Jun Märkl leads Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Choral Arts Society in Mozart’s Unfinished Masterpiece, Requiem, March 5-8

Program also features Stravinsky’s Apollo

Baltimore, Md. (February 6, 2009) — German conductor Jun Märkl leads the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society in Mozart’s haunting Requiem and Stravinsky’s elegant ballet Apollo on Thursday, March 5 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, March 8 at 3:00 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, on Saturday, March 7 at 8:00 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore and on Friday, March 6, 2009 at 8:00 pm at the Todd Performing Arts Center of Chesapeake College in Wye Mills, Maryland. Requiem also features exceptional singers Christine Brandes, soprano, Susan Platts, Mezzo-soprano, Roger Honeywell, tenor and Timothy Jones, bass. See below for complete program information.

Composed just months before Mozart’s death for an anonymous patron, mystery has long surrounded the composition of his deathbed masterpiece, Requiem. Though still in good health during the summer of 1791, Mozart viewed this commission as a harbinger of his own death. The piece often depressed him and he reportedly told his wife, Constanze, that he felt that he was writing his own requiem. Mozart unsuccessfully tried to complete the hauntingly beautiful score before his ultimate passing in December 1791. His devotees eventually completed the work, their contributions paling in comparison to Mozart’s genius.

The piece gives the BSO a welcome opportunity to partner with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, under the direction of Tom Hall. A previous performance of Mozart’s Requiem earned the ensemble “thunderous applause,” according to La Tribune of France.

Apollo is an abstract or plotless ballet about the Greek god of the sun, who was also associated with intellectual pursuits and music. While Stravinsky eschewed the “neo-classical” moniker his later works earned, Apollo’s balanced form, elegant charm and smaller, strings-only ensemble duly qualify for this description. The work was choreographed to great critical success by the young George Balanchine, who revived the piece frequently in subsequent decades with the New York City Ballet.

Jun Märkl, conductor
The 2008-2009 season marks the fourth year of Jun Märkl’s music directorship of the Orchestre National de Lyon, and his second as principal conductor and artistic director of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony. Last season’s highlights in Lyon included highly acclaimed tours of Japan and major German cities; a live recording of Mahler 3, and a major Stravinsky dance project. His Leipzig tenure was inaugurated last September with a Haydn/Schoenberg concert in the Dresdner Frauenkirche and the release of his first Leipzig recording (Brahms/Schoenberg on Querstand). Recording and touring plans with both ONL and MDR stretch well into the future; in addition to their existing relationships with Querstand, Pentatone and Altus, both orchestras have embarked upon ambitious recording projects with Naxos, for whom Mr. Märkl will record Mendelssohn in Leipzig and Ravel, Debussy and Messiaen in Lyon.

Mr. Märkl has long been a regular guest with leading German orchestras, and in 2008 returns to the Munich Philharmonic and the Radio Sinfonie Orchester Berlin. Before assuming the musical directorship in Lyon, he was a regular guest with the Orchestre de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He has also conducted orchestras in Scandinavia (Helsinki Philharmonic, Danish Radio), the UK (English Chamber Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Scottish National) and the Netherlands (Rotterdam and Netherlands Philharmonic and the Dutch Radio Philharmonic in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw). Every season he conducts the NHK Symphony, with whom in 2006 he recorded the complete Schumann symphonies as part of an ongoing commitment to EXTON Records. He also appears regularly at the Pacific Music Festival and with the Mito Chamber Orchestra. Between 2001 and 2004 he conducted Japan’s first-ever complete Ring cycle with the NHK and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestras.

Baltimore Choral Arts Society—Tom Hall, Music Director
Now in its 43rd season, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society (BCAS) is one of Maryland's premier cultural institutions with Tom Hall serving as music director since 1982. The Symphonic Chorus, Full Chorus, Chamber Chorus and Orchestra perform throughout the mid-Atlantic region, as well as in Washington, D.C., New York and Europe. BCAS programs feature both choral and orchestral music, stage and theater works, dancers, poets, narrators and other artists from a variety of disciplines.

WMAR-TV, the ABC network affiliate in Maryland, features BCAS in an annual hour-long special, Christmas with Choral Arts, broadcast twice each season, winning an Emmy Award in 2006. On local radio, Mr. Hall is arts and culture contributor for WYPR’s Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast and is the host of Choral Arts Classics, a monthly program features BCAS. BCAS concerts are also broadcast on WBJC radio and they have four recordings in current release. BCAS has commissioned and premiered several works by American composers, including Peter Schickele’s Blake's Proverbs and Libby Larsen’s Billy the Kid, commissioned jointly with the King's Singers and the City of Birmingham (England) Chorus. BCAS have also given world premieres and first local performances of works by Morten Lauridsen, Kirke Mechem, Janika Vanderwelde, Samuel Adler, Daniel Pinkham, Robert Sirota, and William Mathias.

Christine Brandes, soprano
Noted for her radiant, crystalline voice and superb musicianship, soprano Christine Brandes brings her committed artistry to repertoire ranging from the 17th century to newly composed works and enjoys an active career in North America and abroad, performing at many of the world’s most distinguished festivals and concert series in programs spanning from recitals and chamber music to oratorio and opera.

In the 2008-2009 season Ms. Brandes’s operatic appearances include return engagements with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare and with the Seattle Opera as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. She also covers the role of Ginevra in Ariodante at San Francisco Opera. Her concert performances include the National Symphony Orchestra in Messiah and with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in Handel’s L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato.

Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano
British-born Canadian mezzo-soprano Susan Platts brings a uniquely rich and wide-ranging voice to concert and recital repertoire for alto and mezzo-soprano. Her 2008-2009 includes return appearances with the Houston Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Pacific Symphony, her Milwaukee Symphony debut, and recitals with the baritone Brett Polegato in New York and Washington, D.C.  

She recently made debuts at Italy's La Scala and San Carlo theatres, and return appearances with Vancouver Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic, and Cleveland Orchestra. Ms. Platts has performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra, CBC Radio Orchestra, L’Orchestre de Paris,American Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival, and LosAngeles and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. She has opened two of America's premier art song series: the Vocal Arts Society at the Kennedy Center, in Washington D.C. and the "Art of the Song" Series at Lincoln Center in New York City and has given acclaimed recitals on the major series of Cleveland, San Francisco, Louisville, and throughout her native Canada.

Roger Honeywell, tenor
In the 2008-2009 season, Mr. Honeywell reprises the role of Captain James Nolan in Doctor Atomic, this time for his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in a new production by Penny Woolcock. Other notable operatic appearances will include Macduff in Macbeth with the Opéra de Montrél, his debut with the Fort Worth Opera as Don Jose in Carmen, and a world premiere of Paul Moravec’s The Letter with the Santa Fe Opera.

Recent career highlights include the American premier of Tan Dun’s Tea a Mirror of Soul with Santa Fe Opera and the world premier of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath at the Minnesota Opera and Utah Symphony and Opera. He has also made role debuts of Erik in the Flying Dutchman for Utah Opera and Don Jose in Carmen with Opera Calgary to great critical acclaim, as well as Rodolfo in La Boheme for the Opera Company of Philadelphia and Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West for the Glimmerglass Opera

In addition to his opera performances Mr. Honeywell has performed concert work with The Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Albany Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Nashville Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Timothy Jones, bass-baritone
A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Timothy Jones is rapidly emerging as one of the leading bass-baritones of his generation. In the 2008–2009 season, Mr. Jones joins the Cleveland Orchestra for performances of Handel’s Messiah and performs with the Houston Symphony, Houston Bach Society, and the University of Houston for a concert of Monteverdi. Festival appearances include the Nava Valley Festival, Skaneateles Chamber Music Festival and the Cactus Pear Festival. In future seasons, he appears with the Houston Symphony, Utah Symphony, and the August Chorale.

Mr. Jones has appeared in productions with the Michigan Opera Theater, the Lake George Opera Festival, Opera Idaho, the Shreveport Opera, Opera Southwest, the Pensacola Opera and the San Antonio Lyric Opera, among others. His repertoire includes leading roles in The Marriage of Figaro, Cosi fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, Falstaff, Macbeth and La Traviata, as well as Porgy and Bess, Four Saints in Three Acts, The Old Maid and the Thief, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Owen Wingrave, Carmen, La Damnation de Faust, Romeo et Juliette, Die Zauberflöte, Hansel and Gretel, and Die Fledermaus.

An enthusiastic advocate of contemporary composers, Mr. Jones has commissioned and premiered numerous compositions, and has had works composed for him by Robert Avalon, James Balentine, Derek Bermel, Laura Carmichael, John Vasconcelos Costa, Ellwood Derr, Jeffrey Goldberg, David Heuser, Jeffrey Nytch, Doug Opel, and Joe Stuessy.

COMPLETE PROGRAM INFORMATION
Classical Concert Series: Mozart's Requiem
Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.—Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (JMSH)
Friday, March 6, 2009 at 8:00 pm—Todd Performing Arts Center, Chesapeake College, Wye Mills, MD
Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.—The Music Center at Strathmore
Sunday, March 8, 2009 at 3:00 p.m.—JMSH

Jun Märkl, conductor
Baltimore Choral Arts Society—Tom Hall, Music Director
Christine Brandes, soprano
Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano
Roger Honeywell, tenor
Timothy Jones, bass-baritone

Stravinsky: Apollo ‡
Mozart: Requiem

‡Denotes a BSO premiere

Tickets for the concert at Chesapeake College are $35 for adults and $10 for students and are available at the Chesapeake College box office at 410-827-5867.

Tickets for the concerts at Strathmore and JMSH range from $25 to $80, and are available through the BSO Ticket Office, 877.BSO.1444, 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org.  

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