September 30, 2014
MASAAKI SUZUKI CONDUCTS JUILLIARD415 AND YALE SCHOLA CANTORUM
IN JAN DISMAS ZELENKA’S MISSA DEI PATRIS
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2014 AT 5 P.M. IN JUILLIARD’S PETER JAY SHARP THEATER
Preceded by Performances at Jordan Hall in Boston (Friday, October 17, 2014 at 8 p.m.) and
St. Mary’s Church in New Haven (Saturday, October 18, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.)
NEW YORK –– Masaaki Suzuki conducts period-instrument ensemble Juilliard415 and chamber choir Yale Schola Cantorum in Bohemian composer Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Missa Dei Patris in Boston on Friday, October 17, 2014 at 8 p.m. at Jordan Hall (30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA); in New Haven on Saturday, October 18, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church (5 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT); and at The Juilliard School on Sunday, October 19, 2014 at 5 p.m. in Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater (155 West 65th Street, NYC). The program opens with Zelenka’s Ouverture à 7 concertanti (ZWV 188).
Tickets for the October 19th Juilliard concert are $20 and available at events.juilliard.edu or at the Juilliard Box Office. Student tickets at $10 are available only at the Juilliard Box Office. The Boston and New Haven concerts are free, and no tickets are required.
Juilliard Historical Performance Director Robert Mealy writes about the work: “Zelenka’s Missa Dei Patris (1740) is one of three grand masses that Zelenka completed at the end of his life. It is a spectacular, exuberant, and theatrical work, like the great Baroque churches of Dresden it was intended to be heard in. After many years as assistant Kapellmeister, Jan Dismas Zelenka ended his career as the court composer of religious music for the Catholic Augustus the Strong. This late work was designed for the Dresden court musicians, one of the most virtuosic musical ensembles in Europe. Zelenka’s mass was probably never performed in his lifetime, and after his death these works were never published until modern times. This performance, a combined effort of Juilliard415 and the Yale Schola Cantorum, is one of the few occasions this vivid and extravagant work has been brought to life.”
About Juilliard415
Since its founding in 2009, Juilliard415, the School’s principal period-instrument ensemble, has made significant contributions to musical life in New York and beyond, bringing major figures in the field of early music to lead performances of both rare and canonical works of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Among the many distinguished guests who have led Juilliard415 are William Christie, Ton Koopman, Harry Bicket, Nicholas McGegan, Christopher Hogwood, and Monica Huggett. In 2011 the ensemble made its Carnegie Hall debut accompanying David Daniels and Dorothea Röschmann in a program of Handel arias, a concert that was cited as one of the 10 best of the season by the New York Times. A 2012 performance of Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo, led by William Christie, earned this same distinction.
Juilliard415 has toured extensively overseas with Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki. In the 2014-15 season, Yale and Juilliard team up again for performances of Beethoven, Haydn, and Zelenka in New York, Boston, New Haven, and throughout the UK. Their joint performance of Bach’s St. John Passion was broadcast on WQXR-FM in April 2014. Other highlights of the 2013-14 season included a fully staged production of Handel’s Radamisto; tours of Charpentier’s Actéon with William Christie; incidental music for Shakespeare in collaboration with the Juilliard Drama program, conducted by Jordi Savall; and the rare opportunity to hear both Bach Passions in successive months.
During the summer of 2014, members of Juilliard415 returned to Germany for a second collaboration with the Leopold-Mozart-Zentrum for concerts in Augsburg and Munich, and to William Christie’s festival Rencontres musicales en Vendée, where they appeared with members of Les Arts Florissants. The ensemble also gave two concerts at the Utrecht Early Music Festival in The Netherlands, where Juilliard was honored to be the first-ever conservatory-in-residence.
The 2014-15 season in New York brings return visits from William Christie for Handel’s La resurrezione, Robert Mealy in a program of Italian Baroque music, Monica Huggett in an all-Beethoven program, and Jordi Savall leading a concert entitled “In the Charm of Nature.” Debuts include Kristian Bezuidenhout leading the ensemble from the fortepiano in music by Mozart, and British violinist Rachel Podger in an all-Vivaldi program. In a joint venture between the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program and Juilliard’s Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts, Jane Glover will conduct Juilliard415 in several performances of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide. The season closes with Juilliard415 teaming up with London’s Royal Academy of Music and Masaaki Suzuki for an all-Bach program that will be performed in New York, Boston, Leipzig, and London.
About Masaaki Suzuki
Since founding Bach Collegium Japan in 1990, Masaaki Suzuki has established himself as a leading authority on the works of Bach. He has remained the Collegium’s music director ever since, taking the group regularly to major venues and festivals in Europe and the United States and building up an outstanding reputation for the expressive refinement and truth of his performances. In addition to conducting, Suzuki is also renowned as an organist and harpsichordist.
He is regularly invited to work with renowned European soloists and groups, such as Collegium Vocale Gent and the Freiburger Barockorchester; he recently appeared in London with the Britten Sinfonia in a program of Britten, Mozart, and Stravinsky. Forthcoming engagements with other ensembles include the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Nagoya Philharmonic and the Netherlands Radio Chamber
Philharmonic Orchestras. In 2001, Mr. Suzuki was decorated with the Federal Order of Merit from Germany.
Masaaki Suzuki’s impressive discography on the BIS label includes his interpretations with Bach Collegium Japan of Bach’s major choral works and sacred cantatas. With 40 volumes now completed, The New York Times has written: “It would take an iron bar not to be moved by his crispness, sobriety and spiritual vigor.”
Mr. Suzuki’s commitment to sacred music is reflected both in his deep reflection on theological meanings in the music he conducts, and also in his interest in music of congregations. Following his return to Japan from the Netherlands, he launched a project to translate the entire Genevan Psalter into Japanese. This collection is now used in Christian churches throughout Japan.
About Yale Schola Cantorum
Yale Schola Cantorum, under the direction of principal conductor David Hill, is a chamber choir that performs regularly in concert and for occasional choral services throughout the academic year. Supported by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music with Yale School of Music, the choir specializes in repertoire from before 1750 and the last 100 years. Schola Cantorum was founded in 2003 by Simon Carrington; from 2009 to 2013, it was led by conductor Masaaki Suzuki, who remains its principal guest conductor. In recent years, the choir has also sung under the direction of internationally renowned conductors Simon Halsey, Paul Hillier, Stephen Layton, Sir Neville Marriner, Nicholas McGegan, James O’Donnell, Stefan Parkman, Krzysztof Penderecki, Helmuth Rilling, and Dale Warland.
In addition to performing regularly in New Haven and New York, the ensemble records and tours nationally and internationally. Schola Cantorum’s live recording of Heinrich Biber’s 1693 Vesperae longiores ac breviores with Robert Mealy and Yale Collegium Musicum received international acclaim from the early music press, as have subsequent CDs of J.S. Bach’s rarely-heard 1725 version of the St. John Passion and Antonio Bertali’s Missa resurrectionis. A commercial recording on the Naxos label of Mendelssohn and Bach Magnificats was released in 2009, and the past two years have seen the release of two CDs by Delos Records. On tour, Schola Cantorum has given performances in England, Hungary, France, China, South Korea, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Japan, and Singapore.
Highlights of Schola’s 2014-15 season include performances of Handel’s Judas Maccabeus with David Hill; works by Zelenka with Masaaki Suzuki and Juilliard415 at Boston’s Jordan Hall; works by Charpentier with Simon Carrington; and Beethoven’s Mass in C Major and a newly-commissioned work by Roderick Williams with David Hill and Juilliard415 at Alice Tully Hall. The ensemble will tour the UK and France in the spring of 2015.
Program Listing:
Friday, October 17, 2014, 8 p.m., Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA
Saturday, October 18, 2014, 7:30 p.m., St. Mary’s Church, 5 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT
Sunday, October 19, 2014, 5 p.m., Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 155 West 65th Street, NYC
Juilliard415
Yale Schola Cantorum
Masaaki Suzuki, conductor
Jan Dismas ZELENKA Ouverture à 7 concertanti (ZWV 188)
ZELENKA Missa Dei Patris
Tickets for the October 19th Juilliard concert are $20 and available at events.juilliard.edu or at the Juilliard Box Office. Student tickets at $10 are available only at the Juilliard Box Office.
Free; no tickets are required for the Boston and New Haven concerts.
Masaaki Suzuki (Photo by Marco Borggreve)
