Walton: The Wise Virgins Suite
  (from music of J. S. Bach)
Panufnik: Sinfonia Sacra
Bruckner: Te Deum
Dvorák: Te Deum
  Mendelssohn Chorale, Martha Bein,   Conductor

Soli Deo Gloria: writing these words at the end of every new work, Bach humbly gave all glory to God. Music has been used to lead worship, express faith, celebrate religious occasions and inspire listeners.

British composer William Walton combined some of J. S. Bach’s best-known sacred works into a serenely beautiful ballet score. Andrzej Panufnik’s “sacred symphony” celebrates his native Poland’s millennium of Christianity with stirring trumpet fanfares and a thousand-year-old hymn, still sung today, that helped sustain their faith through trials and tribulations. With a spine-tingling blaze of brass and timpani and choral shouts of “Hallelujah,” Anton Bruckner is true to Psalm 150’s command to “praise the Lord with the sound of trumpet.” From the breath-taking, majestic power of this work the concert closes with Antonin Dvorák’s exuberant Te Deum, dancing with the joyful cadences of Czech folk music.

Program Notes