Super Flumina Babylonis

sunday, sept 27, 7.30 pm
st. nicholas church in the lesser town of prague

F. X. Richter: Super Flumina Babylonis
F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Psalm 42 „Wie der Hirsch schreit“
A. Dvořák: Te Deum

Ludmila Vernerová – soprano
Jana Levicová – alto
Martin Šrejma – tenor
Ivo Hrachovec – bass
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra
Andreas Weisser – conductor (Germany)

In 1892, as America was preparing for the celebrations of 400 years from the continent's discovery by Columbus, and Antonín Dvořák was expected to arrive in New York as the director of the American National Conservatory of Music, the founder of the then new institution, Jeannette Thurber, asked the composer to write for the occasion a small-scale festive cantata. However, Dvořák did not then receive the text, by Joseph Rodman Drake, in time, so he decided instead to use the words of the Ambrosian eulogy, for a Te Deum to which he assigned Opus number 103. Though limited by a relatively short duration, Dvořák did manage to build up a score filled with the spirit of solemn excitement and jubilant atmosphere, but also one characterized by an unusual form, its four parts being conceived as the classic four-movement symphonic cycle with the sequence of an introductory Allegro moderato, a tuneful second movement (Lento maestoso), a brisk, even turbulent scherzo (Vivace), and a final movement (Lento), not quite as fast-paced as is usual for final parts, but rather evolving from an ardent lyrical beginning to a loftily exuberant closing Alleluja.

František Xaver Richter was a composer of the Mannheim School, known for its share of composers of either Czech extraction or originating from Bohemia, who were instrumental in a process there which led to a transparent turn in style from the Baroque to Classical music. Of his extensive legacy, including 16 psalms, tonight's programme features Psalm 137, whose text describes the plight and laments of the Jews during their deportation to Babylonian captivity in the sixth century B.C. Here is a most moving poetic vision of a forcibly evicted people whose members recollect the one-time beauty and import of Jerusalem, and long to return back home, an aspiration which was to be fulfilled only seven decades later. The ambivalence of style mentioned above is variously manifest here in the choice and the very nature of the musical language used in the individual parts of this cyclic composition: namely, in an ingenuous Baroque-style fugue contrasting with Classical arias, and in a sinfonia where the strings complement oboes and French horns, already thoroughly in the spirit of the First Viennese School.

The genre of psalmodic setting was also cultivated and enriched by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Of the nine psalms found in his legacy, this programme brings Psalm 42, whose character is amply elucidated by the opening verse: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God!” Indeed, the image of a deer “panting” for water carried special importance and urgency in the Palestine of the Old Testament, expressed here through the soliloquy of David who, having been deprived of God's favour, has not ceased to long for and trust in a new reunion with God. The development of the seven-part cyclic composition (dating from 1837, and existing in three versions) is determined by the continuous parallel flow of the vocal and orchestral components. Initially, choral parts are interspersed with a soprano aria and then twice by recitative, and before the final chorus there still comes an exposition of a vocal quintet with orchestra. The musical setting is prevalently homophonic.

Basic fare: 490 CZK and 350 CZK