Brooklyn Art Song Society Performs CIRCLES II: THE WAGNERIANS in November

Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) continues its 2023–24 season on Friday, November 3, 2023 at 7:30PM at First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn with Circles II: The Wagnerians, the second of a six-part series exploring connections between composers throughout music history.

Curated by Artistic Director Michael Brofman, the program pairs Richard Wagner’s only song cycle, Wesendonck-Lieder, with works by Ernest Chausson, Henri Duparc, and Hugo Wolf, all of whom he deeply influenced. Wagner’s profound impact on the development of opera is widely acknowledged and even permeates his only significant song cycle, which prominently features themes from Tristan und Isolde. While Wagner remains a divisive figure in music history, his composition had an undeniable effect on future generations of composers and the evolution of vocal writing. Wagner’s use of ever-evolving leitmotivs and chromatic harmony found their way into works like Duparc’s La Vague et la Cloche, Chausson’s La Caravane, and Wolf’s groundbreaking first collection of songs, Mörike-Lieder. Soprano Tami Petty, mezzo soprano Blythe Gaissert, baritones Mario Diaz-Moresco, and Brian James Myer, and pianists Dimitri Dover and Spencer Myer perform, preceded by a lecture given by NYU history professor Larry Wolff. 

“Wagner’s music resonates so deeply because of his ability to capture the feeling of transcendence in his work,” says Artistic Director Michael Brofman. “The monumental size of his vision brings us, at its best, to a place beyond our everyday understanding. I really feel this program perfectly captures this idea in a focused and direct way.” 

The fall season rounds out with Circles III: The Second Viennese School on Friday, December 3, 2023 at 7:30PM.Sopranos Maggie Finnegan and Jennifer Zetlan, mezzo-soprano Kate Maroney, and pianists Michael Brofman, Eric Huebner (New York Philharmonic), and Nana Shi perform works by Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, and Anton Webern following a pre-concert lecture by Columbia University's Marilyn McCoy. 

BASS is pleased to once again offer its Digital Concert Hall Subscription, which reaches audiences all over the world. The subscription includes free admission and automatic RSVP for all in person concerts (excluding the Dichter Project), unlimited on demand viewing of BASS’s entire season, complete programs, notes, texts and translations before each concert, access to BASS’ performance archive, and more. Individual tickets are also available with a “Pay What You Choose” option. In addition to the ten-concert season, BASS partners with Heights and Hills Senior Services to bring monthly concerts to their Park Slope Center for Successful Aging.

Brooklyn Art Song Society’s programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The New Voices Festival is made possible in part by support from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

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