Brattleboro Concert Choir – Ernest Bloch's Sacred Service
Saturday, May 22, 7:30 pm, First Baptist Church, Brattleboro
Sunday, May 23, 4 pm, First Baptist Church, Brattleboro
The Brattleboro Concert Choir, under the direction of Susan Dedell, performs the Sacred Service of Ernest Bloch, accompanied by organist Clark Anderson. Acclaimed bass-baritone David Ripley sings the role of the Cantor.
Tickets, $15, $10 students 18 and under, are available by calling the BMC at 802-257-4523. Or purchase on-line:
Tickets for Saturday, May 22, 7:30 pm
Tickets for Sunday, May 23, 4 pm
STORY:
In a work that combines ancient Hebrew melodies with post Romantic harmonies, Ernest Bloch composed the first of its kind: a concert setting of the Avodeth Hakodesh, the Sacred Service. Commissioned in 1929 by Rabbi Reuben Rinder of the Temple Emanuel-El in San Fransisco, Bloch took four years to compose this seminal masterwork, and it remains an iconic part of the choral repertoire.
The Brattleboro Concert Choir, under the direction of Susan Dedell, will present Sacred Service on Saturday, May 22 at 7:30 p.m. and again on Sunday, May 23 at 4 p.m. The concert will be at the First Baptist Church in downtown Brattleboro and will be accompanied by guest organist Clark Anderson. Acclaimed bass-baritone David Ripley sings the role of the Cantor.
Director Dedell explains that she had originally planned to present the Sacred Service with the original orchestral scoring, but that she got the idea that this piece would work very well -- perhaps even in some ways better -- accompanied by organ. “One of the dichotomies of this piece is that it is both very spiritual and yet highly dramatic,” says Dedell. “Even in specifying the soloist as a ‘cantor’, Bloch is clearly evoking the theatrical feel of real liturgy. There is an immediacy to this music which is extraordinarily powerful, and in some ways, having the choir interact with the audience without the buffer of the orchestra brings that immediacy to life.”
The opportunity to perform this work with organ was made possible by two important factors: having the right instrument and the right musician right here in Brattleboro. “I’m very excited to work with organist Clark Anderson on this project. He has an amazing ear for color, and truly loves this historic organ.”
The organ at the First Baptist Church is a now rare example of an intact Romantic orchestral organ, made by the Estey Company in 1906. According to Anderson, the organ is a real gem. “Organs like this one have mostly disappeared, replaced as fashion changed. It has amazingly lifelike flutes, strings, winds, and brass. You will probably never hear an organ this lovely again.”
Working on the Sacred Service was an eye-opener for Dedell. “I have been conducting choruses for over twenty years and this is the first time I have worked with a liturgy that was not Christian.” The chorus has done many non-religious works, and prides itself on its eclectic and original repertoire. And composer Ernest Bloch was very specific in his instruction that although the work sprang from Judaism, he intended it as a universal work that expresses “the supplication of all mankind.”
“But as we worked through this piece in the beginning days, I began to realize that I had a lot to learn about Judaism if I was going to get to the core of this piece,” observed Dedell.
Therefore, another important piece of making this work a possibility for the Concert Choir to perform was the presence in the choir of a singer who had extensive training in Hebrew, and also had experience as a cantor. Bass Andrew Semegram worked with the group weekly, both to understand the meaning behind the words, as well as become comfortable with the language.
Bass-baritone David Ripley appears in the substantial role of the cantor “David is perfect for this part: he’s a musician’s musician -- a fabulous singer -- plus he has a wondrous subtle sense of theatrical timing,” says Dedell. “His warmth as a person is obvious the minute he steps on stage -- he has the charisma that every good cantor or minister needs.”
Ripley is well known to Brattleboro audiences, as he appeared as soloist with the New England Bach Festival for many years. He appears regularly with the Boston Camerata, the Waverly Consort, and travels internationally for the U.S. Embassy, performing American music as an arts ambassador. He maintains a long-standing relationship with the Aston Magna Music Festival, and is Professor of Music at the University of New Hampshire.
The Sacred Service of Ernest Bloch is one of a kind -- unusual in every way, according to Dedell. “It has a uniquely pervasive emotional undercurrent. There is exotic mystery behind the dramatic cloudbursts of sound, and a towering wall of emotion in the silences.” In the words of Ernest Bloch, “It is a whole drama in itself. For fifty minutes, I hope it will bring to the souls, minds, and hearts of the people, a little more confidence, make them a little more kind and indulgent than they were and bring them peace.”
Organist CLARK E. ANDERSON began his musical studies with his grandmother at the age of 10 and has been playing piano, organ, and harpsichord in concert and for chuches ever since. While a graduate student at Princeton University, he served as University Organist and Assistant Conductor. Although he turned to a career in business, he continued to give periodic recitals and serve as organist and choirmaster for churches on the East Coast. Mr. Anderson studied with outstanding teachers both in the U.S. and France, including Margaret Saunders Ott (piano), Stanley Plummer and Fred Gramman (organ), and William Russell and Walter Nollner (conducting). He moved to Brattleboro with his partner Zachary in 2007.
Bass-Baritone DAVID RIPLEY is heard widely in oratorio, opera and recital stages around the world. Richard Dyer, of the Boston Globe describes Mr. Ripley as a singer with “an impressive demonstration of vocal skill, musicianship, stamina, memory and imagination." Mr. Ripley is a frequent guest soloist with the Boston Camerata and the Waverly Consort. He was a soloist with the New England Bach Festival for twenty years, and continues his longtime association with the Aston Magna Festival. In addition to his expertise in early music, Mr. Ripley is a champion of new music and has a special interest in America music. He has given performances of the American Songbook in Paris, Brussels, Moscow and St. Petersburg through the U.S. Embassy. He has also toured with the Ambassadors of NATO, whose three recordings include All That Jazz, live from Rachmaninoff Hall, We’ll Meet Again featuring the songs of WWII and Fly Me to the Moon, Songs of American Vocal Legends. Recent performance highlights include the premier of Larry Siegel’s Kaddish, an oratorio work based on testimony from Holocaust survivers. This past April, Mr. Ripley conducted Victor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, as part of a series at the University of New Hampshire entitled Echoes of the Holocaust. Mr. Ripley is Professor of Music at the University of New Hampshire where he directs the opera program and teaches voice.
The ESTEY PIPE ORGAN at the First Baptist Church, Brattleboro, was installed in 1906, a gift of Jacob Gray Estey and Julius Harry Estey in memory of their father, Gen. Julius Jacob Estey. The Estey company of Brattleboro, long famous for its reed organs, had begun building pipe organs in 1901, so this instrument was a relatively early effort. This instrument is a now rare example of an intact Romantic organ. It is perhaps no surprise that the Estey team excelled at making lovely sounds out of pipes as much as they did out of reeds, since the “stops” or colors of the Romantic organ were quite similar to those Estey typically used on its reed organs. The gifted Estey voicers created a truly orchestral instrument, with amazingly life-like and lovely flutes, strings, saxophones (christened with the wonderful name “Cor Glorieux”), oboes, and trumpets. All were carefully designed to work together in orchestral combinations, with nothing too overpowering or strident. This type of organ, while difficult to use for most pre-Romantic music, is perfect for a work such as the Bloch, which is scored for a large orchestra. S. Archer Gibson, who played the inaugural recital on the organ, wrote, “The instrument as a whole is one of the most perfect specimens of the organ builder’s art and it should be a great honor to any city to possess such an instrument.” I couldn?t agree more. Organs like this one have mostly disappeared, replaced as the fashion changed. So enjoy it: you will probably never hear an organ flute, saxophone, or trumpet this lovely again. Clark Anderson |
