des Mädchens Klage.” The first, written when he was fourteen, is one of the earliest Schubert songs. In 1815, the composer made a second setting which is the best-known of the three. Our setting today is an expansion of the second one, but for some reason it was not included in Friedländer’s seven-volume Peters Edition of the collected songs and is thus little-known. “Der Kampf” is the essence of Schiller -- the conflict between love and duty permeates many of his greatest plays and poems. Schubert’s setting was said to be the favorite song of his preferred singer, Vogl. It is a bravura showpiece and characteristic of Schubert’s best Schiller manner. The two settings of “An den Frühling” are very different. The first, written when the composer was eighteen, is pure, even virginal, in character. The second setting is much more in the character of a Ländler and has a more knowing quality. “Der Pilgrim” has some of the qualities of the marching “Winterreise” songs but it resembles even more the kind of bare-bones march in a work like the first of the Opus 90 Impromptus. This is a big, significant poem set in a serious and uncompromising way.

Gabriele von Baumberg was the daughter of a minor Viennese government official. She married a radical Hungarian and was involved, like many in the Schubert circle, with radical leftist politics. “Cora an die Sonne” is a lovely and lyrical miniature, typical of Schubert’s Baumberg settings. “Lob des Tokayers,” a rousing drinking song, couldn’t be more different. For all of the eroticism of the poem, Schubert’s setting of “Der Morgenkuss” has a kind of classical elegance to it. Both “Abendständchen” and “An die Sonne” have an exquisite classical poise that is surprising, considering the heat of the poems. Both songs display the chiseled perfection of Schubert’s amazing output in the year 1815.

We have saved some of Schubert’s greatest masterpieces for our final season. The F minor Fantasy is not only one of his most marvelous works but is, perhaps, the greatest four-hand piano work ever written. It may be the haunting opening melody that sticks in one’s head most, but the architectural perfection of its many sections shows not only great originality but also profound study of earlier Viennese masters. The influence of Mozart, particularly of the great organ Fantasy and the C minor piano fantasy K. 475, is obvious. It is interesting that here, in the composer’s last year, the influence of Mozart rather than that of Beethoven should dominate. The French Overture section also shows Schubert’s study of and admiration for the works of Handel.

— Craig Smith © 2002

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John Harbison, principal guest conductor of Emmanuel Music, is one of America’s most prominent composers. Among his principal works are three string quartets, large orchestral works, three operas, and a cantata, “The Flight Into Egypt,” which earned him the Pulitzer Prize (1987). Other awards include the Kennedy Center Friedheim First Prize (1980), a MacArthur Fellowship (1989) and the Heinz Award (1997).

Harbison has been composer-in-residence with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Tanglewood, Marlboro, Aspen, Ojai, and Santa Fe Festivals, and the American Academy in Rome. His music has been performed by many of the world’s leading ensembles, and his pieces have been recorded on Nonesuch, Northeastern, Harmonia Mundi, New World, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Koch, and CRI labels.

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Pianist Judith Gordon was chosen as "Musician of the Year" of 1996 by the Boston Globe. The wide range of composers with whom she has worked or who have written music for her includes John Harbison, Lee Hyla, Libby Larsen, Peter Lieberson and Martin Brody. She has appeared in concert with many artists and ensembles including mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, soprano Lisa Saffer, cellists Andres Diaz and Yo-Yo Ma, violist Cynthia Phelps, violinists Rose Mary Harbison and Andrew Kohji Taylor, oboist Douglas Boyd, the Borromeo, Lydian and St. Lawrence string quartets, and many members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Gordon gave her New York recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Introductions' Series. She has appeared at Weill Hall in New York, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum, and regularly performs in the many concert halls of Boston. She has been soloist with the Boston Pops, as well as with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and has been invited numerous times to perform on the FleetBoston Celebrity Series, including her 2001 recital "Judith Gordon and Friends", which featured specially commissioned new songs by Martin Brody, Alan Fletcher, David Horne, and Lee Hyla alongside the music of Brahms, Ravel, and John Harbison. In 2002, Ms. Gordon appeared in festivals at Spoleto USA (SC), Token Creek (WI), Charlottesville (VA), Innsbrook (MO), Rockport (ME), and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival (NM).

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Frank Kelley has performed in concert and opera throughout North America and Europe. Recently released recordings feature him in repertoire spanning ten centuries and include three Deutsche Harmonia Mundi CDs with the ensemble Sequentia, a KOCH International recording of Bach Cantatas with Emmanuel Music, a Teldec release of Stravinsky’s Renard with Hugh Wolff and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, a London recording of Bach Cantatas with the Bach Ensemble led by Joshua Rifkin, and Kurt Weill’s Das Kleine Mahagonny with Kent Nagano, available on London videotape and on CD from Erato. A release from KOCH International features Mr. Kelley singing the role of the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion, under the direction of Craig Smith and Emmanuel Music. In recent seasons, Mr. Kelley has appeared with the St. Louis Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He continued his affiliation with the Boston Lyric Opera singing the role of Monastatos in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and has frequently performed in Emmanuel Music’s Schubert Series concerts and Bach cantatas. Highlights from previous seasons included Handel’s l’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato with the Mark Morris Dance company in Hong Kong, Tel Aviv, and Los Angeles; Das Kleine Mahagonny directed by Peter Sellars in Frankfurt and Paris; Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo with Aston Magna in Regensburg and Rome, and an appearance with Sequentia and the Finnish Radio Chorus in Helsinki.

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Baritone Donald Wilkinson has been a member of Emmanuel Music since 1984, where he has performed more than 100 of Bach's Cantatas, and participated in recordings of Bach cantatas and Schütz motets on the Koch International label. He enjoys a distinguished career in concert, opera, oratorio, recital, and contemporary music and has appeared throughout the United States and Canada. He made his European debut performing the role of Dionysos in the world premiere of Theodore Antoniou’s opera The Bacchae at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. He has appeared as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Portland (ME), Springfield (MA), and Vermont, and made his debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Salome with Seiji Ozawa conducting. He has also appeared as soloist with the Handel & Haydn Society, Washington Bach Consort, Philadelphia Bach Festival, Colorado Chorale, Boston Baroque, Cantata Singers, Masterworks Chorale, Boston Musica Viva, and Colorado's Breckenridge Music Festival. He has toured nationally as a soloist with the Boston Camerata. In 1990, as a Tanglewood Fellow, Mr. Wilkinson was heard at the Festival of Contemporary Music in Stravinsky's The Flood. That same year he appeared in the American premiere of Frank Martin's Pilate, on a program with that composer's Requiem, with the John Oliver Chorale. Equally active in opera, Mr. Wilkinson has sung Marcello in La Boheme, Germont in La Traviata, Belcore in L'Elisir d"Amore, Sam in Trouble in Tahiti, Konecny in the American premiere of Janacek's Fate, and Otto in the world premiere of Newell Hendricks's Ascona. In 1996-97 he recorded the role of Johnny in Kurt Weill’s Johnny Johnson for Erato Disques, and is featured on releases of John Harbison’s Recordare with Emmanuel Music on Koch International Classics, and Angels with the Boston Camerata on Erato.

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