Musical Moments in Time
One of the many pleasures of singing with Chamber Singers of Iowa City is the broad range of music one learns and then shares with the audience. The upcoming concert Vignettes is a fine example. David Puderbaugh, music director, has chosen five themes for these musical moments in time: Music, Night, Troubled Thoughts, Faith and Love.
In the vignette Music, well hear Lloyd Pfautschs Consecrate the Place and Day, a stirring piece that sounds at once like trumpets at a coronation, and again like a bit of rollicking fun. John Rutters What Sweeter Music is a lovely hymn, that works very well here as a study in musical contrasts. William Billings was Americas first choral composer (writing in the 18th century). His Modern Music explains everything one needs to know about listening to fine music including when the audience should applaud.
Night brings us music from Estonian composer Pärt Uusberg and his luscious Õhtul (In the Evening), a charming reverie combining a flowing melody with unexpected chords and meters, deeply romantic.
A more familiar piece, Samuel Barbers Sure, on This Shining Night, is a mystical song that speaks of love and wandering, and even shadows on the stars. Mendelssohns There Shall a Star Come Out of Jacob begins as a triumphant prophecy then takes a darker, even chilling, turn, then returns to the original theme and ends with a transcendent blessing. Randall Thompsons Choose Something Like a Star finishes the Night vignette with music set to Robert Frosts poem, part of the Frostiana collection.
Troubled Thoughts is Brahms all-too-real description of a sleepless night with its fears, worries and downright terrors. With a fevered run of notes in the piano accompaniment and a driving five-four meter, we are pulled along on a nightmarish ride, ending only at dawn, with the insomniac forced to face another day.
It is an honor to write that all six of the soloists for this concert come from within Chamber Singers: Alison Burchett, soprano; Kristen Eisenhammer, soprano; Hillary Foster, alto; Lisa White, alto; Richard Hanson, tenor; Patrick Gilpin, bass.
Ms. Fosters and Ms. Whites duet of Schumanns Erste Begegnung (First Encounter) is a delight about roses and new beginnings to warm us on a cold winters afternoon.
The final vignettes, Faith and Love include works by Haydn, Palestrina, Martini, Schumann, Dello Joio, and a jaundiced look at love entitled Lost Love.
Guest pianist Nathanael Filippelli, a doctoral student at the University of Iowa will perform Franz Liszts Nuages gris, a short piano solo and an excellent example of tone painting. With its gentle, brooding quality, the careful listener might imagine the gray clouds of the title. Filippelli will also play Johannes Brahms: Intermezzo, Op. 116, No. 5, a piece with a honeyed, ambling, quality, and a loud-soft, soft-loud dynamic that is very, very Brahms.
James Petersen sings with the Chamber Singers of Iowa City.
If you go
What: The Chamber Singers of Iowa City present Vignettes.
When: 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15.
Where: First Presbyterian Church, 2701 Rochester, Iowa City