Elijah Huge Success!

Gregory Dahl

I have forgotten to post that the Elijah Concert was a huge success!  Sold out house!  The soprano, Tracy Dahl, was sparkling and sang with such drama one felt as though we were in an opera!  The tenor, Kurt Lehmann, sang with such lyricism and strong diction one felt proud to be part of anything he was in, Kirsten Schellenberg, alto, was solid as always, the boy soprano, Anton Sokalski (son of Tracy Dahl) was pure and divine, but the ELIJAH, who I almost forgot was Gregory Dahl, as it seemed the prophet had appeard amongst us - albeit in a tux.   Mr. Dahl was ELIJAH -" Thou art Elijah" I almost shouted at him, and watched him carefully at the post concert reception to see when the fiery chariots would take him away to heaven! 
Our conductor, Yuri Klaz, was so full of passion it was oozing out all over the place.  He did an excellent job at weaving the orchestra, soloists and choir together to tell this very dramatic story.  The venue, was a cathedral, so it offered the audience a much more intimate feeling than had it been performed in a concert hall.  I think this led to the excitement in the air.  As choristers, we could also see the faces of the audience and they fed so much emotion back to us that one could not help but get into the character we were to be playing at any given time.  Yuri Hooker's solo cello line in the "It is enough" bass solo, was so beautiful that I wished I were in the audience and could allow myself to be swallowed up in it instead of having to remain somewhat alert for performance.
A memorable line from our conductor at our last minute rehearsal was, "Altos, you are watching me and yet you are behind the sopranos."    To myself I thought, "Well, obviously the sopranos must be ahead of your beat."  I of course, said nothing, and feeling duly chastised I tried to remember to push the tempo throughout performance and I think all went well.  

Requiems 2013

Wolfgang

Johannes

In the Passion season of 2012 I sang The Brahms Requiem with the WSO and Mozart Requiem with my church choir.   This season it will be the reverse.  Since the church choir is doing the Brahms we have been rehearsing for two months already whereas we have not had one day of Mozart rehearsal.  Both will be performance ready by the Easter weekend.   Since both are so fresh to my voice and brain and so loved by my heart, the rehearsal stage will be easy!  Some unique aspects will be that we will do the 4 hands piano version of the Brahms instead of orchestra.  Although Brahms did transcribe his orchestral version for two pianos it was done mostly for commercial reasons as more and more people were enjoying playing orchestral works on their pianos at home.  Now here, too, I  feel that money is driving this decision: two pianos will be cheaper than the strings to have the pianos will most likely be cheaper - it better be as I can't think of any other reason to remove the strings from this work,  I have performed it with organ one time and it did not satisfy.

I have written about both of these Requiems in previous posts so don't want to repeat myself too much.  For an alto there is no question the Brahms is more enjoyable.  Johannes, as always, celebrates and honours the inner line by giving us beautiful moving and haunting lines to sing.  Mozart uses us as filler and keeps us humble.  Mozart writes for sopranos.

Other differences in the Requiems is that Mozart includes the traditional Dies Irae while Brahms does not even give us a peek of hell.  Brahms is all about comfort, and who better to provide comfort than the alto.  (You know,  I have to speak like this as my blog is "an Alto writes about her choral life.")
The exciting thing about doing the Mozart will be that we will be working with  Jane Glover who is a Mozart expert.  I look forward to hearing her take on a work that she is so intimate with.  I have posted about Ms. Glover earlier on this blog as we sang the St. John's Passion with her two years ago.  She runs a tight ship and I have an appreciation for that trait in a conductor.  She is the British born woman who conducts an accomplished baroque chorus out of Chicago.  She is the author of
Mozart's Women: His Family, His Friends, His Music a book I much enjoyed.
I will write more as rehearsals progress.

First Orchestra Rehearsal

Last night we met with the orchestra for the first time to tackle Mendelssohn's Elijah.  I was surprised by several things:
1.  Several Principal Symphony players were in attendance including Gwen Hoebig, Yuri Hooker, and Daniel Scholz.
2.  My daughter's high school strings instructor was present in the Cello section.
3.  The conductor did not appear stressed and last but not least...

4. That  I was there at all since I spent the day in bed with waves of nausea. 

The reason I hauled myself out of bed to attend was that since I am only an associate member of the choir I am not sure how secure my physical spot in the front row between N and S really is.  I did not want to show up at dress rehearsal on Saturday having lost this spot from which I feel I can do my best singing.  Secondly, I wanted to hear last minute markings first hand.

Being sick and void of any  nourishment I could not stand for much of the rehearsal and when I did stand I felt I would fall on to the horn section directly below me.  Surprisingly, my voice was in okay shape but my timing was somewhat off so I made blunders that I have not made in previous rehearsals.  There are now different voices behind me than in our rehearsal venue so I had a whole new perspective on the pieces; not all of it positive.  In some ways this semi-professional choir is not all that different from the church choir I sing in.  Some sloppy singing still abounds this close to  performance, some markings have still been missed which drives our conductor crazy, and basses are still heard to ask, "What page are we on?"

I am thankful I am not in charge of anything for this event.  I just show up and sit quietly in my chair while the stage manager, a brave woman, has to arrange all of us in the best possible manner as she tried to solve the problems of altos without chairs, two choristers whose chairs fell through the platform leaving them on the floor, first sopranos sitting with the altos and more.  She handled all of this with a smile as I realized she is the right person for the job. 

Tomorrow the soloists will be there and they will certainly add more than enough sparkle to the event to help the choir take it up a notch or two.  By Sunday's performance we will all peak together to provide a magical few hours.  Hopefully, I will feel somewhat better by then.

Rehearsal Week

Now in last rehearsal week for Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Philharmonic Choir and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.  The music has found it's way into my being and I hum it continually.  With 42 movements there is much humming material to choose from.

 The Elijah is a very dramatic piece with raising a boy from the dead, a competition between Baal and Elijah's God, fire falling from heaven and fiery horses driving a fiery chariot into heaven to name but a few.  I have come a long way with this piece; from it all feeling rather cheesy at first rehearsal to now where I am looking forward to telling the story to our audience.  I am also excited  to hearing and seeing the incomparable Tracy Dahl at our dress rehearsal Saturday afternoon.  Having been left breathless by her while watching her on the Opera stage but never having worked with her on an Oratorio. I am thrilled for this opportunity.

Unfortunately I am coming down with a virus of sorts and have had sinus, nose and throat problems for the last few days which I hope will not escalate into something worse.  I need to have a fair bit of energy to perform this thing.   There is much for the chorus to do in this work and so I am left feeling exhausted just turning that many pages at times.  It is exhausting because my score (just like the rest of them) is very shabby and despite my taping efforts can be a struggle to hold. 

Another problem with our scores is that they have both English and German lyrics with extra notes written here and there for each.  This is still confusing for some choristers and can result in sloppy sound coming from various pockets of the choir.  Of course by performance this will be ironed out at the next two rehearsals.

A pleasant surprise is that our conductor is allowing us to sing all the pieces that could be done by smaller groups or soloists like "Lift thine eyes"  "For all the angels"  "Cast they Burden".  These are probably some of the prettiest pieces and so it is nice for us to be allowed to sing them.  Although at last night's rehearsal he did have a smaller group sing the "Lift thine eyes" after a few attempts with all the women.  I don't think he has decided which way he will go on this one.  He gave no indication that the smaller group sounded any better than the whole so we shall see on Thursday.  Lucky for me I am in the smaller group so will get to sing it regardless, still, if we can all sing it I shall be happy! (The link above is a boy's choir; you can rest assured we do not sound as sweet.) 
As in all rehearsal weeks the excitement will build until Saturday, climax during performance and then the inevitable let down.  For now I am in the enjoyable build-up stage!

Elijah!

Elijah,was a famous prophet and a wonder-worker in the northern kingdom of Israel^[3] during the reign of Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Biblical Books of Kings as well as the Qur'an. According to the Books of Kings, Elijah defended the worship of Yahweh over that of the Phoenician god Baal; he raised the dead, brought fire down from the sky, and was taken up in a whirlwind (either accompanied by a chariot and horses of flame or riding in it).^[4] In the Book of Malachi, Elijah's return is prophesied "before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord,"^[5] making him a harbinger of the Messiah and the eschaton in various faiths that revere the Hebrew Bible. Derivative references to Elijah appear in the Talmud, Mishnah, the New Testament, and the Qur'an.
In Judaism, Elijah's name is invoked at the weekly Havdalah ritual that marks the end of Shabbat, and Elijah is invoked in other Jewish customs, among them the Passover seder and the Brit milah (ritual circumcision). He appears in numerous stories and references in the Haggadah and rabbinic literature, including the Babylonian Talmud.
In Christianity, the New Testament describes how both Jesus and John the Baptist are compared with Elijah, and on some occasions, thought by some to be manifestations of Elijah, and Elijah appears with Moses during the Transfiguration of Jesus.
In Islam, the Qur'an describes Elijah as a great and righteous prophet of God, and one who powerfully preached against the worship of Ba'al.

(the above is re printed from Wikipedia and I can't believe the amount of hyper texting that is going on here!)

So we now know that Elijah is a major prophet with great impact.  It is this story that Mendelssohn sets to music and this story that will be performed by the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir and members of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra  under the direction of Yuri Klaz for their 90th Anniversary Gala - a major event in itself!
I have read that it is often performed in English speaking countries and it was first performed in England and became very popular there but I cannot say that my city of Winnipeg has been a frequent Elijah performer.  I have heard it only twice here and have never performed it myself.  I am enjoying learning a new work and look forward to the Feb. 24 performance. 
Like in Bach's Passions the chorus gets to act out the parts of "the crowd" so in the famous battle between Jehovah and Ba'al it is the chorus who cries out, "Ba'al we cry to thee, Ba'al we cry to thee, hear and answer us!  Hear and Answer!  This can feel hokey in rehearsals if you are not quite into it but once it is put together with soloists and orchestra I am sure we will be in the right mood to cry out to our Ba'al begging for hm to show himself!  Speaking of soloists, they will be Tracy Dahl, Kirsten Schellenberg, Kurt Lehman, and Greg Dahl.
Other portions are a joy to rehearse and I can get into the mood for them even in rehearsal  These are the comforting pieces such as, "He Watches Over Israel",  "He That Shall Endure to the End", and "Lift thine Eyes"
The copies we are using are old and ragged so that one can frequently hear choristers whispering,"Oh, %hit" as half of their pages land on the floor.  So on the "To Do" list this week is repair my copy so no more bending over to retrieve lost pages, finish writing in the bar numbers, and rehearse a few of the trickier parts so I will be completely ready to go by the next rehearsal.  In addition to being ragged our scores also have German and English text, and not written in the most clear manner, so you will have choristers singing out "Send" while that may look like an English work it is actually part of the German text so don't sing it!  Sometimes your voice part will only have the German and you have to look up or down to another voice part to get your lyrics.  I want to go over this at home this week too so that I can sing confidently from now on.

It is a treat to sing with the Philharmonic choir because there is no pressure there for me to lead the section and in fact there are so many others on whom I am leaning. 

A More Profound Messiah

Ivars really gets into it!

Ivars Taurins

I have just returned from my first rehearsal with Ivars Taurins. Maestro Taurins is the conductor of Tafelmusik and a Handel expert.  In Toronto he dresses up as Handel when he conducts it, I don`t  think he will do that here.  The first time I saw him conduct was in the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra 2011/12 season where he offered a complete evening of Handel. Little excerpts from this work and that, orchestral and choral, it was the best MCO concert I have attended. From that moment on I was looking forward to working with him.

We have 4 rehearsals of the Messiah with him prior to our two performances with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
.
During the rehearsal today I experienced joyous laughter and such profound emotion I had to work hard not to cry.  First off I have to say that it was so touching to find out that he likes altos. He thought we had important parts to sing and had us come out in lines that have never been pointed out to me before, and I have sung the Messiah for more than a handful of times.!( Although I can't compete with Ivars who has performed it over a hundred times and is still excited still inspirational about it.) For example in the "His Yoke is Easy Chorus" he said every line the altos sing is important. What? Us? OOOO La La.  At one point he called our sustained A in another chorus the rib cage of the whole section.  Yes, the altos are supporting the whole choir for those 5 beats.   Go Altos!

I have never worked with a conductor who is so animated! He swoops and scampers across the floor encouraging us to create life out of the notes on the page. He tells us the Messiah is an attempt to bring mystery and prophecy back. The whole work is obliquely telling us there was a prophecy and it came true. Obliquely because there are no characters or narrator to tell us but the orchestra, soloists,and chorus work together  to tell this story.

The images he gives us to tell the story are like no other. When we come to the word "grief" in "Surely" he tells us to sing it as though we are Italian Grandmas, who have lost their precious grandson in the shopping mall, wailing with fist in  mouth.  Okay, yes, we can do that!   When he wants you to strike a note and then gradually diminuendo he tells us that "this is the moment the pelican hits the plate glass window and slowly slides down"  After he gave us this image each section could perform this beautifully.  SPLAT, scare the audience and then slowly fade out. Of course each image is acted out with grandiose gestures and a highly animated face.   In the "Glory to God" chorus he tells us we start off mezzo piano as the heavens have just opened and the angels are far away then they come and scare the shepherds while the orchestra flutters along with angel wings and the chorus sings the steady Peace on Earth.  and then at the end we diminuendo because of course we are ascending back into heaven.  Lovely.  Every technical bit of information he gives comes with a picture (Pelican, blue whale for a swell etc) and a reason for that particular action.

 Another one of my favourites is "For Unto us a Child is Born" which he has dubbed the golfer's chorus with all the shouts of  'For" "Fore" Fore".  He instructs us here to draw a heart above the quarter note on the word "us" when we sing "unto uuus"   and over "a son is given" to remind us to sing like loving and parents.  What a beautiful way to mark a swell on a note in a song such as this.  We are proud parents who repeat what our spouse has just said,( as spouses do), 'yes, unto us a son is born"  "Yes, unto us a son is given",  A loving dialogue.  sigh. When your voice section gets to that part he shapes a heart with his hands and holds it towards you.

Ivars provides so many profound moments of text interpretation you feel as though you are in a play.  After his instructions I felt as though I needed to go and ponder it for half an hour instead of applying it immediately.  Ivars Taurins breathes new life into the Messiah making even the rehearsal a profound spiritual experience.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-fr5An5v3o   This is a link to Ivars discussing the Messiah. He recorded Messiah with Tafelmusik recently and it is on You Tube so I encourage you to play it or buy this recording - it is a beauty

Voice Lesson: So Much to do; so Little Time

Today I am attending my second session with my voice teacher who will attempt to steer me in the right direction so that neither I nor my misguided conductor will regret that I said "yes" to doing the Alto solo mentioned in my previous posting.  Yes, I know this blog is called Choral Confessions but my having to sing these few solo notes have bumped the entire choral section off of my radar screen.    Really, am I going to be able to enjoy this concert at all? 

Now I have not taken a voice lesson in a long time and I was a bit nervous about my first lesson but my knowledgeable teacher just had me dive right in and began to offer advice.  "Why are you punching every note?  How do I answer that?  I am not normally an aggressive person but apparently when I sing I turn into a prize fighter?  This does not make for a very nice sound and is not like Maureen Forrester at all. Who knew?  All I have to do is stop punching the notes.  As for not liking the way my phrases end she has this to offer.  "how do you stop your sound? "  "I don't know" is not the right answer.  The correct answer to this is "by inhaling."  So she advised me to simply inhale when I want the sound to stop.  That is all fine and good but it also happend that I am not breathing from the right place, so inhaling and exhaling have to be re-learned. (Oh is that all?)  Then there is the recitative that has a note I don't so much hit as 'scoop up.'  So she tried to teach me to put down my scoop and go on the attack.  Actually this had been frustrating me before I ever got to my lesson and her advice was clear and rather easy to follow.  I was saying the initial consonant on the preceding note and then the vowel on the right note which made for the Scoop Sound.   So after she pruned at me for 29 minutes the last minute managed to get a fairly acceptable sound out of me.   I am hoping that this week I will be able to remember at least one of these things without her having to remind me.  I can choose from the following:

1.  Don't breathe the way I normally breathe.

2.  Refrain from punching; try bow across a cello image instead.

3.  Inhale when I wish to stop sound.

4.  Leave scoop at home.

When rehearsing at home I find I can get an acceptable sound about 40% of the time.  I don't think I will be lucky enough to have one of these times occur at the concert  when I will have to throw up, I mean, throw my nervous tension into this mixture.  Today I will probably get an additional 4 bad habits to break and the  Concert is only one month from today!