Waterloo Chamber Players / Grand Philharmonic Chamber Singers March 2, 2025

Program notes by Anita Brooks Kirkland, Mark Vuorinen and Rick Bond

Franz Schubert

Rosamunde Excerpts

Overture, Ballet #2, Entre’acte #3a

Austrian composer Franz Schubert’s short life bridged the Classical and Romantic eras of music. The prolific composer wrote major symphonic works, operas, sacred music, works for piano and for chamber ensembles, but is best known for his large body of Lieder (art songs), reinventing and giving greater seriousness to the song as a musical form.

Schubert’s beautiful incidental music featured in this concert was written for the ultimately unsuccessful play, Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus. The play’s music has endured, however, albeit in a rather scattered manner. As conductor Matthew Jones puts it, “Despite the success of the music, Schubert saw little merit in arranging a suite, so the orchestra has built its own for this program.” Today’s performance includes the overture, incidental music for a ballet, and a sweet “Entr’acte”, the theme of which Schubert adapted for use in two other works including a string quartet, nicknamed the Rosamunde Quartet. The play may have failed, but Schubert’s brilliance lives on.

Giuseppi Sammartini

Recorder Concerto

III Allegro assai 

After several years as an unconducted ensemble, WCP engaged Matthew Jones as Principal Conductor in 1999-2000. Unfortunately, he stayed with the group for only a short time before accepting a position in Timmins. While with WCP, Matthew also performed as recorder soloist. In his return to WCP as Guest Conductor, we are delighted that he can again play recorder with us.

Sammartini, a native of Milan, emigrated to England in late 1728 or early 1729 and later became Music Master to Augusta, the Princess of Wales. Although primarily an oboist, he also performed on the recorder. This Recorder Concerto, written in the 1730s, was presumably first played by Sammartini. The final movement, an Allegro Assai, is more rhythmically complex than the giga that it seems to be in the opening, and showcases the virtuosity of the soloist.

Edward Elgar

Spanish Serenade

(Stars of the Summer Night!)
Words from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Spanish Student

Like many composers, Sir Edward Elgar is best known for his large orchestral works, most recognizably his Enigma Variations and Pomp and Circumstance Marches. These larger works comprise a relatively small portion of Elgar’s total output. He also composed a significant number of part songs, written mostly as a form of relaxation as the composer took a break from working on larger pieces. Most of his songs were written for unaccompanied voices, but Elgar did set a few with instrumental accompaniment, including Spanish Serenade.

Elgar’s setting is to a song from the great American poet Longfellow’s play, The Spanish Student. Written in 1891 and scored for small orchestral accompaniment in 1892, it is one of several works of Spanish influence in Elgar’s body of work. Longfellow’s poem expresses the love a young Spanish student feels for a beautiful young woman as he watches her sleep. Elgar captures the young man’s sense of quiet wonder in the choral rendition, and the orchestral setting, as our guest conductor Matthew Jones puts it, “gives us the opportunity to create a guitar-like sultry Spanish atmosphere. It is a piece that sings about the stars, the moon, the wind, and dreams of a summer night.”

Edward Elgar

The Snow

The Snow, by Edward Elgar is a short work for upper-voiced choir, two violins and piano. It sets
a poem written by Elgar’s wife, Alice and was composed in 1894. The piece begins plaintively in
E minor before modulating to a warm and comforting E major. The violins interplay with the
upper voices of the choir throughout, in a gentle and beautiful dialogue.

Alex Berko and Tim Cahalan

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is a setting of the Robert Frost poem by composers Tim Cahalan and Alex Berko. In this collaborative setting Cahalan is credited as having composed the music, while Berko added the piano accompaniment. This wintry setting is also for upper-voiced choir.

Frank Ticheli

Earthsong

Earthsong by American composer Frank Ticheli is an a cappella setting of poetry by the composer. It is a plea for peace and understanding in times of darkness.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Vespers K 339

  i. Dixit Dominus
 ii. Confiteor
iii. Beatus vir
iv. Laudate pueri Dominum
v. Laudate Dominum
vi. Magnificat

Bethany Hörst, soprano; Sarah Storms, mezzo; Eric Neaves, tenor; Victor Fan, bass

Mozart’s Vesperae Solemnes de Confessore, K.339 is a six-movement, elaborate, liturgical work
composed for a special celebration service in Salzburg in 1780. The Vespers is an evening
service, during which readings and prayers would have been interspersed with these musical
settings. The first five movements are settings of Psalms 110, 111, 112, 113 and 117 respectively
and the final movement is the evening Canticle, Magnificat. Mozart’s repertoire of church music
is extensive and includes more than fifteen mass settings composed while in the service of
Archbishop Colloredo, Bishop of Salzburg. Not all of these works are particularly memorable.
But the Vesperae Solemnes de Confessore, Mozart’s final sacred piece before moving to Vienna, is full
of energy, passion and a playfulness equally suited to an operatic stage as to a liturgical context.
The orchestration is representative of the Austrian style of having three trombones doubling the
lower three voices of the choir.