Event
Transfigured Shakespeare
Presented by the Fox Valley Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, concert highlights include the world premiere of a new brass and organ arrangement of Arnold Schoenberg’s sublime, late-Romantic tone poem Transfigured Night. In a first-time collaboration, the Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble and St. Charles Singers professional chamber choir perform Love Songs (Shakespeare), a recent work based on four of William Shakespeare’s love poems. They’ll be joined by narrator Kevin Gudahl, a Joseph Jefferson award-winning actor whose stage credits include more than 30 productions with Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
“The Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble plays with warmth, elegance, and panache,” says Fanfare magazine. “[They] are perfect companions for the music lover in need of calming nourishment.”
Chicago Tribune classical music critic John von Rhein has described the St. Charles Singers as “splendidly disciplined, beautifully responsive” and proclaimed, “Chamber chorus singing doesn’t get much better than this.”
Program
Bedřich Smetana, arr. Craig Garner: Fanfares for Shakespeare’s Richard III
Herbert Howells: Magnificat “Collegium Regale”
John Rutter Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day, Sonnet XVIII
Arnold Schoenberg, arr. Craig Garner: Transfigured Night(Verklärte Nacht)
Gustav Holst: I Love My Love/Song Without Words
Benjamin Britten: Hymn to St. Cecilia
Peter Meechan: Love Songs (Shakespeare)
Performers
Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble,
Stephen Squires, conductor
St. Charles Singers,
Jeffrey Hunt, choirmaster
Kevin Gudahl, narrator