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Sunday, October 24, 2004 at 7 pm

Connect with two musical mavericks who dramatically altered the modern musical landscape. The great 20th century Russian composer Igor Stravinsky is one of Reich’s heroes, and happily, both have produced amazingly inventive compositions for the human voice. Hailed by The New Yorker as “…the most original musical thinker of our time,” Reich based his You Are (Variations) on a 19th century rabbinical text, “You are wherever your thoughts are.” Postponed from last season as it grew into a bigger, more multi-faceted and complex piece than the composer originally envisioned, the work is premiered by a virtuoso ensemble. You Are (Variations) engulfs you with exuberant state-of-the-art sound design as the composer uses words as both sounds and meaning.

Come back to the edge of your seat for Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. “It is not a symphony in which I have included Psalms to be sung. On the contrary, it is the singing of the Psalms that I am symphonizing,” stressed the composer. Voices are treated musically like an orchestra and the chorus sings the Latin psalm texts almost continuously. Composing with his unpredictable individualism and originality, Stravinsky conveys the tenderness and consolation of his score with striking choral rhythms. To know the work is to love it, and the full chorus of the Master Chorale shows why.

“Reich delivers, and it's worth the wait. You Are (Variations) is a masterpiece.” Read Mark Swed's review in the Los Angeles Times. more

Download a guide to the season: chorale-seasonguide0405.pdf, 808KB