Histories

Sunday, October 6, 2024 5:00PM

Opening night features three 19th-century masterpieces inspired by the Bible. Deeply personal works by Brahms, Dvořák, and Wolf explore themes ranging from the tenderness of Love to the agony of Sin and the miracle of Redemption. 

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Words from a thousand years ago spoke deeply to the contemporary American composers on this program, which features  Samuel Barber’s classic setting of marginalia, a world premiere by David Ludwig, and works by Libby Larsen and Gilda Lyons that highlight the long-overlooked female perspective. 

Sunday December 1, 2024 5:00PM

The revolutionary works of the Seconda pratica led to a new wave of musical expression during the Renaissance. At the forefront of this radical re-imagining of poetry and music were the madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo and Claudio Monteverdi. Hundreds of years later, the haunting poetry of 16th-century master Michelangelo inspired masterpieces by Hugo Wolf and Benjamin Britten.   

Sunday, January 5, 2025 5:00PM

John Dowland represented the pinnacle of the troubadour tradition with his endlessly inspired Lute Songs, filled with longing and sadness. Henry Purcell was the greatest British composer of the Baroque and a profound influence on Benjamin Britten, who lovingly arranged many of his best songs.  

Sunday, February, 2, 2025 5:00PM

The lieder of Mozart and Haydn represent the charming innocence of Viennese Classicism. Beethoven’s revolutionary innovations in song changed forever what was possible with poetry and music. 

Sunday, March 2, 2025 5:00PM

Schubert’s first great songs were settings of the poet, novelist, and thinker Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.  75 years later, Hugo Wolf culminated the 19th-century lieder tradition with his own towering Goethe settings.