2007 - 2008 Concert Season
Sunday, May 4, 2008, Patriots Theater at Trenton War Memorial
War Requiem
By Benjamin Britten
In collaboration with the Westfield Symphony
Princeton Pro Musica brings Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem to Patriot’s Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton on Sunday, May 4th at 4 pm. Premiered for the re-opening of Coventry Cathedral in 1962, the work is an unflinching cry against war. The War Requiem is a monumental undertaking, and has not been performed in New Jersey for two decades. Tickets are $45 and $38.
Britten was commissioned to write the War Requiem for the consecration of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Coventry, England. During the Battle of Britain in World War II, the cathedral and much of Coventry were destroyed in one terrible night of German air raids. A new cathedral was built alongside the ruins of the old. Britten’s War Requiem is angry and unsettling, but also has passages of great tenderness and lyricism. The large-scale work includes a huge array of percussion instruments and intersperses the poetry of Wilfred Owen (a soldier killed in World War I) with the traditional liturgy of the Latin Mass.
In order to present this huge work, Princeton Pro Musica and the Westfield Symphony Orchestra have joined forces in an unusual collaboration featuring the 100-voice Princeton Pro Musica chorus and the Westfield orchestra. A treble choir has an important role in the music. Britten specified that the treble choir should be “at a distance,” and so a 40-voice youth choir, directed by Sue Ellen Page, will sing from top balcony at the War Memorial.
Britten, a conscientious objector during World War II, combined the traditional words of the Requiem Mass with the shattering and bitter poetry of Wilfred Owen. Owen, a soldier who was killed one week before the Armistice of World War I, wrote, “My subject is war and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity. All a poet can do today is warn.” Britten inscribed these words under the title of his music.
Sunday, October 21, 2007, Princeton University's Richardson Auditorium
Te Deum in C by F. J. Haydn
Symphony No. 1 by L.v. Beethoven
Requiem, W.A. Mozart
Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, and Te Deum in C by Franz Joseph Haydn inaugurate Princeton Pro Musica’s 29th season on Sunday, February 17th, 2008, 4:00 pm.
The program will open with Haydn’s festive Te Deum, written for the Empress Marie Therese. The Empress was a highly influential patron of the arts, during the classic period—an unusual role for a woman at that time.
The Pro Musica orchestra will perform Beethoven’s First Symphony, an audience favorite known for its inventiveness and energy. According to Slade, “It has been said that Beethoven is Haydn gone mad. This symphony, which pushes the envelope and is filled with surprise after surprise, bears that out.”
The Requiem will be performed with the completion by Robert Levin, of Harvard University. Since Mozart died during the composition of the Requiem, there are gaps in the overall form. Levin filled the gaps, using Mozart’s sketches. Frances Slade says, “It is remarkably satisfying to experience the complete structure. Levin’s work is tremendously exciting – I prefer this to all previous versions.”
Sunday, December 2, 2007, Patriots Theater at Trenton War Memorial
Messiah, G. F. Handel
Princeton Pro Musica has made Handel's Messiah its annual holiday tradition (occasional deviations have been met with audience protest). The first Pro Musica performance of Messiah was in 1982, at the Trenton War Memorial.
"I cherish being part of the world-wide community of people who have loved and sung The Messiah since its debut in Dublin in 1742. It's like having a singable, global family tree," says PPM soprano Sally Chrisman. "No matter how many times I sing it, I still feel passion, excitement, awe, gratitude, and wonder," Chrisman says. “I hear new wisdom and solace in the text every time, make some new mistakes every time, get some really tricky parts perfect (finally!), and still get a burst of joy from having the audience stand for the Hallelujah Chorus."
Sunday, February 17, 2008, Princeton High School Performing Arts Center
“Concert for Peace and Reconciliation”
with works by Randall Thompson, Samuel Barber, Kirke Mechem, Moses Hogan, and others
