Program Extras

Welcome guests and friends of CYAS to the closing concert of our 5 ^th Season at The Huntington. As we look forward to celebrating this milestone, it’s our privilege to share some of the story behind the music we bring to the stage.

Our program opens with Mendelssohn’s beautiful setting of Psalm 42, the well-known psalm that begins “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” Set for chorus, soprano solo, and interspersed with tenor and basso quintets, we’re joined by the soprano soloist Ida Nicolosi and the Conejo Valley Choral Society.

After intermission, the centerpiece of our program is Sibelius’ 4 ^th Symphony. Normally known for his Finnish patriotic works such as Finlandia and the Karelia Suite that captured the cultural and natural beauty of Finland, his 4 ^th Symphony is a deeply psychological work. Written at a time in his life where he had come to know Schoenberg and Stravinsky, the piece feels as if it belongs to another era entirely. He had also recently endured a serious operation to remove a throat tumor, an experience he had strong doubts that he would survive. The ending of the symphony is a profound experience, beckoning the listener to think “this can’t be the end.”

Our season closes with Strauss’ first tone poem Macbeth, written when he was in his early 20s. Strauss translates one of Shakespeare’s darkest tragedies to music, juxtaposing nobility and beauty with the darkness and violence of Macbeth. The story follows the unraveling of so many lives when dark ambition is whispered into the ears of Macbeth and his wife, which ends in Macbeth’s death and Lady Macbeth taking her own life in madness. One of the most profound moments is Lady Macbeth’s haunting monologue in Act 1, where she laments Macbeth’s kind heart, and hopes for the strength to bury his goodness so that he can take the throne for himself. Strauss goes so far as to print the end of Lady Macbeth’s speech in the orchestral score, speaking of whispering in his ear and criticize him so that he can cease to be affected by any goodness keeping him from taking the throne.

We hope this program is as deep and profound an experience from the audience as it is to us from the stage. Thank you for joining us, and enjoy the program.

PSALM 42

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”  These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation  and my God.

My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.  Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.  By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

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