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

Reviews &
Program Notes

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


Mendelssohn - Lobgesang With Mannes College Orchestra Carnegie Hall November 3, 2008


November 8, 2007 Stravinsky - Symphony of Psalms With the Mannes School of Music Orchestra At Carnegie Hall
Monday, April 16^th, 2007 at 8 PM St. Thomas Church Fifth Ave. at 53rd St. From Grief to Glory Patrick Gardner, conducting Justin Bischof, organ Rutgers University Percussion Ensemble She-e Wu, director
Sunday, January 21^st, 2007 at 2:30 PM Of Heaven and Earth
Beethoven: Mass in C Emily Newton, soprano Ariana Chris, alto Matthew Garrett, tenor Brian McIntosh, bass	The Mass in C, like the Missa Solemnis, which RCS recently presented to a sold-out house at Alice Tully Hall, is o ne of the cornerstones of the choral repertoire.
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

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

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

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 1996 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

Riverside Choral Society
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Telephone: 212-780-2181
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