The final hour of this program contain music in honor of Robert Burns, whose birthday on January 25 is a day of pride for the Scottish. Also comemorated is the anniversary of the birth of composer Jerome Kern.
Fanfare I (CD: Praise the Lord) (Gerre Hancock, organ) Frederick Delius: A song before sunrise (CD: Sir Thomas Beecham (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Conducts Delius) Sir Thomas Beecham) Toru Takemitsu: To the edge of dream (CD: Edge of Dream) (Julian Bream, guitar; City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Simon Rattle) Édouard Lalo: Rhapsodie pour orchestre (CD: Ernest (Orchestre de la Suisse Ansermet, Vol. 10) Romande; Ernest Ansermet) Frédéric Chopin: Étude, Op. 25, No. 5 (CD: Rubinstein: (Artur Rubinstein) The Last Recital for Israel) Frédéric Chopin: Étude, Op. 10, No. 4 (CD: Rubinstein: (Artur Rubinstein) The Last Recital for Israel) Ralph Vaughan Williams: The lark ascending (CD: Ralph Vaughan (Hugh Bean, violin; Philharmonia Williams: The Lark Orchestra; Sir Adrian Boult) Ascending, etc.)
Igor Stravinsky: The dove descending (CD: The Worlds Above) (The Choir of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; John Fenstermaker) Carlo Gesualdo: Tres Sacrae Cantiones (CD: Stravinsky (Choir of Trinity College, and Gesualdo: Cambridge; Richard Marlow) Choral Works) Conrad Susa: Nunc dimittis ("St. Thomas") (CD: Praise the Lord) (Choir of St. Thomas Church [New York]; Gerre Hancock) Edward C. Bairstow: Let all mortal flesh keep silence (CD: The Worlds Above) (The Choir of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; John Fenstermaker) John Tavener: Alleluia (CD: Diana, (Choir of Westminster Princess of Wales) Abbey; Martin Neary) Heinz Ignaz Franz Biber: Sonata No. 8 in A (CD: Sonaten 1681 (II)) (Sanssouci-Ensemble Hamburg) Morten Lauridsen: Mid-winter songs on poems by Robert Graves (Choral Cross-Ties; Bruce Browne)
Louis Marchand: Grand jeu en ut majeur (CD: L'Orgue Français) (Pierre Bardon, organ) Camille Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila Bacchanale (Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Colin Davis) Auld Lang Syne (CD: Between the Late (Susan Rode Morris, soprano; and Early: Songs of Phebe Craig, harpsichord) Robert Burns) McPherson's lament (CD: Between the Late (Phebe Craig, harpsichord) and Early: Songs of Robert Burns) Green grow the rashes (CD: Among the Lasses: (Susan Rode Morris, soprano; Songs of Robert Burns) Phebe Craig, harpsichord) Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields: I (CD: Can't Help won't dance But Singing) (Voices of Ascension; Dennis Keene) Jerome Kern: Pick yourself up (CD: Can't Help (Voices of Ascension; Dennis Keene) But Singing) Jerome Kern: A fine romance (CD: Can't Help (Voices of Ascension; Dennis Keene) But Singing) Jerome Kern: Long ago (and far away) (CD: Can't Help (Voices of Ascension; Dennis Keene) But Singing) Hammerstein & Kern: Old Man River (CD: The Legendary (Paul Robeson) Moscow Concert) Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (arr. Cameron): O for the (CD: Golden Favorites wings of a dove from St. Paul's (Mark Higgins, treble; Ian Cathedral) Cameron's Horns-a-plenty)
Samson's adversaries, the Philistines had as a central notion in their religion the idea that the earth, represented by Ashtoreth (aka Astarte), was the consort of Baal, and that the earth was fruitful through the mating of these gods. Hence, part of their religious practice was the emulation of this liason.
In the Saint-Saens opera, the scene opens at the Philistine's Temple of Dagon at sunrise, and the heathens gathered there start to stir, singing, "Let us prolong our feast and pursue love in spite of the dawn." Which is precisely what they do.
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