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the Philadelphia singers
BEGINS 39th season with
two magnificats and
a Philadelphia premiere
First concert of the 2011-12 Season, features both the Bach and the Mendelssohn Magnificats and a Philadelphia Premiere of
Hiob by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
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PHILADELPHIA, PA - The Philadelphia Singers, Philadelphia's premier professional chorus, begins its 39th Season on October 29, 2011 at 8 PM with "Bach and the Mendelssohns." This program explores the influence of J.S. Bach on both Felix Mendelssohn and his older, essentially unknown, sister Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. Major works featured on the concert include a rare paring of both the J.S. Bach and the Mendelssohn Magnificats, as well as the Philadelphia Premiere of Hiob by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. The concert will be held at the Church of the Holy Trinity, 1904 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. Tickets range from $22-40 and can be purchased by calling 215-751-9494 or by visiting philadelphiasingers.org.
"Bach and the Mendelssohns"
The Philadelphia Singers' 32-voice professional chamber chorus and The Philadelphia Singers' Sinfonia, The Singers' resident orchestra, will take the audience on a musical exploration discovering the significant influence that J.S. Bach had on Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn's compositional styles, beginning with Bach's Magnificat in D Major and concluding with Felix Mendelssohn's rarely performed Magnificat in D Major, which he composed at age thirteen. The concert will also feature the Philadelphia Premiere of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's Hiob.
Opening the concert is Magnificat, one of Bach's masterpieces. In what is a fairly compact work, he gives an astonishing level of texture and sonic variety; both vocally and instrumentally. Like the B Minor Mass on a large-scale, the Magnificat is a virtual compendium of Bach's vocal and instrumental writing. The Magnificat is one of Bach's most popular works, precisely because the listener doesn't necessarily notice the immense craft that goes into it. Bach's Magnificat wears its erudition lightly and communicates this most beautiful of texts with great power and beauty.
Framing the concert is Felix Mendelssohn's Magnificat in D Major, which he composed in 1822 at the age of thirteen. Although Mendelssohn's setting draws from musical idioms of the previous century, he scored the piece for a contemporary orchestra, including clarinets and horns, but without the high trumpet parts used by Bach. From The Philadelphia Singers' Music Director David Hayes, "What I love about this work is not just its youthful exuberance; that's to be expected. The most astonishing thing is the compositional confidence on exhibit. The vocal and orchestral writing has élan and style alongside a clear, contrapuntal awareness and keen sense of vocal and orchestral sonority. This would be astonishing in-and-of itself. However, it also shows (at that early age) Mendelssohn's ability to craft long-range musical ideas."
This concert also features the Philadelphia Premiere of Hiob by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, the older sister of Felix Mendelssohn. Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was a composer, pianist and conductor in her own right. Despite her nearly equal training and ability with her brother Felix, she was constrained by the social values and the limitations on women at the time and found an outlet for her talents only in private, leaving her works essentially unknown. R. Larry Todd, whose most recently published book, "Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn" (published 2009, Oxford University Press) states that Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel has in recent decades "finally secured her place as the leading European woman composer of the nineteenth century."
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Educational Opportunities
Additionally, The Singers will present a conversation with George B. Stauffer, a leading Bach scholar and Dean of Rutgers' Mason Gross School of the Arts, and R. Larry Todd, Professor of Music at Duke University and a premier Mendelssohn scholar, author of "Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn". Led by The Philadelphia Singers' Associate Conductor Jonathan Coopersmith, the experts will be discussing the interconnections between Bach and the Mendelssohns. This discussion is free to all ticket holders and will be held at 7 PM in Field Hall at the Curtis Institute of Music, 1726 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA. Professor Larry Todd's book on Fanny Hensel will be available for sale through Joseph Fox Bookshop. A grant from The Presser Foundation has partially funded the talk.
The Philadelphia Singers will also present educational opportunities for Philadelphia area college students in conjunction with this concert. Tuesday, October 18, 2011, The Philadelphia Singers' Music Director David Hayes will lead a masterclass at West Chester University, rehearsing Hiob by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. These students will be given the opportunity to attend The Singers' dress rehearsal of this concert, prior to their performance of the work on November 5, 2011.
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The Philadelphia Singers, a 32-voice fully professional choral ensemble, engages and inspires audiences in the Philadelphia region with compelling concert experiences. The Singers has a special commitment to preserve and strengthen America's rich choral heritage through performances, commissions and music education.
Founded in 1972 by Michael Korn, The Philadelphia Singers is now under the dynamic leadership of Music Director and Conductor David Hayes. For 39 years, The Singers has contributed to the city's vibrant cultural community through presenting choral music of the highest caliber, meaningful education and community programs and significant collaborations with local, national and internationally recognized performing arts organizations. In 2001, The Philadelphia Singers Chorale, the larger symphonic ensemble, was named the resident chorus of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the first time in the orchestra's history that a chorus has received this distinction. Maestro Wolfgang Sawallisch, Conductor Laureate of the Philadelphia Orchestra, hails The Singers as "one of the musical treasures of Philadelphia."
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