VA:Meachem & Meachem Sep. 12, 2024 Digital Program

Vocal Arts DC Presents

Baritone Lucas Meachem and Pianist Irina Meachem

Terrace Theater

Runtime

140 minutes including a 15-minute intermission
View Details

Program

FRANZ LISZT, 3 Sonetti di Petrarca, S. 270 (Benedetto sia 'l giorno; Pace non trovo; I' vidi in terra angelici costumi)
MAURICE RAVEL, Don Quichotte à Dulcinée (Chanson romanesque;Chanson épique; Chanson à boire)
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF, О, долго буду я, в молчаньи ночи тайной, Opus 4, No. 3 (In the silence of the mysterious night)
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF, Она, как полдень, хороша, Opus 14, No. 9 (As fair as day in blaze of noon)
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF, Весенние воды, Opus 14, No.11
(Spring Waters)
GUSTAV MAHLER, Kindertotenlieder (Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgeh'n; Nun seh' ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen; Wenn dein Mütterlein; Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen; In diesem Wetter)
WILLIAM GRANT STILL, Grief
arr. STEVE WHITE, Oh, Shenandoah

Patrons are requested to silence cell phones and other electronic devices during performances.

The taking of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in this venue.
Program order and artists are subject to change.

This performance is an external rental presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and is not produced by the Kennedy Center.

Meet the Artists

Program Notes

We open tonight with music by the nineteenth century’s most revolutionary cosmopolitan, Franz Liszt (1811-1886). He traveled everywhere, knew everyone, wrote songs in six languages, and brought a new sensibility to his compositions. As Liszt scholar Humphrey Searle put it Liszt “began to see every piece as the musical expression of a certain idea or state of mind, sometimes derived from literature or art, sometimes from experience.”

The works that inspired tonight’s opening songs are settings of Petrarch, the great 14th century Italian poet whose timeless love lyrics to Laura, some 300 sonnets, became the embodiment of desire, inspiring countless art works in many media through the centuries. The sonnets’ rich imagery and ardor (as well as sense of mystery) resonated particularly with the Romantics. Liszt turns them into mini-operas, complete with recit-like passages, passionately impulsive musical lines, and his trademark restless harmonies, ever climbing in search of something they never quite reach. (Apt for Petrarch, who likely barely knew Laura, and who refused him.)

We move next to Maurice Ravel’s (1875-1937) settings intended for a film of Cervantes' novel Don Quixote, an inspiration for many creators. (Recalling just a few: Jules Massenet’s opera Don Quichottè, the bravura ballet by Minkus and Petipa, Broadway’s 1965 hit, Man of La Mancha, and notoriously, director Terry Gilliam’s doomed adaptation, a movie he spent 29 years trying to complete: talk about tilting at windmills!)

The Austrian Weimar-era pioneering director, G.W. Pabst had no such problem, premiering his film of Don Quixote in 1933. It starred the Russian operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin as the “knight of the woeful countenance.” Although not an operatic treatment, the movie did feature songs for the leading character that Pabst had asked a distinguished group of composers to prepare (unbeknownst to one another). Jacques Ibert, Marcel Delannoy, Manuel de Falla, Darius Milhaud, and Maurice Ravel were commissioned, and it is Ibert’s works that made it into the film (something that apparently put out Ravel a bit). But the Ravel set first performed by the great baritone Martial Singher, has gone on to become a favorite of baritones the world over.

The songs highlight Ravel's supreme ability as a musical colorist, evoking and transforming Spanish rhythms and melody. His Don Q comes alive as a character, the music striking the right moods: indomitable hero, solemn knight, lovesick paramour, or raucous drunk by turns. It is a full picture, so much so that this vividness is perhaps what gave Pabst pause about using these songs in the film.

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s (1873-1943) songs come from the first part of his career (he did not write any after leaving Russia in 1917). Tonight’s selections are from the 1890s, just after he completed his conservatory training and was writing in the shadow of Tchaikovsky and his generation, taking on the inheritance of the distinctively Russian mix of melancholy and exaltation that glows within so many great Russian works. But Rachmaninoff expanded on this legacy with unexpected harmonic and melodic turns (note the melody’s ‘wrong note’ near the opening “In the silence of the mysterious night” that resets the mood or the haunting modal voice line of “As fair as day in blaze of noon”). There is also an inward-looking character to his songs. Even the exuberant "Spring Waters," perhaps his most beloved, reveals a touch of resigned longing beneath its soaring vocal line and virtuosic piano accompaniment.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) tended to immerse himself deeply in one poet’s work, creating songs (as well as instrumental music) that refracted the ideas he found. Friedrich Rückert’s (1788-1866) poetry was particularly resonant for the composer, resulting in two extraordinary sets of songs, and serving as the prevailing spirit over his later symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. Tonight we hear “Kindertotenlieder,” written from 1901-1904. These poems of grief were part of a large set written after the death of two of Rückert’s children from scarlet fever in 1833 and 34, and not published until after the poet’s death. When he turned to these songs Mahler had not lost a child yet (that sorrow was to come), but he was acquainted with family tragedy. Several of his siblings died during his childhood and youth, including his beloved younger brother Ernst. The five texts Mahler chose reflect the immense sadness of this theme, but also speak of the enduring power of love and the solace that comes from memory. The work is serious, but not maudlin, and the final shift to a major key close at the end of the last song speaks of some acceptance and perhaps even transcendence.

William Grant Still (1895-1978), often referred to as the dean of African American composers, was a noted symphonist, with many firsts to his name: the first African American to have his symphonies performed by major American orchestras (sometimes serving as the first Black conductor for these ensembles). His opera Troubled Island was premiered by New York City Opera in 1949 another first for an African American composer, and decades before many other opera houses belatedly opened their stages to more diverse voices.

Grief, set to a text by Leroy V. Brandt, is inspired by a cemetery statute, and was written in 1953. A spare, contemplative opening (note the light arpeggios evoking the angel’s tears) gives way to a broader gesture, and a close that seems to lift into air.

The traditional folksong Shenandoah likely dates from at least the early 1700s but its origins are subject to debate. One theory holds that it was first sung by fur traders travelling down the Missouri river by canoe. It may be an adaptation of a Native American chant or song, and some hear echoes of Scottish ballads. Any—or all—of these histories may be right, folk music doesn’t come with an Urtext edition! Beyond question is its enduring beauty as a treasured bit of Americana.

Staff

Board of Directors

*Robert Bein, President
*Martha Ellison, Chair
*Mark W. Ohnmacht, Treasurer
*James Flahive, Secretary
Donnie L. Bryant
Vickie Carlson
*Thomas Colohan
Elizabeth Daniels
Eleanor M. Forrer
Ernest Hamel
Steven F. Mazer, MD
Stephanie van Reigersberg
Robin Rothrock
Marjorie Coombs Wellman

*Executive Committee Member

Honorary Board

Susan Graham
Jake Heggie
Eric Owens
Richard Stilwell
Frederica von Stade

Staff

Peter Russell, Artistic Director
Erin Feng, Director of Operations
Isabel Randall, Communications Manager
Diane D. Lin, Titles Supervisor & Coordinator

Staff for the Terrace Theater

Theater Manager Xiomara Mercado*

Head Usher Randy Howes

Production Manager Rich Ching

Master Technicians Dustin Dunsmore and Susan Kelleher

Box Office Treasurer Ron Payne

*Represented by ATPAM, the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers.

Steinway Piano Gallery is the exclusive area representative of Steinway & Sons and Boston pianos, the official pianos of the Kennedy Center.

iatse 868

The box office at the Kennedy Center is represented by I.A.T.S.E, Local #868.

iatse 22 iatse 772 iatse 798

The technicians at the Kennedy Center are represented by Local #22, Local #772, and Local #798 I.A.T.S.E., AFL-CIO-CLC, the professional union of theatrical technicians.

Thank You Supporters

Vocal Arts DC wishes to thank our donors for their generous support.

FOUNDER
Robert and Arlene Bein
Martha Ellison
Michael Mahoney and Raymond Bahor
Jeffrey G. Mora
Allan Reiter
Alan J. Savada and Will Stevenson
Sarah Billinghurst Solomon
The Estate of Elizabeth Alison Griffith Tennyson
Stephanie van Reigersberg

IMPRESARIO
Stanley Asrael
Elizabeth and Matthew Daniels
Anita and Ernest Hamel
Stephen E. Kitchen
Dr. and Mrs. Steven F. Mazer
Char Mollison
Annemarie and Len Ralston
Robin S. Rothrock
Marjorie and David Wellman

GUARANTOR
Anonymous (2)
Marion G. Arkin and Joseph A. Thomas
Thomas C. Brennan
Donnie L. Bryant
Vickie Carlson
James Flahive
Dennis J. Gallagher
Alan Goldhammer
Gregg Grisa
Margaret C. Jones
Charles and Alicia Kopfstein-Penk
Leslie Luxemburg
Stephen Nash and David Cooper
W. Larz Pearson and Rick Trevino
Richard Price and Yung Chang
Aron Primack
Lynn Trundle
Donna Wolverton

BENEFACTOR
Christer and Mireya Ahl
Wallace K. Bailey Jr.
Jan Burchard
Helen Edwards
Janet Farbstein
Charlotte P. Gollobin
Clemmer Montague
Gary and Trudy Peterson
Daniel Sober
Braughn Taylor and Ken Warlick
Eunice Thomas
John Wiecking
Edith and N. Convers Wyeth

PATRON
Jean W. Arnold
Hays Browning
David Christy
John Driscoll
Carol Ann Dyer
Jack Hairston, Jr.
Nancy E. Johnson
Rebecca Littig
Daniel and Maeva Marcus
Sally Hart McCallum
Shirley Moyer
Richard and Athena Tacha Spear
Richard Stilwell and Kerry McCarthy Stilwell

SUSTAINER
Anonymous (3)
Robert Baker
Barry Bem
Virginia M. Bland
Jaroslava Bloomberg
John Borstel
Eva Brandt
Thomas Brumbach
Betsy Carlson
Thomas Colohan
Richard S. Davis
Benjamin Gitterman
Dr. Marilyn W. Gleysteen
Milton Grossman
Sheridan Harvey
Virginia Hodges
Fleta Hylton
Wayne Kemp
Kimberly King
Sandra Kolb
Lynne Lambert
Dr. and Mrs. David Levin
Donald V. Lincoln
Thomas Lowderbaugh
Jennifer Marill and Marc Magram
Peggy McNulty
Mary Ellen Morgan
Ms. Sheila A. Murphy
Robert Powell
David Pozorski
Martha Randall
Brenda Alverd Randolph
Yvonne Sabine
Morris Schapiro
David Schwarz
Joel A. Cuffman and Leo H. Settler
Travis Stalcup
Jeanne Stanek
Matthew Terrill
Audrey Watson
Gudrun Watson
Raymond White

LEGACY CIRCLE
Vocal Arts DC is deeply grateful to the following patrons, who have notified us that they have included
our organization in their estate planning.

Thomas C. Brennan
Hays R. Browning
Martha Ellison
Alan Goldhammer
M. Sharon Greene
Margaret C. Jones
Dr. and Mrs. Steven F. Mazer
Mary Lynne McElroy†
Ingrid B. Meyer
W. Larz Pearson and Rick Trevino
Joachim Roski and Victor Perea
Alan J. Savada

Giving Key
Founder: $5,000 and above
Impresario: $2,500–$4,499
Guarantor: $1,000-$2,499
Benefactor: $500-$999
Patron: $250-$499
Sustainer: up to $249

Listings reflect donations to Vocal Arts DC received between December 1, 2023, and August 7, 2024.

† Deceased

è��AV

Vocal Arts DC Presents Baritone Lucas Meachem and Pianist Irina Meachem

Vocal Arts DC Presents Baritone Lucas Meachem and Pianist Irina Meachem

Thu. Sep. 12, 2024 7:30p.m.

Program

Meet the Artists

Program Notes

Staff

Board of Directors

Honorary Board

Staff

Staff for the Terrace Theater

Thank You Supporters

Vocal Arts DC Presents

Baritone Lucas Meachem and Pianist Irina Meachem

Vocal Arts DC Presents

Baritone Lucas Meachem and Pianist Irina Meachem