Riverside Choral Society of New York City - Reviews and Program Notes

Reviews &
Program Notes

With Strings Attached
Music for Chorus, Guitar and String Quartet

Susan Gardner -- Psalm 121

Eric Whitacre -- Sleep

-- Five Hebrew Love Songs

Castelnuovo-Tedesco - Romancero Gitano
Christopher Kenniff, Guitar
Tarik O'Regan -- The Ecstasies Above
Kenneth Lampl -- Jerusalem

Patrick Gardner, conductor

Saturday
May 11, 2013 at 8:00 PM

Park Avenue Christian Church
1010 Park Ave at 85th Street

Tickets: $35(SOLD OUT) & $25

Have a question? Send an email to inquiry@rcsmail.org

The Riverside Choral Society
Riverside Choral Society Orchestra

Rufus Müller Evangelist

Nacole Palmer Soprano

Jeffrey Mandelbaum Countertenor

Curtis Streetman Bass

Read Patrick Gardner's note on the Christmas Oratorio
at this link

Read the NY Times review of this performance
at this link

Thursday
December 20, 2012 at 7:30 PM

Alice Tully Hall
LINCOLN CENTER

Tickets: $75, $45 & $25

SOLD OUT
Have a question? Send an email to inquiry@rcsmail.org

Of War and Reflection

Lord Nelson Mass
Haydn

Soprano, Sharla Nafziger
Alto, Kirsten Sollek
Tenor, Nathan Davis
Bass, John Muriello

An Elm We Lost
David Gompper
for strings, percussion, piano and harp

Tenor, Mark Boyle
Bass, John Muriello

Patrick Gardner, conductor

Friday, May 18, 2012 at 8:00 PM
St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square
145 West 46th Street

Of Peace

Ralph Vaughan Williams - Dona Nobis Pacem
Joseph Gregorio - Dona Nobis Pacem
William Schuman - Carols of Death
Lewis Spratlan - Dona Nobis Pacem:
an entreaty for peace in the middle east

Jennifer Bird, soprano
Randall Scarlata, baritone
with the Rutgers University Kirkpatrick Choir
Patrick Gardner, conductor

Friday, March 9, 2012 at 8:00 PM
Alice Tully Hall

WORKS BY LOU HARRISON (1917-2003)
Solo to Anthony Cirone
Suite for Violin and American Gamelan
and La Koro Sutro
with The Riverside Choral Society
Patrick Gardner, director

Lou Harrison (1917.2003) was an American original. Among other artists of the mid 20th century his work was what is now called "outsider art," and he lived a life that was clearly outside the halls of the cultural institutions of the day. He developed a singular body of work that was inspired by studies of early music and tunings, and world music, as well as from the influence of other musical mavericks, such as Henry Cowell, Charles Ives, and John Cage. The three works on this program offer a generous glimpse of Lou Harrison.s musical world. Solo to Anthony Cirone, dedicated to the eponymous percussionist, is a work for tenor bells that was long lost, and has been performed around the world since its rediscovery. Suite for Violin and American Gamelan incorporates medieval dance rhythms, drones, mesmerizing gamelan patterns, and melodic variations. Finally, La Koro Sutro, a monumental work for large-scale chorus, gamelan, harp, and organ, presents in one huge bundle many of Harrison.s musical and personal preoccupations: percussion, the avoidance of functional harmony, Buddhism, and universalism.

Read Dr. Gardner's notes on La Koro Sutro.
Read an article on the instruments and players.

Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 8:00 PM
Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

BACH
Mass in B minor

Patrick Gardner, Director

The Riverside Choral Society
Riverside Choral Society Orchestra

Mary Ellen Callahan Soprano

Kirsten Sollek Mezzo Soprano

Cullen Gandy Tenor

Randall Scarlata Bass

May 7, 2011 at 8:00 PM

Alice Tully Hall
LINCOLN CENTER

Have a question? Send an email to inquiry@rcsmail.org

Bach’s Mass in B minor is widely regarded as one of the finest compositions in the classical repertoire. As recently cited in The New York Times by Anthony Tommasini, “What composer before or after Bach could have written the opening Kyrie of the Mass in B minor? It begins with choral cries of “Lord have mercy” (“Kyrie eleison”) as harmonically wrenching as anything in Brahms or Mahler.” Don’t miss this performance also celebrating Patrick Gardner’s 20th anniversary with RCS!

Distant Worlds
music from FINAL FANTASY by Nobuo Uematsu

Featuring the Riverside Choral Society
The Distant Worlds Philharmonic Orchestra
Arnie Roth, conducting

Friday, April, 1, 2011 at 8:00 PM
The Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette St.
Brooklyn

Mahler -- Symphony No. 3
Women of the Riverside Choral Society
Patrick Gardner, director

with the London Symphony Orchestra
Valery Gergiev, conductor
Anna Larsson, alto

and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus
Dianne Berkun, artistic director

Friday, February 25, 2011 at 8:00 PM
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center

A Musical Celebration
Britten -- Rejoice In The Lamb
Bernstein -- Chichester Psalms
and other works for chorus and organ
Patrick Gardner, conductor

Saturday, November 13, 2010 at 8:00 PM
St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square
145 West 46th Street

Read the program notes

Mostly Mozart Festival 2010

"...the present performers still convey first-generation freshness and understanding. Under Ms. Glover, the Orchestra of St Luke's and the Riverside Choral Society Chamber Singers often make Handel's music sound as if that, too, is still in its youth."
Alistair Macaulay, New York Times

George Friederic Handel -- L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
Mark Morris Dance Group
Mark Morris, choreographer

Riverside Choral Society Chamber Singers
Patrick Gardner, director

Orchestra of St. Luke's
Jane Glover, conductor

Christine Brandes, soprano
Lisa Saffer, soprano
John McVeigh, tenor
Andrew Foster-Williams, baritone

August 5-7, 2010 at 7:30
David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center

Orff -- Carmina Burana
Harrison -- Concerto for Violin and Percussion
Orchestra
Harrison -- Kyrie and Gloria from the Mass to
St. Anthony for chorus and percussion
ensemble

Patrick Gardner conducting
Jennifer Bird, Soprano
Keith Harris, Baritone
Matthew Garrett, Tenor
Margaret Kampmeier & Holly Chatham, Pianists
Owen Dalby, Violin

with
The Brooklyn Youth Chorus - Dianne Berkun, Director
Rutgers Kirkpatrick Choir - Patrick Gardner, Conductor
Rutgers Percussion Ensemble - Joseph Tompkins, Director

Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center
8:00 PM, April 17, 2010

Northern Lights
featuring the American Brass Quintet

Photo © Peter Schaaf

Trond Kverno – Missa In Sono Tubae, and Ave Maris Stella
Rachmaninoff – Rejoice O Virgin
Gretchaninoff – Beneath the Waves of the Sea
Nikolsky – The Lord Reigns
Five Christmas Carols -- arr. David Willcocks

Church of the Blessed Sacrament
152 West 71st Street, NYC
December 17, 2009
8:00 PM

November 3, 2008
With Mannes College Orchestra
Carnegie Hall

Mendelssohn - Lobgesang

November 8, 2007
Stravinsky - Symphony of Psalms
With the Mannes School of Music Orchestra
At Carnegie Hall

April 16^th, 2007 From Grief to Glory
St. Thomas Church
Fifth Ave. at 53rd St.

Kodaly - Missa Brevis
Schnittke - Requiem

January 21^st, 2007 - Of Heaven and Earth

Debussy - La Demoiselle Élue
Beethoven - Mass in C
     Emily Newton, soprano
     Ariana Chris, alto
     Matthew Garrett, tenor
     Brian McIntosh, bass

October 19^th, 2007 - Voices and Visionaries: The Shostakovich
Symphonies
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65
Symphony No. 13 in B-flat minor, Op. 113
Kirov Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre
Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Riverside Choral Society men
Rutgers University Kirkpatrick Choir and Glee Club
Baritone: Nikolai Putilin

Avery Ficher Hall, Lincoln Center

September, 27 2006 Babi Yar Remembered: Yevtushenko and Shostakovich in Word and Song

Shostakovich: Concertino for Two Pianos in A minor Op.94
Yevtushenko: Recitation
Shostakovich: "A Fragment" monologue on text of Pushkin, Op.91
Shostakovich: Two-piano version, Symphony No. 13, First Movement, "Babi Yar" (1962)
Yevgeny Yevtushenko: Poet
Misha and Cipa Dichter: Pianists
Valentin Peytchinov: Bass

Museum of Jewish Heritage

May 19, 2006

Brahms - Ein Deutches Requiem
Conducted by Patrick Gardner
Elizabeth Blancke-Biggs, Soprano
Stephen Lusmann, Baritone

Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center

A central achievement in the great symphonist’s oeuvre, the Requiem is Brahms’ first piece combining mixed chorus, soloists and full orchestra, and displays his mastery of vocal music.
Having composed the piece during a period in which he suffered the deaths of both his mother and his friend Robert Schumann, Brahms produced a magnificent nondenominational Requiem emphasizing an unwavering faith in resurrection.
Read the program notes for Brahms Requiem by Patrick Gardner

April, 9 2006 A Creative Path: The Music of Dmitry Shostakovich

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 20 ("The First of May")
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43 ("To October")
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
with the Rutgers University Kirkpatrick Choir
Conductor: Valery Gergiev

Avery Fisher Hall

March 15-18, 2006
RCS with the Mark Morris Dance Group
Brooklyn Academy of Music

After a thrilling debut collaboration on the 2005 Mostly Mozart Festival performances of Morris' L'Allegro, Il Penseroso and Il Moderato, Riverside Choral Society returns to partner the Mark Morris Dance Group in their 25^th Anniversary Season engagements at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Henry Purcell
Dido and Aeneas

Virgil Thomson
Four Saints in Three Acts

November 11, 2005 - La Belle Musique

Duruflé - Notre Pere
                  Quatre Motets
Messiaen - O Sacrum Convivium
Fauré - Cantique de Jean Racine
                  Messe Basse (for women)
                  Requiem

The Church of the Heavenly Rest

May 21, 2005

Mendelssohn - Verleih uns Frieden
Schumann - Drei Gedichte
Brahms - Der Abend
O Schöne Nacht
Dvorak - Slavonic Dances, Op. 46
Schubert - Characteristic March, Op. 121
Chesnokov, Pavel - Duh Tvoy Blagiy
Plachu I rïdayu
Whitacre, Eric - Cloudburst
Earnest, John David - In After Time

Merkin Concert Hall

April 6, 2005
Carnegie Hall

Mahler - Symphony No. 2 in C minor

with the Kirov Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre
under the direction of Valery Gergiev

April 1, 2005
NJPAC

Mahler - Symphony No. 2 in C minor

with the Kirov Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre
under the direction of Valery Gergiev

March, 2 2005 - Rutgers in New York

Poulenc, Francis: Gloria for Soprano Solo, Mixed Choir, and Orchestra, Opus 177
Soprano: Carlensha Grady
Rachmaninoff, Sergei . Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,OP.43
Piano: Susan Starr
Mussorgsky, Modest . Pictures at an Exhibition

Carnegie Hall

Summer 2004
Mostly Mozart Festival
Mozart - Requiem in D minor
August 27-28, 2004
Avery Fisher Hall

June 4, 2004 - Within the Mystical
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City

Lou Harrison
      Mass to St. Anthony
                Entire work accompanied by string orchestra, trumpet and harp.
      La Koro Sutro (for chorus and American Gamelan)
                Read the Program Notes for Lo Koro Sutro, by Patrick Gardner.

Charles Ives
      Psalm 90 for Chorus, Organ and Bells

Ralph Vaughan Williams
      Five Mystical Songs

John Corigliano
      Psalm 8 for Chorus and Organ Accompaniment

December 17, 2003 - Within the Mass
Holy Trinity Church, 213 West 82^nd Street, New York City, New York

Arvo Pärt
      Berliner Messe

Lou Harrison
      Mass to St. Anthony (for chorus and American Gamelan)

Joseph Haydn
      Missa in Angustiis "Nelson Mass"

March 2003
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City

Stravinsky
      Symphony of Psalms
                Read the Program Notes for this concert, by Patrick Gardner.

Mozart
      Mass in C minor, K. 427
                Read the Program Notes for this concert, by John Shepard.

Winter 2002 - O let us rejoice!
Saturday, December 14
Church of the Heavenly Rest
Fifth Avenue at 90th Street

Our 2002 holiday concert featured music written for both Hanukkah and Christmas, including Robert Strassburg's "Psalm 117" and "L'cha dodi," Elliott Z. Levine's "Lo v'chayil," Samuel Adler's "Judah's Song of Praise," Javier Busto's "Ave maris stella," and the 1947 Christmas Cantata of the English composer Geoffrey Bush.

Summer 2002
Mostly Mozart Festival
Beethoven - Choral Fantasy
Saturday August 10, 2002
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC
Robert Levin and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

The chorus returned to the Mostly Mozart Festival for its fourth engagement, to perform Beethoven's Choral Fantasy with Robert Levin and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The group made its Lincoln Center debut in August 1998 in the Festival's lauded presentation of Mozart's Idomeneo, returned to Mostly Mozart in 2000 for two acclaimed performances of Mozart's Great Mass in C minor, and presented two highly praised performances of Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri at the Festival in 2001.

Spring 2002 at Alice Tully Hall
Beethoven - Missa Solemnis
April 27, 2002 Saturday at 8:00pm
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC
Julie Freeman, Soprano
Maria Zifchak, Mezzo Soprano
Stephen Oosting, Tenor
David Arnold, Bass

Read the Program Notes by John Shepard for this concert.

Read the Translation of the Texts for this concert.

The Missa Solemnis is one of the world's supreme masterpieces of sacred music. Composed from 1819 to 1823, when Europe was still recovering from the Napoleonic wars, the work--whose music bears the echoes of battle and whose Agnus Dei bears the notation "for inner and outer peace"--holds poignant meaning for our own troubled and challenging times. Within its titanic movements, the clamor and confusion of the world contrast with moments of inspired prayer and comforting contemplation. Beethoven completed this work of great personal intensity and dramatic power during a period of spiritual awakening, and dedicated it to his beloved patron Archduke Rudolph "from the heart," with the hope that it would "in turn go to the heart." From the nineteenth century to the twenty-first, generation after generation of listeners have, indeed, taken the Mass to heart and been profoundly moved and inspired by what musicologist Joseph Kerman has termed its "sublimity, awe, and pathos."

Winter 2001 - A Holiday Celebration

Friday, December 14 at 8:00 pm
Church of the Heavenly Rest
Fifth Avenue at 90th Street

Mary Ellen Callahan, Soprano
Mary Huhmann, Soprano
Lisa Layman, Mezzo-Soprano
Brent Weber, Tenor
Randall Scarlatta, Bass

Our 2001 holiday concert ranged from traditional English carols to rousing gospel spirituals, motets in the Romantic tradition to enchanting Haitian and Nigerian songs and the tender beauty of Lauridsen's beloved O Magnum Mysterium. Major selections included Finzi's In Terra Pax, a Christmas Eve meditation for chorus, soloists, and orchestra, and Saint-Saëns' Christmas Oratorio, whose contrasting movements of lyrical meditation, dramatic declamation, and pastoral simplicity culminate in a joyfully festive chorale.

Read the Program Notes for this concert.

August 2001 at Lincoln Center
Mostly Mozart Festival
Das Paradies und die Peri,
Schumann's Great Secular Oratorio
August 3, Friday
August 4, Saturday
8:00pm
Avery Fisher Hall,
Lincoln Center
Christine Goerke, Soprano
Jane Giering-De Haan, Soprano
Kristine Jepson, Mezzo Soprano
Robert Brubaker, Tenor
Robert McPherson, Tenor
Peter Rose, Bass
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra
Gerard Schwarz, Conductor

Riverside Choral Society performed Robert Schumann's oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri (1843). This was Robert Schumann's first work for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. It is based on a story told in Thomas Moore's poem "Lalla Rookh" about a figure from Persian mythology, a fallen angel who seeks to earn her way back into Heaven. Schumann thought of the work as "an oratorio -- not for the conventicle, but for bright, happy people."

May 2001 at Carnegie Hall
Carl Orff - Carmina Burana

May 22, 2001
Tuesday at 8:00pm
Carnegie Hall
57th Street and 7th Ave, NYC

Hei-Kyung Hong, Soprano
John Hancock, Baritone
John Daniecki, Tenor
Orchestra of St. Luke's
Robert Bass, Conductor

Riverside Choral Society again joined forces with the Collegiate Chorale for a performance of Carl Orff's bacchanalian Carmina Burana. For over sixty years, the immediacy and boisterous physicality of Orff's settings of medieval lyrics have thrilled audiences all over the world.

March 2001 at Merkin Concert Hall
Those Romantic Germans
Liebeslieder and More

March 4, 2001
Sunday at 8:00pm
Merkin Concert Hall
129 West 67th Street

Gilbert Kalish, Piano
Margaret Kampmeier, Piano

RCS devoted its spring program to German romantic choral music, a cappella and with piano accompaniment. The program included Mirjams Siegesgesang, Franz Schubert's setting of Grillparzer's poem about the parting of the Red Sea, and Johannes Brahms's Liebeslieder Waltzes, Opus 52. The biblical cantata, written in Schubert's last year, features a demanding piano part and emulates the spirit of one of the composer's idols - George Frideric Handel. Brahms's vocal waltzes employ two pianists and respond to wistful and humorous verses with lilting melody and elegant invention. This concert marked Riverside's Merkin Concert Hall debut.

Texts and translations are available.

December 2000 - Beethoven's Birthday
Beethoven - Consecration of the House Overture
Three Grand Hymns from the Missa Solemnis

December 16, 2000
Saturday at 8:00pm
Holy Trinity Church, 213 W. 82nd Street Julie Freeman Soprano
Jane Shaulis Mezzo-Soprano
Stephen Oosting Tenor
Brian McIntosh Bass

The Riverside Choral Society observed the 230th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven by recreating part of the concert the composer directed on May 7, 1824, which concluded with the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, Opus 125. Patrick Gardner conducted the pieces that opened that concert - the Opus 124 Overture ("The Consecration of the House") and the Kyrie, Credo, and Agnus Dei from Missa Solemnis, Opus 123, which were billed in the 1824 concert as "Three Grand Hymns." Musicologist Joseph Kerman wrote that these settings of texts from the Latin mass evoke "sublimity, awe and pathos."

Click here to read the program notes.

August 2000
Mozart - Great Mass in C minor
Carl Maria von Weber - Der Freischütz

"The Riverside Choral Society had obviously prepared the score thoroughly and sang the music with confidence and full-bodied sound.
... This was a sensitive and rewarding performance of Mozart's most ambitious choral work.
... It brought the [Mostly Mozart] festival to a fitting close."
-- Anthony Tommasini, New York Times

"In this 1821 work [Der Freischütz] Weber virtually invented the genre of German Romantic opera. ... The impressive Riverside Choral Society (directed by Patrick Gardner) sang two rousing choruses."
-- Anthony Tommasini, New York Times

May 2000
Weill - Kiddush
Das Berliner Requiem
Vom Tod im Wald
Honegger - King David
Isaiah Sheffer, Narrator

Click here for program notes.

March 2000
(Wall to Wall Kurt Weill at Symphony Space)
Weill - Kiddush
              Die Legende vom toten Soldaten
              Das Berliner Requiem
              songs from Huck Finn

December 1999

Schubert - Magnificat
Beethoven - Choral Fantasy
Margaret Kampmeier, special guest artist
Haydn - Harmoniemesse

Click here for program notes.

May 1999
Verdi - Giovanna d'Arco
with the Collegiate Chorale and the Orchestra of St. Luke's

Lauren Flanigan, soprano

"The Collegiate Chorale, fortified by the Riverside Choral Society, formed a superchorus of some 250, vastly more than any opera house would employ in this work. It was fun to hear the music sung with such hearty sound and unabashed enthusiasm. Mr. Bass conducted a muscular and exciting performance."
-- Anthony Tommasini, New York Times

April 1999
Brahms - Alto Rhapsody
                  Vier Gesänge
                  Schicksalslied,
                  Nänie
Jane Shaulis, mezzo-soprano
Rutgers Glee Club, special artists

Brahms texts: Vier Gesänge, Schicksalslied, Nänie

December 1998
Pärt - Te Deum
Holst - Two Psalms
Shostakovich - Piano Concerto No. 1
Margaret Kampmeier, special guest artist

Notes on Pärt's Te Deum

August 1998
Mostly Mozart Festival
Mozart - Idomeneo (adaptation by Richard Strauss)

"Riverside Choral Society sang with winning musicality."
--Bernard Holland, New York Times

"Gerard Schwarz and his Festival Orchestra, along with a fine array of soloists and the excellent Riverside Choral Society, gave us a rare view of Strauss' handiwork."
-- Shirley Fleming, New York Post

May 1998
Britten - Cantata Misericordium
Duruflé - Requiem

Notes on Duruflé's Requiem

February 1998
Verdi - Nabucco

with the Collegiate Chorale and the Orchestra of St. Luke's
Lauren Flanigan, soprano

"Nabucco has seldom sounded more like a vast choral drama . . . the chorus . . . sang with wonderfully blended, full-bodied yet unforced resonance."
-- Anthony Tommasini, New York Times

"Verdi's choruses are frequent, massive, and very much part of the drama, full of militant thrust and vigor. . . . Conductor Robert Bass . . . saw to it that the full weight of his combined forces lent power and shape to these robust outpourings; they were sturdy and buoyant in rhythm, and the men alone, singing as soldiers, proved a finely disciplined musical regiment." -- Shirley Fleming, New York Post

"Augmented by the Riverside Choral Society, the Chorale was indeed the star of the evening, the prayerfully whispered unison passages sounding no less awesome than the massed choral climaxes."
-- Peter G. Davis, New York

December 1997
Mendelssohn - Verleih uns Frieden
Mozart -Vesperae solennes K. 339
Haydn - Mass in Time of War

Notes on Mozart's Vesperae solennes K. 339

May 1997
Bruckner - Mass in E minor and motets
Schubert - Nachtgesang im Walde

Notes on Bruckner's Mass in E minor

December 1996
Mozart - Requiem (new completion by Robert Levin)
Haydn -Te Deum

Notes on Mozart's Requiem

May 1996
Brahms - Ein deutsches Requiem

December 1995
Harrison - Mass to St. Anthony
Schubert - Mass in G

May 1995
Fauré - Requiem
Bernstein - Chichester Psalms
Janácek - Otcenas

December 1994
Schubert - Mass in E Flat
Handel - Coronation Anthems

May 1994
Beethoven - Mass in C
Choral Fantasy

December 1993 - Music for a Season of Illumination
Finzi - In Terra Pax
Vivaldi - Gloria
Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on Christmas Carols
Handel - Judas Maccabeus

May 1993
Mozart - Mass in C minor

December 1992
Britten - St. Nicholas Cantata
Ramirez - Missa Criolla
Navidad Nuestra

May 1992
Hindemith - Fra Musica
(from Six Chansons)
Weill - Kiddush
Das Berliner Requiem
Brahms - Vier Gesange
Nänie
Orff - Dithyrambi

December 1991
Mozart - Die Zauberflöte
O Isis and Osiris
Final Chorus
Haydn - Mehrstimmige Gesange
The Battle of the Nile
Mass The Lord Nelson Mass

May 1991 - Music of the Americas
Bernstein - Chichester Psalms
Copland - Deep River
Ramirez - Misa Criolla

December 1990
Mozart - Requiem