Myths & Legends Program

THE CONCORDIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PRESENTS

Myths & Legends Dvorak Legends Berlioz Les nuits d’été Robert Tegler Student Centre December 05, 2021, 3 p.m.

Danielle Lisboa, conductor Krista Mulbery, mezzo-soprano

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Program 10 Legends, Op. 59, B. 122

Antonín Dvořák

No. 1. Allegretto No. 2. Molto moderato No. 3. Allegro giusto No. 4. Molto maestoso No. 5. Allegro giusto No. 6. Allegro con moto No. 7. Allegretto grazioso No. 8. Un poco allegretto e grazioso No. 9. Andante con moto No. 10. Andante

Les nuits d'été (The Nights of Summer), Op. 7

I. II. III. IV. V. VI.

Hector Berlioz

Villanelle Le spectre de la rose (The Spectre of the Rose) Sur les lagunes: Lamento (On the Lagoons: Lamento) Absence Au cimetiere: Clair de lune (At the Cemetery: Moonlight) L'ile inconnue (The Unknown Island) Krista Mulbery, mezzo-soprano

SAVE THE DATE!

Sunday, March 6 2022 at the Tegler Student Centre

CONCORDIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Tchaikovsky Variations on a rococo theme Beethoven Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”

Danielle Lisboa, conductor

Ryan Hofmann, cello

Program Notes

by Jennifer Gregory

Legends, Op. 59, B. 122

Published March 1881, Legends was originally composed for amateur musicians to play at home as a piano duet. Due to its popularity, the publisher requested that Dvořák arrange the work for orchestra, which he started in the fall. Although all ten pieces were orchestrated in 1882, they were not premiered as a complete cycle until 1907 by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

While Legends is not as well known as Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances, it is easy to see why it was so well received. These miniatures have a unique charm, simplicity and intimacy that alternate in mood and style that draws the audience in. Brahms said of the work “…his Legends continue to charm me. It is a delightful work, and one envies the fresh, cheerful and rich resourcefulness of the man.”

Les nuits d'été (The Nights of Summer), Op. 7

Les nuits d'été was originally scored for soloist (mezzo-soprano or tenor) and piano in 1841. A few years later, Berlioz set the fourth song, Absence, for orchestra for his mistress.

At the suggestion of his publisher, Berlioz orchestrated the rest of the songs by 1856.

This reworking, included transposing the vocal part to give the option of different vocal ranges and dedicating each song to well-known German singers.

The work is based on six poems by Théophile Gautier. Although it is not a true song cycle, it is held together by Berlioz’s sense of intimacy and mood. Les nuits d'été is written for a small orchestra which adds to the sense of intimacy. The work opens energetically (Villanelle), moving to the middle songs (Le Spectre de la rose, Sur les lagunes, Absence, Au cimetière) that have a more sombre mood. The final song (L’île inconnue) ends the piece with the orchestra depicting the waves of the ocean to an unknown new beginning.

The Performers Violin I

Flute

Allan Nelson Daniel Graf

Oboe

Violin II

Clarinet

Frank Ho, concertmaster

Marie Krejcar Saara Belliveau Amy Kao-Dube Antonia Cavaco Arwen Thysse

Viola

Darrell Soetaert Alan Dunn Blaine Madsen

Cello

John Fedor Bhavisha Kotecha Katarina Loutas Sharon Toronchuk Frances Elgaard

Bass

Benjamin Eldon Victor Sanchez Rodriguez Dante Wright

Rock Larochelle Jennifer Gregory

Stephanie Wong

Amber Campbell Lyndsey Cohen

Bassoon

Kristen Moffat Douglas Ridway

French Horn Martin Grasdal Ross McLean Gerald Onciul Anne Robinson

Harp

Samantha Spurrier

Percussion Joe Caruk

Danielle Lisboa, conductor Brazilian-born Danielle Lisboa leads an active career as an orchestral conductor, music educator and scholar, regularly conducting community and professional ensembles. Lisboa holds a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Eastman School of Music University of Rochester. On arriving in Canada in 2008, she became Orchestra Toronto’s first apprentice conductor, was named assistant conductor two months later and shortly after was appointed the orchestra’s music director and conductor.

During her tenure, Lisboa became known for her cutting-edge programming and Tyler Baker Photography public engagement. Her vision and dynamic leadership took Orchestra Toronto into new paths for outreach and youth initiatives, including the Marta Hidy Concerto Competition and the popular annual children’s concerts. Two years later she led Bellus Barbari, the Toronto Women’s Symphony Orchestra, in its inaugural Ontario tour.

Lisboa currently serves as Associate Professor of Music at Concordia University of Edmonton in the areas of conducting and music theory. Lisboa is former music director and co-founder of the Edmonton Metropolitan Orchestra and continues to maintain an active presence in the community with the Edmonton Philharmonic Orchestra in outreach concerts to local continuing care hospitals and schools.

Her current research interests encompass topics of women and leadership on the orchestral podium and analysis and transcription of sacred rituals of native peoples of Brazil with recent partnerships and publications in Portugal and Brazil. Lisboa reinstated the Concordia Symphony Orchestra as a new ensemble in fall of 2017. She spearheaded Concordia’s first operatic project, developed a summer string camp for youth, and a provincial concerto competition. Most recently, she led the Orchestral Training and Leadership workshop to mentor young conductors and orchestral players into leadership roles.

The Performers Krista Mulbery, mezzo-soprano Mezzo - soprano Krista Mulbery makes her first solo appearance with the Concordia Symphony Orchestra for Berlioz's Le Nuits d'été. Other recent performances include Zita in Gianni Schicchi and La zia Principessa in Suor Angelica with Pop Goes The Opera praised by Strathcona News she "added a surprising strength to the opera" and "showcased a dynamic vocal range during “nel silenzio di quei raccoglimenti,” where she used her mastery of control." "... played most imperiously ... like a stern Victorian matron – one can well believe the strength of her unsympathetic convictions" Mark Morris ,Edmonton Classical Music.

In 2020, she returned to Mercury Opera, reprising the role of Benoit the landlady in La Boheme and appeared with the Edmonton Metropolitan Orchestra for A Night at the Opera Comedy. At Edmonton Opera Mulbery performed Praskowia in The Merry Widow, Other roles performed include The Witch in Hansel and Gretel and Amastre in Xerxes at The University of Alberta. Past concerts include performances with the Alberta Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Canadian Artillery Band and Edmonton Youth Orchestra.

Since 2010 Krista Mulbery has performed in more than 15 main stage productions with Edmonton Opera as a member of its chorus and in many concerts and recitals throughout Canada. Originally from Saskatchewan, she attended The University of Alberta and resides in Morinville, Alberta.

Symphony Concerto Competition 2021 Concordia Symphony Concerto Competition for Concordia fellows The 2021 Concordia Symphony Concerto Competition is open to Concordia University of Edmonton students, alumni, and CSO members. This special edition of the competition is open to all categories, including strings, winds, brass, voice, and piano. Refer to section V for further details on competition honorarium.

The winner will receive a competition honorarium in the amount of $1,000, kindly donated by the Alberta Chinese Cultural Society. Registration will open on November 15, 2021.

For more information, please visit the competition website at Concerto Competition

Words Les nuits d'été, Hector Berlioz poetry by Théophile Gautier

I. Villanelle

I. Villanelle

Quand viendra la saison nouvelle, Quand auront disparu les froids, Tous les deux nous irons, ma belle, Pour cueillir le muguet aux bois.

Sous nos pieds égrenant les perles Que l’on voit au matin trembler.

Nous irons écouter les merles siffler.

When the new season has come, when the cold has disappeared, together we will go, my lovely one, to gather lilies-of the valley in the woods.

Beneath our feet picking the pearls that one sees trembling in the morning.

We will go to hear the blackbirds whistle.

Le printemps est venu, ma belle, C’est le mois des amants béni; Et l’oiseau satinant son aile, Dit ses vers au rebord du nid.

Oh! Viens donc, sur ce banc de mousse Pour parler de nos beaux amours, Et dis-moi de ta voix si douce, Toujours!

Spring has come, my lovely one, this is the month blessed by lovers; and the bird, smoothing its wing, speaks its verses from the rim of its nest.

Oh! Come here, onto this mossy bank to speak of our beautiful love, and say to me, in your sweet voice, Forever!

Loin, bien loin, égarant nos courses, Faisant fuir le lapins caché, Et le daim, au miroir des sources Admirant son grand bois penché; Puis chez nous, tout heureux, tout aisés, En paniers enlaçant nos doigts, Revenons, rapportant des fraises des bois.

Far, very far, wandering from our path, setting to flight the hidden rabbit, and the buck, in the mirror of the spring admiring its great twisted antlers; then home, all happy and at ease, lacing our fingers together like baskets, we’ll return, carrying wild strawberries.

II. Le spectre de la rose

II. The ghost of the rose

Soulève ta paupière close Q’effleure un songe virginal!

Je suis le spectre d’une rose Que tu portais hier au bal.

Lift your closed eyelids, touched by a virginal dream!

I am the ghost of a rose which you wore last night at the ball.

Tu me pris, encore emperlée Des pleurs d’argent, de l‘arrosoir, Et, parmi la fête etoilée, Tu me promenas tout le soir.

You took me, still pearled with silver tears from the watering can, and, throughout the star-filled festival you carried me all the evening.

O toi qui de ma mort fu cause, Sans que tu puisses le chasser, toute les nuits mon spectre rose A ton chevet viendra danser.

Oh you who were the cause of my death, without your being able to chase it away, every night my rose-colored ghost will dance by your pillow.

Mais ne crains rein, je ne réclame Ne messi ni De Profundis, Ce léger parfum est mon âme, Et j’arrive du paradis.

But fear nothing; I claim neither mass nor requiem.

This light perfume is my soul, and I have come from paradise.

Mon destin fut digne d’envie, Et pour avoir un sort si beau Plus d’un aurait donné sa vie; Car sur ton sein j’ai mon tombeau,

My destiny is worthy of envy and to have a fate so beautiful more than one might have given his life; since your bosom is my tomb,

Et sur l’albâtre où je repose Un poet avec un baiser Ecrivit: “Ci-git une rose, Que tous les rois vont jalouser.”

And upon the alabaster where I rest a poet has written with a kiss: “Here lies a rose which all kings might envy.”

III. Sur les lagunes

III. On the lagoons

Ma belle amie est morte, Je pleurerai toujours; Sous la tombe elle emporte Mon âme et mes amours.

Dans le ciel, sans m’attendre, Elle se retourna; L’ange qui l’emmena Ne voulut pas me prendre.

Que mon sort est amer!

Ah! Sans amour s’en aller sur la mer!

My beautiful friend is dead; I will weep forever.

Into the tomb she has carried my soul and my heart.

To heaven, without waiting for me, she has returned; the angel who led her did not want to take me.

How bitter is my fate!

Ah! To go to sea without love!

La blanche creature Est couchée au cercuil; Comme dans la nature Tout me parait en deuil!

La colombe oubliée Pleure et songe a l’absent.

Mon âme pleure et sent Qu’elle est déparaillée!

Que mon sort est amer!

Ah! Sans amour s’en aller sur la mer!

The fair creature is lying in her coffin; how everything in nature seems to me to be in mourning!

The forsaken dove weeps and dreams of the absent one.

My soul weeps and feels that it has lost its partner!

How bitter is my fate!

Ah! To go to sea without love!

Les nuits d’été Continued

Sur moi la nuit immense S’étend comme un linceul.

Je chante ma romance Que le ciel entend seul: Ah! Comme elle était belle Et comme je l’aimais!

Je n’aimerai jamais Une femme autant qu’elle…

Que mon sort est amer!

Ah! Sans amour s’en aller sur la mer!

Over me the immense night spreads itself like a shroud.

I sing my romance which only heaven hears: Ah! How beautiful she was and how I loved her!

I will never love another woman as much as I loved her…

How bitter is my fate!

Ah! To go to sea without love!

IV. l’Absence

IV. Absence

eviens, reviens, ma belle aimée!

Comme une fleur lon du soleil, La fleur de ma vie est fermée Loin de ton sourire vermeil!

Return, return, my beloved!

Like a flower far from the sun, the flower of my life is closed far from your brilliant smile!

Entre nos cœurs quelle distance!

Tant d’espace entre nos baisers!

O sort amer! ô dure absence!

O grands désirs inapaisés!

Between our hearts what distance!

What space between our kisses!

O bitter fate! O hard absence!

O great, unappeasable desires!

Reviens, reviens…

Return, return…

D’ici làbas que de campagnes, Que de villes et de hameaux, Que de vallons et de montagnes, A lasser le pied des chevaux!

Between here and there what fields, what cities and towns, what valleys and mountains to weary the feet of the horses!

Reviens, reviens…

Return, return…

V. Au cimitière (Claire de lune)

V. At the cemetery (Moonlight)

Connaisez-vous la blanche tombe, Où flotte avec un son plaintif L’ombre d’un if?

Sur l’if une pâle colombe Triste et seule au soleil couchant, Chante son chant:

o you know the white tomb, where floats, with a plaintive sound, the shadow of a yew-tree?

On the yew a pale dove, sad and alone in the sunset, sings its song:

Un air maladivement tendre, A la fois charmant et fatal, Qui vous fait mal E qu’on voudrait toujour entendre; Un air comme en soupire aux ciex L’ange amoureux.

A melody morbidly tender, at once charming and deadly, which will do you harm and which one wishes to listen to forever; a melody like the sighing in heaven of an angel in love.

On dirait que l’âme éveillée Pleure sous terre à l’unisson De la chanson, Et du malheur d’être oubliée Se plaint dans un roucoulement Bien doucement.

One might say that an awakened soul weeps beneath the earth together with the song, and, in sorrow at having been forgotten, laments by cooing very sweetly.

Sur les ailes de la musique On sent lentement revenir Un souvenir.

Une ombre, une forme angélique Passe dans un rayon trembant En voile blanc.

On the wings of the music one slowly feels returning a memory.

A shadow, an angelic form passes in a ray of trembling light, veiled in white.

Les belles de nuit* demiclose Jettent leur parfum faible et doux Autour de vous, Et la fantôme aux molles poses Murmure en vous tendant les bras: Tu reviendras!

The half-closed Marvels of Peru* spread their delicate and sweet perfume about you, and the ghost, standing limply, murmurs, holding her arms out to you: “You will return!”

Oh! Jamais plus, près de la tombe, Je n’irai, quand descend le soir Au manteau noir, Ecouter la pâle colombe Chanter sur la pointe de l’if Son chant plaintif.

Oh! Never again will I go near the tomb when evening falls in its black robe, to listen to the pale dove singing, on the branch of the yew-tree, its plaintive song.

VI. L’Ile inconnue

VI. The unknown island

Dites, la jeune belle, Où voulez-vous aller?

La voile enfle son aile, La brise va souffler.

Tell me, pretty young girl, where do you wish to go?

The sail spreads its wing, the breeze is beginning to blow.

L’aviron est d’ivoire, Le pavillon de moire, Le gouvernail d’or fin; J’ai pour lest une orange, Pour voile une aile d’ange, Pour mousse un séraphin.

The oar is of ivory, the flag of silk, the rudder of pure gold; for ballast I have an orange, for sail the wing of an angel, for cabin-boy, a seraph.

Dites…

Tell me…

Est-ce dans la Baltique?

Dans la mer Pacifique?

Dans l’île de Java?

Où bien est-ce en Norvège, Cuillir la fleur de neige, Ou la fleur a’Angsoka?

Is it to the Baltic sea?

To the Pacific ocean?

To the island of Java?

Or is it rather to Norway, to gather snow-flowers, or the flowers of Angsoka?

Les nuits d’été Continued

Dites, dites, où voulez-vous aller?

Tell me, tell me, where do you want to go?

Menez moi, dit la belle, A la rive fidèle Où l’on aime toujours!

Cette rive, ma chère, On ne la connaît guère Au pays des amours.

“Take me,” says the pretty one, “to the faithful shore where people love forever!”

That shore, my dear, is almost unknown in the country of love.

Où voulez-vous allez?

La brise va souffler.

Where do you want to go?

The breeze is beginning to blow.

translation: Marion Leeds Carroll

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