Vocal Music of England

VOCAL BRITAIN Benjamin Britten, composer

" D EC E MB E R 1 BE N JAMI N BR I T T E N & W I L L I AM WALTO N M O R S E R EC I TAL H AL L THU R S DAY AT 8 PM

YALE IN NEW YORK DAVID SHIFRIN, A R TI S TI C DI R EC TO R

Robert Blocker, Dean

VOCAL BRITAIN William Walton 1902–1983

A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table 1.

The Lord Mayor’s Table 2.

Glide Gently 3.

Wapping Old Stairs 4.

Holy Thursday 5.

The Contrast 6.

Rhyme Janna Baty*, mezzo-soprano Jill Brunelle, piano

Benjamin Britten 1913–1976

Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, Op. 31 I. Prologue II. Pastoral III. Nocturne IV. Elegy V. Dirge VI. Hymn VII. Sonnet VIII. Epilogue Dann Coakwell ’11ad, tenor William Purvis*, horn Catherine Cosbey ’12ad, Holly Piccoli ’12cert, Kayla Moffett ’13mm, Corin Lee ’13mm, Victor Fournelle-Blain ’13mm, Hen-Shuo Chang ’13mm, violin Eric Wong ’12ad, Jane Mitchell ’13mm, On You Kim ’12MM, viola Felix Umansky ’12ad, Jurrian van der Zanden ’12mm, cello Gregory Robbins ’12mm, double bass intermission

As a courtesy to the performers and audience, turn off cell phones and pagers. Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.

Preview Concert · Yale in New York · David Shifrin, Artistic Director Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall

Walton

december 1, 2011 thu · 8:00 pm

Façade: An Entertainment Poems by Edith Sitwell Fanfare (Instrumental) I. Hornpipe II. En Famille III. Mariner Man IV. Long Steel Grass V. Through Gilded Trellises VI. Tango-Pasodoble VII. Lullaby for Jumbo VIII. Black Mrs. Behemoth IX. Tarantella X. A Man from a far Countree XI. By the Lake XII. Country Dance XIII. Polka XIV. Four in the Morning XV. Something Lies beyond the Scene XVI. Valse XVII. Jodelling Song XVIII. Scotch Rhapsody XIX. Popular Song XX. Fox Trot (Old Sir Faulk) XXI. Sir Beelzebub William Boughton, guest conductor Janna Baty* and John McDonough, narrators Peng Zhou ’12mm, flute and piccolo Wai Lau ’13ad, clarinet and bass clarinet Vincent Oneppo ’74mm, alto saxophone John Allen ’13mm, trumpet Victor Caccese ’13mm, percussion Cristobal Gajardo-Benitez ’13mm, percussion Ying Zhang ’12ad, cello * Yale School of Music faculty

Notes on the Program

benjamin britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings In 1942 Benjamin Britten returned to his native Britain after a three-year stay in America. Among the chief motivations for his return was a desire to immerse himself in British subject matter. This inspiration would soon lead Britten to write his magnificent opera Peter Grimes. As a means of preparation for this gargantuan undertaking, he took up the challenge of writing several smaller vocal and choral works. These include A Ceremony of Carols, the Hymn to St. Cecilia, Rejoice in the Lamb, and the Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings.

During the summer of 1942, Britten met the young horn virtuoso Dennis Brain, who soon asked for a new work. Early the next year, Britten contracted a bad case of measles, which left him bedridden for two months. During his convalescence, Britten composed the Serenade. The six texts Britten chose were composed by British authors of diverse eras, from the anonymous 15 th-century Lake Wyke Dirge to “The Princess: The Splendour Falls on Castle Walls” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892).

The poems are unified by their subject matter: each is a meditation on the idea of the evening and nighttime. In this way, the title of Serenade is particularly apt, as the genre has long been associated with the late hours, from Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik, to the Sérénade of Debussy’s Cello Sonata, which evokes the lovesick commedia dell’arte character Pierrot, “furious with the moon.”

Britten’s Serenade begins with a solo horn Prologue that is played with the harmonic partials of the natural overtone series. This causes some notes to sound out of tune, but it also conveys a sense of ancient, unaltered purity. The first song, a Pastoral with a text by Charles Cotton (1630– 1687), continues the languid mood, while the

Nocturne, a setting of Tennyson’s “The Splendour Falls,” is more animated in character. Here, the horn performs virtuosic fanfare calls at the words, “Blow, bugle, blow,” and the strings chime in with sharp, crystalline chords.

The Elegy, to a text by William Blake (1757–1827), takes a turn towards darker themes, as Blake’s short poem confronts issues of earthly love, decay, shame, and sin. This fraught emotional landscape is echoed by falling chromatic lines in the horn.

The stunning Dirge maintains the tension as the tenor inexorably repeats a melodic ground under which the strings weave an intricate fugue. At the movement’s climax, the horn suddenly enters to intone the fugue subject, before the churning motion slowly dissipates. The tension finally breaks with the Hymn, in which pizzicato strings accompany a setting of Ben Johnson’s (1572–1637) “Hymn to Diana.” Britten turned to the verse of John Keats (1795–1821) for the final Sonnet, for which the horn is silent. The closing Epilogue is a repeat of the Prologue, but the plaintive horn line now reaches our ears from a distant place, far from the idyllic innocence with which we began.

– Jordan Kuspa

Notes on the Program

william walton A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table William Walton was born in 1902 to parents who were both singers, and as a child he sang in choirs.

He sang in the Christ Church Cathedral choir at Oxford and later studied at Christ Church College, Oxford. He didn’t graduate, but he did meet three members of the Sitwell family: Sacheverell, Osbert, and Edith. A short visit with them turned into fifteen years as a virtual member of the family.

In 1948 he married Susana Gil Passo, and the couple soon began to spend most of their time in Italy.

The song cycle “A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table” was written later in Walton’s life, on a commission for the 1962 City of London Music Festival. Christopher Hassall, a librettist, poet, and actor who had worked with Walton on the opera Troilus and Cressida as well as a previous song cycle, selected six poems from 17 th- and 18 thcentury British writers. The soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and pianist Gerald Moore gave the premiere in July of 1962. Walton later orchestrated the song cycle, though tonight we hear the original version for piano and voice.

The song cycle opens with an exultant setting of Thomas Jordan’s 1674 poem “The Lord Mayor’s Table.” In the contemplative “Glide gently” (text

by Wordsworth), motifs wander and curl dreamily.

The mood breaks into the lopsided dance-like rhythms accompaning the declarations of faithfulness in the anonymous poem “Wapping Old Stairs.” A brooding, rippling piano part underscores the depths of “Holy Thursday,” William Blake’s poem from the 1787 Songs of Innocence.

“The Contrast,” lively and charming, sets Charles Morris’s 1798 poem celebrating the joys of London over the dullness of the country. “Rhyme” closes

the cycle on a jubilant note, with the piano sounding the text’s multitude of bells.

– Dana Astmann

william walton Façade: An Entertainment Across the English Channel in Paris, Jean Cocteau, Erik Satie and Pablo Picasso combined their talents to create the ballet Parade for Sergei Diaghalev’s Ballet Russe. Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale combined narrator and small ensemble using popular music forms such as the tango, ragtime, pasadoble, and waltz. Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire used a small ensemble, remarkably similar in make-up to Façade, with narration in sprechgesang (speechsong). The narrator was alone on the stage; the musicians were hidden. All these experimental pieces attracted the attention of the public and the critics. Not wishing to be left behind by these Europeans, the aristocratic and eccentric Sitwell family in London decided to create their own public scandal with their ‘in-house’ composer, the young William Walton who had just been thrown out of Oxford for failing the final exams.

Edith Sitwell’s clever use of word-rhythms and onomatopoeia in these abstract poems, with their references to Queen Victoria, Greek goddesses, Spanish lovers, and the popular English Music Hall, are full of dissonances and assonances (vowel rhymes) which combine to create utter, but charming, jibberish. Walton’s use of musical parody and quotations through such musical forms and dances as the Hornpipe, Sarabande, Waltz, Jazz, Tango, Tarantella (one of Walton’s

Notes on the Program

favorite musical forms), Polka, Swiss jodelling song, Fox-trot, and many others creates the atmosphere for Edith Sitwell’s nonsense poetry. For the original production in London, the narrators (Edith and Osbert Sitwell) were hidden behind a screen on which two large heads were painted with mouth-holes in the screen. Through these mouth-holes, the narrators spoke with the aid of a Sengerphone – yes, that very same instrument that was created by Herr Senger to aid his singing the role of Fafner in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.

The stiff-upper-lipped English didn’t take to this sort of experimental entertainment. Noel Coward walked out in the middle of the first performance; a local fireman was quoted as saying, “Surely it is time this sort of thing were stopped. After all, one of the many millions of people who have never heard of the Sitwells might have been induced by the announcement to pay to go in.”

Though the critics and public were baffled, Façade has become one of Walton’s most loved and performed works, and it is the only work of Edith Sitwell’s that has remained in the public eye. Enjoy.

– William Boughton

right: Manuscripts from the Frederick R. Koch Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Figure 1: Table of contents with instrumentation for the 1951 edition of Façade, in Walton’s hand.

Figure 2: Holograph manuscript of the Fanfare from Façade.

Notes on the Program

1

2

Texts: Walton, A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table

1. The Lord Mayor’s Table Let all the Nine Muses lay by their abuses, Their railing and drolling on tricks of the Strand, To pen us a ditty in praise of the City, Their treasure, and pleasure, their pow’r and command.

Their feast, and guest, so temptingly drest, Their kitchens all kingdoms replenish; In bountiful bowls they do succour their souls, With Claret, Canary and Rhenish: Their lives and wives in plenitude thrives, They want not for meat nor money; The Promised Land’s in a Londoner’s hand, They wallow in milk and honey.

Though you threaten’d, last Sunday, to walk in the Mall With Susan from Deptford, and likewise with Sal, In silence I stood your unkindness to hear, And only upbraided my Tom with a tear: Why should Sal, or should Susan, than me be more priz’d?

For the hrat that is true, Tom, should ne’er be despis’d: Then be constant and kind, nor your Molly forsake, Still your trousers I’ll wash, and your grog, too, I’ll make.

— Anonymous, 1790

— Thomas Jordan (1612?–1685), 1674 2. Glide gently Glide gently, thus for ever glide, O Thames! that other bards may see As lovely visions by thy side As now, fair river! come to me.

O glide, fair stream! for ever so, Thy quiet soul on all bestowing, Till all our minds for ever flow As thy deep waters now are flowing.

— William Wordsworth (1770–1850) 3. Wapping Old Stairs Your Molly has never been false, she declares, Since last time we parted at Wapping Old Stairs, When I swore that I still would continue the same, And gave you the ‘bacco box marked with your name; When I passed a whole fortnight between decks with you, Did I e’er give a kiss, Tom, to one of the crew?

To be useful and kind, with my Thomas I stay’d, For his trousers I wash’d, and his grog, too, I made.

4. Holy Thursday ’Twas on a holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean, The children walking two & two, in red & blue & green, Grey-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow, Till into the high dome of St. Paul’s they like Thames’ waters flow.

O what a multitude they seem’d, these flowers of London town!

Seated in companies they sit, with radiance all their own.

The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs, Thousands of little boys & girls raising their innocent hands.

Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song, Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among.

Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor; Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.

— William Blake (1757–1827), from Songs of Innocence (1789)

Texts: Walton, A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table

5. The Contrast In London I never know what I’d be at, Enraptured with this and enchanted by that; I’m wild with the sweets of variety’s plan, And life seems a blessing too happy for man.

But the country, Lord help me! sets all matters right, So calm and composing from morning to night; Oh! it settles the spirit when nothing is seen But an ass on a common, a goose on a green.

Young magpies and stock-doves may flirt among trees, And chatter their transports in groves, if they please: But a house is much more to my taste than a tree, And for groves, Oh! a good grove of chimneys for me.

In the country, if Cupid should find a man out, The poor tortured victim mopes hopeless about; But in London, thank Heaven! our peace is secure, Where for one eye to kill, there’s a thousand to cure.

I know love’s a devil, too subtle to spy, That shoots through the soul, from the beam of an eye; But in London these devils so quick fly about, That a new devil still drives an old devil out.

— Charles Morris (1745–1838), 1798

6. Rhyme Gay go up and gay go down, To ring the bells of London Town.

Oranges and lemons, Say the bells of St. Clement’s.

Bull’s eyes and targets, Say the bells of St. Marg’ret’s.

Brickbat and tiles, Say the bells of St. Giles’.

Halfpence and farthings, Say the bells of St. Martin’s.

Pancakes and fritters, Say the bells of St. Peter’s.

Two sticks and an apple, Say the bells of White chapel.

Pokers and tongs, Say the bells of St. John’s.

Kettles and pans, Say the bells of St. Ann’s.

Old father baldpate, Say the slow bells of Aldgate.

You owe me ten shillings, Say the bells of St. Helen’s.

When will you pay me?

Say the bells of Old Bailey.

Wehn I grow rich, Say the bells of Shoreditch.

Pray when will that be?

Say the bells of Stepney.

I do not know, Say the great bell of Bow. Gay go up and gay go down, To ring the bells of London Town.

— Anonymous, 18 th century

Texts: Britten, Serenade

1. Prologue (solo horn) 2. Pastoral The day’s grown old; the fainting sun Has but a little way to run, And yet his steeds, with all his skill, Scarce lug the chariot down the hill.

The shadows now so long do grow, That brambles like tall cedars show; Mole hills seem mountains, and the ant Appears a monstrous elephant.

A very little, little flock Shades thrice the ground that it would stock; Whilst the small stripling following them Appears a mighty Polypheme.

And now on benches all are sat, In the cool air to sit and chat, Till Phoebus, dipping in the west, Shall lead the world the way to rest.

– Charles Cotton (1630–1687)

3. Nocturne The splendour falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story: The long light shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in glory: Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, Bugle blow; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O hark, O hear! how thin and clear, And thinner, clearer, farther going!

O sweet and far from cliff and scar The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!

Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying: Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O love, they die in yon rich sky, They faint on hill or field or river: Our echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow for ever and for ever.

Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.

– Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) 4. Elegy O Rose, thou art sick!

The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm, Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy: And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.

– William Blake (1757–1827)

Texts: Britten, Serenade

5. Dirge This ae nighte, this ae nighte, Every nighte and alle, Fire and fleet and candle‑lighte, And Christe receive thy saule.

When thou from hence away art past, Every nighte and alle, To Whinny‑muir thou com’st at last; And Christe receive thy saule.

If ever thou gavest hosen and shoon, Every nighte and alle, Sit thee down and put them on; And Christe receive thy saule.

If hosen and shoon thou ne’er gav’st nane Every nighte and alle, The whinnes sall prick thee to the bare bane; And Christe receive thy saule.

6. Hymn Queen and huntress, chaste and fair, Now the sun is laid to sleep, Seated in thy silver chair, State in wonted manner keep: Hesperus entreats thy light, Goddess excellently bright.

Earth, let not thy envious shade Dare itself to interpose; Cynthia’s shining orb was made Heav’n to clear when day did close: Bless us then with wishèd sight, Goddess excellently bright.

Lay thy bow of pearl apart, And thy crystal shining quiver; Give unto the flying hart Space to breathe, how short so-ever: Thou that mak’st a day of night, Goddess excellently bright.

– Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

From Whinny‑muir when thou may’st pass, Every nighte and alle, To Brig o’ Dread thou com’st at last; And Christe receive thy saule.

From Brig o’ Dread when thou may’st pass, Every nighte and alle, To Purgatory fire thou com’st at last; And Christe receive thy saule.

If ever thou gavest meat or drink, Every nighte and alle, The fire sall never make thee shrink; And Christe receive thy saule.

If meat or drink thou ne’er gav’st nane, Every nighte and alle, The fire will burn thee to the bare bane; And Christe receive thy saule.

This ae nighte, this ae nighte, Every nighte and alle, Fire and fleet and candle‑lighte, And Christe receive thy saule.

– Lyke Wake Dirge, Anonymous (15 th century)

7. Sonnet O soft embalmer of the still midnight, Shutting, with careful fingers and benign, Our gloom‑pleas’d eyes, embower’d from the light, Enshaded in forgetfulness divine: O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close, In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes.

Or wait the “Amen” ere thy poppy throws Around my bed its lulling charities.

Then save me, or the passèd day will shine Upon my pillow, breeding many woes, Save me from curious conscience, that still lords Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole; Turn the key deftly in the oilèd wards, And seal the hushèd casket of my Soul.

– John Keats (1795–1821) 8. Epilogue (solo horn, offstage)

About the Artists

Praised by the Boston Globe for “a rich, violalike tone and a rapturous, luminous lyricism,” mezzo-soprano Janna Baty enjoys an exceptionally versatile career. She has sung with the Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, Hamburgische Staatsoper, L’Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, and many more. She has sung under the batons of James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, Stefan Asbury, and Gil Rose, among numerous others. She has performed at festivals worldwide, including Aldeburgh and Britten (England), Varna (Bulgaria), Semanas Musicales de Frutillar (Chile), and (in the U.S.) Tanglewood, Norfolk, Monadnock, and Coastal Carolina. A specialist in contemporary music, Ms. Baty has worked alongside composers including John Harbison, Bernard Rands, Yehudi Wyner, Peter Child, and Paul Moravec. With Boston Modern Orchestra Project, she has recorded the critically lauded Vali: Folk Songs (sung in Persian), Lukas Foss’ opera Griffelkin, the worldpremiere recording of Eric Sawyer’s opera Our American Cousin, and John Harbison’s Mirabai Songs. An alumna of Oberlin College and the Yale School of Music, she joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 2008.

William Boughton began pursuing a career in conducting following cello studies at the New England Conservatory (Boston), Guildhall

School of Music (London), and Prague Academy, and a performing career with the Royal Philharmonic, BBC, and London Sinfonietta.

In 1980 he formed the English Symphony Orchestra (ESO), with whom he commissioned more than 20 works from such composers as Peter Sculthorpe and John Joubert.

With the ESO, he collaborated with Sir Michael Tippett in presenting a celebration of the composer’s 80th birthday, which became the subject of a BBC documentary, while building a significant discography of acclaimed recordings. In 2007 he became the tenth music director of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has instituted a composer-in-residence program and undertaken a major recording project of the works of William Walton. The first recording—the Violin Concerto and First Symphony (Nimbus) —was selected as a Critic’s Choice for 2010 by Gramophone magazine. Under Mr. Boughton’s leadership, the NHSO was awarded an ascap Award for Adventurous Programming in 2010. He currently hosts a monthly program on WMNR and is in demand as a guest speaker and conductor around the world, including the San Francisco, London, and Helsinki symphony orchestras.

Jill Brunelle lives in New Haven, Connecticut, where she is a vocal coach and pianist. A passionate recitalist, Ms. Brunelle performs frequently in Manhattan and the New England area. The Boston Herald proclaimed, “There can be only the highest praise for

About the Artists

pianist Jill Brunelle, who played through a wide variety of styles and moods with confidence and, clearly, love.” Ms. Brunelle currently is on staff at Yale University as a repertoire coach and pianist.

She has served on the faculties of the Hartt School of Music, Boston University Opera Institute, Tufts University, and New England Conservatory. She is also a freelance coach/music preparer for many opera companies, including Connecticut Opera, Opera Boston, Longwood Opera, and Boston Aria Guild. Recent projects include: interim director, Connecticut Opera Resident Artist Program; music director for Candide and The Old Maid and the Thief, assistant conductor for Connecticut Opera’s Il barbiere di Siviglia; director, Cantos de Taos, at the Taos Opera Institute; music preparation/ principal pianist for Intermezzo Young Artist Program’s The Rape of Lucretia, L’elisir d’amore for University of Massachusetts at Amherst; and a recital of contemporary American art song at the Liederkranz Society in New York. Ms. Brunelle has been a member of contemporary music ensembles, performing many world premieres at such festivals as New York’s Bang on a Can.

Tenor Dann Coakwell made his solo debut at Carnegie Hall in 2010 as the lead role of Andrey in the world premiere of Prokofiev’s newly discovered and reconstructed opera act, Distant Seas, and he is a featured soloist on the 2009 Grammy-nominated album Conspirare: A Company of Voices (Harmonia Mundi).

Internationally, Mr. Coakwell has performed the role of Evangelist in J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion on tour in Italy under Masaaki Suzuki, and he served as soloist under Helmuth Rilling in Germany in a number of J.S. Bach’s cantatas.

Mr. Coakwell has appeared multiple times at the Oregon Bach Festival under both Rilling and Matthew Halls. With five-time Grammynominated Conspirare, he has performed solo tenor in Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Mass in B minor, and Evangelist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Recent notable performances include aria soloist in the Christmas Oratorio with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, aria soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion under Gabriel Crouch, and again with Seraphic Fire in Miami. In upcoming seasons he will perform as Evangelist in J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel, and as tenor soloist in Masaaki Suzuki’s production of Handel’s Messiah and J.S. Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 243a) and Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, (BWV 63), with the Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco.

Mr. Coakwell holds an artist diploma in vocal performance from the Yale School of Music, an MM from Texas Tech University, and a BM from the University of Texas at Austin. » www.danncoakwell.com

About the Artists

John McDonough is an actor and narrator that has performed with many orchestras and chamber music festivals, most recently at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in 2011 narrating Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat.

He has shared the stage with many ensembles, including Speculum Musicae, North Shore ProMusica, L’Ensemble, and the faculty of the Yale School of Music. He tours regularly with Grammy Award-winning composer Paul Halley and his Chorus Angelicus in New England, Atlantic Canada, and each summer at Tanglewood, and has narrated A Chorister’s Christmas at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine (New York City) for more than 20 years. He voiced the title role in Benjamin Britten’s Paul Bunyan, first for Glimmerglass Opera in 1995 and then for New York City Opera in 1998. He has recorded hundreds of titles in fiction, classics, history, inspirational, and children’s literature for Recorded Books. He received an Audie Award in 2006, and Audiofile magazine named him a Golden Voice in 2002.

Outside his audiobook work, he has performed with Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion and starred in the revival of Captain Kangaroo on the Fox and ABC Family networks. Mr. McDonough was named the first national ambassador for RIF (Reading is Fundamental) in 1999.

A native of Western Pennsylvania, William Purvis pursues a multifaceted career both in the U.S. and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Purvis has participated in numerous premieres as hornist and conductor, including horn concerti by Peter Lieberson, Bayan Northcott, and Krzysztof Penderecki, and other works by Steven Stucky, Eliot Carter, Poul Ruders, and Paul Lansky. He is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Yale Brass Trio, and Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of Orpheus.

A frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he has also collaborated with the Tokyo, Juilliard, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Daedalus, and Fine Arts string quartets. Recent recordings include the horn concerto of Peter Lieberson on Bridge (Grammy and WQXR Gramophone Awards); works of Schumann, Paul Lansky, and Schoenberg with the New York Woodwind Quintet; Richard Wernick’s Quintet for Horn and Strings with the Juilliard Quartet; and Retracing II for solo horn by Elliott Carter. In recent seasons he has performed the Knussen horn concerto in Europe and the Penderecki horn concerto at Yale and Carnegie Hall, both under the baton of the respective composers. Since 1999 Mr. Purvis has been a faculty member at the Yale School of Music, where he is also the coordinator of winds and brass and the director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments.

Upcoming Events

Yale Baroque Ensemble

Lunchtime Chamber Music

december 4

december 7

Morse Recital Hall | Sunday | 8 pm From Biber to Bach: Chamber music of the German baroque. Robert Mealy, director. Free.

Morse Recital Hall | Wednesday | 12:30 pm Music for a colorful variety of chamber ensembles. Free admission.

Prokofiev Piano Sonatas

New Music for Orchestra

december 5 & 7

december 8

Morse Recital Hall | Mon & Wed | 8 pm Horowitz Piano Series Selected graduate pianists perform the nine Prokofiev piano sonatas in two evenings. december 5: Sonatas 1, 2, 4, 5, and 9. december 7: Sonatas 3, 6, 7, and 8.

Tickets $5.

Woolsey Hall | Thurday | 8 pm Shinik Hahm conducts the Yale Philharmonia in new orchestral works by graduate composers. Free admission.

American Brass Quintet

Morse Recital Hall | Friday | 8 pm Ellington Jazz Series Toshiko Akiyoshi, piano, an NEA Jazz Master, performs with Lew Tabackin, flute and saxophone; Paul Gill, bass; and Shinnosuke Takahashi, drums.

Tickets $20–$30, Students $10.

december 6 Morse Recital Hall | Tuesday | 8 pm Oneppo Chamber Music Series Music from the Renaissance to today.

Tickets $20–$30, Students $10.

Toshiko Akiyoshi Quartet december 9

Concerts & Public Relations: Dana Astmann, Danielle Heller, Dashon Burton New Media: Monica Ong Reed, Austin Kase Operations: Tara Deming, Chris Melillo Performing Ensembles: Krista Johnson, Roberta Senatore, Kate Gonzales Piano Curators: Brian Daley, William Harold Recording Studio: Eugene Kimball P.O. Box 208236, New Haven, CT · 203 432-4158

Robert Blocker, Dean

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