Program: Handel's Messiah

Handel’s Messiah 4 December 2021 / 7:30PM 5December 2021 / 2:30PM Jack Singer Concert Hall

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program George Frideric Handel

Messiah, HWV 56 120’ 1. Sinfonia 2. Comfort ye my people (Tenor Recitative) 3. Ev’ry valley shall be exalted (Tenor Air) 4. And the glory of the Lord (Chorus) 5. Thus saith the Lord (Bass Recitative) 6. But who may abide the day of his coming (Alto Air) 7. And He Shall Purify (Chorus) 8. Behold, a virgin shall conceive (Alto Recitative) 9. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion (Alto Air and Chorus) 12. For unto us a child is born (Chorus) 13. Pifa 14a. There were shepherds abiding in the fields (Soprano Recitative) 14b. But lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them (Soprano Recitative) 15. And the angel said unto them (Soprano Recitative) 16. And suddenly there was with the angel (Soprano Recitative) 17. Glory to God (Chorus) 18. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion (Soprano Air) 19. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened (Alto Recitative) 20. He shall feed his flock (Alto and Soprano Duet) 21. His yoke is easy, and his burthen is light (Chorus)

Intermission 20’

22. Behold the lamb of God (Chorus) 23. He was despised (Alto Air) 24. Surely he hath borne our griefs (Chorus) 25. And with his stripes we are healed (Chorus) 26. All we like sheep have gone astray (Chorus) 27. All they that see him laugh him to scorn (Tenor Recitative) 28. He trusted in God (Chorus) 29. Thy rebuke hath broken his heart (Soprano Recitative) 30. Behold, and see if there be any sorrow (Soprano Air) 31. He was cut off out of the land of the living (Tenor Recitative) 32. But thou didst not leave his soul in hell (Tenor Air) 33. Lift up your heads, O ye gates (Chorus) 40. Why do the nations so furiously rage together (Bass Air) 41. Let us break their bonds asunder (Chorus) 42. He that dwelleth in heaven (Tenor Recitative) 43. Thou shalt break them (Tenor Air) 44. Hallelujah (Chorus) 45. I know that my redeemer liveth (Soprano Air) 46. Since by man came death (Chorus) 47. Behold, I tell you a mystery (Bass Recitative) 48. The trumpet shall sound (Bass Air) 53. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain (Chorus) Amen (Chorus)

Andrew Crust Conductor

Hannah Pagenkopf Soprano

Andrew Crust is the Associate Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony, where he conducts the VSO in subscription, film, pops, education, and other series each season. He is also the Music Director of the Lima Symphony in Ohio.

Crust’s recent engagements include concerts with the symphony orchestras of Vermont, Arkansas, and Rockford as Music Director finalist, and San Diego, Calgary, Hartford, Winnipeg, and others as guest conductor. International invitations include l’Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, the Hamburger Symphoniker, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile, and others. In 2017/2018 Crust was awarded first prize at the Accademia Chigiana

by Daniele Gatti. In 2020 he was awarded a Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award, and will tour Spain with Le nozze di Figaro in 2023. Recent positions include Assistant Conductor of the Memphis and Portland symphonies, Cover Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony and Nashville Symphony, Assistant Conductor of the Boulder Philharmonic, and Assistant Conductor of Opera McGill. In 2017/2018 Crust served as Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA.

Praised for the “special, silvery beauty and expressiveness” of her voice (Calgary Herald), soprano Hannah Pagenkopf has performed extensively in her hometown Calgary and abroad. She has sung frequently with Juno-nominated Luminous Voices as both soloist and ensemble member, and has been featured by Early Music Voices, Calgary Bach Society, and Mountain View Festival, among others. In addition to her role as section principal with the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus, Pagenkopf has appeared as a soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra on various occasions, as well as the Red Deer Symphony and baroque chamber orchestra Rosa Barocca.

In 2020 Pagenkopf reached the finals of the prestigious NATS Artist Awards competition in New York City, placing second overall and winning an additional prize for ‘Most Promising Singer.’ Other highlights include performing two solo recitals in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and participating in the Neil Semer Vocal Institute in Germany.

Andrea Hill Mezzo-soprano

Timothy Shantz Tenor

Calgary-born mezzo-soprano Andrea Hill balances engagements at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, London’s Covent Garden, across Canada, and on major stages in France. The 2021/2022 season sees Hill appearing as a soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic and Florida Orchestra, joining Opera Southwest in the titular role of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and returning to Opera Dijon as Despina for Così fan tutte.A passionate concert and chamber singer, Hill has participated in various festivals worldwide, including La Grange de Meslay, Musique à l’Empéri, Festival Présences with Radio France, and the Ultima Contemporary Music Festival in Oslo, Norway. She has also performed as a soloist for Winnipeg and Victoria symphonies, in excerpts of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with conductor Kurt Masur, and L’enfant et les sortilèges at Royal Festival Hall in London under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Timothy Shantz is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Alberta’s Department of Music, and Founder and Artistic Director of Calgary’s Luminous Voices.

For over a decade he was Chorus Master for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of Spiritus Chamber Choir. Performance highlights as tenor include George Frideric Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall, soloist and ensemble singer at the Carmel Bach Festival and with the Lucerne Festival Academy under the direction of Pierre Boulez. He has performed the role of Evangelist in Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion and has been heard in recitals performing song cycles of Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Gabriel Fauré. In 2021, he was honoured with the Richard S. Eaton Award of Distinction from Choir Alberta in recognition of exemplary service to choral music in the province of Alberta. Shantz holds a Doctor of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

About the Calgary Phil

Peter Monaghan Bass-baritone Peter Monaghan, originally hailing from Lethbridge, Alberta, is excited to be singing in his home province and making his Calgary Philharmonic debut.

Monaghan began this season working with Edmonton Opera as a part of the Wild Rose Project set to release digitally in December. His 2021/2022 engagements consist of Benoit/Alcindoro in Edmonton Opera’s production of La Bohème, Masetto in Pacific Opera Victoria’s production of Don Giovanni, and Johannes Brahms’s Requiem with the Lethbridge Symphony. Some of Monaghan’s most recent credits include: Betto in Il trittico, The Marquis in La Traviata (Pacific Opera Victoria); Kromov in The Merry Widow, Zaretsky/Captain in Eugene Onegin, The Mandarin in Turandot (Vancouver Opera); Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro (Edmonton Opera); and Sam Carmicheal in Theatre Under the Stars’ production of Mamma Mia.

The Calgary Philharmonic celebrated 65 years as a pillar of Calgary’s vibrant arts community in 2020 and has grown to be one of Canada’s most celebrated live music ensembles. Led by Music Director Rune Bergmann, the Calgary Phil presents classical standards, pop favourites, bold collaborations, and cutting-edge new works, and attracts world-renowned guest artists and conductors. In a typical Season, the Orchestra welcomes over 100,000 visitors to the concert hall and reaches audiences around the world through its free and accessible digital programming and live-stream initiative —an immersive, online concert experience that launched in 2017.

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About the Chorus Established in 1963, the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus is one of only two choruses in Canada that is part of a major professional symphony orchestra. The Chorus performs a wide variety of repertoire, including oratorio, opera, light classics, contemporary music, pops, and commissioned new works. In a typical Season, the acclaimed ensemble is featured in four to eight concerts with the Orchestra. The Calgary Philharmonic Chorus is made up of dedicated volunteer musicians from Calgary and surrounding communities who come from all walks of life. Together, they dedicate over 19,000 hours annually to rehearsals and performances.

about the piece

Messiah, HWV 56 George Frideric Handel 1685 to 1759 The Passion of Jesus Christ is such a compelling story that it has drawn many of the great composers of history to attempt doing it justice through music. If sheer number of performances is a reliable guide to success, Handel’s oratorio Messiah may be the greatest Passion setting of all.

Handel was 56 when he composed it, the necessary experience of life and music well in hand. He had developed into a true cosmopolitan, a widely skilled composer who wove together the various musical threads of his day into a rich and varied personal style. He began absorbing these influences early in his career. He spent that period first in his homeland, then in Italy.

During the second decade of the 18th century, he settled in England, where he won his greatest fame. One of his reasons for locating there was the current popularity of a type of music with which he had won great success: Italian-style opera. Over the next 30 years, he devoted the major portion of his creative energies to supplying English audiences with that type of piece.

The English public grew tired of Italian opera’s absurd plots, posturing soloists, and overly ornate vocal style. They were also looking to cast off continental influences in favour of entertainment with a uniquely local flavour. They found what they were looking for in oratorio. It represented not only a change from opera, but also an opportunity for audiences to hear and relish presentations given in their own language.

Handel, to his great financial distress, twigged to this trend only slowly. Once he finally did recognize the quarter to which the musical wind had shifted, he began producing a most successful series of English-language oratorios. They helped him regain his title as his adopted country’s favourite composer.

In structural terms, opera and oratorio have a great deal in common. They both involve casts of solo singers, a chorus, and an orchestra performing a sequence of arias, ensembles, and instrumental interludes. But in oratorios there are no costumes, props, and staging, and this type of piece is performed in concert halls and churches, rather than in opera houses. Another important difference lies in subject matter. Operas deal strictly with secular topics, while oratorios frequently treat sacred ones, as well.

By 1741, the waning of interest in opera had reduced Handel’s financial stature dramatically. Relief came in the form of an invitation from the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He offered Handel the opportunity to visit Dublin for a series of concerts featuring Handel’s music.In just over three weeks, the composer created a new oratorio, possibly with his upcoming visit to Ireland in mind. Charles Jennens prepared sources from both the Old and New Testaments. Handel took his Messiah, as he had named the piece, to Dublin when he journeyed there in December 1741. He staged a dozen successful concerts over the following months, then announced with great fanfare that his new oratorio would receive its premiere on April 13, 1742. He cannily arranged for a public rehearsal to take place the day before. It caused a sensation. As a result, hundreds of eager listeners had to be turned away from the official first performance. That debut raised £400 for local hospitals, and caused one critic to write, “Words are wanting to express the exquisite delight it afforded to the admiring crowded audience.”

By Don Anderson ©2021

Orchestra First Violins Diana Cohen Concertmaster

John Lowry

Associate Concertmaster

Donovan Seidle

Assistant Concertmaster

Edmund Chung Hangyul Kim Olga Kotova Bonnie Louie Genevieve Micheletti Maria van der Sloot Hojean Yoo TBD TBD

Second Violins

Celli

Horns

Arnold Choi Josue Valdepenas Kathleen de Caen Thomas Megee David Morrissey Daniel Poceta TBD TBD

Robert McCosh Jennifer Frank-Umana TBD Maxwell Stein Heather Wootton

Basses Sam Loeck Kyle Sanborn Mathew Heller Trish Bereti-Reid Patrick Staples Jonathan Yeoh

Lorna Tsai Stephanie Soltice-Johnson Erin Burkholder Jeremy Gabbert Hyewon Grillet-Kim Craig Hutchenreuther Minnie Min Kyung Kwon Theresa Lane Adriana Lebedovich Steven J. Lubiarz

Flutes

Violas

David Sussman

Laurent Grillet-Kim Marcin Swoboda Arthur Bachmann Jeremy Bauman Peter Blake Michael Bursey Alisa Klebanov Jesse Morrison

principal associate principal assistant principal

Sara Hahn-Scinocco Gwen Klassen

Piccolo Gwen Klassen

Oboes Alex Klein David Sussman

English Horn Clarinets Slavko Popovic Jocelyn Colquhoun

Bassoons Antoine St-Onge Michael Hope

Trumpets Adam Zinatelli Miranda Cairns

Trombones James Scott TBD

Bass Trombone David Reid

Tuba Tom McCaslin

Timpani Alexander Cohen

Percussion TBD

Harp Tisha Murvihill

Librarian Rob Grewcock

Assistant Librarian TBD

Personnel Manager Michael Thomson

Chorus Chorus Master Dr. Mark Bartel

Accompanist Evan Mounce

Alto Julia Millen Margaret Anderson Barbara Boland Indrani Chatterjee Tanya Chow Breanne Coady Bernie Constantin Ruth Cross Shirley Cumming Gillian Forster Kay Harrison Pat Heitman Amanda Holt Helen Isaac Allison Johnson Heather Klassen Catherine Lasuita Megan Lundrigan Barbara Mathies Sue McNaughton Cindy Neufeld Mara Osis Karen Palmer Anastasiya Petruk Anne Rodger Anne Roggensack Donna Ruparell

Bass Nick Allen Odeniyi Ayo-Ajayi Bamzy Banwo Glenn Bontje principal

Ian R. Charter Tim Cooke Arthur Dick Kevin Di Filippo Alan Dornian Mark Dumbrique Nana Essel John Ghitan Ian Gibson Allan Huber Eric Klaassen Martin Mobach Dave Pattison Dana Salter David Schey Richard Wanner Max Webber Jim Weisert Keith Wyenberg

Soprano Hannah Pagenkopf Karin Baumgardner Lyndsay Bellemore Katherine Biggart Ellen Borak Michelle Bozynski Tricia Bray Carolyn Byers Christina Candra Twylla Conn Sheila Cook Ina Dobrinski Gail Feltham Sim Galloway Alison Gibson/Nelson Carolyn Hatt Robyn Hauck Gloria Hendry Dale Hensley

Linda Janzen Amy Klintberg Gillian Posey Colleen Potter Brier Reid Lisa Sears-Walsh Joan Simmins Barbara Soles Becky Standing Chantelle Stevenson Melissa Symanczyk Norma Webb Dianne Williams

Tenor Jason Ragan Timothy Ahrenholz Tim Bell Keevin Berg Tristram Chivers Pat Favaro Katt Hryciw Peter Rilstone Dennis Voth Daniel Vandenbroek

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