Roberto Sierra (photo: above) was born in Puerto Rico and studied with György Ligeti in Germany. Since 1992 he has been a member of the faculty of music at Cornell University, and is widely recognized as one of the leading composers of his generation.

Sierra’s “Missa Latina ‘Pro Pace’ (For Peace)” was commissioned by Washington’s National Symphony and the Choral Arts Society, and Leonard Slatkin conducted the premiere with those combined ensembles in 2006. Since that time the work has been performed in major cities around the United States, each time with great success.

Craig Hella Johnson (photo: right) and Conspirare brought the “Missa Latina” to Texas last month with performances in Victoria and in Austin, where I heard it.

Some years ago composer Osvaldo Golijov had a major triumph with his “Pasión según San Marco” (2000), which combined elements of the Christian liturgy with folkloric elements from the music of Latin America. Sierra attempts a similar cross-fertilization but in a more conservative, less theatrical way. Both works are valuable additions to the modern repertoire of Christian liturgical music.

Sierra clearly sets himself in the great tradition of symphonic masses; that is to say, compositions by the great composers which reach beyond the confines of church services. J.S. Bach was one of the originators of this tradition with his “B minor Mass” and then came Haydn, Beethoven, and Bruckner.

In the twentieth century Leonard Bernstein took a radical, popularizing approach to the challenge of writing a mass and produced a work that is still controversial. Although Sierra didn’t use Bernstein as a model he introduced “pop” elements from his own Caribbean culture. He also emulated Bernstein in wanting to convey a social message through his music. Sierra, who has often said that he is troubled by the “constant state of war” in our modern world, added a plea for peace to his Latin mass.

The “Missa Latina” begins with an ‘Introitus,’ the opening words of which are “Da pacem, Domine” (Give peace, O Lord). This ‘Introitus,’ which is slow-moving, quiet and dominated by the soprano soloist, also has a languid peacefulness that reminded me of several of Canteloube’s “Songs of the Auvergne,” but then the ‘Kyrie’ bursts forth and we are in the midst of an angry world very much in need of peace. The ‘Gloria’ follows, providing relief with dance rhythms and major key brightness abounding. The ‘Credo’ is again dark and disturbing. It is here that we are reminded of the coming of Jesus and his crucifixion.

The ‘Sanctus’ contains the most joyous music in the “Missa Latina” and listeners may well have trouble resisting the urge to get up and dance. The work ends with an ‘Agnus Dei’ and another plea for peace. The soprano solo is dominant in this movement with soaring, quasi-improvisatory melodic patterns. Sierra ends the work on a positive note, repeating the rhythmically infectious Alleluia from the ‘Offertorium.’

In spite of its use of popular Latin dance rhythms, the “Missa Latina” is a deeply serious and complex work. The harmonies are often abrasively chromatic and the contrapuntal choral writing occasionally academic.

One of the weaknesses of the piece may be that it is so relentlessly thick in texture. The “Missa Latina” might have benefitted greatly from the addition of several purely orchestral episodes, and a more frequent use of solos in the orchestra; for the most part, the upper strings in the orchestra couldn’t be heard at all through the obscuring weight of the wind and brass – even in quiet passages. This imbalance is not the fault of the conductor; it is simply poor orchestration. As with so many things in art and life, less is often more.

The same principle applies to the vocal solos. Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy (photo: right), who was featured in the premiere performance and in many subsequent ones, sang magnificently on this occasion, with a lovely range of colors and total command of phrasing. Sierra, however, went too far in his demands on the soprano voice. Murphy began to show signs of strain near the end of her performance, by which time some audience members were clearly beginning to tire of the seemingly endless soprano solos in this piece.

Happily, Ms. Murphy had no trouble projecting over the choral and orchestral forces. Baritone Daniel Teadt, on the other hand, was too often simply overwhelmed.

The Conspirare Symphonic Choir and the Conspirare Company of Voices were joined by the Texas State University Chorale and the Victoria Bach Festival Orchestra and Chorus, under the direction of conductor Craig Hella Johnson. As is the case with most productions organized by Johnson and Conspirare, the musical standard was extraordinarily high.

Judging by the enthusiastic response at the Austin performance, the audience loved the “Missa Latina.” True, they were applauding the performers, most of whom are known and respected locally, but surely they were also expressing their appreciation for a work which challenged them and enriched their lives. As does Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis,” a work many listeners still find “difficult” to understand, Sierra’s “Missa Latina” packs an emotional and dramatic punch that is almost irresistible.

For Those Wanting More…

The “Missa Latina” was recorded in 2008 by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Andreas Delfs with Heidi Grant Murphy, soprano, and Nathaniel Webster, baritone (Naxos 8.559624). Much of Roberto Sierra’s vast compositional output has been recorded. For a complete list and more information about the composer visit his website at www.robertosierra.com.

For the record, this was not the Texas premiere of Sierra’s “Missa Latina; that honour goes to the Houston Symphony and Chorus, led by Leonard Slatkin (May, 2009) with – yes, Heidi Grant Murphy as the soprano soloist!

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and ”Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music.” NEW for friends: The Art of the Conductor podcast, “Classical Airs.”

by Paul E. Robinson

A lingering recession is the worst of times for the arts generally and for music education specifically. Hardly a day goes by without more news of cuts to funding of orchestras, theatres, art galleries, museums and schools. The bad news, however, is often offset by good news; for example, the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto, Canada) just announced a partnership with Carnegie Hall to introduce a national system of study and assessment in the U.S. modeled after the RCM’s comprehensive and highly respected programme, and the Venezuelan movement called El Sistema has taken root in the United States as well, with encouraging results.

More modest classical music education programmes are flourishing all over the United States and some seem almost impervious to economic or political ups and downs.

One such venture was initiated in Austin in 1991 by violinist Robert Rudié under the name Chamber Music in the Public Schools (CHAMPS). Today CHAMPS works every year with at least 60 students in a total of eleven schools.

To judge by the benefit concert given last week at the Ballet Austin Headquarters, CHAMPS has more support than ever. Several years ago, I was one of a total of approximately 50 people who attended a similar CHAMPS event. This time out there were more than 250 in attendance.

The State of Texas, like most U.S. states, has a huge budget deficit, and hundreds of teachers are being laid off, but proven programmes like CHAMPS continue to grow. Why? I would guess that driving this growth are parents who care enough about their children’s classical music education to make the effort to find the money to fund the programmes that provide it.

The big attraction at this year’s CHAMPS benefit concert was Elizabeth Pitcairn performing on the “Red Violin.”

In 1998, Canadian director Francois Girard made a film (poster: right) called “The Red Violin” about a Stradivarius violin (the “Red Mendelssohn”) and its mysterious history. This particular Strad was called the “Red Violin” because of the distinctive colour of its varnish. Unlike most Strads, the whereabouts of which have been well chronicled over history, the “Red Violin” vanished from sight for more than 200 years; the film speculates about the people who might have owned it and/or played it throughout those years.

Current owner of the “Red Violin”, Elizabeth Pitcairn, comes from a distinguished musical family in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her great-grandfather founded the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company (PPG) and her father trained to be an opera singer. Her mother, Mary Eleanor Brace Pitcairn, has an Austin connection, having studied cello at the University of Texas. Elizabeth herself studied with Robert Lipsett at USC in Los Angeles. She concertizes internationally and, until recently, served as co-concertmaster for the New West Symphony under Boris Brott.

Pitcairn became a part of the history of the “Red Violin” when her family bought this priceless instrument  for her at auction almost twenty years ago. The auction price is said to have been $1.6 million.

Accompanist for Ms. Pitcairn at the Austin concert was Toby Blumenthal (photo: right), newly appointed director of CHAMPS. Pitcairn and Blumenthal are both directors of a summer music school, The Luzerne Music Center New York State), founded by Toby and her late husband Bert Phillips, a longtime cellist in the Philadelphia Orchestra.

This CHAMPS fundraiser concert was thoroughly enjoyable and no doubt an inspiration for all the young people in attendance. Between pieces, Ms. Pitcairn charmed the audience with some personal anecdotes and a brief history of her famous violin – which she has named “Felix.” Judging by her love of music, her ability to charm an audience, and her virtuosic playing, Elisabeth Pitcairn seems an ideal role model for young people just beginning to explore the wonders of classical music.

Playing with authority and panache, she began her short programme with Beethoven’s “Spring” Sonata then went on to pieces by Gershwin, Dinicu, Paganini and Monti. The sound of the “Red Violin” was pure gold in Paganini’s “Cantabile.” and distinctively exciting in the fireworks of Monti’s “Csardas.”

The CHAMPS programme made a wise choice in inviting Elizabeth and “Felix” to perform their magic in Austin. I am certain that many children and their parents left this concert vowing to redouble their efforts to make good music an important part of all their lives.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and ”Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music.” NEW for friends: The Art of the Conductor podcast, “Classical Airs.”

Photo slideshow by Marita

Craig Hella Johnson never ceases to amaze us. Just when you think his exceptional musical imagination has surely outdone itself, he comes up with something even more remarkable. His latest achievement was a festival given at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Austin, called “Renaissance & Response: Polyphony Then and Now.” Sound like an article in an academic journal? Perhaps, but that didn’t stop his many followers from selling out four concerts in one weekend and to judge by the concert I attended, enjoying every moment of it.

The basic concept of the festival was to combine music by several of the great Renaissance polyphonic composers – Josquin des Prez, Orlandus Lassus and Tomás Luis de Victoria – with contemporary pieces or responses composed by Robert Kyr. In spite of the umbrella title for the festival, the series went well beyond the Renaissance in its final concert devoted to the music of Bach, but again with a response by Kyr.

I attended only the Orlandus Lassus concert but there is no doubt that both the concept and the execution were exceptionally powerful. This concert had the added attraction of a pre-concert talk by Kyr.

Robert Kyr (photo: right) is a Professor of Music at the University of Oregon. He has composed a huge amount of music in many different genres – twelve symphonies and dozens of choral works, for example – and he has also studied and made performing editions of a great number of Renaissance pieces; in short, he was just the man for the commission Craig Hella Johnson had in mind for this series – someone with an in depth knowledge and love of Renaissance polyphony, who could compose new works, somehow inspired by this music written more than 400 years ago.

I have no doubt that Craig Hella Johnson was thrilled with what Robert Kyr gave him: music of our time of the highest quality, enriched by the polyphonic models, mysteriously bringing to life virtually the entire history of music. No mean feat.

What makes Conspirare’s concerts so impressive is that Johnson, the singular visionary, is also Johnson the gifted master of choral conducting. Conspirare’s nineteen-member Company of Voices is a hand-picked group of professional soloists melded into a vocal ensemble second to none. Craig Hella Johnson is the leader who makes it all work.

I must confess that I attend concerts of early music with a skeptical ‘chip’ on my shoulder. I am all too aware that the further back we go in the history of music, the fewer the facts at our disposal. When it comes to the performance of Renaissance music, in particular, what we know doesn’t take us very far.

In the cases of Josquin des Prez (1450-1521) and Orlandus Lassus (1532-1594), performers are often floundering on basic matters such as pitch, tempo, note values, dynamics and accidentals. We are still arguing about such things in Mozart and Haydn. Going back 500 years or so the questions are far greater in number.

Rather than emphasize what they don’t know, the best interpreters of early music concentrate on the challenges and the joy of opening up the door to the distant past even a crack. They are the archeologists of the music profession. They spend years immersing themselves in accumulated knowledge, then load up and head out into the field, full of excitement about the tiny glimpses into the human experience they might discover.

Orlandus Lassus (or Orlando di Lasso) is usually identified as a Franco-Flemish composer, although he spent most of his early life in Italy and his last 40 years in Munich. For his time, he was extraordinarily well-travelled and prolific. He composed over 2,000 works and set texts in Latin, French, Italian, Dutch and German. He wrote both sacred and secular music; only the former were represented in the Conspirare program.

For modern listeners who are apt to find Renaissance choral music somewhat austere and monotonous, we should keep in mind that behind that conservative persona endlessly praising God, there often lurked an earthier character fascinated by sex and drinking – in other words, an “all too human” composer. Orlandus Lassus was such a composer. In his secular works, he often dealt with both subjects.

In spite of Robert Kyr’s comment in the programme, that the evening’s concert exemplified “the scope and stylistic diversity of Orlandus Lassus’ output,” we were given a very limited exposure to the composer’s range. Instead, all we got we got were motets, a lament and two Mass movements.

Kyr’s “response” first took the form of a lament based on Lassus’ “Third Lamentation.” which we had just heard. Kyr began where Lassus left off, with free-flowing, harmonically limited polyphony, then gradually went further afield using texts from Psalm 69 and the Book of Jonah.

The concert concluded with a more ambitious work by Kyr inspired, not by Lassus, but by a somewhat later composer, Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1641, photo: right). Kyr’s piece, called “Sante Fe Vespers 2010,” was inspired by Monteverdi’s “Vespers of 1610.”

This is where Kyr showed himself to be in total command of his art and his material. While quoting from Monteverdi, he went far beyond the early Seventeenth Century master to create intricate polyphony and sonorous climaxes only a modern composer could conceive.

“Renaissance & Response: Polyphony Then and Now” was a brilliant concert that gave the audience a way in to Renaissance music, and at the same time a way to relate its techniques and its contents to the music of our time.

Perhaps next time around, Craig Hella Johnson might enrich the experience even further by also showing us the secular side of the great Renaissance composers.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music.” NEW for friends: The Art of the Conductor podcast, “Classical Airs.”

In a world gone mad, it makes sense to be afraid, but it is the ultimate test of character to get beyond fear and take a stand for what one truly believes. This is the argument of Poulenc’s opera, “Dialogues of the Carmelites.” Premiered in 1957, it deals specifically with the fate of a group of Carmelite nuns during the French Revolution, but its theme, at once inspirational and unsettling, is universal and still relevant today.

The new Austin Lyric Opera production of “Dialogues of the Carmelites” makes a powerful case for including this opera in the repertoire.

“Dialogues” moves very slowly and deliberately through its first hour or so. Think “Parsifal,” which unfolds with similar deliberation, but if one allows oneself to be drawn into this world of faith and fear, the payoff is devastating.

From a musical point of view, the opera is a peculiar amalgam of Debussy’s “Pelleas” and Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex.” The “Dialogues” score seems to meander and the orchestral sonorities are often acerbic, but Poulenc created exactly the musical language he needed to make this particular drama fresh and credible, just as he did in “Gloria,” which similarly brings something new and beautiful to liturgical music.

In this production, Austin Lyric Opera stage director Erik Einhorn and scenic designers Harry Frehner and Scott Reid bring Poulenc’s opera to life with a minimalist imaginative touch that exquisitely complements this music.

The sets and props are sparse and appropriate, placed and moved without obstructing the narrative flow. Lighting designer Shawn Kaufman also deserves credit for his deft employment of rear lighting. The use of black curtains, mysteriously opening and closing, served to underscore the spiritual elements of the drama. The production was created originally for the Calgary Opera, but what we saw in Austin was perfectly suited to the work and to the house.

The music onstage is dominated by the women (photo: above right) who sing the roles of the Carmelite nuns. Quite simply, they were first-rate. For an opening night, the level of ensemble precision was remarkable.

It is somewhat unfair to single out individuals in such an ensemble effort, but Sheila Nadler as the dying Prioress in Act One – she has sung this role in more than twenty productions of the opera – gave a heart-rending performance, and Jennifer Check as the new Prioress sang with moving eloquence toward the end of Act Two. Emily Pulley (photo: right) as Blanche has the largest role and her personal crisis is at the heart of the opera. She gave a compelling performance and her voice is clearly first-class. Pulley was originally to have played Madame Lidoine, the new Prioress, but the change in casting proved quite satisfactory. Richard Buckley conducted with authority and sensitivity.

Poulenc’s “Dialogues of the Carmelites” was Austin Lyric Opera’s last production of the season, following on equally fine presentations of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” and Rossini’s “Cinderella.” For next season general director Kevin Patterson has chosen Puccini’s “La Boheme,” Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel,” and a real novelty, Chabrier’s “The Star” (L’etoile).

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar,” and “Sir Georg Solti: His Life and Music,” both available at Amazon.com.

Photos by Mark Matson

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Every month, forty or so music-lovers gather in one of the finest private homes in Austin to listen to chamber music: this is Salon Concerts, now in its nineteenth season.

Salon Concerts was created by two of the finest musicians in the area – violinist Robert Rudié and pianist/composer Kathryn Mishell. As Robert approaches his 90th year, he continues to appear as a violinist in the series – at this concert he played excerpts from Bach’s Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin with wonderful tone and expression – but more and more of the artistic direction has been taken over by his wife, Kathryn. I joined the group for their latest soirée called “Instrumental Magnetism” and enjoyed it immensely, not least of all for the chance to hear a new work by Kathryn.

Made by the Same Master, Violin & Cello Notably Drawn Together
The piece was called Duo for Violin and Cello: “Reunion,” and there is a fascinating back story. In the 1860s in Paris, one of the great makers of string instruments was Gand Frères. Of the many instruments produced by the company over the years, two of them found their way to Austin. There was a violin owned by Brian Lewis  a professor of violin at the University of Texas, and a cello owned by Douglas Harvey, principal cellist of the Austin Symphony and the Austin Lyric Opera. In fact, the two instruments were part of a set of four commissioned by Napoleon III and all were made from the same piece of wood!

While the two Austin musicians knew each other, neither knew until recently that the other owned a Gand. Lewis and Mishell had the brilliant idea of bringing the two musicians together to play chamber music on their “Gands.” But more than that, Mishell would bring them together to play music especially written for them and their precious instruments.

Against this background, composer Mishell set to work. As a unifying musical device she used the familiar French nursery song “Frère Jacques,” thus indicating 1) the birthplace of the instruments – Paris, France, 2) the makers of the instruments – Gand Frères, and 3) the fact that in being created from the same piece of wood, the two instruments are natural brothers (frères).

Kathryn went a step further. She told me that since the sibling instruments were born in 1863 and ‘grew up’ in France, they would have known and ’sung’ “Frère Jacques” as ‘children’, as the first publication of the words and music together dates from 1860.

Lewis and Harvey gave a fine performance of the new piece, showing off their Gands and their own considerable talents. Lewis even brought along some coins from the time of Napoleon III to show audience members, in the spirit of the occasion.

Vitizslava Kaprálová’s Rarely Performed “Elegy” Rates More Play
The first half of the evening’s program included an impassioned performance of Bohuslav Martinu’s “Three Madrigals” by Lewis and Bruce Williams, principal violist of the Austin Symphony. Lewis and pianist Rick Rowley then presented the rarely-heard “Elegy” by Martinu student Vitizslava Kaprálová. Mishell is well-known for championing women composers – her KMFA radio series “Into the Light” won a Communicator Award of Distinction last year – and tries to work at least one piece by a woman into each Salon Concerts program.

Kaprálová was a gifted young Czech composer destined to become a major figure. Sadly, her life was cut short by tuberculosis at the age of twenty-five in 1940. The “Elegy” is a beautiful piece and deserves to be better-known. For more on Kaprálová visit the website of the Kaprálová Society. The society is based in Toronto and includes on its advisory board two old friends of mine: pianist Antonin Kubalek and conductor/broadcaster Kerry Stratton.

A Joyous Evening of Intimate Music-making…
The major work on the program was Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 1 in B major Op. 8, played by Lewis, Harvey and Rowley. I prefer the opening tune played with a little more restraint so that one can fully savor its breadth and nobility, but in this performance enthusiasm and the sheer joy of making music carried everything before it. After all, the tempo marking is ‘Allegro con brio’.

I think, however, that I have the composer on my side for the tempo in the slow movement. Brahms marked it ‘Adagio’ and ‘four to the bar’, but pianist Rick Rowley started off at what seemed to me double the tempo, with far too much volume. Surely, those opening chords are meant to suggest almost a suspension of time, just hanging in the air, at a distance, and barely audible. Admittedly, this is difficult to achieve in the living room of a private home – but it can be done.

…Followed by Mixing, Mingling and Fine Food & Wine
As always, the music-making was followed by some world-class cuisine, prepared by the ever-resourceful Chef Pascal.

If I am giving the impression that Salon Concerts is some kind of elitist enterprise, bear in mind that the price tag for the concert and the food was all of $35. Consider also that Salon Concerts manages to raise enough money to maintain its educational activities, in addition to its intimate concert series; the CHAMPS program provides weekly chamber music coaching to over sixty young musicians in Austin’s middle and high schools every year.

Paul E. Robinson is the author of “Herbert von Karajan: the Maestro as Superstar” and “Sir Georg Solti: his Life and Music,” both available at http://www.amazon.com. For more about Paul E. Robinson please visit his website.

Blog photo by Marita.

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