Concerts In The Village – Handel: L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
-featuring soprano soloist Robin Steitz
Sunday, April 30, 2:30pm
Kinderhook Reformed Church
21 Broad St.
Kinderhook, NY 12106
For more information: www.concertsinthevillage.org
At 2:30pm on Sunday, April 30th in Kinderhook Reformed Church, Concerts in the Village offers a rare performance of Handel’s brilliant oratorio-ode L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato – “The Cheerful, the Thoughtful, and the Moderate Man.” As originally, the libretto is in English. Performing will be the Broad Street Chorale, the Broad Street Orchestra and three outstanding soloists, in all over fifty musicians. CITV Artistic Director David Smith will conduct.
Smith comments, “Inspired by poetry of the famous 17th-century writer John Milton, in an incredible two-week burst of creativity Handel composed a work of remarkable musical variety. It is in effect a drama of perpetually contrasting moods and attitudes towards life. Throughout all is carefully countered: mirth with sadness, youth with age, honor with disgrace, abandon with deliberateness, pastoral bliss with urban struggle . . . In many ways a kind of mapping of life itself, well beyond mere description. I know of nothing else like it in all of Handel’s work. Its uniqueness is striking. And at its heart the beauty of this music, its lyrical vocal writing and instrumental color, is not easily forgotten.”
Burmese-American soprano Robin Steitz, so enthusiastically received in fall 2021, returns to CITV from recent commitments both in the U.S. and in Europe. In 2018 and 2019 she was honored as a Tanglewood Voice Fellow. Ms. Steitz’s many appearances embrace recitals, concerts and opera. A graduate of Reed College and the Eastman School of Music, in 2019 she was a winner of the Buffalo/Toronto District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Hers is a lyric coloratura voice of remarkable drama and expressive delivery.
Tenor Maximillian Jansen has enjoyed a number of appearances with CITV, most recently this past November as Uriel in Haydn’s Creation. Other performances for CITV include the Mass in B minor of Bach (2019), the title role of Acis in Handel’s Acis and Galatea (2020), and Mozart’s demanding concert aria Misero! O sogno (2020). A graduate of the Bard Vocal Arts Program, this summer Jansen appears with Saratoga Opera in Steven Lutvak’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.
A native of New York City, baritone Noah Kleinberg is making his CITV debut. Currently a student of Donna Gill in the Juilliard School Evening Division, past performances include Mozart scenes with Opera Lucca, a new one-act opera Maggie Now with the Juilliard Opera Lab, and Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro with the Opera Theater of Yale College. Noah holds a B.A. in music from Yale University. When not singing, Noah also studies acting at HB Studio in New York.
To conclude CITV’s 2022-2023 Season, two concerts follow in May: On the 13th well-known clarinetist Paul Green, joined by violinist Elizabeth Silver and pianist Doris Stevenson, performs Debussy, Brahms, Poulenc and Menotti. On the 21st the Broad Street Chamber Players are joined by pianist Bethany Pietroniro in works for piano and winds by Mozart, Louise Farrenc and Poulenc.
Suggested contribution $ 20, with students and children free.