Poulenc Gloria

Poulenc’s Gloria: You pay, I decide what to write!

In 1959 when Poulenc decided to write his Gloria, he has just seen the success of his operas “Dialogues des Carmélites” and “La voix humaine”.  Having failed to find a satisfactory libretto for yet another new opera, he decided to return to the choral genre.  His friend Pierre Bernac sent him the text and translation of the Gloria, and the decision was made.  Then came the question of money: who’s going to pay for it?

It happened that around that time the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in touch with Poulenc for a possible commission.  The composer, unwilling to conform to the initial instrumentation requirements, has been declining this commission for an “orchestral work of major proportions”.  Once he decided to compose a Gloria, however, he turned back to the Koussevitzky Foundation.

I’m taking it, but only under my terms!

His offer was this:  he will take the commission, but instead of a purely orchestral work, he would write a Gloria for mixed choir, soprano and orchestra that is 20-25 minutes in duration.  With some negotiation and possibly the help of conductor Charles Munch, the Foundation agreed to leave the terms open, and Poulenc wrote his Gloria over the next year.

The American premiere in Boston and the European premiere of the finished Gloria happened within a few weeks of each other.  Surprisingly, the reception differed vastly in the two regions.  In Paris, reviewers complained that the work was not as good as his Stabat Mater, and BBC reviewers found it “unworthy of its dignified text”.  In America, however, the Gloria was met with high praise and the New York Music Critics Circle Award.

Regardless of such polarized opinions, Poulenc’s Gloria is now frequently performed choral works and a mainstay of the choral repertoire.

Come hear us perform Poulenc’s Gloria, Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony” and more in the upcoming Learners concert on May 10, 2017! Contact us at 9234 6057 or by email at learnershk@gmail.com for ticketing and donation enquiry.

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Donations will be made to the Hong Kong Christian Council’s “School Building Project in Myanmar” to build a new middle school for graduates of the Mayangone Primary School.

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Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor

It is said that Mozart promised to compose a mass when he would bring Constanze Weber as his wife to Salzburg. The marriage took place in 1782 without the blessing of his father, and in a letter to his father the following year, Mozart expressed regret of the delay in his planned visit with Constanze to Salzburg, but that “the score of half of a Mass, which still lies here, is the best proof of my vow.” Such “half of a Mass” refers to his Mass in C Minor, which, notwithstanding that it remained unfinished, is considered to be Mozart’s most ambitious composition amongst his masses.

Come hear us perform, among other works, Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor at our September concert this Friday. Tickets now available at URBTIX outlets or online at http://ticket.urbtix.hk/internet/en_US/eventDetail/29984

Event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/205843553149204

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Barber’s Agnus Dei

Since the formation of the Friends of Learners Orchestra in 2007 (now called The Learners Orchestra) we have been blessed to have a group of caring and benevolent orchestral musicians partner with us at concerts both great and small; but what if the composer, by arranging an orchestral work for unaccompanied chorus, requires that the choir becomes an orchestra itself?

Come hear The Learners Chorus transform into an orchestra of human voices in its performance this Friday of, among other works, (1) Samuel Barber’s “Agnus Dei”, a choral arrangement of his famous “Adagio for Strings”, and (2) “Lux Aeterna” arranged by British composer and arranger John Cameron based on Variation IX “Nimrod” of Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations”. Tickets now available at URBTIX outlets or online at http://ticket.urbtix.hk/internet/en_US/eventDetail/29984

Event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/205843553149204

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Tavener’s The Lamb

Coughing at concerts is often considered as a distracting annoyance, but what if the noise originated from the composer himself?

John Tavener’s “The Lamb” was written in 1982 as a dedication to his nephew for his 3rd birthday. However, when the carol was performed in the same year at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols (an annual Christian service which celebrates the birth of Jesus), Tavener was more anxious that Mother Thekla, a counsellor and spiritual advisor of his, would be able to hear his work. As a result, whilst sitting in the audience at King’s College, Cambridge, he gave a loud cough shortly before his work was about to commence, so that Mother Thekla, who borrowed a radio to listen to the BBC live broadcast from the convent, would take the signal and recognise his work.

Come hear us perform Tavener’s “The Lamb”, among other works, in our September concert. Tickets now available at URBTIX outlets or online at http://ticket.urbtix.hk/internet/en_US/eventDetail/29984

Event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/205843553149204

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Stabat Mater vs. Stabat Mater

Many of you would certainly be aware that our concert in July features two Stabat Maters – one of Verdi from his Quattro pezzi sacri, and one of Rossini. Here’s a sneak peek of how our two Italian opera masters accentuate the grief of Mother Mary in their respective settings of the Catholic hymn, on the first 1-2 pages of the vocal score:-

In Rossini’s setting, a dark mood is created by the orchestra’s plaintive opening, and the initial concealment of the tonic key is suggestive of a troubled heart. Thereafter, as the strings, chorus and vocal soloists take turns coming in, the “Stabat Mater” theme, a G-minor upward scale to its fifth, emerges as a graphical representation of the anguished Mother Mary weeping next to the cross on which her Son was crucified.

Verdi opens his Stabat Mater with ominous bare open fifths in bassoons, French horns and strings, which are interrupted by the choir singing a striking augmented fourth that is traditionally associated with human suffering; The descending, chromatic scale used in “Cujus animam gementem” is also thought to represent the agonizing cries of Mother Mary.

Come hear us perform Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri and Rossini’s Stabat Mater, in our upcoming concert. Tickets now available at urbtix outlets or online at http://bit.ly/1SARXnH

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/364342063776645/

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When high-C is not enough

Those who are familiar with Rossini operas would no doubt recognize that dotted rhythms, dramatic leggiero/coloratura lines, fast tempos, cadenzas and appoggiaturas, to name a few, are features commonly found in his works.

Can you identify any of the above features in Rossini’s “Cujus animam gementem”, an aria for tenor solo from his Stabat Mater which, partly due to it being notoriously difficult to sing, is often performed separately from the other movements of the work as a demonstration of the singer’s virtuosic vocal technique?

Come hear us perform Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri in our next concert. Tickets now available at urbtix outlets or online at http://bit.ly/1SARXnH

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/364342063776645/

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The Infamous Scala Enigmatica

A scala cromatica (chromatic scale) can sometimes be a nightmare to practise – and we say so as singers ourselves – but wait till you meet the Scala Enigmatica!

The scala enigmatica, as its name already suggests, is an unusual musical scale featuring both major, minor and augmented seconds. Invented by Adolfo Crescentini, a professor of music at the Bologna Conservatory, this enigmatic scale was first published in Ricordi’s “Gazzetta musicale di Milano” in 1888 as a challenge for its readers to harmonize it. The exact number of submissions to the music journal remains a mystery, and this scale would probably have long been forgotten had Verdi not presented his solution to the musical puzzle in 1889.

The enigmatic scale – or, in Verdi’s own words, “that awkward scale” – was used as the cantus firmus of his Ave Maria, which subsequently became the first song of his Quattro pezzi sacri, notwithstanding the composer’s reluctance in allowing the piece to be published, by reason of it merely being a “game” and hence, “not true music” and should “never [see] the light of day”. But be that as it may, we should probably be thankful that the work had eventually been published, for the austere and bold harmonization for four-part a cappella chorus, as well as the ethereal effect it creates, serve not only as a glorification of Mother Mary, but also as evidence of Verdi’s splendid compositional artistry.

Come hear us perform Verdi’s Ave Maria – plus, of course, the other three pieces – from his Quattro pezzi sacri, and Rossini’s Stabat Mater, in our next concert. Tickets now available at urbtix outlets or online at http://bit.ly/1SARXnH

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/364342063776645/

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Crossing opera and sacred music

Rossini was quoted to have once confessed:- “I have only wept three times in my life: the first time when my earliest opera failed, the second time when, with a boating party, a truffled turkey fell into the water, and the third time when I first heard Paganini play.” His gleeful personality might have molded his compositional style – it is quoted that “audiences took his music as if to an intoxicating drug – or, to put it more decorously, to champagne, with which Rossini’s bubbly music was constantly compared”.

Although his setting of the Stabat Mater, a Catholic hymn contemplating the suffering of Mother Mary during the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, had been criticized to be too operatic and lighthearted for its subject, it is thought that the “operatic” features of the work serve to enunciate the grief and piety of Mother Mary and the sincerity of her prayer.

Come hear us perform Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri in our next concert. Tickets now available at urbtix outlets or online at http://bit.ly/1SARXnH

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/364342063776645/

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Verdi and religion

Do you know that Verdi, as the man behind “Quattro pezzi sacri” (“Four Sacred Pieces”), was in fact not a religious believer himself? He was described by his wife to be “a jewel among honest men… but certainly very little of a believer… I exhaust myself in speaking to him about the marvels of the heavens, the earth, the sea, etc. It’s a waste of breath! He laughs in my face and freezes me in the midst of my oratorical periods and my divine enthusiasm by saying ‘you’re all crazy,’ and unfortunately he says it with good faith.”

Nonetheless, with its operatic features – aria-like themes, long pauses, sudden contrasts in texture and dynamics, to name a few – it is thought that this collection of sacred songs still serves as an inspiration of faith to the audience.

Come hear us perform Quattro pezzi sacri and Rossini’s Stabat Mater in our next concert. Tickets now available at urbtix outlets or online at http://bit.ly/1SARXnH

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/364342063776645/

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