CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
The Song Continues...Duo Recital

Weill Recital Hall
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 5:30 PM

Nadine Sierra, Soprano
Jerome Tan, Piano
Edward Parks, Baritone
In Sun Suh, Piano
Joao Kouyoumdjian, Guitar
Mary Hammann, Viola

BRAGA BRAGA Brazilian Folk Songs
·· Capim di Pranta
·· Sao Joao da ra rao
·· A Casinha Pequenina
·· Engehno Novo!
RODRIGO Cuatro madrigales amatorios
··¿Con qué la lavaré?
·· Vos me matásteis
·· ¿De dónde venís, amore?
·· De los álamos vengo, madre
VILLA-LOBOS Bachianas brasileiras No. 5
·· Aria (Cantilena)
·· Dansa (Martelo)
BRIDGE "Far, Far from Each Other"
BRIDGE "Where Is It That Our Soul Doth Go?"
BRIDGE "Music, When Soft Voices Die"
LISZT "Im Rhein, im schönen Strome"
LISZT "Es muss ein Wunderbares sein"
LISZT "Es rauschen die Winde"
LISZT "Die Vätergruft"

A program of The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall in partnership with The Marilyn Horne Foundation

Professional Training Workshops are made possible, in part, by Mr. and Mrs. Nicola Bulgari and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Program Notes:

From Seville to Madrid

Joaquí Rodrigo was blind from the age of three. His conservative musical language was drawn both from Classical sources and Spain’s own nationalist repertory.

Of his 60-plus songs, the Cuatro madrigales amatorios on anonymous texts have always been favorites, and with good reason. “¿Con qué la lavaré?” is a poignant lament by a lovelorn unmarried woman, while another lament, “Vos me matásteis,” is sung from the point of view of a young man pining for the love of a young girl whose disordered hair has aroused his passion. The taunting, teasing persona of “¿De dóde vení, amore?” asks the beloved, “Where have you been?” and then declares, “I know full well”—but without telling us. (We readily infer another lover.) Rodrigo pulls out all the Spanish stops for the lively “De los álamos vengo, madre,” whose maiden tells her mother triumphantly that she has seen her “beautiful lover” by the poplar trees in Seville. The tender ending tells us that she really loves the lucky fellow.


Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras

Heitor Villa-Lobos was undoubtedly the most significant composer in 20th-century Brazil. He learned to play the cello from his father Raúl, and it would always be one of his favorite instruments. Immersing himself in the popular street music of his country, he combined contemporary European techniques of composition with elements of Brazilian national styles in his own music.

Between 1932 and 1944, Villa-Lobos composed his nine Bachianas Brasileiras, suites that he described as “homages to the great genius of Johann Sebastian Bach.” Baroque formal, harmonic, and contrapuntal procedures are fused with Brazilian strains in these works, including No. 5 for soprano and eight cellos, dedicated to the composer’s wife, Arminda.

The Aria (Cantilena) is both Bachian—note the perpetual motion in the instrumental parts—and an enrichment of the modinha (“sentimental love song”) tradition in Brazil. The word cantilena (from “cantus,” or “song”) entails a smoothly flowing, sustained melodic line, and this gorgeous specimen begins with a long-breathed vocalise before the poet’s words appear. In a final stroke of genius, Villa-Lobos bids the singer hum an abbreviated reminiscence of the opening wordless vocalise at the end.


The Songs of Frank Bridge

Frank Bridge was Benjamin Britten’s composition teacher and an outstanding conductor, violist, and composer in his own right. Three Songs with Viola were composed in 1906–1907 and first performed in 1908, with Bridge at the piano (somewhat surprising, as he was a consummate violist in several string quartets); they were not published until 1982. The text of “Far, Far from Each Other” is an extract from a longer poem by the Victorian poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold and has to do with a woman named Mary Claude whom he encountered in Switzerland in 1848; he felt differently when they met again the following year and ponders in verse the mysteries of our changing hearts.

“Where Is It That Our Soul Doth Go” is Bridge’s powerful response to a poem by the great Heinrich Heine in English translation. The phrase in the viola that we first hear after the words “When we have perished” comes back again and again, as if it too were asking, “Where? Where? Where?” In the hush at the end, there are no answers.

“Music, When Soft Voices Die” is perhaps less complex, sweeter, and more Romantic than the other two songs, but Bridge’s music wraps itself around Shelley’s famous words like a velvet shawl. Only pure beauty would do for this poem.


Liszt and Song

Most of Franz Liszt’s songs were not directed to the same 19th-century public who worshipped virtuoso performers like Liszt and Paganini, their seemingly superhuman skills enthralling to listeners. Instead, he used song to imagine the future of music, to experiment with what might be around the corner when he was no more.

Both the text and the music of “Im Rhein, im schönen Strome” were inspired by one of the great building projects of the 19th century: the completion of Cologne Cathedral, begun in 1248. The image of the Virgin in this song refers to a panel on a retable altar painted by Stephan Lochner circa 1440—one of the cathedral’s great artistic treasures. Liszt was prone to re-composing his songs; we hear the second version, with its gently lapping waves in the piano and ethereal harmonies in the treble register.

“Es muss ein Wunderbares sein” is one of Liszt’s most popular songs, due to its merger of sophisticated harmonies and simple texture without Lisztian pyrotechnics. Bavarian poet Oskar von Redwitz became famous in his 20s for the sentimental epic Amaranth, and this smaller poem is no less sentimental; its theme of love that lasts a lifetime appealed to Liszt.

We know Ludwig Rellstab’s name principally from Schubert’s seven songs to his poems in the posthumous Schwanengesang (“Swan Song”) and also as the man who called Beethoven’s Op. 27, No. 2 piano sonata in C-sharp minor the “Moonlight” Sonata. “Es rauschen die Winde” was set to music both by Schubert (as “Herbst,” D. 945) and twice by Liszt. The revised version is typically pared down from a richer earlier version, drawing a sharper contrast between the rose-bedecked days of love and the cold winds blowing over the grave.

“Die Vätergruft” is a ballad by German poet Ludwig Uhland in which an aged warrior enters the crypt where his ancestors are buried, declares that he is now worthy to join them—and does. Liszt begins in utmost austerity, with single pitches walking solemnly upward from the low bass, and gives the old man a majestic final song to sing before the echoing eeriness of the tomb envelopes him.


Brazil’s Musical Heritage

Francisco Ernani Braga studied music both at the Imperial Conservatory in Rio de Janeiro and at the Paris Conservatoire, where Jules Massenet was his teacher. In 1896, he went to Germany and fell under Wagner’s spell. Returning home to Brazil, he was professor of composition at the Instituto Nacional de Música and conductor for the Rio Sociedade de Concertos Sinfônicos.

Two rivers flow into the ocean of Brazilian folk song: the influence of the Portuguese and Spanish settlers who made Brazil their home, and the heritage of African music brought by slaves. “Capim di Pranta” is a song originally sung by weed pickers at work in the small state of Alagoas in northeastern Brazil. A woman overseer, derisively dubbed “The Queen” by the workers, issues a stern warning against laziness; when her back is turned, the workers sing an impudent chorus in response. “Sao Joao-da-ra-rao” is a children’s street song in which two melodies alternate, the livelier one sung in the Brazilian equivalent of pig Latin and the second a sentimental ballad. “A Casinha Pequenina” is a haunting example of Braga’s late Romantic musical language, its melancholy sweetness being quite irresistible. And finally, the amusing “Engenho Novo!” hails from the state of Rio Grande do Norte, also in northeastern Brazil; workers operating a sugar-processing machine attempt to imitate the sound of the new invention.

—Susan Youens

© 2010 The Carnegie Hall Corporation

More Information:

As part of The Song Continues ..., a festival celebrating the art of vocal performance, singers from the Marilyn Horne Foundation perform in duo recitals in Weill Recital Hall on January 19 and January 20, 2010.

Nadine Sierra, Soprano
Nadine Sierra, Soprano

Grand Prize Winner of the 2009 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Nadine Sierra has received accolades for her silvery voice and radiant stage presence. She was invited by renowned baritone Thomas Hampson to join him in concert at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, last May. In the summer of 2009, Ms. Sierra was the Second Place Winner in the International Voice Competition in Helsinki, Finland. In 2008, she was the Second Place Winner of the National Society of Arts and Letters Voice Competition. That summer she participated in the International Vocal Arts Institute, both in Puerto Rico and in Israel, where she performed Beth in Mark Adamo’s opera Little Women. In April 2007, Ms. Sierra placed first in the junior division at the Palm Beach Opera Competition. In summer 2007, she had the honor of receiving First Place in the Marilyn Horne Foundation Awards Competition at the Music Academy of the West. In January 2006, Ms. Sierra attended the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts program and received the Silver Award, given to her by Deborah Voigt. Ms. Sierra is currently a senior at Mannes College The New School for Music, where she studies voice with Ruth Falcon.

Jerome Tan, Piano
Jerome Tan, Piano

Jerome Tan, a native of Singapore, came to the US on a music scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory of Music at the Johns Hopkins University, where he received master’s degrees in both piano performance and ensemble arts. A student of Marian Hahn, he has participated in master classes led by Warren Jones, Leon Fleisher, Mark Markham, Robert McDonald, Marilyn Horne, Grace Bumbry, Elly Ameling, and Thomas Hampson. Since receiving the Marilyn Horne Foundation Award for Vocal Collaboration from the Music Academy of the West, he has become a regular collaborator with the highly acclaimed foundation. Notable engagements include both The Song Continues … and On Wings of Song programs in New York, and a birthday gala in honor of Miss Horne at Carnegie Hall. In summer 2004, he was invited to accompany singers at L’Accademie Villecroze in southern France. He has also served as a staff pianist at the Steans Institute of the Ravinia Festival. Recent engagements included Gotham Chamber Opera’s presentation of Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire. His most recent appearance was during the Marilyn Horne Foundation’s Mediterranean Cruise, a nine-day tour around the Mediterranean filled with musical performances throughout the journey. Mr. Tan was also apart of the foundation’s national residency at Oberlin Conservatory with baritone Lester Lynch.

Edward Parks, Baritone
Edward Parks, Baritone

Edward Parks is in his second year of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Mr. Parks made his Metropolitan Opera debut this season as Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Last season, he sang Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, and participated in the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute for Young Artists. In 2007, Mr. Parks made his Carnegie Hall debut in an evening of songs by Charles Ives. Mr. Parks received his bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory and his master’s degree from Yale University. While at Oberlin, he sang the roles of Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and Belcore in L’elisir d’amore. At Yale, he performed the roles of Marcello in La bohème, Jupiter in Orphée aux enfers, and Gabriel von Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus. A Grand Prize Winner of the 2008 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Mr. Parks has received awards from the George London Foundation, the Irma M. Cooper Opera Columbus International Vocal Competition, Connecticut Opera, the Palm Beach Opera Competition, and the Music Academy of the West. In 2008, he won the Marilyn Horne Competition at the Music Academy of the West and became a member of the Marilyn Horne Foundation. Upcoming engagements include his debut with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, singing Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro.

In Sun Suh, Piano
In Sun Suh, Piano

In Sun Suh is in her second year of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera. She is an active recitalist in art song and chamber music concerts at the most prestigious halls in New York, including Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, and the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in Lincoln Center. As winner of the 2008 Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition at the Music Academy of the West, she was presented in recital as part of the foundation’s series On Wings of Song. In her native Korea, she established herself as both a solo and a collaborative pianist, having performed many recitals with some of Korea’s most distinguished vocal soloists. Ms. Suh received her bachelor’s degree in piano from Yonsei University in Korea, and her master’s degree in collaborative piano at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Jonathan Feldman, Margo Garrett, and Brian Zeger. She was a fellow at the Music Academy of the West during the summers of 2007 and 2008. This past summer, Ms. Suh participated in the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute for Young Artists.

Joao Kouyoumdjian, Guitar
Joao Kouyoumdjian, Guitar

Brazilian guitarist Joao Kouyoumdjian is currently earning his Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School, where he is a student of Sharon Isbin. In the 2009–2010 season, he was selected to work as a theory Teaching Assistant at Juilliard, under the tutelage of Professor Edward Bilous. In the summer of 2009, he created, organized, and realized the Guitar Horizons Outreach Project, consisting of interactive concerts, master classes, and presentations in six community centers of the Guri Santa Marcelina social organization in Sao Paulo.

Mary Hammann, Viola
Mary Hammann, Viola

A violist with the Met Opera since 1992, Mary Hammann hails from a family of five musical sisters. She graduated from the Curtis Institute and Mannes College of Music, studying with Michael Tree, Karen Tuttle, and Walter Trampler. Mary has appeared in numerous chamber music festivals, including Marlboro Music, and for 20 years has concertized and recorded numerous CDs with her award-winning trio, Auréole