Te Deum and A Child of Our Time
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Nicole
Cabell
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Marietta Simpson |
Russell Thomas |
John |
February 3, 2012
Carnegie Hall – 7pm
Te Deum by Anton Bruckner
A Child of Our Time by Michael Tippett
with
Nicole Cabell, soprano
Marietta Simpson, mezzo-soprano
Russell Thomas, tenor
John Relyea, bass-baritone
The Collegiate Chorale
American Symphony Orchestra
James Bagwell, Conductor
Sir Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time (1941) is a unique oratorio, combining subject matter from the events leading up to Kristallnacht, philosophies of Carl Jung, and texts and music of African-American spirituals. It is intentionally structured in three parts to emulate Handel’s Messiah, and Tippett uses the spirituals to create a format similar to Bach’s use of the chorale in his Passions, all with a powerful and decidedly twentieth-century musical language. The text of this stirring, iconic work reflects Tippett's pacifism and belief that people contain both "shadow and light". Soprano Nicole Cabell has performed this work to great critical acclaim and made it a signature piece. She will be joined by mezzo-soprano Marietta Simpson, tenor Russell Thomas, and John Relyea, bass-baritone.
Also on the concert is Anton Bruckner's glorious Te Deum in C Major. Dedicated by the composer “to God in gratitude for having safely brought me through so much anguish in Vienna,” this work is a magnificent setting of the early Christian Te Deum hymn text. Publisher Theodore Rättig paid Bruckner 50 gulden, thought to be the only money he ever earned as a composer in his entire life, and the Te Deum was premiered in Vienna in 1885. The piece was so moving that Gustav Mahler crossed out the marking “for chorus, solos, and orchestra, organ ad libitum” on his score, and replaced it with “for the tongues of angels, heaven-blest, chastened hearts, and souls purified in the fire!”