CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
The Hilliard Ensemble
Arditti Quartet

Zankel Hall
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 7:30 PM

The Hilliard Ensemble
·· David James, Countertenor
·· Rogers Covey-Crump, Tenor
·· Steven Harrold, Tenor
·· Gordon Jones, Baritone
Arditti Quartet
·· Irvine Arditti, Violin
·· Ashot Sarkissjan, Violin
·· Ralf Ehlers, Viola
·· Lucas Fels, Cello

WOLFGANG RIHM ET LUX (US premiere, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall)

Program Notes:

IN THE COMPOSER’S
OWN WORDS

In this work, text fragments from the Roman
requiem liturgy can be heard, however not
“intact” and not in the correct liturgical order.
They appear more as components reminiscent
of a progressively realized whole.

Great significance is displayed by the reappearance
of specific groups of words—for example, in the
middle of the work: et lux perpetua luceat. Through
circling reflection, the comforting yet deeply
disturbing meaning of these words might just
become perceptible.

—Wolfgang Rihm (Autumn 2009)



THE PROGRAM

WOLFGANG RIHM (b. 1952)
ET LUX

About the Composer

Celebrated for his ability to create music with both
incredible craftsmanship and passion, Wolfgang
Rihm is a prolific composer, having written music
for everything from orchestral to vocal, operatic to
concert works. Regarded as one of the key figures of
“New Simplicity,” his style of deeply emotional and
personal music was regarded as a reaction against
the avant-garde of Europe when his first works first
appeared. His new piece for the Arditti Quartet
and the Hilliard Ensemble, ET LUX, is certainly no
exception. With its texts taken form parts of the
requiem mass, it is a heartfelt expression of loss
and the hope for reconciliation.


Historical Context

Certainly one of the oldest texts consistently set by
composers, the earliest evidence of a sung requiem
appeared somewhere in the 10th century. By the
14th century, music flourished in the churches of
Europe in the form of liturgical chants—monophonic
melodies intended principally for ceremonial purposes
rather than concert performance. One of earliest
surviving polyphonic settings of the requiem text was
written in the mid-15th century by Franco-Flemish
medieval composer and choirmaster Johannes
Ockeghem. Characteristic of requiems and masses
from this era, it was a cappella (meaning sung
without instrumental accompaniment). It was not
until the mid-1600s that instruments were added.

The determination of which texts were officially
codified as part of the requiem mass was one of
the many functions of the Council of Trent between
December 1545 and December 1563. This historic
council was key to the development of the Roman
Catholic Church, attempting to make the numerous
aspects of worship more uniform throughout Europe.

With music being an integral part of Catholic services,
the Council of Trent specified which types of music
and texts were and were not appropriate, essentially
having a significant impact on the development of
Western music in the 16th century.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the requiem evolved
beyond serving only as a supporting part of worship
with the rise of operatic and symphonic composers
creating works for concert halls and theaters.With its
impassioned and beautiful text asking for the eternal
rest and peace for the dead, the requiem ignited the
minds of many of the greatest composers. Mozart,
Berlioz, Verdi, and Brahms each set these texts to
music that, due either to their large performing
forces or extreme length, were not really suitable
to be integrated into the mass, instead standing
alone as concert works.

The approaches to the requiem mass have been
numerous and vary widely from composer to
composer. For Berlioz, the depiction of the Day of
Judgment, the Dies Irae, required the forces of a
minimum of eight timpani players, as well as four
antiphonal brass choirs, in addition to an orchestra
and chorus of thousands. Whereas Fauré later
famously omitted the tumultuous and fiery text of
the Dies Irae, he dedicated his setting entirely to
the search for peace and rest for the deceased.
When Britten was called upon to write a work for
the re-consecration of Coventry Cathedral after it
had been bombed in World War II, he responded
with a large work for chorus and orchestra
interweaving the text of the requiem with poems by
British poet Wilfred Owen. Perhaps because of its
subject matter—the longing for peace, the
mourning of the dead—the text for the requiem has
undoubtedly inspired more personal and diverse
musical responses, both sacred and secular, than
any other text from the liturgy.


About the Work

Rihm’s use of the requiem is unquestionably
personal, beginning with the very title: ET LUX.
Latin for “the light,” it comes from the opening of
the traditional text for the requiem mass: Requiem
aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat
eis (“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let
perpetual light shine upon them”). The text set in
this work is not the entire breadth of the mass, but
rather selections from it taken and reordered to suit
the composer. The phrase Et Lux perpeuta luceat
eis recurs many times throughout and Rihm seems
to be most preoccupied with the parts of the mass
that hint at transcendence, eternity, and light.
Though some of the text also comes from the Dies
Irae, it evades depiction of those moments that
involve cataclysm, judgment, or wrath. Rather, he
includes only the passage pertaining to loss and the
hope for resurrection: Lacrimosa dies illa, qua
resurget ex favilla (“Ah! That day of tears and
mourning, from the dust of earth returning”).

While his approach to the text may be less
traditional, the instrumentation for Rihm’s work is
certainly a nod to the origins of the mass. Set for
four male voices and string quartet, the work
alludes to the more intimate and vocal ideal of the
mass from the Renaissance rather than the massive
orchestras and choruses of a thousand from the
Romantic composers of the 19th century. The
harmonies and techniques are fresh and modern,
but the vocal setting often references polyphonic
chants from the 15th and 16th centuries. There are
a number of passages where the four voices move
as one in homophonic rhythms. When they do split,
they are often in lose canons, referencing the kinds
of imitations typical in Renaissance chant.

Most striking in the work, perhaps, is how much of
it maintains a hushed quiet. Aside from a few
outbursts, the work is marked almost entirely piano
and pianissimo. Voices and strings alike travel quietly
from one dazzling sonority to the next in a vivid
evocation of the search for rest, peace, and light.

Performance Time:
approximately 60 minutes


—John Glover
© 2009 The Carnegie Hall Corporation

More Information:

Two noted ensembles—a vocal quartet and a string quartet—come together for this new piece by Wolfgang Rihm, whose restless and affecting music has made him one of Europe’s leading composers. As he states, “I [feel] the imperative need to invent form from scratch again and again.” The Arditti Quartet is an exciting leader in new-music performance, and the Hilliard Ensemble is known for glowing performances of contemporary works as well as early music.

The Hilliard Ensemble
·· David James, Countertenor
·· Rogers Covey-Crump, Tenor
·· Steven Harrold, Tenor
·· Gordon Jones, Baritone
THE HILLIARD ENSEMBLE

David James, Countertenor
Rogers Covey-Crump, Tenor
Steven Harrold, Tenor
Gordon Jones, Baritone

The Hilliard Ensemble, founded in 1974 and named after the British miniaturist painter Nicholas Hilliard, is one of the world’s finest vocal chamber ensembles. It is unrivalled for its formidable reputation in the fields of both old and new music. Its distinctive style and highly developed musicianship engage the listener as much in medieval and renaissance repertoire as in works specially written for the group by living composers.

The group’s standing as an early music ensemble dates from the 1980s with its series of successful recordings for EMI (many of which have now been re-released on Virgin) and its own mail-order record label hilliard LIVE, now available on the Coro label. From the start, Hilliard has paid equal attention to new music; its 1988 recording of Arvo Pärt’s Passio began a fruitful relationship with both Pärt and Munich-based record company ECM, followed by their recording of Pärt’s Litany. The ensemble has recently commissioned other composers from the Baltic states, including Veljo Tormis and Erkki-Sven Tüür, adding to a rich repertoire of new music from Gavin Bryars, Heinz Holliger, John Casken, James MacMillan, and Elena Firsova.

In addition to its a cappella discs, Hilliard’s collaborations with ECM include Officium and Mnemosyne with Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek—a partnership that continues to develop and renew itself—and Morimur with German Baroque violinist Christoph Poppen and soprano Monika Mauch.

Hilliard continues its quest to forge relationships with living composers, often in an orchestral context. In 1999, the ensemble premiered Miroirs des temps by Unsuk Chin with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Kent Nagano. That same year, James MacMillan’s Quickening, commissioned jointly by the BBC and The Philadelphia Orchestra, was premiered at the BBC Proms. With Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic, they performed the world premiere of Stephen Hartke’s Third Symphony. They have also collaborated with the Münchener Kammerorchester in a new work by Erkki-Sven Tüür. In 2007, Hilliard joined forces with the Dresden Philharmonic to premiere Nunc Dimittis by Russian composer Alexander Raskatov.

A new project involving Hilliard began in August 2008 with the premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival of a music theater project written by Heiner Goebbels, I Went to the House but Did Not Enter. This has subsequently been presented throughout Europe and the US, with additional performances scheduled for 2009–2010.

Highlights of its calendar this season include a weekend mini-festival at London’s Wigmore Hall, a visit to Australia’s Perth International Arts Festival, the European premiere of Stephen Hartke’s Third Symphony with Christoph Poppen and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, and concerts with Jan Garbarek.

Arditti Quartet
·· Irvine Arditti, Violin
·· Ashot Sarkissjan, Violin
·· Ralf Ehlers, Viola
·· Lucas Fels, Cello
ARDITTI QUARTET

Irvine Arditti, Violin
Ashot Sarkissjan, Violin
Ralf Ehlers, Viola
Lucas Fels, Cello

The Arditti Quartet enjoys a worldwide reputation for its spirited and technically refined interpretations of contemporary and early–20th century music. Several hundred string quartets and other chamber works have been written for the ensemble since its foundation by first violinist Irvine Arditti in 1974. These works have left a permanent mark on 20th century repertoire. World premieres of quartets by composers such as Thomas Adès, Louis Andriessen, Georges Aperghis, Harrison Birtwistle, Benjamin Britten, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Edison Denisov, Hugues Dufourt, Pascal Dusapin, Brian Ferneyhough, Sofia Gubaidulina, Mauricio Kagel, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, György Ligeti, Bruno Maderna, Conlon Nancarrow, Wolfgang Rihm, Giacinto Scelsi, Salvatore Sciarrino, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Iannis Xenakis show the wide range of music in the Arditti Quartet’s repertoire.

The ensemble believes that close collaboration with composers is vital to the process of interpreting modern music. The players’ commitment to educational work is evidenced by their master classes and workshops for young performers and composers all over the world. From 1982 to 1996, the quartet’s members were resident string tutors at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany.

The Arditti Quartet’s extensive discography now features over 160 CDs. More than 40 have been released as part of the ensemble’s series on French label Naïve Montaigne. The ensemble presents numerous works by contemporary composers, as well as the first digital recordings of the complete string quartets of the Second Viennese School. Arditti also recorded the complete quartets of Luciano Berio shortly before the composer’s death in 2003. Its latest releases include works by Wolfgang Rihm and Helmut Lachenmann.

Over the past 30 years, the ensemble has received many prizes for its work. It has won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis several times and Gramophone awards for the best recording of contemporary music in 1999 (Elliott Carter) and 2002 (Harrison Birtwistle). The prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize was awarded to the Arditti Quartet in 1999 for its “lifetime achievement” in music.