Événement

Voices of Ascension - Poulenc Gloria and Honegger King David

Thursday, January 25th 2018 at 8pm
Church of the Ascension
Fifth Avenue at Tenth Street, NYC

featuring soprano Vanessa Vasquez, Met Opera National Council Audition Winner.

When playwright René Morax commissioned King David with a 2-month deadline in 1921, the young Arthur Honegger composed feverishly to complete the music for the opening night. Acclaimed at the premiere, Honegger later re-worked King David into a large-scale oratorio composition. But it is his original orchestration which is particularly true to the theatrical heritage of the piece. The instrumental forces resemble what one might have heard in a Parisian theatre of the 1920s. This will be VoAs first performance of this unique, dramatic work not to be missed!

Honegger and Francis Poulenc were members of the rebellious group of French composers known as "Les Six" who eagerly explored alternative, playful, rhythmic, genre-bending music. From the moment of its premiere in 1961, Poulencs Gloria has been popular for its grand scope and intensely human focus. It possesses both an amazingly contagious joie de vivre as well as passages of exceptional lyric beauty. We will be performing Dennis Keenes organ transcription to celebrate the brilliant timbres of the magnificent 2011 French pipe organ. This concert will feature soprano Vanessa Vasquez, Winner of the Metropolitan Operas National Council Auditions.

PLEASE NOTE: We are not able to issue refunds exchanges.