Verdi Requiem + Higdon Premiere
Sunday, March 29, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Broad & Spruce Streets, Philadelphia
The legendary Verdi Requiem premiered in 1874, the same year as Mendelssohn Club’s founding. Pairing the Requiem with a Jennifer Higdon premiere creates an anniversary program that perfectly encapsulates what distinguishes Mendelssohn Club under the leadership of Alan Harler - inviting audiences to experience new work along with familiar masterpieces. Harler, who has maintained a lifelong commitment to new American music, says, “It is imperative that we perform music of American composers, and most importantly, music of living American composers. There is no greater experience than bringing a new piece to its first performance under the guidance of the composer, and knowing it is being heard for the first time by the audience and the composer.”
Jennifer Higdon, one of the most performed American composers working today, recently finished this new work for chorus and orchestra, On the Death of the Righteous. She chose a sermon by 16th-century poet and preacher John Donne for a text that would respect the definition of a requiem - a mass for the dead. The composer comments, “This has been an interesting challenge, especially in that the piece will be followed by the Verdi Requiem. I’m looking forward to hearing how it fits.”
A stellar lineup of vocal soloists will join the 150-voice chorus of Mendelssohn Club for the Requiem. Soprano Sandra Lopez, in her debut performance of the Requiem, is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Marietta Simpson, mezzo-soprano with roots in Philadelphia, has sung under many of the world's greatest conductors with major orchestras throughout the U.S., and with many of the leading opera companies. Baritone Stephen Powell has performed with companies including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Company of Philadelphia, as well as with many symphony orchestras, including early March 2009 performances with The Philadelphia Orchestra.
For tenor Stuart Neill, a graduate of Philadelphia’s Academy of the Vocal Arts, this will be his first performance in Philadelphia following his December and January performances as Don Carlo in the opening series at La Scala opera house. Mr. Neill is internationally recognized as a leading interpreter of the tenor role in Verdi's Requiem, having performed it more than 175 times. He recently finished his third recording of the Requiem, with The London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis.
Accolades for
Recent Performances
The Mendelssohn Club's annual visit to St. Paul's in Chestnut Hill was a thrilling triumph...A choir of exemplary power and peerless delicacy...under Harler's golden touch."
-- Chestnut Hill Local
Mendelssohn Club accomplished what is, for many, the impossible: its Sunday concert at the Kimmel Center gave you reason to respect Carl Orff's annoyingly popular Carmina Burana.
-Philadelphia Inquirer
The Mendelssohn Club sang Beethoven Sympothy No. 9 better than ever, and with a clarity that often evades large choral ensembles.
-The Saratogian