Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
direttore Alvise Casellati
Choir of theAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
DIRECTOR
Alvise Casellati
Gustav Holst
CHORAL HYMNS
FROM THE RIG VEDA
THIRD GROUP.
FOR FEMALE CHOIR AND HARP
TWO EASTERN PICTURES
SPRING, SUMMER
ON KĀLIDĀSA TEXTS
FOR FEMALE CHOIR AND HARP
Giya Kancheli
AMAO IMO
SENSELESS WAR
FOR MIXED CHOIR, SOLO SOPRANO AND SAXOPHONE QUARTET
Leonard Bernstein
CHICHESTER PSALMS
FOR SOPRANO, ALTO, TENOR, BASS
MIXED CHOIR, HARP, ORGAN AND PERCUSSION
In 1965, a sabbatical from his role as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein wrote the Chichester Psalms for the Festival at the cathedral of the same name in Sussex: the forces of the choir, entrusted with the Psalms in the Hebrew language, are added to the sounds of organ, harp and percussion; a vocal writing that evokes the liturgy combines with contemporary elements and jazz, succeeding to in bringing "something of West Side Story" to this music. Chichester Cathedral itself holds the ashes of Gustav Holst, English composer and conductor. Between 1895 and 1914 Holst became so passionate about Indian and Oriental mysticism that references to this tradition are found in many compositions of the so-called "Sanskrit Period": such as the sacred hymns of the Rig Veda, one of the great texts of Hinduism, and the texts of the Indian poet and playwright Kālidāsa. Georgian composer Giya Kancheli's Amao Omi (senseless warfare) is a tribute to his nation's folkloric tradition, the choir's voices evoking Orthodox and Byzantine monastic chants alongside a soprano and saxophone quartet. Kancheli's is music dense with spirituality and contrasts, Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin called him "an ascetic with the temperament of a maximalist, a sober Vesuvius."
The question of spirituality presupposes a path of self-transformation that can be traveled along two directions: from on the one hand that of experience, of the inner dimension, and on the other hand that of the body, of existence as physical and biological reality. These two paths are not opposed to each other, but tend to to intertwine, to to overlap, as can be well understood from the fact that many meditation processes also involve disciplines related to one's physicality, to the techniques that the ancient world called a "dietetics" of soul and body. The landing, however, is not the same from both sides. Proceeding along the line of the soul, the path of transformation tends to to think of itself in the perspective of history and to set goals of redemption, of salvation. When it focuses on corporeality, on the other hand, spirituality takes the form of a reflection on what historical is not, on the polarity between life and death, for example, and on the repetition of the same conflicts over and over again, often resulting in a tragic view of existence.
Being from always an expression of a community's values, choral music has addressed the most universal aspects of the search for spirituality, no matter whether religious or civil. More than in other forms of music, choral music has given voice to to a reflection on humankind that in the twentieth century, in particular, has also coincided with a broadening of cultural horizons tending to to include both history and geographical space, that is, looking both at the ancient world and at the contribution of different traditions from the Western one.
The question of spirituality presupposes a path of self-transformation that can be traveled along two directions: from on the one hand that of experience, of the inner dimension, and on the other hand that of the body, of existence as physical and biological reality. These two paths are not opposed to each other, but tend to to intertwine, to to overlap, as can be well understood from the fact that many meditation processes also involve disciplines related to one's physicality, to the techniques that the ancient world called a "dietetics" of soul and body. The landing, however, is not the same from both sides. Proceeding along the line of the soul, the path of transformation tends to to think of itself in the perspective of history and to set goals of redemption, of salvation. When it focuses on corporeality, on the other hand, spirituality takes the form of a reflection on what historical is not, on the polarity between life and death, for example, and on the repetition of the same conflicts over and over again, often resulting in a tragic view of existence.
Being from always an expression of a community's values, choral music has addressed the most universal aspects of the search for spirituality, no matter whether religious or civil. More than in other forms of music, choral music has given voice to to a reflection on humankind that in the twentieth century, in particular, has also coincided with a broadening of cultural horizons tending to to include both history and geographical space, that is, looking both at the ancient world and at the contribution of different traditions from the Western one.
The thread that binds the choral compositions of Gustav Holst, Leonard Bernstein and Giya Kancheli lies precisely in a demand for spirituality that connects to an ethical and political need. Their personalities and experiences are different. Holst was active from from a young age as a socialist militant and encountered Indian spirituality in his search for a general principle that would affirm the values of peace as a corollary of equality among human beings. Leonard Bernstein was engaged politically especially in the 1960s, and if he had a genuine transport for the Kennedy presidency, to which he dedicated the Kaddish Symphony (1963) shortly after his assassination, he cultivated a firm opposition to the Vietnam War and took on tones of an ethical radicalism that in the early 1970s prompted him to abandon politics, but not his ideals of peace and brotherhood. Giya Kancheli, for his part, followed a line of spiritual reflection capable of welding into one the religious tradition of his land and the most current ecological sensibility.
Disappeared to 84 years old in 2019, Georgian Giya Kancheli is the most representative of the authors forced by the Soviet system to a marginality close to oblivion, were it not for his activity as a film score composer. After the end of that regime he regained the center of the international scene, revealing himself as one of the most authentic and original figures on the contemporary scene. His music is rarefied, often based on long held sounds, on effects of emptiness and distance that give it a special aura. In Amao omi, typically, the text is reduced to single words that acquire at once phonetic and evocative value: the sky, the sun, the splendor are named, an Alleluia is intoned, questions as vague as they are fundamental are formulated, but everything floats in a suspended atmosphere to whose evidence the saxophone quartet contributes, almost another choir that in antiphon picks up the sound of the voices.
Amao omi means "senseless warfare" in Georgian, and Kancheli's goal is reconciliation, peace, the will to find meaning by overcoming disorientation. The chanting of Orthodox monasteries is the background from on which he draws, but his music mixes contemplation and force by drawing on the extremes of sonorities that can brush against silence to reconstruct an ecology of listening and a habitat in which human beings can feel part of a single community.
Leonard Bernstein wrote the Chichester Psalms in early 1965. He had received a commission from the Choral Festival in Chichester, Great Britain: the exchange of letters he had with the prior of the cathedral there, Walter Hussey, makes it possible to reconstruct the genesis and character of the work. After enthusiastically accepting the request, Bernstein hesitated to long without ideas, pencil in hand and blank paper in front of him. Then the intuition for a suite of Psalms with "straightforward, melodic, rhythmic, youthful" music. He could only think of the Psalms in the original Hebrew, however, and therefore asked his interlocutor about this posed ecclesiastical problems: "Is there any objection, in principle, to it being sung in Hebrew in your cathedral?"
Hussey had no objections and a little over two months later, on May 11, Bernstein wrote to announce that the _Salms _was finished and "quite popular in tone (as she suggested, there is also a hint to West Side Story)," with "an old-fashioned sweetness even in the most violent moments." Bernstein also reused excerpts from an inspired musical to a text by Thornton Wilder, The Skin of our Teeth, which he had in preparation at the same time but to which he ended up giving up in the course of'opera.
This is the description he gave by letter:
Theopera is in three movements [...] each of which contains a complete Psalm and one or more versions of another complementary Psalm, for contrast or amplification. The first movement opens with verse 3 of Psalm 108, evoking praise, and then moves to Psalm 100, complete, a wild and joyful dance in the spirit of David. The second is Psalm 23, complete, with a solo white voice and harp, but brutally interrupted by the adult voices with threats of war and violence (Psalm 2, verses 1-4). This movement ends without reconciliation between the two elements, faith and fear, which are intertwined. The third opens with an orchestral prelude based on the opening chorale, whose assertive harmonies now turn, however, into something painful. There is a crisis, but the tension suddenly eases and the chorus enters humbly, peacefully, singing the complete Psalm 131 with what is almost a folk song (albeit in 10/4!). [...] In this atmosphere of humility there is a final choral coda (Psalm 133, verse 1), a prayer for peace.
Before performing them in Britain, Bernstein conducted the Chichester Psalms to New York employing four solo voices and mixed choir. He also prepared two types of orchestration: one more extensive, with strings, woodwinds and a large percussion section, the other with harp, organ and more percussion, indispensable for the popular color intended by the composer.
In his search for a unified foundation of human spirituality, Gustav Holst came across texts from the Hindu tradition in the late 19th century. Between 1899 and 1906 he wrote aopera in three acts, Sita, inspired to a story from the Ramayana, and in 1908 aopera from camera from the Mahabharata. In the same year he began his work on the oldest text of that culture, composed between 1,500 and 1,000 to.C., the Rig Veda, words meaning "praise" and "knowledge." In order to arrive to at a clear, understandable text capable of transporting the Western listener into the open spiritual world from another culture, Holst decided to enroll at University College London to study Sanskrit and provide, thus, to his own translation. His work on the Rig Veda, which provided him with material for four sets of Choral Hymns, lasted until 1916. During the same period he also composed Two Eastern Pictures (1910) and The Cloud Messenger (1913), both based on his own translations of the poet Kālidāsa (4th-5th centuries CE).
The Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda have different forms of vocal and instrumental ensemble. The first group is for mixed choir and orchestra. The second and third for women's choir and harp. The fourth for male choir and orchestra. Holst reconnected with the classical music of India by combining Eastern rhythms and harmonies with ancient procedures of Western music, particularly the Phrygian and Misolid "modes." Of the more than 1,000 poetic texts of the Rig Veda he chose 14 in all, focusing his attention on those most likely to communicate universal values. Those in the third group are related to nature and creation. Hymn to the Dawn is a song about the beginning of the world; _Hymn to the Waters _refers to the life force of the waters, which spills over the earth from the sky; Hymn to Vena tells of a newborn child, the pinnacle of creation, and weaves praises of the shining light of the sun, which, through the mist that envelops our intellect, reveals the common filiation of humankind; finally, Hymn of the Travellers is a metaphor for human life as a journey in which the path appears more precious than the goal.
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Stephen Catucci
The origins of the centuries-old Accademia di Santa Cecilia are linked to the practice of choral singing: in the second half of the 1500s, a number of Chapel Masters and Cantors came together in association, effectively founding the Accademia. But it was not until the late 19th century that the Choir of theAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia began to assume a stable structure and to participate in performances of polyphonic music and the great symphonic-vocal repertoire. The choir is currently directed from Piero Monti. Its activities are carried out in the Academy's concert seasons, flanking the orchestra in the performance of great classical and modern symphonic-choral works. Numerous tours have also taken place with the orchestra at international festivals: London Proms, Salzburg Festival, Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Saint Denis Festival, Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. The Chorus has also collaborated with other prestigious international orchestras such as the Schleswig-Holstein Orchestra; Orchestra della Rai of Turin; Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirov Theater Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, Orchestre National de France, Concertgebouw Orchestra. Together with the Academy Orchestra and conducted by Antonio Pappano, he has taken part to in numerous recordings that have won prestigious international recognition: Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Requiem, Four Sacred Pieces and Verdi's Aida, Rossini and Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Rossini's Guillaume Tell and Petite Messe Solennelle, Britten's War Requiem, Nessun Dorma - The Puccini Album with tenor Jonas Kaufmann, Symphony no. 3 "Kaddish" by Bernstein and Verdi's Otello.
President and Music Director of Central Park Summer Concerts, conducted John Malkovich in his Italian debut at the Emilia Romagna Festival with Report on the Blind to music by to. Schnittke. After graduating in violin at the "Pollini" Conservatory in Padua, he specialized with Felice Cusano and Taras Gabora. Initiated to conducting from Leopold Hager at the Vienna Musikhochschule, he studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and with Piero Bellugi. After his debut at Teatro La Fenice in Venice for the 150th Anniversary Concert of the Unification of Italy, he is Assistant Conductor to Gustav Kuhn at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl. He is a guest of the most important music festivals in Italy, such as Ravello Festival, Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Festival della Valle d'Itria, La Versiliana, The Ljubljana Festival, Emilia Romagna Festival, MittelFest and Baltic Music Seasons. Hisopera debut is with Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia and Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, where he is the permanent director in 2014. He was director of the Ensemble Opera Studio (EOS) at the Teatro Carlo Felice. He collaborates with important theaters in Italy such as Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, Teatro Verdi in Trieste, and Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari. He also collaborates with prestigious orchestras: Teatro La Fenice, Teatro Carlo Felice, Teatro Petruzzelli, Teatro Verdi, Arena di Verona, Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, Haydn di Trento e Bolzano, the Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia, the Orchestra di Padova e Veneto, the Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese, I Solisti Aquilani, the Orchestra Sinfonica della Provincia di Bari, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo, the Orchestra Sinfonica Salernitana, the Orchestra Teatro Rendano, the Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino, I Virtuosi Italiani. Among foreign orchestras, he collaborates with the Central Park Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic, New York Chamber Virtuosi, Symphony Orchestra of Mar del Plata (Argentina), Voronezh Philharmonic (Russia).
Marie-Ange Nguci
Nicola Piovani