Philharmonia NW and Kirkland Choral Society: War and Peace
$20 ($15 student/senior)
Ralph Vaughan Williams — Dona Nobis Pacem - "Grant Us Peace"
Glenn Gregg, conductor
Julia Tai, conductor
Philharmonia Northwest
Kirkland Choral Society
Haydn – Mass in Time of War
Vaughan Williams – Dona Nobis Pacem
Join Kirkland Choral Society and Philharmonia Northwest for our third annual collaborative concert of choral-orchestral masterworks in the splendid acoustics of Meany Hall on the University of Washington campus.
War & Peace features two of choral music’s finest paeans to peace in the midst of European turmoil. Haydn’s masterful Missa in Tempore Belli (“Mass in Time of War”) was composed in 1796, when Austria had suffered a string of defeats to the young Napoleon.
Trumpet fanfares and the rumble of timpani are suggestive of the struggle that lay ahead. Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem (“Grant Us Peace”) was composed 140 years later, when Europe was again hurtling into war (later to become World War II). Vaughan Williams had already seen terrible bloodshed as a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War I; Dona Nobis Pacem was his passionate plea for peace, its text drawn primarily from powerfully evocative poetry written by Walt Whitman during another bloody conflict, the American Civil War. Though Dona Nobis Pacem did not alter the course of historical events, this epic work nobly stands today as a caution and reminder to us all.
Come experience with us the soul-stirring power and passion of these two great works, brought to full realization by 80+ voices and full orchestra. Kirkland Choral Society Artistic Director Dr. Glenn Gregg and Philharmonia Northwest Music Director Dr. Julia Tai conduct.