New Music from the Rome Ghetto

Special thanks to Ethan Braun, audio engineer; Perla Karney, Artistic Director

Dortort Center for Creativity in the Arts at UCLA Hillel; and Richard Braun, Chairman, Jewish Music Commission of Los Angeles

Program notes

This song-cycle for string orchestra, voice, and archival recordings from the 1950s of cantors from the Tempio Maggiore in Rome (made by the ethnomusicologist Leo Levi, to whom I am indebted) explores the ancient music of the Roman Jewish community in a modern voice, combining biblical texts, modern poetry by Italian and American poets, as well as the notorious 1555 Papal Bull by Paul IV, Cum Nimis Absurdum.

The first movement, CUM NIMIS ABSURDUM, begins with a setting of the opening text of the papal bull, with furious, vicious string-writing. The singer begins with sharply dissonant, quartertone pitches, but as the movement progresses, the melody changes to an old Roman Jewish melody for Bayyamim Hahem – sung during Tishà Beàv. Though she sings the Latin text of the bull, the original words to the melody (translated from Hebrew) are:

In those days, at that time, in the first month, that is the month of Nisan, on the fourteenth

day of the month, Menachem, the son of Amiel, shall suddenly come; his goodness shall bloom in the valley of Arbel, and he shall wear on his body garments of revenge.

The second half of the movement shifts in tone from bitterness to sadness, and we hear Echa Ahuvim from the Book of Lamentations sung to a Roman Jewish melody.

Though the second movement is primarily a setting of a Cesare Pavese poem, Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi, we first hear a Leo Levi recording of a Roman cantor singing Psalm 91, a sort of protective “amulet psalm” expressing a God’s unflagging providential protection. The orchestra is playing the same tune, each player on his own time, like a synagogue full of worshippers, together yet alone. Meanwhile, the mezzo-soprano is singing quietly Pavese’s words as a duet to the recording, She finishes the movement with the first stanza of his poem, sung in Hebrew (translated by Leo Levi in 1971).

The third movement is a setting of Jorie Graham’s poem, Loan. It is a torrent of words, and for me, a fragile yet powerful poem of hope and reconciliation that encapsulates ideas of forgiveness and healing.

In the beginning of the fourth movement we hear a Leo Levi recording of a Roman cantor singing the first few lines of Genesis, while the orchestra punctuates the melody with insistent repeated notes – punctuating his words. Only as he is coming to a close does the mezzo-soprano interject with the second stanza of Cesare Pavese’s poem, once again sung in Hebrew to the same melody used for the recitation of Genesis.

The fifth movement begins with a fragment from Psalm 111, psalm of thanksgiving, and it is set with a peaceful, serene Roman melody. The orchestra does not interfere but rather supports and cushions the singer’s words. From a kaleidoscope of whirring string harmonics emerges an archival recording of the sounding of the Shofar at the Tempio Maggiore of Rome in the early 1950s. When it ends, we hear the end of Pavese’s poem, sung to a melody we heard fragmented  in the harsh first movement, now transformed into a graceful, even, serene finish to the cycle.

My gratitude to the American Academy in Rome, Walter Brunetto, archivist at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Dr. Kenneth Stow, Professor of Jewish History, Haifa University; Don Harran, Professor in the Department of Musicology at Hebrew University; Marisa Patulli Trythall; and Yaala Levi, daughter of Leo Levi.

This work is in five movements, played without pause.

- Yotam Haber

Biographies

Yotam Haber, 33, was born in Holland and is a citizen of Israel and the United States. He grew up in Milwaukee, and attended Indiana University, studying with Eugene O’Brienand Claude Baker. He completed a doctorate in composition at Cornell Universityin 2004, studying with Roberto Sierra and Steven Stucky. He spent 2000 in Bologna, Italy, as part of the Course on Use of Live Electronics, taught by Alvise Vidolin(Luigi Nono’s sound engineer) and the composer Adriano Guarnieri. He received a 2002 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Awardfor his chamber orchestra work, In Sleep a King, and one in 2004 for his double clarinet quintet, Blur. In 2004, he also won the second bi-annual ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prizefor the wind ensemble work, Espresso, which was performed at Carnegie Hallby Rutgers Wind Ensemble, directed by William Berz, and consequently recorded for release in the fall of 2006. He has been a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center(studying with George Benjamin and Osvaldo Golijov), the Aspen Music Festival(studies with Chris Rouse and Nicholas Maw), and been in residence at the Aaron Copland House, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. His music has been performed in Germany, Italy, Holland, and across the U.S. Haber currently resides in New York City and Rome and is a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow.

Haber received the 2007-2008 Frederic A. Juilliard/ Walter Damrosch Rome Prize and resided at the American Academy in Romefor a year beginning in September 2007. He has recently been commissioned by architect Peter Zumthor and his wife Annalisato compose two works for premiere in Vals, Switzerland, 2009. From the American Composers Forumand the Jerome Composers Commissioning Program, he received a commission to write for MAYA.

Haber is the newly appointed artistic director of MATA, the non-profit organization that has, for the past thirteen years, been dedicated to commissioning and presenting works by young composers from around the world.

Mezzo-soprano Rose Beattiegrew up in Edgewood, WA and moved to Los Angeles to attend the USC Thornton School of Music, where she received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. She has since completed her DMA degree at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

In 2009, Ms. Beattie sang Hippolyta in Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” as a guest artist at the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program and Santuzza in Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” with Lyric Opera Northwest.  She has been sponsored by the International Festival Society to sing with the TOP Opera in Austria.  Other opera credits include Madame Flora in Menotti’s “The Medium,” Principesa in Puccini’s “Suor Angelica,” Dorabella in Mozart’s “Così fan tutte,” Mercedes in Bizet’s “Carmen” and Fate in the premiere of Ian Krouse’s “Lorca, Child of the Moon.”

As a concert soloist in Los Angeles, Ms. Beattie most recently performed Wagner’s “Wesendonk Lieder,” Jake Heggie’s “Statuesque,” and Berlioz’s “Les Nuits d’Eté.”  Rose’s Los Angeles Master Chorale solos include Ricky Ian Gordon’s “Grapes of Wrath,” and in December 2009, Handel’s “Messiah.”

As a student, Ms. Beattie was chosen as an “All-Star” concerto soloist at UCLA, received a Los Angeles Young Artist of the Future Competition finalist award and a USC Excellence and Leadership Award.  She also taught six UCLA courses, including “The Construction of Women in Western Opera,” an interdisciplinary course she created.

Heralded by the Los Angeles Times as ". . .a shining example of podium authority and musical enlightenment," Neal Stulberg garners consistent international acclaim for performances of clarity, insight and conviction. 

In North America, Mr. Stulberg has led the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, National, New Jersey, New World, Pacific, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Utah and Vancouver symphonies, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, among others.  He is a recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award, America's most coveted conducting prize, and has served as assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Carlo Maria Giulini and music director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Stulberg's European career was launched in September 1997 when he stepped in on short notice to conduct the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a program of Bartok and Kodaly.  He was immediately re-engaged by that orchestra to conduct on the prestigious VARA series in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and has subsequently appeared in Holland with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, North Holland Philharmonic, Gelders Orchestra, Netherlands Ballet Orchestra and Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam.  Engagements in Germany include the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln and the orchestras of Augsburg, Bochum, Dortmund, Herford, Freiburg, Muenster, Nürnberg, Oldenburg and Rostock.  In September 2000 he made his Scandinavian debut with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, and subsequently led performances with the Athens State Orchestra, London Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Barcelona Liceu Orchestra and Norwegian National Opera Orchestra.  

A frequent guest conductor in Asia, Israel and Russia, Mr. Stulberg has appeared with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, Korea Philharmonic (KBS), Taipei Symphony, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Israel Sinfonietta, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and Moscow Chamber Orchestra, among others.  In July 1999 he made his Australian debut, conducting the Queensland, Adelaide and West Australian symphonies and in November 2002 led debut performances with the Mexico City Philharmonic.

Neal Stulberg is also an acclaimed pianist, appearing regularly as recitalist, chamber musician and with major orchestras and at international festivals as pianist/conductor.  His performances of Mozart concertos conducted from the keyboard are uniformly praised for their buoyant virtuosity and interpretive vigor.

Mr. Stulberg has given premieres of works by Steve Reich, Dmitri Smirnov, Joan Tower, Peter Schat and Peter van Onna, led the period-instrument orchestra Philharmonia Baroque in a festival of Mozart orchestral and operatic works,  and has brought to life several silent movies from the early 1900s, including the Russian classic New Babylon, Shostakovich's first film score.  In 2001, he conducted Philip Glass' opera Akhnaten at the Rotterdam Festival and Thomas Adès' Powder Her Face with Long Beach Opera in Los Angeles.  He has recorded for West German Radio, Donemus and the Composers Voice label.

A native of Detroit, Mr. Stulberg is a graduate of Harvard College, the University of Michigan and the Juilliard School.  He studied conducting with Franco Ferrara at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, piano with Leonard Shure, Theodore Lettvin, William Masselos and Mischa Kottler, and viola with Ara Zerounian.  He currently serves as Professor and Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Director of Chamber Music at the Elizabeth Mandell Music Institute of the Crossroads School in Santa Monica.