Nola Richardson, soprano, September 12, 2019

Robert Blocker, Dean

doctor of musical arts degree recital

Nola Richardson, soprano Early Music, Oratorio, and Chamber Ensembles Thursday, September 12, 2019 | 7:30 pm | Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall Tomoko Nakayama, piano

Franz Schubert 1797–1828

Suleika I, D. 720

Nikolai RimskyKorsakov 1844–1908

Нимфа (The Nymph), Op. 56, No. 1

Komitas Vardapet 1869–1935

Редеет облаков летучая гряда (The Floating Chain of Clouds is Growing Thin), Op. 42, No. 3

Akh, Maral Jan (1899) Andooni (1898)

Schubert

Suleika II, D. 717

Kaija Saariaho b. 1952

Lonh (1996)

intermission

Program, cont Jean-Philippe Rameau 1683–1764

L’impatience, RCT 26 Tomoko Nakayama, harpsichord Lucine Musaelian, viol

Barbara Strozzi 1619–1677

L’amante segreto, Op. 2, No. 16 Grant Herreid, theorbo

John Blow 1649–1708

Lovely Selina (1680) Grant Herreid, theorbo

Henry Purcell 1659–1695

She Loves, and She Confesses, Too, Z. 413 Grant Herreid, theorbo

This performance is in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree.

As a courtesy to others, please silence all devices. Photography and recording of any kind is strictly prohibited. Please do not leave the hall during musical selections. Thank you.

Artist Profile Making her mark as an “especially impressive” (The New York Times) soprano, Australian/American Nola Richardson has won First Prize in all three major American competitions focused on the music of J.S. Bach (Bethlehem Bach, 2016; Audrey Rooney Bach, 2018; Grand Rapids Symphony Linn Maxwell Keller Award, 2019). These honors have catapulted her to the forefront of Baroque ensembles and symphonies around the country, where she has been praised for her “astonishing balance and accuracy,” “crystalline diction,” and “natural-sounding ease” (Washington Post). Nola’s 2019–2020 season will feature her debuts with the Seattle Symphony (Handel Messiah), Philharmonia Baroque (Bach Coffee Cantata), Tenet (in concert with American violinist Hillary Hahn), Bach Akademie Charlotte (Scarlatti Stabat Mater), and an appearance at the Leipzig Bach Festival 2020 as a soloist with the Bethlehem Bach Society. She will make

her stage debut next summer at the Caramoor Festival in Rameau’s Dardanus, directed by Julian Wachner and James Darrah. Return engagements include appearances with the American Bach Soloists (works of Bach and Schütz), The American Classical Orchestra (Scarlatti Christmas Cantata), Madison Bach Musicians (Monteverdi Vespers of 1610), Colorado Bach Ensemble (Handel Messiah), Seraphic Fire (Hildegard von Bingen Ordo Virtutum), and the Academy of Sacred Drama (Gianettini L’uomo in Bivio). Past highlights include her debut at the Kennedy Center with Opera Lafayette (Fraarte in Handel Radamisto) which drew praise for her “particularly appealing freshness and directness” (Washington Post), a review of Sondheim’s music with the Boston Pops, and a “standout” performance (Opera News) as the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with the Clarion Music Society.

Program Notes From the chivalrous love of Troubadours, to Romantic song cycles, such as Ludwig von Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte, countless poets and composers have explored the power of the human voice to transcend large physical distances and bridge emotional chasms. We often sing of the desire to be closer to a loved one, as in Franz Schubert’s Suleika I and II, yet many love songs also express a love and longing for a homeland, or an ever-increasingly distant time. Love may be somewhat frivolous and eager, as displayed in Rameau’s charming cantata L’Impatience, or deeply melancholy and mysterious as in the works of RimskyKorsakov and Komitas. Likewise, distance can be geographical, emotional, or even physical as in the charming songs of Purcell and Blow.

Franz Schubert’s gorgeous Suleika settings serve as bookends for the first third of the program. In 1814 Marianne von Willemer, a young Austrian dancer and actress, was introduced by her husband to Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. The two began a passionate correspondence adopting the pseudonyms Suleika and Hatem, inspired by the 14th century Persian poet Hafez. Suleika I, written before Goethe and Willemer reunited for three days in Heidelberg in 1815, addresses the East wind as Suleika eagerly awaits tidings from her beloved. In contrast, Suleika II, written after their romantic assignation, requests the West wind to bear her affections back to her beloved.

Indeed, Goethe and Willemer never again met in person despite continuing their correspondence until the end of Goethe’s

life. Goethe published his collection of Eastern-inspired poetry, West-östlicher Divan, in 1819 which featured some of Marianne’s poems in the Book of Suleika (edited with her permission and published under Goethe’s name). Her authorship was not made public until shortly before her death in 1860. These poems made a strong impression on Schubert, who set them in an extended form utilizing elements of both strophic and throughcomposition. Suleika I, composed in 1821 is generally acknowledged to be a more subtle masterpiece with hints of janissary music in the percussive piano introduction, and emotional modal shifts.

Suleika II was most likely composed in 1824 at the request of renowned soprano Anna Milder, who had previously premiered Die Forelle. Milder was known for the metallic brilliance of her voice, and Suleika II is more of a public showpiece, featuring a climatic high B-flat and lacking some of the introspection of its predecessor.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a member of the Russian “Kuchka” or “Handful.”

Led by the composer Mily Balakirev, the “Kuchka” intended to reclaim a uniquely Russian style approach to composition, influenced by folk music and untainted

by Western influence. Early in his career, Rimsky-Korsakov explored the Romance song genre sporadically, before largely turning to symphonic and instrumental works. In 1871, he took a position at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and vastly revised his compositional style; undertaking studies of counterpoint, theory, and harmony. However, he

maintained a desire to incorporate Slavic and folk elements into his music. He returned to song composition in 1897– 1898, producing forty-seven Romances which he credited as preparing him for his sudden surge in operatic writing in later years. “The Nymph” features a folk-like tale reminiscent of Heinrich Heine’s Die Lorelei. The soprano line, soaring over the rippling piano accompaniment, casts a wonderfully wistful and evocative scene. A similar, though perhaps more melancholy air pervades RimskyKorsakov’s setting of Alexander Pushkin’s poem, “The Flying Chain of Clouds is Growing Thin.” Pushkin was exiled at an early age for composing the “Ode to Liberty,” a work later championed by numerous participants and leaders of the 1825 Decembrist Rebellion. He spent several years in the outskirts of the Russian Empire, and composed “The flying chain” while visiting the Rayevsky family in the the Ukrainian town Kamenka. Ekaterina Rayevsky, who later married Mikhail Orlov, a leader in the Decembrist Rebellion, is believed to be the maiden mentioned in the final phrase. Rimsky-Korsakov was known to have strongly left-leaning views; he was even fired briefly from the conservatory in 1905 after joining student protesters. He likely felt a strong identification with the early revolutionary overtones expressed in Pushkin’s works.

Often viewed as the father of Armenian music, Komitas (born Soghomon Soghomonian), was both a brilliant pioneer of ethnomusicology and a tragic martyr of the Armenian Genocide in the

early 20th century. As a boy, by the virtue of his excellent singing voice, he was rescued by the Armenian Church from a childhood rife with loss and neglect and provided with security and an education.

While in seminary, he trained in music and specifically in Armenian notation.

He developed a strong interest in folk music and spent summers developing relationships with rural villagers, transcribing their songs and poetry. A skilled teacher and composer, he moved to Constantinople and formed an Armenian language touring choir for which he created polyphonic arrangements of folk compositions. Tragically, his abilities and prominence led to him being included in the round-up of intellectuals and notables, selected for deportation at the beginning of the Armenian Genocide in April, 1915. Due to the intervention of friends, his life was spared, and he returned to the city; yet he never recovered from the horror and severe trauma of his experience. Komitas spent the rest of his life in and out of mental institutions in Constantinople and then Paris until his death in 1935. He is now viewed as one of the primary founders of the Armenian national school of music and commemorated through the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory.

The beautifully melancholy song Andooni was written in the early 20th century and although it seems to portray an uncanny foreshadowing of the holocaust ahead, it actually refers to earlier invasions of Armenia and the experience of the displaced. It is now strongly associated with the Genocide, and Debussy apparently remarked upon hearing the

Program Notes, cont. piece in Paris, “If Komitas had written only his Andooni, that would have been sufficient to list him among the great composers.”

The troubadours of the 12th century often fixed their attention on an unobtainable object: a lady who was forever out of reach due to rank, distance, or lack of reciprocated feeling. The troubadour Jaufre Rudel is credited with creating the concept of “love from afar” (“amor de lonh” or “amour de loin”) in his songs.

His mythologized biography, known as a vida, claims that he was so inspired by tales of the beauty of the Countess Hodierna of Tripoli that he left for a Crusade in order to meet her. He fell sick on the journey and managed to arrive in Tripoli only to die in the arms of the beautiful Countess. Kaija Saariaho chose to set one of his famous poems in her multi-movement work for soprano and electronics. The piece was dedicated to and premiered by Dawn Upshaw and served as a prelude for Saariaho’s longer opera L’amour de Loin which premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 2000. Saariaho chose to set her work in nine movements to loosely mirror the form of the poem in a poetic and musical collage. The electronic accompaniment features spoken text in French, Occitan, and English, along with sounds of nature, and recorded fragments of Dawn Upshaw’s singing voice.

Rameau’s charming cantata L’Impatience, composed in the 1720s, displays the composer’s amalgamation of an exciting new musical import: the Italian cantata.

Fittingly, for the modern galant style, the three recitatives and arias (two in Italian da capo form) portray not gods, goddesses, or other figures from mythology, but rather a vignette of a frustrated young lover awaiting his sweetheart for a tryst in the woods. This type of work could easily be performed in a Rococo era salon as the naturalistic setting, pastoral references to birds, and focus on a private emotional journey distinguish this work from the more formal and dramatic French style cantatas that preceded it.

Similarly, a vivid emotional journey forms the structure of Barbara Strozzi’s L’amante Segreto, and indeed the majority of her works. Despite her illegitimate birth, which prevented her from fully entering society, Strozzi’s musical and poetic brilliance inspired her father to develop an artistic salon, The Academy of the Like-Minded, in which she could display her music and partake in intellectual discussions. She became renowned as a singer, and would accompany herself in performances of her compositions.

She began publishing her works after her father’s death, likely due to financial constraints as she had four children but was unable to legally marry due to her illegitimacy. L’amante Segreto (The Secret Lover), published in her second collection, Cantate, Duetti, e Ariette, is a multi-sectioned work portraying a wide range of emotions from hope to despair, and anger to self-loathing. A recurring theme over a bass passacaglia sets the text, “I wish to die, rather than reveal my secret.” Although interrupted by

frequent outbursts of recitative style, the music inevitably returns to this theme, capturing the obsession of a mind unhappy in love.

I’ve chosen to end my performance tonight with music in a lighter vein.

Although also set over a descending passacaglia, John Blow’s Lovely Selina is less a lament than a humorous parable about the trials of love. Likewise, Henry Purcell’s She loves and confesses features a wonderfully catchy ground bass and a somewhat bawdy text by Abraham Cowley. May the fruits of love’s conquest be ever enjoyed for tis’ hard to love, and not be loved again! Thank you for joining me this evening! And thank you especially to my family, friends, colleagues, and professors, who have supported, encouraged, and guided me through the last several years!

Upcoming Events Hannah Lash & Friends Faculty Artist Series Faculty composer Hannah Lash is joined by the chamber ensemble loadbang for a performance of Music for Eight Lungs and The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep.

7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall

free sep 17

Sofya Gulyak, piano Horowitz Piano Series “A fearless pianist, never afraid to scale the most technically demanding heights of the repertoire and equally proud to wear her heart on her sleeve.”

— The Guardian

7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall

Tickets start at $23, students $11 sep 18

Yevgeny Yontov, piano DMA Recitals Music by Medtner, Prokofiev, Bartók, and Debussy.

7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall

free sep 19

Peter Oundjian, principal conductor Yale Philharmonia A performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major, featuring YSM faculty members.

7:30 p.m. | Woolsey Hall Tickets start at $12, Yale faculty/ staff $8, students $5 $3 surcharge at the door sep 20

sep 24 Brentano String Quartet

Oneppo Chamber Music Series New music by Martin Bresnick, and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132.

7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall

Tickets start at $28, students $13

Michael Noble, piano DMA Recitals Music by Brahms, Nico Muhly, and Frederic Rzewski.

7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall

free

sep 26

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