Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Dawn Upshaw

John Adams’ El Niño A Modern Nativity Masterpiece

I’ve run hot and cold on John Adams over the years. I think “Shaker Loops” and “Nixon in China” are brilliant. So many of his other things, not so much. But this Nativity oratorio must be one of his most successful pieces.

“El Niño” was given its world premiere at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on this date in the year 2000. The American premiere followed, in San Francisco, on January 11, 2001. Kent Nagano conducted on both occasions, and the dream team soloists included Dawn Upshaw, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and Willard White.

“El Niño” – which has nothing to do with the weather – retells the Christmas story. Part I focuses on Mary’s reflections before giving birth in a stable in Bethlehem. Part II takes place after the birth, and encompasses the Slaughter of the Innocents and other events from the early life of Jesus.

The texts, in English, Spanish, and Latin, are drawn from the King James Bible, the Wakefield Mystery Plays, Martin Luther’s Christmas Sermon, the Gospel of Luke, and gnostic gospels from the Apocrypha, alongside poems by Rosario Castellanos, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Gabriella Mistral, Vicente Huidobro, Rubén Dario, Hildegard von Bingen, director Peter Sellars, and Adams himself.

I can’t speak to Sellars’ direction. I’ve never seen it with the visuals. But musically, I was very pleased with it, when I first purchased the Nonesuch Records album 20 years ago. It’s a great tonic after running through multiple versions of “Messiah.”

Part I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hFSuGwl7jU

Part II

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7EISGxGhJw

December 15, 2021
Princeton Symphony’s World Tour with Upshaw and Luo

Armchair travelers, rejoice! The Princeton Symphony Orchestra will offer a trip around the world this weekend. Book passage to Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium this Sunday at 4 p.m., as the orchestra embarks for Hungary (by way of Zoltán Kodály), Spain, Eastern Europe, and Amherst, Massachusetts (by way of Osvaldo Golijov), China (by way of Jing Jing Luo), and Bohemia (by way of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart).

The PSO continues its season-long celebration of the creativity of women with not one, but two notable guest artists. Dawn Upshaw will be the soloist in Golijov’s “Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra.” Singer and composer are frequent collaborators, with Upshaw frequently described as Golijov’s muse.

The PSO’s other notable guest is composer-in-residence Jing Jing Luo. Luo, a native of Beijing, is “a self-taught calligrapher in Chinese ink brush painting,” an art she says she has practiced since childhood.

The title of her work, “Tsao Shu,” alludes to “Chinese cursive writing, with ink brush, not with pen.” She elaborates, “The piece, it’s about the motion of the calligraphy with the ink brush, the motions of the stroke. Each stroke in calligraphy is reflected in music through the string section, percussion section, woodwind and brass.”

Luo will join PSO music director Rossen Milanov for a pre-concert talk on Sunday at 3 p.m. Milanov will conduct the program, which will also include Kodály’s “Dances of Galanta” and Mozart’s Symphony No. 38, the “Prague” Symphony.

On Saturday at 4 p.m., Luo will converse with composer and PSO board member Julian Grant about Chinese culture and its influence on her art and music. The discussion will take place at the Arts Council of Princeton’s Paul Robeson Center for the Arts. The Saturday event is free with ticketed reservations through the PSO website, princetonsymphony.org.

Read more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/01/classical_music_pso_performing.html

PHOTO: Upshaw armchair traveling with Golijov

January 29, 2016
Dawn Upshaw Song Cycles on The Lost Chord

Tonight, after you’ve put away the snow shovel, popped some Advil, and finished slathering on the Bengay, consider tuning in for a couple of contemporary song cycles performed by Dawn Upshaw.

Upshaw will be my guest this week on “The Lost Chord.” She will talk about her working relationship with composer Osvaldo Golijov, whose “Three Songs” she will sing on an upcoming concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. We’ll also hear her astonishing recording of Golijov’s “Ayre,” a hypnotic synthesis of folk, pop and classical-inflected music on texts from Arabic, Hebrew, Sardinian and Sephardic sources.

Then she’ll melt our hearts by applying her distinctive timbre to selections from Maria Schneider’s “Winter Morning Walks.” Schneider is best known as a jazz artist, but, as is evident from her album “The Thompson Fields,” she possesses an extraordinarily ambitious compositional sense.

“Winter Morning Walks” was the recipient of three Grammy Awards in 2014, in the categories of Best Classical Contemporary Composition, Best Vocal Performance (for Dawn Upshaw), and Best Engineered Album, Classical. It was Upshaw’s fifth Grammy.

And lest you forget, Upshaw’s was the voice heard in the very moving recording of Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3, issued by Nonesuch Records in 1992, which sold over a million copies and became one of the best-selling classical music albums of all time.

Upshaw will appear at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on January 31 at 4 p.m. Also on the program, PSO music director Rossen Milanov will conduct works by Mozart, Kodály, and Jing Jing Luo, the orchestra’s current composer-in-residence. For more information, visit princetonsymphony.org.

I hope you’ll join me for “The Knack of Dawn” – new music performed by Dawn Upshaw – this Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

January 24, 2016
Winter Music on WPRB Radio Princeton NJ

If you’re a denizen of the Mid-Atlantic or Northeastern states, then chances are the impending winter storm is beginning to worm its way into your consciousness. This week on WPRB, we go with the flow, with a full morning of wintry music, including, if time allows, trips to the North and South Poles.

We’ll have two sets of visitors: one from the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, including composer Jing Jing Luo, whose work “Tsao Shu” will be heard on the orchestra’s next concert, which will take place at Richardson Auditorium, on January 31 at 4 p.m.; and the other from Grand Harmonie, which will present the U.S. authentic instrument premiere of Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” in a semi-staged performance, at Richardson this Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

We’ll also feature Dawn Upshaw’s Grammy Award-winning recording of Maria Schneider’s “Winter Morning Walks.” Upshaw will perform three songs by Osvaldo Golijov on the upcoming concert of the Princeton Symphony.

Pull on your boots and get in the mood for tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’re industriously loading snowballs into the freezer, on Classic Ross Amico.

More entertaining squirrel photos by Vadim Trunov here:

http://vadim-trunov.wix.com/foto

January 20, 2016

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