Calendar

Andrew Arthur, organ, Robert Farley, trumpet

Alessandro Stradella, Sonata a otto Viole con una Tromba (arr. A. Arthur)
Dieterich Buxtehude, Toccata in F, BuxWV 156
Girolamo Fantini / Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi, Suite for Trumpet & Organ
Heinrich Scheidemann, Magnificat VI Toni
Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani, Sonata no. 2 in C for Trumpet & Organ
Dieterich Buxtehude, Praeludium in G, BuxWV 150
Maurizio Cazzati, Sonata in C ‘La Bianchina’, Op. 35, No. 11 for Trumpet & Strings

Orchestra, Chorale, Chorus and Soloists conducted by Paul Goodwin

J.S. Bach, Magnificat, BWV 243
Mhairi Lawson, Jennifer Paulino, soprano; Meg Bragle, mezzo-soprano; Thomas Cooley, tenor; Dashon Burton, bass-baritone
Gioachino Rossini, Stabat Mater
Mhairi Lawson, soprano; Meg Bragle, mezzo-soprano; Jonathan Boyd, tenor; Dashon Burton, bass-baritone

Bach’s Magnificat opens the 83rd Festival in a blaze of glory! A jubilant tone is set by an unusually large ensemble, with five soloists, five-part choir, trumpets, timpani and full wind section. Its splendor anticipates the great choruses that came later with Bach’s B-Minor Mass. During the 30-minute work, you are taken on a musical journey through ten verses and a Gloria with musical lines that somehow always seem ascend. The rhythmic energy of the opening and closing choruses sets a perfect, joyful and boisterous tone to kick off the 83rd Festival.

Rossini’s Stabat Mater shares the emotional depth and musical style of the composer’s nearly 40 well-known grand operas. Rossini combines his operatic genius with the grand tradition of sacred music, infusing the piece with great theatrical drama very much in the tradition of Bach’s Passions. The libretto inspired composers from Pergolesi to Verdi to compose their own versions and Rossini brings the full weight of his compositional prowess to the Stabat Mater. He unites different forms from arias, duets, and quartets to a cappella chorus in this powerful work that encompass a wide range of emotions from tragic to hopeful.

The text is fashioned as a prayer describing Mary’s pain. The vivid language, a Latin poem probably from the 13th century is set in ten movements. From peaceful reflection to the immense waves of sound in its closing fugal Amen, Rossini’s Stabat Mater is a monumental work of sacred music in the Romantic era.

“Our Saturday concert takes the listener on a journey from the rhythmic energy and vocal punch of Bach’s Magnificat to the extraordinary operatic vistas of Rossini’s greatest choral work, Stabat Mater,” said Artistic Director Paul Goodwin. “This is a concert of two worlds and two contrasting beauties.”

Orchestra, Chorale, and Soloists conducted by Paul Goodwin

J.S. Bach, St. John Passion, BWV 245
Mhairi Lawson, soprano; Meg Bragle, mezzo-soprano; Thomas Cooley, tenor (Evangelist); Dashon Burton, bass-baritone

Bach’s Passions are deeply embedded in the Carmel Bach Festival DNA, and the Festival is proud to continue the tradition by presenting St. John Passion in 2020.

The St. John Passion is considered to be more dramatic and expressive than the St. Matthew Passion. Because it is shorter, the narrative of the St. John Passion is compressed and more intense. In fact, the St. John Passion might be the closest thing to an opera Bach composed.

The oratorio Passion—comprised of Biblical texts enhanced by lyrical arias and chorales—was a relatively new form when Bach created the St. John Passion in 1724. The Passion begins with one of Bach’s finest choruses, “Herr unser Herrscher.” It is one of the great beginnings in all of music. The New Yorker’s Alex Ross has said regarding this chorus: “Whatever images come to mind, the craft that went into the making of the scene—the melodic inspiration, the contrapuntal rigor, the immaculate demonstration of the rules, the insolent breaking of them—is as astounding now as it must have been on that day in 1724 (when St. John Passion premiered). One notable fact about the St. John Passion…is that we have no eyewitness account of the première. If the good people of Leipzig understood that they were in the presence of the most stupendous talent in musical history, they gave no sign.”

These performances will utilize period instruments at Baroque pitch, offering Carmel audiences a similar experience as the congregants at St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig in 1724 at the work’s premiere. The performances will be presented in concert dress.

“With this year’s performance of the St. John Passion we continue our cycle of bringing the great Bach choral pieces to you on period instruments,” said Paul Goodwin. “Once you hear the biting yet melancholy sounds of the baroque oboes and the earthy tones of gut strings in the most powerful of Bach’s opening choruses, you will never be the same again!”

THOMAS COOLEY tenor

Minnesota-born tenor Thomas Cooley has established a reputation on both sides of the Atlantic—and beyond—as a singer of great versatility, expressiveness, and virtuosity. Cooley studied at DePauw University, the University of Minnesota and the Richard Strauss Conservatory. He is an Artist in Residence with Chicago’s Music of the Baroque. This season marks Thomas’ ninth in Carmel. Thomas will perform the role of the Evangelist in the St. John Passion. You can also hear Thomas on the Saturday Main Concerts, and the Monday chamber program at All Saints’ Church.

MEG BRAGLE mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-soprano Meg Bragle returns for her fourth Carmel Bach Festival season as a soloist. She was a Virginia Best Adams fellow in 1999. Widely praised for her musical intelligence and “expressive virtuosity,” Meg has earned an international reputation as one of today’s most gifted and versatile mezzo-sopranos. She is the recipient of awards and recognition from Symphony Magazine, the American Bach Society, and the Bethlehem Bach Festival. A frequent featured soloist with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, she has made four recordings with the group. You can also hear Meg on the Saturday Main Concerts, and the Monday chamber program at All Saints’ Church.

Concertmaster Peter Hanson with members of the Festival Orchestra

J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046
Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto in A Minor for Two Violins, RV 522
J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in Bb Major, BWV 1051
J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050
Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto No. 10 in B Minor for Four Violins, RV 580
J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048

The Festival’s Baroque virtuosi are featured on the Monday main concerts, performing four of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti, along with two Vivaldi classics for multiple solo violins.

“This juxtaposition will create a Baroque concert of unprecedented energy and creativity in the hands of Peter Hanson and the Festival musicians,” said Paul Goodwin.

Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti are his greatest instrumental works and are filled with great variety and unique orchestration. Each concerto requires a different combination of instruments as well as very skilled soloists.  This characteristic is notable in the Concerto No. 5 where Bach gave the harpsichord dazzling music to perform and in the process, perhaps invented the modern keyboard concerto. The 5^th Concerto is the perfect vehicle to feature Festival principal keyboardist Andrew Arthur’s artistry.

Vivaldi’s concerti for multiple violins are known for their verve. Combine that with memorable and catchy melodies and you have the perfect balance of beauty and virtuosity. Violinist Edwin Huizinga says that the Concerto for Four Violins, part of Vivaldi’s L’estro armonico series of 12 concerti, “sounds like a gorgeous conversation among best friends.” He also feels that the B-Minor concerto is the, “greatest Baroque composition ever written.”

“In the first Brandenburg, we have much character and celebration,” said concertmaster Peter Hanson. “The Vivaldi then takes us to a masked ball in Venice. Brandenburg 6 is the acknowledgement of death and the end of life. Then we have Brandenburg 5 which could be seen as the choice of Hercules between Virtue and Vice—Hercules, on this theory, is represented by the harpsichord, rapidly rotating ideas throughout the first movement and going into a long aria of consideration before dismissing Vice (the flute) in favor of Virtue (the violin). The hero’s decision is perhaps made difficult for him by the fact that Vice and Virtue so often say the same things! Then we have more Venetian masked ball before finishing with Brandenburg 3.”

Peter Hanson is a period instrument specialist and recording artist. He is in his 10^th season as concertmaster of the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra. He has performed with modern and period instrument including the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and the London Symphony and served as concertmaster for Mstislav Rostropovich and the Philharmonia Orchestra as well as Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique for more than 25 years appearing on nearly all its recordings and concerts.

Orchestra, Mhairi Lawson, soprano, conducted by Paul Goodwin;

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 4 in G Major

From the Storm and Stress first half to one of the gentlest and most peaceful endings in the orchestral repertoire, Tuesday’s concerts cover it all.

Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 begins with one of the composer’s most famous melodies, and thrusts the listener into the minor key that dominates the work. The symphony, like many later works from Mozart, is intense and complex, and clearly points toward the Romantic era and Beethoven. It also showcases the composer’s interest in the artistic movement known as Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), in which darker and stronger emotions predominate.

Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 is perhaps the lightest and most approachable of his ten immense symphonies. It’s his shortest work, and uses the smallest orchestra. Yet the passionate emotions that are Mahler’s trademark propel the symphony from its opening melody, said by the composer to express “a dewdrop on a flower before the sun shines into it.” The second movement is a surreal scherzo featuring an extended violin solo with the instrument tuned a step higher than normal— a sound which Mahler associated with a street fiddle. Mahler thought of the third movement as his prettiest slow movement, and it is easy to conjure the image of the composer rowing on the lake by the new summer home he had just moved into when creating the work.

The symphony’s conclusion, the song “The Heavenly Life,” is an ethereal and sublime song for soprano expressing a child’s view of heaven in an extraordinarily peaceful and innocent setting. “The angel voices enliven the senses, so that everyone awakes for joy,” the soprano sings as the concert comes to a serene conclusion.

“This program juxtaposes Mozart’s most dramatic symphony with a child’s view of heaven in Mahler’s 4^th,” said Paul Goodwin. “This concert takes you on an emotional journey starting with high drama and ending with quiet beauty.”

MHAIRI LAWSON soprano

Mhairi Lawson returns for her fifth Carmel Bach Festival season. While a student at the Guildhall School of Music, Mhairi won the International Early Music Network Young Artists Prize, which led to her first recording. Mhairi has performed in opera houses and concert halls worldwide such as English National Opera, The Gabrieli Consort and The Scottish Chamber Orchestra.  Mhairi will perform the ethereal solo that concludes Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. You can also hear her on the Saturday and Sunday Main Concerts and the Monday chamber concert at All Saints’ Church.

Orchestra and Chorale conducted by Andrew Megill

James MacMillan, Seven Last Words from the Cross
Thomas Tallis, Lamentations of Jeremiah I
William Byrd, Ne irascaris Domine (Part 1)
Alberto Ginastera, Lamentations of Jeremiah 2
Randall Thompson, Alleluia

The Seven Last Words from the Cross is regarded as James MacMillan’s masterpiece. The composer’s deep faith is overtly present in this mesmerizing and deeply moving music. In the Carmel Mission Basilica, the emotional impact of MacMillan’s work will be intense.

Composed in 1994 for choir and string orchestra, MacMillan was inspired by Bach’s Passions, hymns, Gregorian chant, and even Scottish song. He juxtaposes the vivid text based on Christ’s final words with passages of quiet inner reflection to form a powerful dramatic narrative. The haunting score features extraordinary passages, yet it is MacMillan’s use of silence that might be the most potent aspect of the work. This is music of extraordinary musical and emotional depth, and will move audiences with its majesty, intensity, inventiveness, and originality.

The program will also include settings of related texts by two of the greatest English Renaissance composers, William Byrd and Thomas Tallis, an excerpt from Alberto Ginastera’s Lamentations of Jeremiah, and Randall Thompson’s iconic Alleluia. The traditional candlelight chant processional and recessional will bookend these extraordinary concerts at the Carmel Mission Basilica.

“James Macmillan is one of the most eloquent and profound composers of our time,” said Associate Conductor Andrew Megill. “And it is a joy to introduce his masterpiece, The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, to the Carmel Bach Festival family. Like most of Macmillan’s choral music, it is  modeled on the music of the J.S. Bach. Like Bach’s Passions (which concern the same subject matter), Macmillan’s cantata is grounded in the composer’s own personal faith, but transcends any specific theology to communicate universal truths of human experience. I find the work to be deeply moving and transcendently beautiful.”

Andrew Megill is the artistic director of Fuma Sacra and serves as chorusmaster for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He is also music director of Masterwork Chorus and professor and director of choral activities at the University of Illinois. He is in his 13^th season as associate conductor of the Carmel Bach Festival and director of the chorale and chorus.

Orchestra, Chorale, Chorus, Angel Blue, soprano, and Dashon Burton, bass-baritone, conducted by Paul Goodwin

Henry Purcell, Excerpts from Dido and Aeneas
Overture
Music for a While
The Triumphing Dance
Recitative and Aria: Thy hand Belinda and Dido’s Lament (When I am laid in earth)
Chorus: With drooping Wings Cupids come

Georg Frideric Handel, Excerpts from Serse
Overture and Gigue
Recitative and Aria: Fronde Tenere / Ombra mai fu

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ave verum corpus, K.618
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492
Recitative and Aria: e Susanna non vien! / Dove Sono i bei momenti

George Gershwin, Excerpts from Porgy and Bess – A Concert of Songs (1935) arr. Robert Russell Bennett
Overture
Summertime
Duet : Bess you is my woman now

Giuseppe Verdi, Un giorno di regno: Overture
Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata: Aria – Di Provenza il Mar
Giuseppe Verdi, Requiem: Libera me

Metropolitan Opera superstar soprano Angel Blue headlines the Friday Main Concerts.

The California native is recognized for her beautiful vocal timbre and stunning stage presence. Her voice is known for its shimmering and  agile upper register and “smoky” middle register. Angel starred in the Met’s Porgy and Bess last September, and will perform excerpts from Gershwin’s operatic treasure including a duet with bass-baritone soloist Dashon Burton.

Gershwin was very proud of his masterwork, describing it as combining “the drama and romance of Carmen with the beauty of Die Meistersinger.”  He was a  supreme composer of melodies as inspired in this classical/jazz/blues idiom as Puccini and Verdi were in late Romantic opera. The score is unforgettable with arias such as the duet “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” which has joined the ranks of the greatest operatic love music, utilizing rich, blues-tinged harmony. Author Joseph Horowitz said of the opera, “To my ears, Porgy and Bess is the highest creative achievement in American classical music.”

Excerpts from the Baroque operas Dido and Aeneas and Serse open the wide-ranging concert. You will be enthralled by the haunting beauty of “Dido’s Lament” as performed by Angel Blue. Mozart’s Ave verum corpus for chorus, and the famous Countess aria from The Marriage of Figaro close the first act.

Concluding the program is a trio of Verdi works – an opera overture, the renowned aria “Di Provenza il Mar” from La Traviata sung by Dashon Burton, and the “Libera me” from the composer’s monumental Requiem. In this extraordinarily complex movement the soprano soloist (Angel Blue) sings a plaintive and breathtaking plea to be spared from judgment. A massive tidal wave of sound and energy follows featuring a raging chorus and the powerful orchestra brass and percussion. The music peacefully resolves as the chorus and soprano unite to intone a final quiet prayer for salvation and deliverance.

The ending of the Libera Me is emotional, magical, and stirring, concluding a concert showcasing one of opera’s transcendent emerging stars.

“Who couldn’t resist the Carmel Bach Festival musicians performing arias from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess along with Mozart, Handel, Purcell and Verdi sung by one of today’s greatest sopranos, Angel Blue, star of the Metropolitan Opera, partnered with Dashon Burton,” said Paul Goodwin. “Throw away your troubles and be transported to another world!”

Angel Blue, soprano

Angel Blue grew up in Apple Valley, northeast of Los Angeles, and completed her musical studies at UCLA. Last September, she starred as Bess in a new Metropolitan Opera production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.  These performances follow her internationally praised French Opera debut and as Floria Tosca at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July 2019.

She made her San Francisco Opera debut in 2009; her credits have included performances with the Canadian Opera Company, the Los Angeles Opera, Frankfurt Opera, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, La Scala, and many others. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2017 as Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème.  Also active on the concert platform, Ms. Blue has appeared in recital and in concert in over thirty-five countries.  Important orchestral engagements have included Porgy and Bess at the Berliner Philharmoniker with Sir Simon Rattle, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Münchener Philharmoniker under the baton of Zubin Mehta, and Verdi’s Requiem in Australia with Oleg Caetani.

DASHON BURTON bass-baritone
Dashon Burton returns to the Carmel Bach Festival for a fifth season as bass-baritone soloist. The Bronx, New York native was previously a member of the Chorale. Praised for his “nobility and rich tone,” Burton has established a world-wide career in opera, recital, and in many works with orchestra.  He is a regular guest with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst,  Dashon has won prizes from the ARD International Music Competition and the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and from the Oratorio Society of New York and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s Competition for Young American Singers.  He graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, and received his Master of Music degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music.

You can also hear Dashon on the Saturday and Sunday Main Concerts, and the Monday Chamber Concerts at All Saints’ Church.

Dashon Burton appears by arrangement with Colbert Artists Management, Inc., 307 Seventh Avenue, Suite 2006, New York NY 10001.

Orchestra, Chorale, Chorus and Soloists conducted by Paul Goodwin

J.S. Bach, Magnificat, BWV 243
Mhairi Lawson, Jennifer Paulino, soprano; Meg Bragle, mezzo-soprano; Thomas Cooley, tenor; Dashon Burton, bass-baritone
Gioachino Rossini, Stabat Mater
Mhairi Lawson, soprano; Meg Bragle, mezzo-soprano; Jonathan Boyd, tenor; Dashon Burton, bass-baritone

Bach’s Magnificat opens the 83rd Festival in a blaze of glory! A jubilant tone is set by an unusually large ensemble, with five soloists, five-part choir, trumpets, timpani and full wind section. Its splendor anticipates the great choruses that came later with Bach’s B-Minor Mass. During the 30-minute work, you are taken on a musical journey through ten verses and a Gloria with musical lines that somehow always seem ascend. The rhythmic energy of the opening and closing choruses sets a perfect, joyful and boisterous tone to kick off the 83rd Festival.

Rossini’s Stabat Mater shares the emotional depth and musical style of the composer’s nearly 40 well-known grand operas. Rossini combines his operatic genius with the grand tradition of sacred music, infusing the piece with great theatrical drama very much in the tradition of Bach’s Passions. The libretto inspired composers from Pergolesi to Verdi to compose their own versions and Rossini brings the full weight of his compositional prowess to the Stabat Mater. He unites different forms from arias, duets, and quartets to a cappella chorus in this powerful work that encompass a wide range of emotions from tragic to hopeful.

The text is fashioned as a prayer describing Mary’s pain. The vivid language, a Latin poem probably from the 13th century is set in ten movements. From peaceful reflection to the immense waves of sound in its closing fugal Amen, Rossini’s Stabat Mater is a monumental work of sacred music in the Romantic era.

“Our Saturday concert takes the listener on a journey from the rhythmic energy and vocal punch of Bach’s Magnificat to the extraordinary operatic vistas of Rossini’s greatest choral work, Stabat Mater,” said Artistic Director Paul Goodwin. “This is a concert of two worlds and two contrasting beauties.”

Orchestra, Chorale, and Soloists conducted by Paul Goodwin

J.S. Bach, St. John Passion, BWV 245
Mhairi Lawson, soprano; Meg Bragle, mezzo-soprano; Thomas Cooley, tenor (Evangelist); Dashon Burton, bass-baritone

Bach’s Passions are deeply embedded in the Carmel Bach Festival DNA, and the Festival is proud to continue the tradition by presenting St. John Passion in 2020.

The St. John Passion is considered to be more dramatic and expressive than the St. Matthew Passion. Because it is shorter, the narrative of the St. John Passion is compressed and more intense. In fact, the St. John Passion might be the closest thing to an opera Bach composed.

The oratorio Passion—comprised of Biblical texts enhanced by lyrical arias and chorales—was a relatively new form when Bach created the St. John Passion in 1724. The Passion begins with one of Bach’s finest choruses, “Herr unser Herrscher.” It is one of the great beginnings in all of music. The New Yorker’s Alex Ross has said regarding this chorus: “Whatever images come to mind, the craft that went into the making of the scene—the melodic inspiration, the contrapuntal rigor, the immaculate demonstration of the rules, the insolent breaking of them—is as astounding now as it must have been on that day in 1724 (when St. John Passion premiered). One notable fact about the St. John Passion…is that we have no eyewitness account of the première. If the good people of Leipzig understood that they were in the presence of the most stupendous talent in musical history, they gave no sign.”

These performances will utilize period instruments at Baroque pitch, offering Carmel audiences a similar experience as the congregants at St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig in 1724 at the work’s premiere. The performances will be presented in concert dress.

“With this year’s performance of the St. John Passion we continue our cycle of bringing the great Bach choral pieces to you on period instruments,” said Paul Goodwin. “Once you hear the biting yet melancholy sounds of the baroque oboes and the earthy tones of gut strings in the most powerful of Bach’s opening choruses, you will never be the same again!”

THOMAS COOLEY tenor

Minnesota-born tenor Thomas Cooley has established a reputation on both sides of the Atlantic—and beyond—as a singer of great versatility, expressiveness, and virtuosity. Cooley studied at DePauw University, the University of Minnesota and the Richard Strauss Conservatory. He is an Artist in Residence with Chicago’s Music of the Baroque. This season marks Thomas’ ninth in Carmel. Thomas will perform the role of the Evangelist in the St. John Passion. You can also hear Thomas on the Saturday Main Concerts, and the Monday chamber program at All Saints’ Church.

MEG BRAGLE mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-soprano Meg Bragle returns for her fourth Carmel Bach Festival season as a soloist. She was a Virginia Best Adams fellow in 1999. Widely praised for her musical intelligence and “expressive virtuosity,” Meg has earned an international reputation as one of today’s most gifted and versatile mezzo-sopranos. She is the recipient of awards and recognition from Symphony Magazine, the American Bach Society, and the Bethlehem Bach Festival. A frequent featured soloist with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, she has made four recordings with the group. You can also hear Meg on the Saturday Main Concerts, and the Monday chamber program at All Saints’ Church.

Concertmaster Peter Hanson with members of the Festival Orchestra

J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046
Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto in A Minor for Two Violins, RV 522
J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in Bb Major, BWV 1051
J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major, BWV 1050
Antonio Vivaldi, Concerto No. 10 in B Minor for Four Violins, RV 580
J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, BWV 1048

The Festival’s Baroque virtuosi are featured on the Monday main concerts, performing four of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti, along with two Vivaldi classics for multiple solo violins.

“This juxtaposition will create a Baroque concert of unprecedented energy and creativity in the hands of Peter Hanson and the Festival musicians,” said Paul Goodwin.

Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti are his greatest instrumental works and are filled with great variety and unique orchestration. Each concerto requires a different combination of instruments as well as very skilled soloists.  This characteristic is notable in the Concerto No. 5 where Bach gave the harpsichord dazzling music to perform and in the process, perhaps invented the modern keyboard concerto. The 5^th Concerto is the perfect vehicle to feature Festival principal keyboardist Andrew Arthur’s artistry.

Vivaldi’s concerti for multiple violins are known for their verve. Combine that with memorable and catchy melodies and you have the perfect balance of beauty and virtuosity. Violinist Edwin Huizinga says that the Concerto for Four Violins, part of Vivaldi’s L’estro armonico series of 12 concerti, “sounds like a gorgeous conversation among best friends.” He also feels that the B-Minor concerto is the, “greatest Baroque composition ever written.”

“In the first Brandenburg, we have much character and celebration,” said concertmaster Peter Hanson. “The Vivaldi then takes us to a masked ball in Venice. Brandenburg 6 is the acknowledgement of death and the end of life. Then we have Brandenburg 5 which could be seen as the choice of Hercules between Virtue and Vice—Hercules, on this theory, is represented by the harpsichord, rapidly rotating ideas throughout the first movement and going into a long aria of consideration before dismissing Vice (the flute) in favor of Virtue (the violin). The hero’s decision is perhaps made difficult for him by the fact that Vice and Virtue so often say the same things! Then we have more Venetian masked ball before finishing with Brandenburg 3.”

Peter Hanson is a period instrument specialist and recording artist. He is in his 10^th season as concertmaster of the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra. He has performed with modern and period instrument including the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and the London Symphony and served as concertmaster for Mstislav Rostropovich and the Philharmonia Orchestra as well as Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique for more than 25 years appearing on nearly all its recordings and concerts.

Orchestra, Mhairi Lawson, soprano, conducted by Paul Goodwin;

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 4 in G Major

From the Storm and Stress first half to one of the gentlest and most peaceful endings in the orchestral repertoire, Tuesday’s concerts cover it all.

Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 begins with one of the composer’s most famous melodies, and thrusts the listener into the minor key that dominates the work. The symphony, like many later works from Mozart, is intense and complex, and clearly points toward the Romantic era and Beethoven. It also showcases the composer’s interest in the artistic movement known as Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), in which darker and stronger emotions predominate.

Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 is perhaps the lightest and most approachable of his ten immense symphonies. It’s his shortest work, and uses the smallest orchestra. Yet the passionate emotions that are Mahler’s trademark propel the symphony from its opening melody, said by the composer to express “a dewdrop on a flower before the sun shines into it.” The second movement is a surreal scherzo featuring an extended violin solo with the instrument tuned a step higher than normal— a sound which Mahler associated with a street fiddle. Mahler thought of the third movement as his prettiest slow movement, and it is easy to conjure the image of the composer rowing on the lake by the new summer home he had just moved into when creating the work.

The symphony’s conclusion, the song “The Heavenly Life,” is an ethereal and sublime song for soprano expressing a child’s view of heaven in an extraordinarily peaceful and innocent setting. “The angel voices enliven the senses, so that everyone awakes for joy,” the soprano sings as the concert comes to a serene conclusion.

“This program juxtaposes Mozart’s most dramatic symphony with a child’s view of heaven in Mahler’s 4^th,” said Paul Goodwin. “This concert takes you on an emotional journey starting with high drama and ending with quiet beauty.”

MHAIRI LAWSON soprano

Mhairi Lawson returns for her fifth Carmel Bach Festival season. While a student at the Guildhall School of Music, Mhairi won the International Early Music Network Young Artists Prize, which led to her first recording. Mhairi has performed in opera houses and concert halls worldwide such as English National Opera, The Gabrieli Consort and The Scottish Chamber Orchestra.  Mhairi will perform the ethereal solo that concludes Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. You can also hear her on the Saturday and Sunday Main Concerts and the Monday chamber concert at All Saints’ Church.

Orchestra and Chorale conducted by Andrew Megill

James MacMillan, Seven Last Words from the Cross
Thomas Tallis, Lamentations of Jeremiah I
William Byrd, Ne irascaris Domine (Part 1)
Alberto Ginastera, Lamentations of Jeremiah 2
Randall Thompson, Alleluia

The Seven Last Words from the Cross is regarded as James MacMillan’s masterpiece. The composer’s deep faith is overtly present in this mesmerizing and deeply moving music. In the Carmel Mission Basilica, the emotional impact of MacMillan’s work will be intense.

Composed in 1994 for choir and string orchestra, MacMillan was inspired by Bach’s Passions, hymns, Gregorian chant, and even Scottish song. He juxtaposes the vivid text based on Christ’s final words with passages of quiet inner reflection to form a powerful dramatic narrative. The haunting score features extraordinary passages, yet it is MacMillan’s use of silence that might be the most potent aspect of the work. This is music of extraordinary musical and emotional depth, and will move audiences with its majesty, intensity, inventiveness, and originality.

The program will also include settings of related texts by two of the greatest English Renaissance composers, William Byrd and Thomas Tallis, an excerpt from Alberto Ginastera’s Lamentations of Jeremiah, and Randall Thompson’s iconic Alleluia. The traditional candlelight chant processional and recessional will bookend these extraordinary concerts at the Carmel Mission Basilica.

“James Macmillan is one of the most eloquent and profound composers of our time,” said Associate Conductor Andrew Megill. “And it is a joy to introduce his masterpiece, The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, to the Carmel Bach Festival family. Like most of Macmillan’s choral music, it is  modeled on the music of the J.S. Bach. Like Bach’s Passions (which concern the same subject matter), Macmillan’s cantata is grounded in the composer’s own personal faith, but transcends any specific theology to communicate universal truths of human experience. I find the work to be deeply moving and transcendently beautiful.”

Andrew Megill is the artistic director of Fuma Sacra and serves as chorusmaster for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He is also music director of Masterwork Chorus and professor and director of choral activities at the University of Illinois. He is in his 13^th season as associate conductor of the Carmel Bach Festival and director of the chorale and chorus.

Orchestra, Chorale, Chorus, Angel Blue, soprano, and Dashon Burton, bass-baritone, conducted by Paul Goodwin

Henry Purcell, Excerpts from Dido and Aeneas
Overture
Music for a While
The Triumphing Dance
Recitative and Aria: Thy hand Belinda and Dido’s Lament (When I am laid in earth)
Chorus: With drooping Wings Cupids come

Georg Frideric Handel, Excerpts from Serse
Overture and Gigue
Recitative and Aria: Fronde Tenere / Ombra mai fu

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ave verum corpus, K.618
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492
Recitative and Aria: e Susanna non vien! / Dove Sono i bei momenti

George Gershwin, Excerpts from Porgy and Bess – A Concert of Songs (1935) arr. Robert Russell Bennett
Overture
Summertime
Duet : Bess you is my woman now

Giuseppe Verdi, Un giorno di regno: Overture
Giuseppe Verdi, La Traviata: Aria – Di Provenza il Mar
Giuseppe Verdi, Requiem: Libera me

Metropolitan Opera superstar soprano Angel Blue headlines the Friday Main Concerts.

The California native is recognized for her beautiful vocal timbre and stunning stage presence. Her voice is known for its shimmering and  agile upper register and “smoky” middle register. Angel starred in the Met’s Porgy and Bess last September, and will perform excerpts from Gershwin’s operatic treasure including a duet with bass-baritone soloist Dashon Burton.

Gershwin was very proud of his masterwork, describing it as combining “the drama and romance of Carmen with the beauty of Die Meistersinger.”  He was a  supreme composer of melodies as inspired in this classical/jazz/blues idiom as Puccini and Verdi were in late Romantic opera. The score is unforgettable with arias such as the duet “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” which has joined the ranks of the greatest operatic love music, utilizing rich, blues-tinged harmony. Author Joseph Horowitz said of the opera, “To my ears, Porgy and Bess is the highest creative achievement in American classical music.”

Excerpts from the Baroque operas Dido and Aeneas and Serse open the wide-ranging concert. You will be enthralled by the haunting beauty of “Dido’s Lament” as performed by Angel Blue. Mozart’s Ave verum corpus for chorus, and the famous Countess aria from The Marriage of Figaro close the first act.

Concluding the program is a trio of Verdi works – an opera overture, the renowned aria “Di Provenza il Mar” from La Traviata sung by Dashon Burton, and the “Libera me” from the composer’s monumental Requiem. In this extraordinarily complex movement the soprano soloist (Angel Blue) sings a plaintive and breathtaking plea to be spared from judgment. A massive tidal wave of sound and energy follows featuring a raging chorus and the powerful orchestra brass and percussion. The music peacefully resolves as the chorus and soprano unite to intone a final quiet prayer for salvation and deliverance.

The ending of the Libera Me is emotional, magical, and stirring, concluding a concert showcasing one of opera’s transcendent emerging stars.

“Who couldn’t resist the Carmel Bach Festival musicians performing arias from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess along with Mozart, Handel, Purcell and Verdi sung by one of today’s greatest sopranos, Angel Blue, star of the Metropolitan Opera, partnered with Dashon Burton,” said Paul Goodwin. “Throw away your troubles and be transported to another world!”

Angel Blue, soprano

Angel Blue grew up in Apple Valley, northeast of Los Angeles, and completed her musical studies at UCLA. Last September, she starred as Bess in a new Metropolitan Opera production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.  These performances follow her internationally praised French Opera debut and as Floria Tosca at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July 2019.

She made her San Francisco Opera debut in 2009; her credits have included performances with the Canadian Opera Company, the Los Angeles Opera, Frankfurt Opera, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, La Scala, and many others. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2017 as Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème.  Also active on the concert platform, Ms. Blue has appeared in recital and in concert in over thirty-five countries.  Important orchestral engagements have included Porgy and Bess at the Berliner Philharmoniker with Sir Simon Rattle, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Münchener Philharmoniker under the baton of Zubin Mehta, and Verdi’s Requiem in Australia with Oleg Caetani.

DASHON BURTON bass-baritone
Dashon Burton returns to the Carmel Bach Festival for a fifth season as bass-baritone soloist. The Bronx, New York native was previously a member of the Chorale. Praised for his “nobility and rich tone,” Burton has established a world-wide career in opera, recital, and in many works with orchestra.  He is a regular guest with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst,  Dashon has won prizes from the ARD International Music Competition and the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, and from the Oratorio Society of New York and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s Competition for Young American Singers.  He graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, and received his Master of Music degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music.

You can also hear Dashon on the Saturday and Sunday Main Concerts, and the Monday Chamber Concerts at All Saints’ Church.

Dashon Burton appears by arrangement with Colbert Artists Management, Inc., 307 Seventh Avenue, Suite 2006, New York NY 10001.

Emlyn Ngai, Pierre Joubert, Tatiana Daubek, Elizabeth Stoppels Girko, Joseph Tan, Ann Kaefer Duggan, violin; Meg Eldridge, viola; Paul Rhodes, Timothy Roberts, cello; Bruce Moyer, bass; Dan Levitan, harp; Robin Carlson Peery, Dawn Walker, flute; Laura Koepke, bassoon; Meredith Brown, Alicia Mastromonaco, horn.

Franz Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 7, “Le Midi”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Concerto for Flute and Harp , K. 299
Robin Carlson Peery, flute; Dan Levitan, harp

The Festival’s final day begins at the Sunset Center with a charming Haydn and Mozart program featuring principal flutist Robin Carlson Perry and harpist Dan Levitan

Michael Beattie music director, Johanna Novom, Amelia Roosevelt, violin; Clio Tilton, viola; Eva Lymenstull, cello; Bruce Moyer, bass; Steven Bard, Ellen Sherman, oboe.

Four emerging vocal stars from our VBA Masterclass program perform Baroque masterpieces with members of the Festival Orchestra.