THE OPUS PROJECT
Opus 8
8pm, Saturday, August 31, 2013
Berkeley Arts Festival
2133 University, Berkeley, CA
Op. 8, No. 1
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) Six Orchestral Songs, Op. 8 (1905)
I. Natur (Introduction) (Heinrich Hart)
Letitia C. Page, Soprano
The Opus Project Orchestra
Bela Bartok (1881-1945) Romanian Folk Dances, Op. 8a (1910)
I. Allegro vivace
Peter Frankl - Video
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) The Firebird (1910)
Infernal Dance (Introduction)
Berceuse
Finale
The Opus Project Orchestra
Anton Webern (1883-1945) Two Songs after Poems of Rainier Maria Rilke, Op. 8 (1910)
I. Langsam ("Du, der ichs nicht sage, daß ich bei Nacht")
Megan Cullen, Soprano
The Opus Project Orchestra
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) Autumnal Sketch, Op. 8 (1910)
Andantino con tristessa
The Opus Project Orchestra
Darius Milhaud (1892-1975) Suite for Piano, Op. 8 (1910)
I. Lent
Elizabeth Lee, Piano
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) Three Pieces for Cello and Piano, Op. 8 (1917)
II. Phantasiestuck (Introduction)
Elizabeth Morrison, Cello
Elizabeth Lee, Piano
Kurt Weill (1900-1950) String Quartet No. 1, Op. 8 (1923)
I. Introduktion
The Opus Project Quartet
Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987) String Quartet No. 1, Op. 8 (1928)
I. Andante / Allegro moderato
Glazunov Quartet - Video
Opus 8, No. 2
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) Piano Trio No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 8 (1923)
I. Andante
The Opus Project Piano Trio
Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Two Choruses, Op. 8 (1936)
II. Let Down the Bars, O Death (Emily Dickinson)
The Opus Project Orchestra
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) Two Insect Pieces (1935)
I. The Grasshopper
Stardust, Oboe
Elizabeth Lee, Piano
Our Hunting Fathers, Op. 8 (1936) (W.H. Auden)
Prologue
Megan Cullen, Soprano
The Opus Project Orchestra
Jan Pusina (b. 1940) Pool (2011) (Diane Frank)
Letitia C. Page, Soprano
The Opus Project Orchestra
Michael Kimbell (b. 1946) Celestial Encounters (1986)
Elizabeth Lee, Piano
Harry Bernstein (b. 1948) Mary Had a Little Lamp (1997) (Ira Yellowstone)
Sarita Cannon, Soprano
Maria Reeves, Piano
Mark Alburger (b. 1957) The Twelve Fingers, Op. 8, No. 12 (1977)
XII. March
The Opus Project Orchestra
Stardust (b. 1962) Opus 8
The Opus Project Orchestra
Michael Stubblefield (b. 1989) March of the Defiled Horde
The Opus Project Orchestra
The Opus Project concerts are a series of benefits for Awesome Orchestra, Diablo Valley College Music, Goat Hall Productions / San Francisco's Cabaret Opera, and San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra
THE OPUS PROJECT ORCHESTRA
Mark Alburger Music Director and Conductor
Flute
Harry Bernstein
Alan Kingsley
Oboe
Stardust
Clarinet
Rachel Condry
Michael Kimbell
Bassoon
Nat Echols
Lori Garvey
Michael Garvey
Trumpet
Ron Cohen
David Graber
Horn
Priscilla Nunn
Jan Pusina
Valerie Senavsky
Trombone
Zack Newbegin
Noah Ortiz
Tuba
Francis Upton IV
Soprano
Sarita Cannon
Letitia C. Page
Mezzo Soprano
Megan Cullen
Maria Christina Heryanto
Harp
Samantha Garvey
Piano
Mark Alburger
Elizabeth Lee
Maria Reeves+
Percussion
Ken Crawford
Violin I
Carolyn Lowenthal*+
Nicholas Morales
Violin II
Corey Johnson*
Viola
Rozalia Valentine
Kat Walsh*
Cello
Austin Graham
Elizabeth Morrison*+
Bass
Michael Stubblefield
+The Opus Project Piano Trio
*The Opus Project Quartet
THE OPUS PROJECT presents
OPUS 9 - 8pm, Saturday, September 28, 2013, Berkeley Arts Festival, 2133 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA
A Multi-Media Event, with The Opus Project Quartet and Orchestra
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) Chamber Symphony, Op. 9 (1906)
Bela Bartok (1881-1945) Dirge, Op. 9, No. 1 (1910)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Poem of Paul Verlaine, Op. 9, No. 1 (1910)
Anton Webern (1883-1945) Six Bagatelles for String Quartet, Op. 9 (1913)
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) Two Poems, Op. 9 (1911)
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) Three Songs, Op. 9 (1917)
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) Three Pieces for Cello and Piano, Op. 9 (1924)
Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Symphony in One Movement, Op. 9 (1936)
Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000) Piano Quintet, Op. 9 (1926)
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) Soirees Musicales, Op. 9, No. 1 (1936)
Mark Alburger (b. 1957) Psalm 92, Op. 9 (1977)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Six Orchestral Songs, Op. 8 (1905)
I. Natur (Introduction) (Heinrich Hart)
Nacht fließt in Tag und Tag in Nacht,
der Bach zum Strom, der Strom zum Meer -
in Tod zerrinnt des Lebens Pracht,
und Tod zeugt Leben licht und hehr.
Night flows into day and day into night,
the brook to the river, the river to the sea -
in death the life splendour disappears,
and death witnesses to life light and more nobility.
Anton Webern (1883-1945)
Two Songs after Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, Op. 8 (1910)
I. Langsam ("Du, der ichs nicht sage, daß ich bei Nacht")
Du, der ichs nicht sage, daß ich bei Nacht
weinend liege,
deren Wesen mich müde macht
wie eine Wiege.
Du, die mir nicht sagt, wenn sie wacht
Meinetwillen:
wie, wenn wir diese Pracht
ohne zu stillen
in uns ertrügen?
You, who I do not tell that I lie, at night,
awake crying,
whose nature tires me
like a cradle.
You, who does not say to me if she is awake
On my account.
If we endure this splendour,
Without satisfaction,
How can we bear it?
Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
Two Choruses, Op. 8 (1936)
II. Let Down the Bars, O Death (Emily Dickinson)
Let down the bars, O Death!
The tired flocks come in
Whose bleating ceases to repeat,
Whose wandering is done.
Thine is the stillest night,
Thine the securest fold;
Too near thou art for seeking thee,
Too tender to be told.
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Our Hunting Fathers, Op. 8 (1936) (W.H. Auden)
Prologue
They are our past and our future; the poles between which our desire unceasingly is discharged.
A desire in which love and hatred so perfectly oppose themselves, that we cannot voluntarily move, but await the extraordinary compulsion of the deluge and the earthquake.
Their finish has inspired the limits of all arts and ascetic movements.
Their affections and indifferences have been a guide to all reformers and tyrants.
Their appearances in our dreams of machinery have brought a vision of nude and fabulous epochs.
O pride so hostile to our charity.
But what their pride has retained we may by charity more generously recover.
Jan Pusina (b. 1940)
Pool (2011) (Diane Frank)
My words ripple through water.
When they touch you,
you don’t understand.
They escape your fingers.
Words surrounded by rocks. (stones)
Words
under
water.
They swim inside themselves
to find their own light.
In the pool I inhale your skin.
I swim in the scent of you.
My words don’t touch you
the way our kisses do.
Our toes touch as
fantail koi brush your skin
in a Japanese temple garden.
My words
swim through the water
push through
the alphabet of your skin.
Harry Bernstein (b. 1948)
Mary Had a Little Lamp (1997) (Ira Yellowstone)
Mary had a little lamp,
It lightened every night.
Though she was cute, and very smart,
The lamp was not so bright.
She brought the lamp for show and tell
At her exclusive school.
Outshone by cheap fluorescent bulbs,
The lamp felt like a fool.
It went berserk and fled the school,
Embarking on a lampage.
At last, outwatted by the cops,
Who chilled it in a damp cage.
Upon reflection, shed the lamp repentantly a tear.
So Mary and the lamp when home.
And now, whenever Mary read,
The lamp was sure to glow.
***
Earlier in the day,
breeze down the
freeways to
Cyber Copy, producing the program and bound copies of scores (the latter a mercifully shorter task than expected, the former being surprisingly prolonged).
From here,
vault over and through the Coast Ranges to
Berkeley
for the
soundcheck
before a very fine show (lawenforcers showing up at the break asking questions about the facility notwithstanding),
after which are gladsome congratulations all around.
Home late, composing page 12 of Psalm 102 and At a Medical Deposition -- 160th day of summer, high yet a fourth 93 of the week... a strait run, discounting yesterday's interruption of 97... this now the 68th of 90-or-above temperature of the year.
By contrast, a very moderate 73 in Berkeley, but warm nontheless in the space, with the fans going at a healthy, yet almost silent, clip.
