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| About this Concert Alberta boy Nathan Berg comes home once more, bringing his radiant baritone voice and engaging personality with him. Rising American conducting star Stuart Chafetz makes his ESO debut in a holiday-themed program of favourites and surprises. Our Lighter Classics holiday tradition once again blends classical and just plain classic. Featured Repertoire Joy to the World The First Noël You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas |
Additional Performances December 22, 2011 at 8 pm Next Symphony Special February 18, 2012 Disney in Concert Thank you to our sponsor!  Christmas at the Winspear |
Ticket Information$75 Dress Circle (A)$65 Terrace (B) $52 Orchestra (C) $38 Upper Circle (D) $28 Gallery (E) $20 Orchestra Front (F) Tickets subject to applicable service charges. |
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Program Info
Program
WADE / OAKLEY (Arr Mack Wilberg)
“O Come, All Ye Faithful”
TRADITIONAL / DIX (Arr Claude Lapalme)
“What Child Is This?”
RUTTER (Arr Chris Hazell)
Shepherd’s Pipe Carol
GRUBER / MOHR / YOUNG (Arr Robert Rival)
“Silent Night”
TRADITIONAL (Arr Ron Goldstein)
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
BAKER (Arr Todd Hayen)
Do You Hear What I Hear?
BASS / LIVINGSTON
“‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”
WILLIAMS / BRICUSSE
“Somewhere in My Memory” (from Home Alone)
WILLIAMS / BRICUSSE
“Star of Bethlehem” (from Home Alone)
WILLIAMS / BRICUSSE
“Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas” (from Home Alone II)
ADAM / DWIGHT (Arr Wilberg)
“O Holy Night”
TABOUROT / WOODWARD (Arr Wilberg)
“Ding Dong Merrily on High”
POLA / WYLE (Arr Lapalme)
“The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”
MARTIN / BLANE (Arr Hazell)
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (from Meet Me in St Louis)
BERG
“When Christmas Comes Again”
HAGUE / GEISEL (Arr John McPherson)
“You’re a Mean One, Mr Grinch” (from How the Grinch Stole Christmas)
ANDERSON
Sleigh Ride
MENDELSSOHN / CUMMINGS / WESLEY (Arr Wilberg)
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”
TRADITIONAL (Arr Wilberg)
“The First Noël”
MASON / WATTS (Arr Wilberg)
“Joy to the World"Program subject to change.
Program Notes
Where are you when you hear Christmas songs most of the time? And no, we don’t mean through tinny speakers at the shopping centre. But maybe around the piano, singing while a relative plunks out the chords? Or maybe church, accompanied by an organ? What we’re getting at here is that most of the songs we hold so close to our hearts this time of year were not written with a major symphony orchestra in mind. So they have to be arranged – recast and rethought – and the best arrangements not only keep the magic these favourite songs have, they add a lustrous new dimension to them.
The great choral arrangements by Mack Wilberg we’ll hear tonight (O Come, All Ye Faithful; O Holy Night; Hark! The Herald Angels Sing; The First Noël; and Joy to the World) are being given their ESO premieres tonight. Wilberg is an American composer, arranger, and conductor who, in 2008, became Music Director of the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
In December 2006, the ESO presented a holiday concert with special guest, Canadian jazz artist Denzal Sinclaire. For the performance, Red Deer Symphony Orchestra Music Director Claude Lapalme (from whom the ESO has commissioned many fine arrangements) orchestrated What Child Is This? and The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.
The two arrangements by Chris Hazell (Shepherd’s Pipe Carol and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas) were written for a Christmas recording on the major German classical music label Deutsche Grammophon by Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel (Carols & Christmas Songs) in 2010. Our performances will be their Canadian premiere.
Arguably the most famous Christmas Carol of all, Silent Night came about because of a broken organ. St. Nicholas Church, in the small Alpine village of Oberndorf, did not have a functioning organ for midnight mass on Christmas Eve 1818. A priest in the church, Joseph Mohr (1792-1848), gave the words to a poem he had written two years earlier, Stille Nacht (“Silent Night”) to his friend Franz Gruber (1787-1863), who composed music to be played on a guitar, quietly accompanying the tender words. New ESO Composer in Residence, Robert Rival, arranged Silent Night for this performance with Nathan Berg and Richard Eaton Singers. He took as his point of entry the carol’s origins as a song for guitar and voice –then expanding it outwards. Each stanza, moreover, is in a different language (German, then French, Ukrainian, and finally English).
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen is widely held as the oldest extant English Christmas carol. Tonight’s lively, and well, merry arrangement is by Ron Goldstein. By contrast, Todd Hayen’s arrangement of Do You Hear What I Hear? sets one of the most recent holiday songs to establish itself as a seasonal favourite. It was written in October 1962 by Noël Regney (lyrics) and Gloria Shayne Baker (music).
John McPherson is Principal Trombone of the ESO, and a fine composer and arranger in his own right. When Christmas Comes Again was written by tonight’s guest artist Nathan Berg. Mr. McPherson created the orchestration specifically for tonight’s concert. He tried to make his arrangement of the delightful You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch (from the famous Chuck Jones-directed cartoon Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas) sound as close to the animated feature’s original setting as possible.
Artist Info
Stuart Chafetz, conductor
Stuart Chafetz is the Resident Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. His guest conducting appearances include The Buffalo Philharmonic, Chautauqua Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, New Mexico Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Virginia Symphony. Mr. Chafetz has worked with a variety of classical and pop artists such as George Benson, Roy Clark, Natalie Cole, Jean Phillipe Collard, John Denver, Marvin Hamlisch, Thomas Hampson, Wynonna Judd, Jason Scott Lee, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., Jim Nabors, Randy Newman, Jon Kimura Parker, Bernadette Peters, Awadagin Pratt, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and Chee Yun. As Music Director of the Maui Symphony and Maui Pops Orchestra from 1999-2009, Mr. Chafetz oversaw remarkable artistic growth and vastly increased statewide exposure. Formerly the Associate Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra and the Assistant Conductor of the Honolulu Symphony, Stuart became a powerful advocate for the musical education of young people and their families. He has conducted hundreds of performances nationwide focusing on the importance of classical music and the fine arts in our everyday lives.Mr. Chafetz hosted a nationally aired PBS special, Hawaii: The Old and the New, featuring some of Hawaii's most talented young performers and which is still being seen throughout the nation. In addition, Maestro Chafetz has conducted over 30 performances of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with Ballet Hawaii, The Honolulu Symphony, and principals from the American Ballet Theater. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, Mr. Chafetz was Principal Timpanist of the Honolulu Symphony for 20 years. Mr. Chafetz and his wife, conductor Ann Krinitsky, currently divide their time between homes in California and New York.
This is Mr. Chafetz’ debut with the ESO.
Nathan Berg, baritone
Born in Saskatchewan, Nathan Berg’s vocal studies have taken him to Canada, America, Paris, and the Guildhall School of Music (where he won the Gold Medal for Singers). His wide ranging career has moved between his love of song to concert and opera in a vast range of styles and time periods. In recital, he has appeared at the Wigmore Hall in London, Lincoln Center in New York and many other prestigious venues around the world. An in-demand, "first-class" (Boston Globe) and versatile bass-baritone, he has worked with many distinguished conductors including Masur, Salonen, Christie, Herreweghe, Tortelier, Norrington, Leppard, Rilling, and Tilson Thomas; with most of the world's great orchestras. Among his operatic work he has appeared in roles ranging from Mozart's Figaro, Leporello, Don Giovanni, and Guglielmo; Puccini's Scarpia, Marcello, Coline; Wagner's Dutchman, Verdi's Ferrando, Rossini's Alidoro, Rameau's Huascar, and numerous Handel roles in such places as Glyndebourne, Paris National Opera, Netherlands Opera, La Monnai, New York City Opera, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Trieste and Bavarian State Opera to name just a few.A Grammy nominated and Juno Award winning artist, some of Nathan Berg’s recording highlights include numerous CDs with Les Arts Florissants including Messiah and the Mozart Requiem, songs by Othmar Schoeck and a Lieder Recital recording with Julius Drake, Dvořák's Stabat mater, and recent DVD releases of Lully's Armide (Theatre des Champs-Elysees) and Rossini's Cenerentola (Glyndebourne). Highlights in the 2011/2012 seasons includes Scarpia (Tosca) with Edmonton Opera, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony, and San Fransisco Symphony, Dvořák Te Deum with Cleveland Symphony, Huascar in Les Indes galantes with Théâtre Capitole; Valens in Handel’s Théodora with Le Concert Spirituel, and debut performances of Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with the Seattle Symphony.
Mr. Berg last appeared with the ESO performing Handel's Messiah on December 16 & 17, 2011.
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