Chorus will open the 2003 festival with a lesser-known bit of Handel.

Byline: Fred Crafts The Register-Guard

If ever there was a human composing machine, it was George Frideric Handel. During his 74 years, Handel wrote more than 40 operas, 100 cantatas, 20 chamber duets, six concerti grossi and numerous harpsichord suites, organ concertos and sonatas for chamber groups.

He also wrote 25 oratorios (music dramas to be played in the oratory, or meeting room, of a religious association), the most notable of which is "Messiah," with its hit "Hallelujah Chorus."

To open the 2003 Oregon Bach Festival on Friday, artistic director and conductor Helmuth Riling has unearthed a rarely performed gem buried in Handel's massive output, namely the 1751 oratorio "Jephtha."

CHORAL MUSIC

" `Jephtha' ranks as one of the very best (of Handel's oratorios)," Rilling says. "It's a very moving story, and Handel's music to it is great, with wonderful highlights and very special arias and accompanying recitativos."

"Jephtha" is based on an Old Testament story. In Judges, chapter 11, Jephtha is called to lead the Israelites against the Ammonites.

During the battle, he promises Jehovah that he will, if victorious, sacrifice the first person to greet him on his return. That person turns out to be his daughter.

The festival forces will be doing "Jephtha" for the first time, but Rilling himself conducted it recently in Europe, with tenor James Taylor singing the title role. He will also sing it here.

"He is fantastic with this," Rilling says. "It has very lyric moments in a very high range, and a lot of pianissimos, and he can do that beautifully. But he has also a strong and dramatic voice, and these parts the oratorio has, too."

Other soloists will be soprano Elizabeth Keusch, who sang here last year in Tan Dun's "Water Passion According to Saint Matthew"; alto Anke Vondung of Dresden, Germany, who sang J.S. Bach's "Saint Matthew Passion" with Rilling recently; countertenor Matthew White, who has sung in operas at the Houston Grand Opera, Toronto's Opera Atelier and Glyndebourne; and bass Sanford Sylvan, who won Grammy and Emmy awards for his role in John Adams' opera ``Nixon in China.''

Brahms `German Requiem,'

to honor Hult's 20th year

On July 6, Rilling will conduct "A German Requiem" by Johannes Brahms with soloists Keusch and Sylvan and the festival chorus and orchestra.

Although the piece's origin is unclear, Brahms appears to have come to it through the deaths of Robert Schuman in 1856 and his own mother in 1865. It was completed in 1866.

Working from Luther's German translation of the Bible, Brahms called the work "A German Requiem" because the text is in German rather than Latin. It is a work that follows no specific creed, and one whose popularity was so immense that it allowed Brahms to give up his other work and devote himself solely to composing.

This piece was performed soon after the Hult Center opened, and the festival is bringing it back in connection with the center's 20th anniversary season.

Also on the program is Alban Berg's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, itself also a requiem. Berg wrote the piece in memory of Manon Gropius, 18-year-old daughter of Alma Mahler.

Berg, a devotee of the 12-tone system of composition, opens with a portrait of the young girl, then depicts her struggle with death and her ultimate transfiguration. Days after completing the concerto, Berg developed an abscess on his back. He died on Dec. 24, 1935, and the work became his own requiem.

"It's very special to see how a composer at the beginning of the 20th century is able to write a requiem only for instruments," Rilling says. "This is 12-tone music, but it's used in a way in which you do not hear the usual dissonances. The piece is, on one side, very lyrical and very Viennese; on the other side, very dramatic."

Rilling wraps it up

with Bach and Mozart

Rilling will close the festival on July 13 with Bach's Magnificat in D Major (BWV 243) and W.A. Mozart's Mass in C Minor (K. 427). The soloists will be Keusch, Vondung, Taylor and Sylvan.

Written in 1723 and revised in 1730, Bach's Magnificat has the same joyful bounce as his Brandenburg Concertos.

Mozart's Mass in C Minor was intended for a performance when he and his wife, Constanza, visited Salzburg in 1783; but he never finished it, only getting as far as the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Benedictus. Still, he achieved one of the great monuments in music.

Pointing to the liturgical texts of both pieces, Rilling says, "This is a beautiful combination. We have the Magnificat text in Latin, then the mass text in Latin."

Written just before Bach turned to the passions of Saint John and Saint Matthew, the "Christmas" oratorio and the B Minor Mass, the 30-minute Magnificat is, in Rilling's view, a "mini-oratorio" with themes that are "very special and have beautiful instrumentation."

Mozart's C Minor Mass was written not long after the young composer discovered Bach's music. "He was very impressed, and his compositional style changed. This we can see beautifully in the C Minor Mass," Rilling says.

Anton Armstrong

will lead youth choir

Rilling will not be the only conductor providing choral music.

Anton Armstrong will return for his annual two-week seminar with 85 outstanding high school singers from across the nation. In a July 8 concert by the Youth Choral Academy, Armstrong will conduct works by Felix Mendelssohn, Rene Clausen, Eric Whitacre, Moses Hogan and others. Rilling will conduct a Bach motet (``Singet dem Herrn''), and guest pianist Andre Thomas will join in on Robert Ray's rousing Gospel Mass.

Singers will sample

English choral tradition

Conductors Kathy Romey and Peter Hopkins will lead the festival chorus on July 10 in an a cappella exploration of England's choral tradition, from 1505 to the present.

Among the composers represented will be Jeremiah Clarke, Thomas Tallis, Thomas Tomkins, Henry Purcell, Felix Mendelssohn, Charles Villiers Stanford, James MacMillan, William Walton, John Tavener, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten and Michael Hurd.

Lecture series will

explore choral music

Choral music will also dominate the afternoon Discovery Series of lecture-demonstrations, in which Rilling will discuss a work and members of his conducting master class will conduct it.

Lined up are Bach's cantatas BWV 150 (June 30), BWV 131 (July 1), BWV 14 (July 2), BWV 2 (July 7) and BWV 112 (July 8). Four Bach double choir motets will be sung on July 9.

All of these works are based on biblical psalms, which Rilling considers "some of the best possible texts" and easier to understand than the cantatas, which used German translations that are often "obscure in their thinking."

Also on the Discovery Series, choral conductor and pianist Andre Thomas will explore the roots of modern gospel music on July 3.

Pianist-composer-lecturer Robert Levin will discuss "Beethoven as Inheritor of Mozart" on July 10 and "Mozart's Unfinished C Minor" on July 11.

CAPTION(S):

Choral conductor Anton Armstrong returns to run his annual Bach Festival seminar for outstanding teen-age singers.