Love’s Spell to Know

PROGRAM

Dichterliebe (A Poet's Love) - Robert Schumann(1810-1856) Poetry by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)

I. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (In the wonderfully beautiful month of May)
II. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen (From my tears spring forth)
III. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne (The rose, the lily, the dove, the sun)
IV. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh (When I look into your eyes)
V. Ich will meine Seele tauchen (I want to plunge my soul)
VI. Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome (In the Rhine, that holy stream)
VII. Ich grolle nicht. (I don't complain)
VIII. Und wüßten's die Blumen, die kleinen (If only the little flowers knew)
IX. Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen (There is a fluting and fiddling)
X. Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen (I hear the little song sounding)
XI. Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen (A youth loves a maiden)
XII. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen (On a luminous summer morning)
XIII. Ich hab' im Traum geweinet (I was crying in my dream)
XIV. Allnächtlich im Traume (All night in my dreams)
XV. Aus' alten Märchen winkt 'es (It beckons me from old tales)
XVI. Die alten, bösen Lieder (The old, angry songs)

ꕥ INTERMISSION ꕥ

Don Quichotte à Dulcinée (Don Quixote to Dulcinea) - Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Lyrics by Paul Morand (1888-1976)

I. Chanson romanesque (Romanesque Song)
II. Chanson épique (Epic Song)
III. Chanson à boire (Drinking Song)

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From Eugene Onegin - Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) words by Tchaikovsky after Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837)

Onegin's Aria

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Old American Songs, Book One - Aaron Copland (1900-1990) Lyrics and tunes from various folk and traditional sources

I. The Boatmen's Dance
II. The Dodger
III. Long Time Ago
IV. Simple Gifts
V. I Bought Me a Cat

ꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥꕥ

Click here to view translations of this evening’s texts.

A Note About WUMC's Community Emergency Relief Fund:

The CERF is a financial resource for supporting community members who face unexpected or emergency financial need. Past examples of funding have been to provide warm clothes, meals, cleaning supplies, and transportation assistance. 100% of CER funds go back into the community.

Economics of Tonight:

Tonight's donations will be divided three ways: 1/3 to Justin, 1/3 to Dominico, 1/3 to WUMC's Community Emergency Relief Fund. Justin and Dominico thank Wallingford UMC for hosting tonight's concert. You can donate by sending a Venmo transfer to @justin-birchell-1 , with the memo “Fundraiser.”

Special Thanks:

Justin and Dominico wish to thank Victoria Kirsch for her extreme generosity with her time and musical wisdom. Justin and Dominico extend special thanks to Nikki Nichols for initially conceiving and suggesting the idea for this recital, and to Bruce Sherman for making possible the livestream and recording. Justin thanks Thomas Harper, Anton Belov, and Dr. Kari Ragan for vocal guidance, and his primary teacher, Prof. Michael Dean of UCLA. Justin also thanks career mentor Peter Kazaras, who always shares wit, funny stories, and advice. Justin thanks his parents, Dawn Storm and Bruce & Jill Birchell, for unending support and generosity. Justin thanks Dr. Geoffrey Boers and Dr. Giselle Wyers for shepherding him into the choral cosmos. He thanks his UW family, especially Daren, Cee, and Anjali. He has special thanks for Michael Spencer, Liz Kennedy and Paul Corner for helping him feel at home at Wallingford UMC.

Notes on Tonight's Program
from Justin

All the repertoire on tonight's concert is very dear to me. I was very excited to introduce this repertoire to Dominico, who has taken to it like wildfire, and to share it with you all. I wanted to share a few thoughts on each selection that I hope will help you enjoy what you are hearing.

Schumann's Dichterliebe

Dichterliebe ("A Poet's Love") is one of the most iconic examples of the so called lieder (German art song) cycle genre. A song cycle is like an album: although each song is an individual "track," they are conceived as a unitary and coherent work, and each song relates to the others. Dichterliebe is an episodic tale of unrequited (or, lost?) love. The titular poet experiences rhapsodic, hyper-romantic love and, finding their love unfulfilled, undergoes what can only be described as spiritual torture. They pass through reveries, hallucinations, episodes of weeping, jealous fantasies and visions (in which the Beloved bestows themself upon, or even marries, an imaginary third person), before ultimately vowing to sink all their love and pain into the ocean in a coffin! The poetry is by perhaps the quintessential German high Romantic poet, Heinrich Heine. When reading along in the translations, notice the prevalence of Heine's trademark “Stimmungsbruch” (voice-break), in which, in the final couplet of a poem, he puts a bitter or ironic twist on what has come before. Schumann's music mines Heine's poetry for every image, mood, and textural color. Listen especially for Schumann's adventurous use of the piano--not merely an accompanying instrument, the piano is the singer's foil, relief, and, at times, adversary. The piano is a solo instrument here.

Ravel's Don Quichotte à Dulcinée

Ravel's Don Quixote is an altogether different kind of lover from either the tortured poet of Dichterliebe or the distant Onegin. Don Quixote is comical, yet gallant, upstanding--even admirable--, yet lacking in self awareness. His overblown gallantry is captured in the martial rhythms of the Chanson romanesque and the stately piety of the Chanson épique; even in the drunken rollick of the Chanson à boire, the Don's thoughts turn ever only to the honor of his beloved Dulcinea. These songs have special meaning to me, because they were taught to me by the fantastic coach Victoria Kirsch; Victoria, in turn, was the longtime collaborator of Martial Singher, the baritone for whom they were originally written and who premiered them. Thus, I feel I carry on a direct musical lineage, from Ravel himself to Singher, to Victoria, to me (and now, to Dominico!).

"Eugene's Aria" from Eugene Onegin

The title character of Alexander Pushkin's novel-in-verse Eugene Onegin is, perhaps, the anti-Quixote. A bored aristocrat, cold, reserved, joylessly womanizing, and entirely self-absorbed. In this aria, subtle in its musical expression of Eugene's reserve and arrogance, Eugene has received a love letter from the shy and quiet, but passionate, Tatyana. He condescendingly tells Tatyana that, although her letter was moving, he is not fit for marriage and would soon grow bored of her. He leaves Tatyana heartbroken and humiliated.

Copland's Old American Songs

No composer is more associated with the sound of "Americana" in music than the 20th-century New York native Aaron Copland. In this cycle, Copland sets out to raise the ostensibly rustic to the level of high art. Treating these five folk tunes with humor, reverent respect, and his unfailing craft, Copland gives us a song cycle that is as quintessentially American as Schumann's is unmistakably German. Perhaps Copland's second song offers us the key to understanding Schumann's poet, Ravel's Don Quixote, and Tchaikovsky's Onegin: "the lover, he's a dodger, yes a well-known dodger..."

Performers

Justin Birchell is the Music Director of Wallingford United Methodist Church. He is a graduate (Bachelor's and Master's in Voice Performance) of UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music. His recent solo engagements have included performances with Harmonia Orchestra and Chorus (Mozart's Requiem) and UW Choirs (Finzi's In Terra Pax). Justin was recently engaged by Pacific Northwest Opera to sing the role of Faninal in their Der Rosenkavalier (April 2023). Justin has been a winner of the UCLA Philharmonia All-Stars concerto competition, and is a former winner of the Ted Stevens Young Alaskan Artist Award from the Anchorage Festival of Music. Justin is also active as an ensemble singer, being a member of Choral Arts Northwest since April 2022. He is in pursuit of a Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA) in choral conducting at the University of Washington, where he studies under Dr. Geoffrey Boers and Dr. Giselle Wyers.

Dominico Reyes is a passionate, self-taught pianist who grew up in the small town of Parma, ID. He started his journey playing piano at the age of 13 and from then until age 18 was the pianist for Parma Nazarene Church. From 2011-'20 he was the Collaborative Pianist for countless high schools, middle schools, elementary schools and churches throughout Boise’s Treasure Valley. During these years, Dominico played for Idaho’s All State Choirs, countless other Honor Choirs, multiple choir tours, Solo/Ensemble Festivals and numerous other events. Dominico also served as the staff accompanist for the Boise Gay Men’s Chorus (BGMC) from 2011- 2020 as well as the Boise Women’s Chorus from 2013-2020. He has proudly been part of the BGMC organization since both of the choirs’ premiere concerts. From 2017-'18 Dominico was the staff accompanist for Boise State University’s choir department. In Spring 2021 Mr. Reyes relocated to Seattle, WA. Since then, at the initial invitation of Dr. Geoffrey Boers, Dominico has served at the University of Washington as one of their Professional Collaborative Artists. Since May of 2022, he has been the regular Accompanist at Wallingford UMC.