CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Les Violons du Roy

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 8:00 PM

Les Violons du Roy
La Chapelle de Québec
Bernard Labadie, Music Director and Conductor
Rosemary Joshua, Soprano
David Daniels, Countertenor
Jan Kobow, Tenor
Joshua Hopkins, Baritone

BACH Christmas Oratorio

Program is approximately 3 hours, including one intermission

This concert and the Choral Classics series are made possible, in part, by an endowment fund for choral music established by S. Donald Sussman in memory of Judith Arron and Robert Shaw.

Program Notes:

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750)
Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248

A Significant Year

In the year 1734–1735, Bach wrote no fewer than three oratorios for the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, respectively intended for performance at Christmas, Easter, and Ascension. This followed a period of several years when events had conspired to reduce his output of sacred works for the church. First, Bach had become the director of the city’s Collegium Musicum in 1729, taking charge of a group of enthusiaststhat gave him a stimulating new outlet for his creativity. Next, relations between the composer and his employers at St. Thomas’s had deteriorated. His art no longer found favor with the authorities, and he was even forbidden to perform some of his works. Lastly, since 1734, the new rector of the church had cut back the resources allocated to training choirboys, which threatened the quality of the choirs available to Bach. These factors suggest that, for the composer, the performances ofhis three oratorios in the Thomaskirche during 1734–1735 were perhaps intended to stimulate his employers’ interest in sacred vocal works.

A Liturgical, Cyclical Oratorio

Although oratorio, which relates episodes from Holy Scripture, resembles opera in its alternation of arias,recitatives, and choruses, a key difference is the presence of a testo (narrator) or singer who represents the Evangelist, presenting various situations and introducing individuals and groups. Another defining feature is that oratorio does not include costumes, scenery, or stage action, and is performed ina concert hall or church rather than a theater, in keeping with itsreligious subject matter. This definition, though fitting for works like Samson by Handel or Josué by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, needs a little adjustment in thecase of works by Bach. The cantor’s oratorios were not concert works. Rather, they were tailored to the Lutheran service, where they fit neatly between the reading of the Gospel and the Sermon. In addition, the Christmas Oratorio is unusual in that it has a cyclicalconstruction. It is divided into six clearly delineated cantatas, one for each of the six feast days that form the Christmas season.When Bach began his work in 1734, the idea of a cyclical oratorio was not new. In fact, the 20-year-old Johann Sebastian had probably heard a cyclical oratorio during his trip to Lübeck at the series of sacred music concerts known as the Abendmusiken, presented on consecutive Sunday evenings during the Advent season under the direction of Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707).

Each of the six parts of the Christmas Oratorio stays close to the form of the Sunday cantatas to which Leipzig churchgoers had become accustomed. Each cantata begins with a concerted choral movement (except for the second cantata, which opens with the Sinfonia pastorale), continues with alternating recitatives and arias (solos, duos, or trios), and ends with a traditional Lutheran chorale. Although the cantatas can stand alone, they are linked together by the narration of the Evangelist, which stretches from he edict of Augustus ordering the census in the first antata, to the visit of the Three Kings in the sixth. In purely musical terms, Bach added many refinements hat contribute to the overall cohesion of the work.
For example, the especially luminous orchestral colors of cantatas one, three, and six—created by thepresence of trumpets, flutes, and oboes—frame the more somber hues of the other cantatas. More than a mere juxtaposition of cantatas, the Christmas Oratorio is a unified whole.

Old Music, New Text

Around 20 arias and concerted choral movements in the Christmas Oratorio, or almost one-third of the work as a whole, are new texts set to music composed by Bach in preceding months, mainly as secular cantatas for performance by the Collegium Musicum. The texts for the narration of the Evangelist in the Christmas Oratorio are taken from the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. The words for the recitatives, arias, and choruses were probably written by Christian Friederich Henrici who, under the pseudonym Picander, had produced the librettos for several sacred and secular cantatas by Bach, as well as for the St. Matthew Passion. The composer was probably closely involved in the preparation of the libretto.

A Spiritual Dimension

The Christmas Oratorio is more spiritual than theatrical, given the liturgical setting in which it wasperformed. This is reflected in the course taken bythe narration, which includes many breaks. The faithful are continually encouraged to reflect on the prof ound meaning of the events they have just witnessed, or are invited to enter wholeheartedly into their spirit. For example, in the fourth cantata,the Evangelist has hardly finished explaining that at Christ’s baptism he was given the name of Jesus when the solo bass, representing the Believer, focuses on the name of Jesus and proceeds to embroider on it affectionately (No. 38): “My Jesus is my shield / My Jesus is my being / My Jesus is to me devoted …” Further on, in the sixth cantata, after the Evangelist has described the gifts of the Three Kings, a chorale (No. 59) symbolizes a congregation in which each member brings a spiritual offering before the Holy Child “… I come now, bring and offer thee / What thou to me hast given …” This type of spiritual approach, found in other sacred cantatas by Bach, reflects the Pietist influence in the Lutheran church of the time, a movement that encouraged believers to make a strong personal commitment to their faith.

Musical Expression

The decision by Picander and Bach to orient the oratorio along resolutely spiritual lines does not, however, prevent the music from reaching expressive heights. One of their most innovative ideas was to give a voice to Mary. A mute figure throughout the Gospel accounts of the Nativity, she is represented in the Christmas Oratorio by two sections for the alto based on poems by Picander, of which one (No. 19) is a lullaby. Another exquisite moment is the echo aria “Flößt, mein Heiland” (No. 39), a dialogue between
the soul of the Believer and God. These touching, intimate moments are framed by the grand orchestral and vocal movements. Built on dance-like ternary rhythms, the opening choruses radiate the joy and happiness appropriate to a Christmas cycle. The only movement of its kind in the whole oratorio, the Sinfonia pastorale (No. 10)—a long instrumental movement that opens the second part of the work— depicts a nocturnal landscape where, under the watchful eye of the angels (symbolized by flutes) the shepherds watch (represented by four oboes). Alongside these masterfully expressive sections, the chorales could have seemed a little cumbersome. Instead, the variety of their musical settings provides a perfect match for the spirit of the work as a whole; some include orchestral interludes (Nos. 23, 42, and 64) that illustrate the festive season, while others are interrupted by solo voices (Nos. 7 and 40) that create a fusion between individual and collective expression.

Broadly Designed Church Music

The richness of the musical settings, the range of the work as a whole, and the diversity of its means of expression clearly place the Christmas Oratorio alongside Bach’s greatest sacred works. By exalting the essentially joyful and tender mystery of the Nativity, the Christmas Oratorio counterbalances the extreme gravity of the two Passions and the monumental grandeur of the B-Minor Mass.

—Pierre Grondines
Translated by Benjamin Waterhouse

More Information:

This joyful holiday concert offers an overflowing gift of Bach—six cantatas, which together tell the story of the Christmas season. Les Violons du Roy—joined by La Chapelle de Québec and a world-class quartet of soloists—perform this music with special vigor, and the intimacy of an authentically smaller ensemble.

Les Violons du Roy
LES VIOLONS DU ROY

The chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy borrows its name from the renowned string orchestra of the court of the French kings. The group was founded in 1984 by Music Director Bernard Labadie and specializes in the vast repertoire of music for chamber orchestra, performed in the stylistic manner most appropriate to each era. Although the ensemble plays on modern instruments, its approach to the works of the Baroque and Classical periods has been strongly influenced by current research into 17th- and early 18th-century performance practices, and in this repertoire, Les Violons du Roy uses copies of period bows. In recent seasons, under the leadership of guest conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, the orchestra has begun to explore 19th- and 20th-century repertoire in more depth.

Les Violons du Roy has been in residence at the Palais Montcalm de Québec since 2007. It performed in Europe in 1988 and has since given dozens of concerts in France, Germany, England, Spain, and the Netherlands, with internationally renowned soloists. It also has been invited to perform twice at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The next European tour is scheduled for 2011. Since its first performance in Washington, DC, in 1995, Les Violons du Roy has extended its performance network in the United States and now makes regular trips to New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Recordings made by Les Violons du Roy have been acclaimed by critics and earned various distinctions and awards at the national and international levels. Since 2004, the ensemble’s association with the Québec label ATMA has led to four CDs, including the critically acclaimed Water Music, winner of a Félix Award in 2008; Piazzolla, conducted by Jean-Marie Zeitouni and winner of a Juno Award in 2006; and Bartók, also directed by Mr. Zeitouni and released in fall 2008. The group’s first collaboration with the multinational Virgin Classics label led to the release in fall 2006 of cantata arias by Handel and Hasse with American mezzosoprano Vivica Genaux. Another collaboration with Virgin Classics, featuring the Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk, was recorded in November 2008.


BERNARD LABADIE

Bernard Labadie has established himself worldwide as one of the leading conductors of the Baroqueand Classical repertoire, a reputation that is closely tied with Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec, which he founded and continues to lead as Music Director. With these two ensembles, he regularlytours Canada, the United States, and Europe, in major venues such as CarnegieHall, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Kennedy Center, Barbican, and the Concertgebouw, among others.

Passionate about opera, Mr. Labadie also has been artistic director of l’Opéra de Québec and l’Opéra de Montréal. As a guest, he conducted Handel’s Orlando with Glimmerglass Opera, Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Mozart’s Lucio Silla with Santa Fe Opera. This past September marked his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.

Ever since his triumphant debut with theMinnesota Orchestra in 1999,Mr. Labadie has become a sought after guest conductor with major North American orchestras, including the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Saint Louis, Houston, Atlanta, Detroit, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver—many on a regular basis. His debut with The Cleveland Orchestra is scheduled for later this season.

Increasingly active outside North America—reflected by recent guest appearances with the Orchestra of the Collegium Vocale Ghent, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia in Newcastle, the NDR Orchestra in Hannover, and the Melbourne Symphony—Mr. Labadie’s upcoming seasons will feature debuts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Academy of Ancient Music, among others.

Mr. Labadie’s extensive discography includes many critically acclaimed recordings on the Dorian, ATMA, and Virgin Classics labels, including Handel’s Apollo e Dafne and Mozart’s Requiem in collaboration with Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec, both winning Canada’s Juno Award. A complete recording of C. P. E. Bach’s cello concertos with Truls Mørk andLes Violons du Roy is slated for release this year, as well as a recording with Ian Bostridge and The English Concert, both for Virgin Classics.

For his achievements, the Canadian government honored Mr. Labadie with an appointment as Officer of the Order of Canada in 2005, and Quebec made him a Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Québec in 2006.

La Chapelle de Québec
Bernard Labadie, Music Director and Conductor
LA CHAPELLE DE QUÉBEC

La Chapelle de Québec, founded by Bernard Labadie in 1985, is a chamber choir of professional singers recruitedmainly in Québec City, but also throughout Québec and Canada. It assembles for two or three concerts each season and joins Les Violons du Roy inmajor works fromthe repertory for choir and orchestra, especially fromthe 18th century. Its performances of cantatas, oratorios, andmasses by Bach, Handel,Mozart, and Haydn have been acclaimed throughout Canada and the United States, in particular thanks tomany broadcasts by Radio-Canada, the CBC, and NPR in the United States.

La Chapelle de Québec has performed regularly on tour with Les Violons du Roy, in particular in Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Toronto, in an all-Vivaldi program in France, and inMozart’s Requiem in Toronto and throughout the United States. The choir is often asked to appear with Mr. Labadie in the concerts he conducts with US orchestras, including the Los Angeles Symphony, with which it performed Handel’s Messiah in 2004 and Bach’s Magnificat in 2006.

Rosemary Joshua, Soprano
ROSEMARY JOSHUA

Soprano Rosemary Joshua was born in Cardiff, Wales, and studied at the Royal College of Music,of which she is now a fellow.

Her recent operatic appearances have included Adèle (Die Fledermaus) at the Metropolitan Opera; Vixen (The Cunning Little Vixen) and Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) at La Scala; Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress) for the Glyndebourne Festival; Zerlina (Don Giovanni) for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Oscar (Un ballo in maschera) and Vixen for the Netherlands Opera; and Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Glyndebourne Festival, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Welsh National Opera, and in Cologne. She also has sung Ilia (Idomeneo) in Lisbon; Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) in Brussels; Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin; and Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) in San Diego.

Ms. Joshua has built her international reputation above all as a Handel singer. She has sung Ginevra (Ariodante) in San Diego; Poppea (Agrippina) in Cologne, Brussels, and Paris; Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare in Egitto) in Paris, Amsterdam, and Florida; and the title role in Semele at the Aix-en-Provence and Innsbruck festivals, and the English National Opera, where she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in the category for Outstanding Achievement in Opera. Most recently, she has sung the title role in Partenope at the English National Opera and Nitocris (Belshazzar) at the Deutsche Staatsoper and the Innsbruck and Aix-en-Provence festivals.

Recent concert appearances include performances with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Charles Mackerras, Sir Simon Rattle, Roger Norrington, and René Jacobs; the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Mackerras; the Royal Scottish National Opera with Stéphane Denève; the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Mark Elder; Concentus Musicus Wien with Nikolaus Harnoncourt; the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen with Daniel Harding; the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra with Colin McCreesh; both the City of Birmingham Symphony and Frankfurt Radio Symphony orchestras with Emmanuelle Haïm; and her debut with the New York Philharmonic under Nicholas McGegan.

Ms. Joshua’s recordings include the title roles in Handel’s Partenope and Semele with Christian Curnyn for Chandos; the title role in Handel’s Esther for Somm; Dido and Aeneas with René Jacobs for Harmonia Mundi; Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) for Chandos; Sandman (Hänsel und Gretel) for Teldec; and Anne Trulove for Glyndebourne Live.

David Daniels, Countertenor
DAVID DANIELS

David Daniels is known for his superlative artistry, magnetic stage presence and a voice of singular warmth and surpassing beauty, which have helped him redefine his voice category for the modern public. The American countertenor has appeared with the world’s major opera companies and on its main concert and recital stages. He made history as the first countertenor to give a solo recital in the main auditorium of Carnegie Hall. Gramophone magazine acknowledged his contribution to recorded excellence, as well as his expansion of the repertoire for his voice type by naming him one of the “Top 10 Trailblazers” in classical music today.

Two highly anticipated European recital tours highlight Mr. Daniels’s 2009–2010 season, taking him to Frankfurt, Paris, Belgrade, Berlin, London’sWigmore Hall, and the Prinzregententheater in Munich. He returns to Houston Grand Opera as Arsamene in Nicholas Hytner’s renowned production of Handel’s Serse opposite Susan Graham, and makes his debut with the Atlanta Opera in the title role of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice conducted by long-time collaborator Harry Bicket. In addition to the current tour of Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Mr. Daniels will collaborate again with Maestro Labadie later in the season in Bach’s St. John Passion for his Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut.

Mr. Daniels was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the son of two singing teachers. He began to sing as a boy soprano, moving to tenor as his voice matured, and earned an undergraduate degree from the Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music. Dissatisfied with his achievements as a tenor, David Daniels made the daring switch to the countertenor range during graduate studies at the University of Michigan with George Shirley.

Jan Kobow, Tenor
JAN KOBOW

Berlin-born tenor Jan Kobow is a first-prize winner (1998) of the International Bach Competition in Leipzig. He regularly performs with conductors such as Howard Arman, Stefan Asbury, Frieder Bernius, Frans Brüggen, Marcus Creed, Michel Corboz, Peter Dijkstra, Paul Goodwin, Robin Gritton, Pierre Hantaï, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Thomas Hengelbrock, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Sigiswald Kuijken, Gustav Leonhardt, Hermann Max, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Philippe Pierlot, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Ludger Rémy, Daniel Reuss, Michael Schönheit, Morten Schuldt-Jensen, Andreas Spering, Masaaki Suzuki, Jeffrey Tate, and Jos van Veldhoven. In 2007, he made his debut in the title role of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Les Talens Lyriques under the baton of Christophe Rousset.

As an opera singer, Mr. Kobow was also a guest at the Boston Early Music Festival, the Théâtre Royalde la Monnaie in Brussels, and Lincoln Center.

In addition to opera, Mr. Kobow feels a strong attachment to lied. He has released four recordingsof lieder, and he frequently performs with noted fortepiano specialists Leo van Doeselaar and Kristian Bezuidenhout.In 2009, he has been a guest at the Cité de la Musique in Paris with Jérôme Hantaï and at the Musashino Cultural Foundation in Tokyo for several recitals with Kaori Muraji.

Mr. Kobow has been engaged for numerous CD productions and broadcasts, several of which have won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis. He also participated in the recording of the complete cantatas of J. S. Bach under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Engagements this season include concerts with Bruno Weil (Capella Coloniensis and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra), Jean-Claude Malgoire (l’Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing), Andreas Spering (Capella Augustina), Markus Stenz (Gürzenich Orchester), and Robert King (The Kings`s Consort).

Joshua Hopkins, Baritone
JOSHUA HOPKINS

Joshua Hopkins is winner of the 2006 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and the Verbier Festival Academy’s 2008 Prix d’Honneur. Mr. Hopkins signed an exclusive recording contract with ATMA Classique, and his first recital recording on the label will be released in 2010.

Operatic engagements this season include the artist’s Metropolitan Opera debut as Ping in Turandot, conducted by Andris Nelsons, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte at Opera Lyra Ottawa and the Santa Fe Opera with Lawrence Renes, Olivier in Capriccio at Pacific Opera Victoria, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia at Arizona Opera,and Sid in Albert Herring at the Santa Fe Opera under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis. Mr.Hopkins tours North America with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy, offering performances of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Handel’s Messiah in Quebec, Montreal, and Los Angeles. Under the auspices of The Marilyn Horne Foundation, the artist appears in recital at the Santa Fe Concert Association.

Operatic appearances of past seasons have included performances at the Calgary Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Central City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and the Verbier Festival. On the concert stage, Mr. Hopkins has appeared with TheCleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, DC), San Francisco Symphony, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra, amongmany others.

Profoundly committed to the art of song,Mr. Hopkins has given solo recitals at Carnegie Hall, Toronto’s Aldeburgh Connection, and the Vancouver Recital Society. He is proud to have offered the world premiere of Michael Tilson Thomas’s Rilke Songs at Zankel Hall and tohave joined Barbara Bonney for performances under the auspices of the ChamberMusic Society of Lincoln Center. He also has collaborated with pianist Richard Goode in a program of Haydn art songs.