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News from PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Office of Communications
Stanhope Hall
Princeton, New Jersey 08544-5264
Telephone 609-258-3601; Fax 609-258-1301
March 29, 2002
CONTACT: Ruta Smithson (609) 258-3763
Choral Music to Complement Religious Paintings by van
Dyck and Titian at Princeton University Art Museum
Concert Date: Sunday April 21, 2002
PRINCETON, NJ -- The Princeton Singers, under the
direction of Artistic Director Steven Sametz, will present a
rich variety of choral music at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 21,
2002, at the Princeton University Art Museum.
The program, presented in conjunction with the museum's
special exhibition "Anthony van Dyck: Ecce Homo and
The Mocking of Christ," will reflect the music of the
early seventeenth century, when Van Dyck created his
masterpieces, as well as demonstrating The Singers'
stylistic flexibility and range of repertoire.
Two auxiliary exhibitions, "In the Mirror of Christ's
Passion: In Search of Artistry and Spirituality" and
"Reflections of the Passion: Selected Works from the
Princeton University Art Museum," have been organized in
conjunction with the Van Dyck exhibition. All will be on
view through June 9, 2002.
The choral music program will open with the sparkling
textures of Heinrich Schütz's Cantate Domino.
Stepping back from the Baroque into the Renaissance, the
choir will present Josquin's poignant Deploration sur la
mort de Ockeghem, a lament on the death of his teacher
Johannes Ockeghem. A very different side of Schütz's
compositional style is heard in his cycle of five Passion
motets. Written during the Thirty Years' War, these austere
and complex works seem to embody not only the suffering
inherent in their texts, but in the circumstances of their
composition. Composed in the same decade as the Van Dyck
masterpieces on exhibition, the motets were chosen to
present an intensely beautiful musical interpretation of the
Passion presented visually in Van Dyck's works.
The program spans more recent centuries as well: sure to
be a pleasant surprise to many is the setting of Singet
dem Herrn by Hugo Distler, an organist whose choral
compositions change color and character much as a skillful
organist changes
registrations within a work. Contemporary compositions in
several styles also will be
heard: Libby Larsen's Sweet and Sour Nursery Rhymes
and a preview performance of Steven Sametz's new work
Never More Will the Wind.
The Princeton Singers have earned a reputation as one of
the nation's finest choral
ensembles in the eighteen years since the choir's inception.
Now in their fourth season
under the direction of Steven Sametz, they continue to widen
their stylistic range. The
group's repertoire of sacred and secular music spans a wide
cross-section of the choral
tradition, maintaining an emphasis on unaccompanied singing.
The style that has become
the choir's hallmark stresses purity of sound and tuning in
a rich vocal
palette of color and tone, allowing the ensemble to adapt to
a variety of musical
styles.
In the past three seasons, the Singers have established a
tradition of collaboration,
appearing with the Resident Choir of the American Boychoir
School and with Westminster Choir College's Schola Cantorum.
In June, the Princeton Singers and the vocal ensemble
Chanticleer presented the joint prémière of a
new Sametz work commissioned by the Princeton Singers for
these two ensembles. In 1988, 1994, and 1996, the group
toured England, where they were Choir-in-Residence at St.
Paul's Cathedral and at Westminster Abbey, and sang to
capacity audiences at the internationally renowned Three
Choirs Festival and in the Chapel of King's College,
Cambridge. The Singers have been featured performers at the
centennial convention of the American Guild of Organists,
and were twice the guest celebrity choir at national
conventions of the Association of Anglican Musicians. They
have appeared on National Public Radio's "Performance Today"
and "With Heart and Voice" and have broadcast for the BBC.
In the past two years, the choir has added three recordings
to its discography: "Reincarnations," "Christmas with The
Princeton Singers," and "Old, New, Borrowed, Blues," a
collection of folk music from around the world.
During the summer of 2002, the Mocking of Christ
and Ecce Homo will be shown with the Titian Ecce
Homo at the National Gallery of Ireland,. The three
paintings are then scheduled to travel to the Courtauld
Gallery, London, to be exhibited with a related oil sketch
on paper by Van Dyck that is too fragile to travel. The
Barber Institute will be the final venue for the fully
reconstituted exhibition in the fall of 2002. Princeton is
thus the only American venue for the exhibition which is
made possible through support from the Friends of Princeton
University Art Museum.
Related Exhibitions
March 9 - June 9, 2002
"In the Mirror of Christ's Passion: In Search of
Artistry and Spirituality"
March 9 - June 9, 2002
"Reflections of the Passion: Selected Works from the
Princeton University Art Museum"
Related Events
April 5, 12:30 p.m., and April 7, 3:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: "Titian, Van Dyck, and the Body of
Christ"
Betsy Rosasco, associate curator of Later Western art
Princeton University Art Museum
April 12
Film: Martin Scorsese, The Last Temptation of
Christ
Introduced by P. Adams Sitney, professor, Visual Arts
Program
7:00 p.m., James Stewart Theater, 185 Nassau Street
Reception to follow, Lucas Gallery
April 19
Gallery Talk: "Reflections of the Passion in the Art of
the Late Middle Ages"
Victoria S. Reed, Friends curatorial research associate
12:30 p.m., Princeton University Art Museum
April 19
Film: Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel According to
Matthew
Introduced by Jeffrey L. Stout, professor, Department of
Religious Studies
7:00 p.m., James Stewart Theater, 185 Nassau Street
April 21
Music: Princeton Singers in Concert
Steven Sametz, artistic director
3:00 p.m., Mary Ellen Bowen Gallery
Princeton University Art Museum
April 23
Lecture: "Christ's Passion in Northern European Art of
the Late Middle Ages"
James Marrow, professor emeritus, Department of Art and
Archaeology
4:30 p.m., McCormick 101
Reception to follow in the museum
April 26
Film: Luis Buñuel, Viridiana
Introduced by Michael Wood, chairman, Department of
English
7:00 p.m., James Stewart Theater, 185 Nassau Street
April 26, 12:30 p.m., and April 28, 3:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: "The Mirror of Christ's Passion"
Todor Todorov, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Art and
Archaeology
Princeton University Art Museum
The art museum is open to the public without charge. Free
highlights tours of the collection are given every Saturday
at 2:00 p.m. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday
from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 1:00 to 5:00
p.m. It is closed on Monday and major holidays. The museum
shop closes at 5:00 p.m. The museum is located in the middle
of the Princeton University campus. Picasso's large
sculpture Head of a Woman stands in front. For
further information, please call (609) 258-3788.
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