SUNY Potsdam

This year’s performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem by Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra continues a long tradition of performing works by 20th century composers. Crane Chorus founder Helen M. Hosmer had a life-long interest in new choral works, and it is only fitting that this presentation begin with an excerpt from the oldest surviving recording by Crane Chorus – Dr. Hosmer conducting the final movement from Howard Hanson’s Drum Taps, recorded in 1938 on 16-inch lacquer discs. Excerpts from other performances featured in this presentation will include the world premiere of Norman Dello Joio’s A Psalm of David (Hosmer,1951), Hindemith’s Apparebit repentina dies (Robert Shaw, Carnegie Hall, 1952), Lili Boulanger’s Vieille prière bouddhique (Nadia Boulanger, 1958), the Western Hemisphere premiere of A. Adnan Saygun’s Yunus Emre (Leopold Stokowski, United Nations, 1958), Lukas Foss’s The Fragments of Archilochos (Foss, 1965), the first full-scale North American performance of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Dies Irae (Brock McElheran, 1969), and the world premiere of William Schuman’s On Freedom’s Ground (Zubin Mehta, Avery Fisher Hall, 1986). The presentation will conclude with an excerpt from Robert Shaw’s performance of Britten’s War Requiem from the 1966 Spring Festival, the only other occasion on which this work was performed by Crane Chorus. All recordings have been recently transferred and restored by Gary Galo from sources held in The Crane School of Music Archives.