Finding Comfort in Brahms Requiem
This weekend Soprano Celena Shafer will sing Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit, “You now have sorrow,” as part of Brahms’s German Requiem. This movement for solo soprano, chorus, and orchestra was added by Brahms as a tribute to his mother, who had passed away before the composition of the Requiem. A mother herself, Ms. Shafer graciously sent this message discussing her relationship with this simple yet moving section from the Requiem. After you see the performance, feel free to comment back!
“I enjoy singing the soprano aria in the Brahms Requiem because it is a piece of music that has grown with me as a musician, singer and as a person, and I believe it will continue to grow with me. I first performed this with the Tabernacle Choir several years ago. At the time, it was really a "technical" piece for me - meaning, that it was technically challenging for me as a singer, and that was what I mostly concentrated on while performing it. Last winter, when I was preparing to sing it in New York, Salt Lake City and Chicago, it was fun for me to see how much I had grown since first performing it with the Tabernacle Choir. Musically, I found things in it that I'd never heard or understood before. Technically, it is still a challenging piece, but it isn't what I have to give my full concentration to anymore. But, mostly, I finally understand what this aria is about. Since first performing the aria, I have had three children, and so the message in this song of a mother's comfort to her children, or God's comfort to His children, means something completely different to me. And so, I enjoy performing this on a totally different level than before. I am really looking forward to performing this with the wonderful Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and Chorus! I'm so lucky that I just sing one aria, and the rest of the time, I get to listen to marvelous musicians perform!”
“I enjoy singing the soprano aria in the Brahms Requiem because it is a piece of music that has grown with me as a musician, singer and as a person, and I believe it will continue to grow with me. I first performed this with the Tabernacle Choir several years ago. At the time, it was really a "technical" piece for me - meaning, that it was technically challenging for me as a singer, and that was what I mostly concentrated on while performing it. Last winter, when I was preparing to sing it in New York, Salt Lake City and Chicago, it was fun for me to see how much I had grown since first performing it with the Tabernacle Choir. Musically, I found things in it that I'd never heard or understood before. Technically, it is still a challenging piece, but it isn't what I have to give my full concentration to anymore. But, mostly, I finally understand what this aria is about. Since first performing the aria, I have had three children, and so the message in this song of a mother's comfort to her children, or God's comfort to His children, means something completely different to me. And so, I enjoy performing this on a totally different level than before. I am really looking forward to performing this with the wonderful Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and Chorus! I'm so lucky that I just sing one aria, and the rest of the time, I get to listen to marvelous musicians perform!”
12 Comments:
The concert was fine but it is really heartbreaking to see all those singers and musicians with such a tiny audience there to hear them. Someone needs to wake up the marketing department at the Symphony. At least remove an arm off every other seat so the audience can sit in two seats and not have such terrible welts on the thighs after the concert. Would some advertising on television help?
Thank you for being there. We hope weekend audiences are bigger, too. It's hardly Marketing's fault when our pop culture prefers noise and posturing to Brahms.
By the way, it's singers and instrumentalists. We're all musicians.
As an out of state person who checks in the blog from time to time, are you finding in the greater Phoenix area, a slow down in the housing boom (construction and sales)? Could this have a little to do with slowing ticket sales? I only ask because I have collegues in FL who are experiencing this a bit and since AZ is/was a larger growth area too, I was wondering if TPS is experiencing the same thing.
P.S. Here, here, Sandy! We are all musicians, but just choose our instruments differently- some carry their voice around, some play violin or piano or any other instrument, and some are musicians through their pencils behind the scenes in the orchestra library.
Believe it or not there are those of us who can actually appreciate all forms of music, including “noise.” And having a well thought-out strategic marketing campaign DOES play a large role in driving behavior.
This blog is a good example of how things can be improved. All of the posts are driven by pre-determined topics that read more like press releases with no real purpose. Why not move this information to the main page somewhere (as perspectives?) and start a true message board where people can initiate topics. While Sonny the Cat’s attempt to single-handedly support TPS is admirable, it’s not realistic to use his entries as a measure for the Sound Post’s success. Each topic has an average of five posts or less, half of which are from Sonny.
Realizing that there are finite resources available to support marketing efforts, the most cost-effective way to heighten interest is through the main site. Podcasts would be good. Updated photos. Video clips. An online store. A Myspace page. Online surveys/polls. Use of Flash Player…
We are confident that crowds will be larger for the rest of the weekend. We were competing against the recital of violinist Hilary Hahn at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts.
The competition of the Hilary Hahn recital probably had little to do with the poor attendance at the Phoenix Symphony concert Thursday night. I was at the recital and it was also poorly attended. It actually should have been sold out, especially in such a small hall. The lower half was full, but the upper four sections were sparsely filled. So doubt that she took away many people at all from the Phoenix Symphony performance. Be interesting if attendance is much better for the rest of your concerts, Mr. Christie.
Hi Don-
Thanks for writing. We're always looking for new ways to approach the new media of the web in the realm of video, audio and interactivity.
The purpose of the SoundPost blog is provide a place where we can present interesting topics that don't fit into our regular press releases - personal stories, comments from musicians and conductors, or interesting musical events around the country. The commenting feature is an added bonus as it allows feedback on the topics we present and a way to interact.
Also realize that a blog post's low comment-count isn't necessarily an indicator of SoundPost's exposure. Currently SoundPost is being read by nearly 500 users per week!
As for other media interactivity, it's certainly on the way - flash-player audio clips have already made their way into The Phoenix Symphony website's main concert listings where you can hear clips of upcoming classics concert pieces. Video of recent Mark Grey composer residency events will appear on the site in the coming weeks as well. The next calendar year will see a wonderful array of new website upgrades in both the information and ticketing areas so be sure to keep a watchful eye out!
Brendan Anderson
Web Administrator
It would be nice if our newspaper would give more reviews of our concerts. Years ago the newspaper reviewed many more symphony concerts.
Admittedly, we had hoped for much larger audiences for this past weekend's performances of the German Requiem. I will cease to speculate why people don't turn up for one event or another going forward. I was surprised Hilary Hahn's recital wasn't full.
I think all of the valley's arts presenters hope that quality will prevail but ultimately the market will decide.
The orchestra, chorus and soloists did a terrific job with the Brahms and the orchestra delivered meaningful performances of the Britten as well.
We'll just keep plugging away and reach one new convert at a time. This is a very exciting time at the Phoenix Symphony and truly more people are buying tickets than before, the numbers support that claim. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to predict where the larger houses will happen. I honestly thought that this program was right up our classics' audience alley.
"It would be nice if our newspaper would give more reviews of our concerts. Years ago the newspaper reviewed many more symphony concerts."
I agree, this would be nice. But it seems that newspapers mirror the phenomenon that is going on the schools these days- they need to cut their budget so arts is the first to go. Reviews and articles of local arts organizations decline, but we can still read about lip-syncing pop divas in the "arts" section. Sadly, this seems to be happening more and more across the country.
Maybe hiring Gustavo Dudamel as music director would have created more excitement. Big article on him recently in the NY Times, speaking of which I can't find any Times reviews of the Brooklyn Philharmonic either. Why not bring in Dudamel to guest conduct while he still has the time on his schedule.
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