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The Juilliard Choral Union Offers French Sacred Gems By JUDITH CLURMAN
The Juilliard Choral Union has had a delightful year! The chorus sang the Brahms Requiem at Carnegie Hall, performed Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms at the New York City Ballet, participated in a concert with They Might Be Giants as part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook series, and collaborated with Tony Award-winner Jason Robert Brown and conductor Paul Gemignani on the Wall-to-Wall Sondheim celebration at Symphony Space.
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| The Choral Union, conducted by Judith Clurman, will perform French sacred works on May 2 in Alice Tully Hall. (Photo by Nan Melville) |
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At the end of April and beginning of May, we will once again collaborate with Peter Martins at the New York City Ballet for his wonderful work choreographed to Chichester Psalms, with the music being performed under my direction. On May 2, I am bringing a bit of Paris to Alice Tully Hall, when I conduct the Juilliard Choral Union in a program of French sacred works. The first half will feature short choral and piano works by Gounod, Fauré, Milhaud, and Messiaen. The second half of the concert will be a performance of the Duruflé Requiem.We will begin the Tully Hall program with Gounod's Kyrie and O Salutaris—both short, transparent, homophonic works for chorus and organ. (O Salutaris is also scored for a tenor soloist.) Gounod, who is probably best known as an operatic composer, considered becoming a Roman Catholic priest and spent many years studying theology. He served as a church organist and choirmaster at the Missions Étrangères in the Rue du Bac in Paris. During his early career, he composed many choral settings of the Mass and other spiritual songs.Gabriel Fauré was also educated as an organist. He worked in several churches in Paris, including the Madeleine Church, where he was assistant organist to Saint-Saëns, choirmaster, and later, chief organist. He wrote more than a dozen short choral works that span the first 40 years of his career. Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11, is an early work that he composed while still a student. We will perform it in its original version, for chorus, harmonium, and string quintet. In this piece Fauré does not set the Catholic liturgy, but rather, a beautiful religious text by the poet and dramatist Jean-Baptiste Racine. Fauré's Tantum Ergo—for mixed chorus, tenor soloists, harp, string bass, and organ—rounds out the choral selections for the first half. Like Gounod's works, it is a straightforward setting, written to be used in religious services.
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Juilliard Choral Union
Alice Tully Hall
Monday, May 2, 8 p.m.
Free tickets available in the Juilliard Box Office beginning April 18.
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I have also programmed two works for keyboard: Darius Milhaud's Le Candélabre à Sept Branches, for solo piano, and Olivier Messiaen's Verset pour la fête de la Dédicace, for solo organ. Pianist Paul Kwak and organist Colin Fowler, our two rehearsal accompanists, will be featured respectively.Darius Milhaud, born into a Jewish family living in Aix-en-Provence, composed Le Candélabre à Sept Branches in Paris in 1951. It was first performed at the opening concert of the Ein Gev Festival, on the occasion of the composer's first visit to Israel. The seven-branched candelabrum is the ancient symbol of the Jewish people, and Milhaud's piano pieces interpret the seven major festivals and holidays that constitute the Jewish calendar: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkoth, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover, and Shavuot.Oliver Messiaen, a French Catholic, was born in Avignon and studied organ and composition at the Paris Conservatoire with the French musicians Dukas, Dupré, and Gallon. He served as organist at La Trinité in Paris. Messiaen also played an important role as a professor of music at the Conservatoire, teaching Boulez, Stockhausen, and Xenakis. His Verset pour la fête de la Dédicace, for organ solo, was composed in 1960.The glorious Duruflé Requiem makes up the second half of the concert. Duruflé's early musical training was at the cathedral in Rouen, where he became an expert in Gregorian chant. He then came to Paris and studied at the Conservatoire, where he immersed himself in the traditions of Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, and Dukas. His Requiem, written in 1947, is based entirely on the Gregorian themes from the Mass for the Dead. He combined the chants with the style of the early modern school he had studied in Paris. The work is impressionistic in its use of rhythm, harmony, orchestration, and organ registration. Duruflé published the Requiem in three versions: one for chorus and organ alone, one for chorus with full orchestra, and one with chamber orchestra. We will perform the version for organ and chorus.Featured soloists who are joining us for this performance include mezzo-soprano Christianne Rushton, baritone Museop Kim, and tenor Alexander Mansoori, along with the Chiara Quartet, harpist Allegra Lilly, bassist David Kahn, cellist Soo Ryoun Bae, and our two rehearsal accompanists, pianist Paul Kwak and organist and harmoniumist Colin Fowler. Judith Clurman is director of choral activities and an alumna of Juilliard.
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