{"id":18261,"date":"2016-05-28T15:24:21","date_gmt":"2016-05-28T19:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/?p=18261"},"modified":"2016-05-28T19:53:51","modified_gmt":"2016-05-28T23:53:51","slug":"photo-gallery-slavic-soul-at-corpus-christi-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/2016\/05\/photo-gallery-slavic-soul-at-corpus-christi-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Photo Gallery: Slavic Soul at Corpus Christi Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Corpus Christi weekend began last night with an exquisite concert by the Camerata Di Sant\u2019 Antonio, an acclaimed professional chamber orchestra under the direction of Christopher Weber. This concert, entitled \u201cSlavic Soul,\u201d featured pieces by Polish, Czech and Bulgarian composers from the early Romantic era in the eighteenth century through the present day.\u00a0Highlights\u00a0 included the world premiere of \u201cBulgarian Suite for Violin and Strings (A Day in the Life) by Petar Petrof, written specifically for Camerata violinist Nadeja Nigrin, and two pieces featuring the dramatic, evocative voice of guest soprano Colleen Marcello. The program, which is thoroughly described and contextualized\u00a0 in this Artvoice<\/em> article by Jan Jezioro<\/a>, was varied and exciting.<\/p>\n

The program began with a pre-concert presentation by the Chopin Singing Society<\/a> under the direction of Dr. Thomas Witakowski. Their selections included \u201cGaude Mater Polonia,\u201d a national hymn that was first composed in the Middle Ages and is still an unofficial national anthem; \u201cKleszczymy r\u0119koma,\u201d a setting of a poem by seventeenth century Polish writer Jan Kochanowski; Otton Mieczys\u0142aw Zukowski\u2019s \u00a0\u201cBoga rodzica dziewica,\u201d a hymn to the Virgin Mary written in response to Poland\u2019s series of failed nineteenth century uprisings against Prussian, Russian and Austrian rule; and \u201cJak dobrze nam,\u201d\u00a0a lively mountaineer folk song\u00a0skillfully arranged by the Society\u2019s\u00a0conductor. This choir\u2019s performance was\u00a0very well executed, but I was particularly impressed by the\u00a0strength of the tenor and bass sections. In contrast to what is typical of community choirs, the male sections stood out as considerably more resonant and expressive than the female ones. Perhaps some sopranos or altos reading this might consider joining the Society next season!<\/p>\n

Camerata Di Sant\u2019 Antonio\u2019s program began with a lovely piece by Micha\u0142 Kleofas Ogi\u0144ski, which was written in 1794 soon after, like many other Polish intellectuals, this composer emigrated to France following one of many uprisings against the occupying powers. \u201cPolonez a-moll: po\u017cegnanie ojczyzny,\u201d or \u201cFarewell to the Fatherland,\u201d\u00a0is\u00a0melancholic but also grand and\u00a0stately, expressing hope for the future as well as nostalgia for the past.<\/p>\n

The next piece, contemporary Bulgarian composer\u2019s \u201cBulgarian Suite for Violin and Strings,\u201d consisted of four movements meant to correspond to the different parts of the day, but also the different stages of a person\u2019s life. The opening movement, \u201cMorning Song,\u201d truly seemed like a translation of sunrise into music; it was followed by \u201cBalkan Dance,\u201d a lively piece with a folk sound evoking the cheerful raucousness of youth. The third movement, \u201cSmall Toccata after Dinner,\u201d had a similar structure but more dissonance, suggesting the complexity and challenges that arise in later life. Finally, the suite concluded with \u201cEvensong,\u201d a contemplative, reflective piece with low, sustained bass notes and a gentle plucking of strings. It was a privilege to hear the world premiere of this suite, and Nadejda Nigrin\u2019s passionate solo truly brought out the composer\u2019s intention to offer us a succinct but powerful musical metaphor for our progression from youth to age.<\/p>\n

The Camerata was then joined by guest soprano Colleen Marcello, whose performance of Henryk Miko\u0142aj G\u00f3recki\u2019s \u201cMamo, nie p\u0142acz, nie\u201d from the \u201cSymphony of Sorrowful Songs\u201d was, for me, one of the\u00a0peak moments\u00a0of the evening. Based on a prayer written by an 18-year old woman in a Gestapo prison in Zakopane, Poland during World War II, this intense piece takes the listener to a deep level of pathos. Marcello truly embodied the despairing, pleading spirit of this prayer to the Virgin Mary in the face of human cruelty, not only with her expressive control of dynamics, but also with her\u00a0stage presence and empathy for the speaker of this piece\u2019s poetic statement. She followed this performance\u00a0with Camerata member Greg Docenko\u2019s string arrangement of \u201cSong to the Moon\u201d from Rusalka<\/em> by Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, and she dedicated the performance to her Czech tutor, whom she told us was giving birth to a baby at that very moment!<\/p>\n

After a short intermission, the Camerata concluded the program with Serenade for String Orchestra op. 6<\/em> by Czech composer (and student of Dvo\u0159\u00e1k) Josef Suk. While this piece was, in my opinion, somewhat anticlimactic after a very intense first half, it offered the audience a gentler sound with a dreamy mood suggesting beams of light and quiet evenings.<\/p>\n

All in all, I appreciated the diversity of the program, the skill of the musicians, and most of all, the passion that all of the performers put into this music, a palpable enthusiasm that brought the audience to its feet again and again. We are very fortunate to have an ensemble like the Camerata in Buffalo, and it was wonderful to hear them perform in what is arguably one of Buffalo\u2019s most transcendently beautiful churches. I hope that we will see more such performances on the East Side in the near future and that we will continue to witness such a supportive response from the community.<\/p>\n

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Corpus Christi weekend began last night with an exquisite concert by the Camerata Di Sant\u2019 Antonio, an acclaimed professional chamber orchestra under the direction of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":18290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Corpus-Christi-615.jpg?fit=3264%2C4912&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1Wcy1-4Kx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18261"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18297,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18261\/revisions\/18297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/broadwayfillmorealive.org\/2.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}