Key Chorale sets sail with Vaughan Williams’ ‘A Sea Symphony’
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The ensemble Key Chorale will take audiences out on the water with a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams masterwork “A Sea Symphony” Friday and Saturday.
Artistic Director Joseph Caulkins calls it “one of the most dramatic and epic works in classical music. The writing for chorus, orchestra and soloists is virtuosic, incredibly pictorial and the kind of music that makes the hair on your neck stand up and take notice.”
“A Sea Symphony” is performed by soprano (Suzanne Karpov), baritone (Jamal Sarikoki), chorus and orchestra. It had its first performance in 1910, with Vaughan Williams conducting at the Leeds Festival.
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Caulkins noted that it took Vaughan Williams six years to create the symphony, which paralleled the composer’s own journey into music and spirituality.
The text comes primarily from Walt Whitman’s 1855 poem “Leaves of Grass,” a collection he continuously revised until his death in 1892, as well as his last major poem “Passage to India,” written in 1869 after the Suez Canal opened. (E.M. Forster used the title for his own 1924 novel.)
The poems speak to ships and captains, wind and waves and the voyage of every human soul.
“The opening of this symphony is one of the boldest and most thrilling in the repertoire,” Caulkins said in a statement. “It sets off a 70-minute saga that explores not just the sea, but our place within the world. In the third movement, Vaughan Williams finds ways to capture the sounds of the winds and waves in music that can be quite arresting.”
The other two movements “contemplate the biggest questions of life. In the final measures we witness the ship of life slowly and calmly disappearing over the horizon into the unknown, into unchartered waters that is very effective and moving.”
Sarikoki served two years as associate conductor of Key Chorale and was minister of music and worship at Venice Presbyterian Church until Nov. 2021. He is now a freelance vocalist, church musician, organist and conductor. Karpov has performed at Carnegie Hall, with the Washington National Opera and other companies, and won awards at numerous singing competitions.
The program will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 and 4 p.m. Feb. 11 at Church of the Palms, 3224 Bee Ridge Rd., Sarasota. One hour before each performance, Michael P. Crosby, president and CEO of Mote Marine, will talk about the importance of the sea and Mote’s mission, research and ocean conservation efforts.
Tickets are $35-$45. For more information call 941-552-8768 or go to keychorale.org.
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Key Chorale takes audience to sea with a Vaughan Williams masterwork
