Gordon Getty (1933) Joan and the Bells Lisa Delan, soprano Vladimir Chernov, baritone Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Stockholm Russian National Orchestra Alexander Vedernikov, conductor Serge Prokofiev (1891-1953) Romeo and Juliet Russian National Orchestra Alexander Vedernikov, conductor PTC 5186 017 DSD recorded Download English, German and French libretto in PDF format

 

Composer’s notes on Joan and the Bells
1429 was the 92nd year of the Hundred Years’ War. Three generations of French had been bloodied in the disasters of Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt. In the spring of that year an illiterate peasant girl told first the Governor of her region, and then the Dauphin, that she had been chosen by God to drive the English back to their shores. She was given a few soldiers and sent to join the defense of Orleans. She led the French army to victory. Later in that year she broke the English strongholds along the Loire, and led the Dauphin through Burgundian territory to his coronation at Rheims.
Soon she had proved too warlike and independent for the new king’s comfort. In 1430 she attacked Burgundian Paris, without result, after he had declared a truce. When she was captured in battle a few months later he did not ransom her, although he could have done so easily under the customs of the time. She was sold to the Duke of Burgundy, ans tried by the Church for heresy and witchcraft at Rouen in 1431. Pierre Cauchon, the Bishop of Beauvais, led the prosecution. She renounced her visions under a promise that her life would be spared, and recanted on learning that the terms included life imprisonment on bread and water. She was now trapped as a relapsed heretic, and was burned at the stake. She was about nineteen years old.
Myth can add little to such a history. Like other writers, even so, I have cast Joan’s story in a myth to suit my telling. Joan and the Bells keeps to some facts and makes up others. Thus Domrémy is given a Lourdes-like setting for picturesqueness alone. It is true meanwhile that church bells brought Joan’s visions and voices, but not that any were silenced at her trial.
There is also no reason to suppose that Cauchon was compassionate in the end. He is made so here to mitigate Church-bashing, to give the benefit of the doubt to little known historical figures, and to keep the focus on Joan. Her story need no villains. It is the hero, not the saint, who is measured by the size of the dragon slain. The saint is measured by the promise kept, by the beauty of the vision, and by the straightness of the path.
Schiller and Mark Twain, and Verdi and Tchaikovsky, made Joan wise beyond her years. Indeed she was. The record of her trial, which was meticulous by the fine-printing standards of the time, shows a defendant af acumen and poise. People grew up fast in her age of war and freebooters and the Black Death. It was the genius of Shaw that inverted this safe literary tradition and brought out the spunky teenager in Joan. Jean Anouilh went farther, in The Lark, and gave her the simplicity of preadolescence. Joan and the Bells owes much to these masters, particularly the second, and takes the same poetic license. It is a tale of a child’s faith in an age without childhood, of a valor undeflected, and of the redemption these qualities commend.

 

United in death
1936 – the year in which Sergei Prokofiev composed two of his three Romeo and Juliet Suites. Following his return from exile to the Soviet Union in the middle of the 1930‘s, Prokofiev concentrated mainly on his full-length ballet Romeo and Juliet, on which he had worked with great enthusiasm during the summer and autumn of 1935 after receiving a commission from the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. (His enthusiasm for ballet music had clearly revealed itself during his time in Paris, during which he composed a number of ballets for Sergei Diaghilev‘s famous Ballets Russes.) The Ensemble was certainly disappointed after first hearing it played through and also during rehearsals; they considered Prokofiev‘s complicated rhythmic structures to be "undanceable" and the unexpected happy ending, in which Julia wakes up in time to prevent Romeo from committing suicide, to be inappropriate. The Bolshoi Theatre finally dropped the production. But Prokofiev was so convinced of the quality of his work – in which his melodic talent, refined intellect and experience in writing film-music are interwoven in an artistic manner – that he wrote two Concert Suites as a kind of propaganda for his own compositions.
And thus the seven-part Suite No. 2, Op. 64b on this recording was already performed in 1937, a year before the première of the ballet took place in Brünn. The opening movement "Montagues and Capulets" is probably the best-known part of the ballet and presents the proud and aggressive dance of the knights at the Capulet ball. In a lyrical interlude, Romeo first sees Juliet. In "Juliet, the young girl", two flutes play Juliet‘s theme and reveal her passionate nature. Towards the end of the movement, the harp and saxophone indicate that Juliet‘s childlike naturalness does not stand a chance in the adult world. "Friar Laurence" awaits the lovers in the chapel to the accompaniment of a solemn theme played by the tuba and bassoon, which then gives way to a warm melody in the cello. The following "Dance" is a kind of interlude for five couples in the market place. "Romeo at Juliet‘s before the parting" announces the dramatic finale and depicts the melancholy theme of the farewell in soaring sounds. The "Dance of the Antilles girls" accompanies the bridesmaids in their dance around the sleeping Juliet. Extended and highly expressive variations on the death theme accompany "Romeo at Juliet‘s grave", before the Suite closes in a restrained manner in a simple C-major key. The lovers are united in death.

Gordon Getty, composer
Born in Los Angeles in 1933, Gordon Getty has lived in San Francisco since 1945. He graduated from the University of San Francisco in 1956 with a B.S. degree in English literature, having meanwhile studied piano with the late Robert Vetleson and voice with Easton Kent. Following six months of active duty in the army and four years in family businesses, he studied music theory at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.\
Today, Getty is a frequent visiting composer at colleges and universities across the country and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Maryland, Pepperdine University, the University of California San Francisco, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Mannes College of Music.
His works includes Plump Jack which has a number of performances as a work in progress and in semi-staged concert versions, by such distinguished orchestras as the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the BBC Philharmonic in London, among others.
Concert performances by the late Kaaren Erickson and others of Getty's Emily Dickinson song cycle, The White Election, were highly praised, presented by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Morgan Library and Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Etherredge Center in Aiken, S.C., Herbst Theater in San Francisco, Harvard, Yale, the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Barbara, the University of Texas at Austin, Indiana Opera Theater, and the Kennedy Center in Washington.
Victorian Scenes, the composer's choral settings of poems by Tennyson and Housman, and a setting for men's voices of Poe's Annabel Lee, had their first performance by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Sinfonia in the Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles Music Center.
Three Waltzes for Piano and Orchestra - Tiefer und Tiefer, Madeline, and Ehemals were performed by André Previn and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In 1991, orchestral arrangements of the Three Waltzes were performed both at Tanglewood under the baton of Zuohang Chen, and by the California Symphony conducted by Barry Jekowsky.
Getty's chamber works include Ewig Du, The Fiddler of Ballykeel, and Ehemels (scored for both string quartet and string chamber orchestra). Five short piano pieces published by Belwin in 1954 are now available as Homework Suite. Three Diatonic Waltzes, Tiefer und Tiefer, Madeline, Ehemels, Waltz of the Ancestors, Gothic Waltz, Zwei Ländler, First Adventure and The Fiddler of Ballykeel round out his compositions for piano. The composer has also penned new settings of the traditional Welsh folk songs Welcome Robin, Kind Old Man, and All Through the Night.
Rork Music now publishes all works by Gordon Getty, Theodore Presser Company, distributor.

 

 

LISA DELAN
Soprano Lisa Delan enjoys an international career that has taken her to prominent stages and concert halls throughout the world. A graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, she is recognized for her versatility and breadth of accomplishment in opera, song and recording.
In Russia, Ms. Delan appeared with the Russian National Orchestra at the Moscow Conservatory and at the Rachmaninoff Festival in Novgorad, where she sang the composer's "Vocalise". She was the only American invited to perform at the American Embassy in Moscow as part of the 1995 Russian-American Cultural Festival. The concert was televised nationally in Russia.
Ms. Delan's interpretive and technical skill in art song brought her to the finals of the prestigious Naumburg International Vocal Competition in Concert Repertoire (1999). She has worked extensively with the music of living composers, including Norman Dello Joio, Jake Heggie, William Bolcom, Andrew Imbrie, David Garner, and Gordon Getty. She has portrayed the poetess Emily Dickinson in Getty's song cycle "The White Election" and the characters Boy and Clarence in his opera "Plump Jack". She sang the title role in the 1998 world premiere of Getty’s critically acclaimed cantata "Joan and the Bells", which she has since performed at Lincoln Center in New York and at prominent venues in Madrid, San Francisco and Bourges (France), among others.
Her recital repertoire encompasses Rachmaninoff, including his seldom performed Opus 38 songs for high soprano, R. Strauss, Poulenc, Wolf, Bellini, Canteloube, Arne and Scarlatti, as well as Ives, Copland, Niles and Gershwin.

Vladimir Chernov
Vladimir Chernov was born in Krasnodar. Graduated from Moscow conservatoire. Laureate of the different international competitions.
Vladimir Chernov has appeared in virtually all the major opera houses in the world including San Francisco Opera, Monnaie, Lyric Opera of Chicago, La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper, Teatro Colon, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Covent Garden and Vienna State Opera.
Vladimir Chernov's repertoire centers around many of the bel canto and Verdi roles as well as the Russian repertoire including Robert in "Iolanta", Yeletsky in "Pique Dame" and title role in "Eugene Onegin".
He is also an active recital artist having appeared at the many of the world's premier recital venues including the Wigmore Hall, New York's Lincoln Center, Vienna Konzerthaus and others.

“Soprano Lisa Delan evocatively recreates the role of Joan in a moving account that goes some way to prove you can’t beat a good old fashioned burning at the stake to get the adrenalin flowing”.
HiFi+magazine

"With his 21-minute cantata Joan and the Bells, Gordon Getty has created a highly dramatic masterwork. [The music] wraps around, enhances, and accents the strong text. [In the third part] the firm, excellent chorus… turns the scene of the burning into a highly poetic, exhilarating, triumphal climax."
American Record Guide (December 2003)

"Gordon Getty has produced one of the most dramatic, exciting and tautly constructed tone poems it has been my pleasure to hear for a long time. The forces are large as befits the subject and the listener is gathered up and swept into the turmoil of Joan's final trial and execution for which Getty emphasises her inner tension and the pride of her faith in her voices, his scoring for chorus particularly effective in the final pages when the Saints urge Joan's spirit to join them. Joan's soliloquy as she awaits her execution is dramatically and movingly sung by Lisa Delan, whom I would like to hear on the opera stage, while Vladimir Chernov provides a sinister Prosecutor. The Russian National Orchestra under Alexander Vedernikov are on good form and project Getty's virile score with enthusiasm. The recording quality is excellent."
Musical Opinion (November 2003)

"...a highly effective work, well written for the voices, ably orchestrated, thematically coherent, dramatically persuasive. The arresting, driving opening bars hurl us into the final moments of the trial of Joan of Arc... Joan and the Bells is a fully engaging cantata, with its shimmering orchestration and vocal lines that are actually singable... Getty is trained to do what he does well. The compelling performance features an appropriately girlish Lisa Delan in the soprano part, with firm baritone Vladimir Chernov not letting his Russian accent get in the way of the English text, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir reminding us how effortlessly fine Swedish choirs can be, and Alexander Vedernikov and the Russian National Orchestra providing dynamic support. Joan and the Bells is a compelling cantata that gets better with each audition. Set aside your various prejudices, and buy this disc for the Getty. "
Fanfare (November 2003)

"Gordon Getty's cantata Joan and the Bells is a distinctive and musically appealing version of the Joan of Arc story, beginning with her trial for heresy and witchcraft, and building to a startling climax as she faces death at the stake... Joan and the Bells, in three sections, thrusts us right into the trial with a driving, arresting beginning in triplet time. Cauchon, her prosecutor, is sung by Vladimir Chernov...with menace and theatrical power. The second section, an eight-minute monologue for Joan... displays thematic unity and a consistent melodiousness. [Joan and the Bells] is dramatically assured, structurally sound, and likable without being obvious...eminently recommendable."
Opera News (October 2003)

"Getty’s music is fluent and well orchestrated, and there are some very effective moments. It is, in fact, a skillfully written, very traditional kind of oratorio. [It] is beautifully sung by Lisa Delan, and both the baritone, Vladimir Chernov, and the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir also deserve the highest praise... Vedernikov is clearly a man to watch: he knows exactly how to pace the music and maintain the tension, and to draw every possible shade of colour from the orchestra, which is magnificently recorded."
International Record Review (September 2003)

"A powerful work given a refreshingly unpretentious performance."
Gramophone (September 2003)

"This [CD] was quite a surprise to me... the words of the two excellent soloists and chorus [are] intelligible and very moving. The climax of the work comes when [Joan of Arc] is burned at the stake and in spite of the court having silenced any churchbells, loud bells from heaven are heard. The recording was made at a live concert in France and this section benefits tremendously from the realistic envelopment of the tumultous pealing bells, which has a vertical dimension to it even though height channels are not being used. Talk about a big finish!"
Audiophile Audition (September 2003)

"Getty's cantata offers compelling music in a shapely and attractive format. It's certainly worth hearing... The two outer movements depict Joan's judgment and martyrdom (leading to a very powerful closing "transfiguration"), while the lovely central picture of the heroine making her peace with God offers arguably the most compelling music of all--by degrees intimate and moving. The performance recorded here features the excellent Eric Ericson Chamber Choir... Soprano Lisa Delan has the right instincts for the title role as well as a sweetly innocent timbre... As Joan's principal accuser, baritone Vladimir Chernov sounds aptly weighty and judgmental... Alexander Vedernikov and the Russian National Orchestra give [a] very committed performance of the score, and certainly Gordon Getty's use of traditional harmony and his Romantic approach plays to the strengths of all concerned."
ClassicsToday.com (August 2003)

"Gordon Getty's Joan and the Bells, dealing as it does with the passion of Joan of Arc, has stirring subject matter to begin with, and the composer gives it a compelling treatment.... Lisa Delan gives a tender portrait of the maid in her cell, repentant for having forsaken her spiritual "voices" at the time of her trial. Vladimir Chernov is effective as Cauchon, her judge... Getty's choral and orchestral writing are rich and vivid, especially in the final scene, in which the voices of the crowd relay to us a vision of Joan's apotheosis and the final glorious triumph of her cause. "
Classik Review (August 2003)

"Getty's style in Joan and the Bells is not unlike Britten's, but the clarity and thoughtful pacing makes it his own, an effective and pleasing work. [The music] is effective, nicely varied and scored [and] evocative... Delan sang Joan handsomely, her soprano as true and steady as the character would want... Chernov's singing is firm and strong."
San Francisco Classical Voice (July 2003)

"... a rising dramatic tension, a brilliant sonic resolution and a genuine emotional impact... Soprano Lisa Delan sings beautifully and with absorbing drama."
MusicWeb (June 2003)