Messe Solennelle - Rockefeller Memorial Chapel - University of ...

chicago chorale: voices aloft
SUNDAy MAy 13, 3 PM
Pre-concert lecture by Dean Elizabeth Davenport, 2 pm in Ida Noyes Hall
The Chicago Chorale, conducted by Bruce Tammen with university organist
Thomas Weisflog at the organ, sings Louis Vierne’s Messe Solennelle, in a
program also featuring two ethereal a cappella works, J.S. Bach’s double
choir motet, Komm, Jesu, komm, and Arnold Schoenberg’s Friede auf
Erden. The Messe Solennelle of 1899, one of the grandest works of the
golden age of French organ composition, draws upon the full romantic glory
of Rockefeller Chapel’s recently restored E.M. Skinner organ. A heartfelt
and sincere work, it utilizes all the sonic fireworks of which both organ and
choir are capable, filling the Chapel with sound!
Tickets at chicagochorale.org, $35 reserved seating, $25 general,
$20 students; or $40 reserved and $30 for general admission at the door.
rockefeller gala concert:
The art of the Bon mot
SATURDAy JUNE 2, 4:30 PM (CARILLON BEGINS 4:20 PM)
Free, no tickets or reservations required
The fifth annual Rockefeller gala concert, an hour-long
concert of classics, takes on a Parisian theme this year.
The University of Chicago Motet Choir’s Art of the Bon
Mot is complemented by French wine and delicious
pâtisserie snacks! Motet Choir offers selections from the
chanson repertoire, from Debussy to the present day, including works of
Maurice Ravel, Francis Poulenc, and Paul Hindemith, and contemporary
American composer Morton Lauridsen’s fêted Les Chansons des Roses.
These masterful short-form choral works utilize the poetry of, among others,
Paul Éluard, Guillaume Apollinaire, and Rainer Maria Rilke.
And on the very anniversary of the death of Louis Vierne (June 2, 1937,
at the organ console of the Cathédrale de Notre Dame, where he was just
completing his 1,750 th recital), university organist Thomas Weisflog plays
Vierne’s famous Carillon de Westminster (mirrored on the carillon with
Robert Byrnes’ Westminster) and the beautiful Adagio from Symphonie III.
University carillonneur Wylie Crawford and assistant carillonneur
James Fackenthal complete the festivities with arrangements for carillon
of works by Jean-Joseph Mouret, Erik Satie, Francis Poulenc, and Gabriel
Fauré, concluding with Robert Lannoy’s charming Ballet des Petits Canards
(Ballet of the Ducklings).
vierne 2012: six symphonies, six cities
FRIDAy JULy 6 and SATURDAy JULy 7, 7:30 PM
Free
Celebrated young organist Christopher Houlihan performs Louis Vierne’s six
symphonies in six major North American cities (New york, Denver, Chicago,
Los Angeles, Montreal, and Dallas) to commemorate the composer, a
marathon of travel and performance beginning on June 2, the anniversary of
Vierne’s death at the console of his beloved organ at Notre Dame de Paris.
Here at Rockefeller Chapel, Part I, Friday July 6, will comprise Symphonies
I, III, and V; and Part II, Saturday July 7, Symphonies II, IV, and VI.
We are delighted that Rockefeller Chapel is on the Vierne 2012 itinerary,
not least because Vierne dedicated his Symphonie VI to Lynnwood Farnam,
noted master of the organ who played the inaugural recital of Rockefeller’s
E.M. Skinner organ in 1928, just days after the Chapel itself was
dedicated.
nathan lauBe in recital
MONDAy JULy 9, 7 PM
Tickets $20 at the door
The Organ Historical Society proudly presents Nathan Laube in recital
at Rockefeller Chapel, as part of its Chicago 2012 convention. For more
details, see organsociety.org.
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