Dvořák’s New World Symphony

Event Details:

Location: Paramount Theatre

Date: Friday, March 31, 2017

Time: 8 pm

Program:

GABRIELA LENA FRANK Concertino Cusqueño

This performance is supported by a generous grant from Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy

ANTON BRUCKNER Te Deum

Hope Briggs, soprano
Betany Coffland, mezzo-soprano
Amitai Pati, tenor
Anthony Reed, bass
Oakland Symphony Chorus
Saint Mary’s College Chamber Singers & Glee Club

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9 in E Minor
                                  (From the New World)

 

Program Notes

Michael Morgan

Music Director Laureate

Dr. Lynne Morrow

chorus director

Hope Briggs

soprano

Betany Coffland

mezzo-soprano

Amitai Pati

tenor

Anthony Reed

bass

Saint Mary’s College Chamber Singers & Glee Club

Symphony No. 9 is nicknamed New World because Dvořák wrote it during the time he spent in the U.S. in the 1890s. His experiences in America (including his discovery of African-American and Native-American melodies) and his longing for home color his music with mixed emotions. It is Dvorak’s spiritual and emotional journey: from his intense longing for his beloved home to the thrill of the “new world” and its varied peoples, to thoughts of going home.

Dvořák’s New World Symphony was composed in 1893, while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America. It is one of the most popular symphonies, and a copy of the recording was taken to the moon by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. At the premiere in Carnegie Hall, the end of every movement was met with thunderous clapping, and Dvořák felt obliged to stand up and bow.

Bruckner‘s glorious hymn of praise–theTe Deum– journey’s to the other-world. It’s text is also a plea for salvation.The Oakland Symphony Chorus raise their voices to the heavens in this transcendent work, with soloists Hope Briggs, Betany Coffland, Amitai Pati, and Anthony Reed.

Bay Area composer Gabriela Lena Frank has always been fascinated by the intersections of culture and heritage–her father is an American of Lithuanian Jewish heritage and her mother is Peruvian of Chinese descent. Her Concertino Cusqueño imagines the composer Benjamin Britten journeying with her to Cusco the original capital of the Inca empire Tawantinsuyu. Rich in mythology and spirit, Frank opens the conversation of home- in heaven and here on earth.

“[Hope Briggs is] a singer unafraid to make a large energetic statement, and is able to back that up with commanding technique and smooth, eloquent phrasing. All that, and she holds the stage like a true diva.” – Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle.  She performs Bruckner’s Te Deum along with Oakland Symphony Chorus.

Thank you to all who participated in our “Vote for Music” campaign in May, 2016!

The very first audience choice is Dvořák’s New World Symphony.