Join us for the final episode of the summer as we embrace the beauty of our environment and connect with the natural world through poetry. Felix Mendelssohn’s overture, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, draws on a pair of maritime poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that were also famously adapted into a cantata by Beethoven. Andrew Maxfield found inspiration for “For the Future” in a poem by American writer, Wendell Berry, and like much of Maxfield’s works, the choral piece embodies a devotion to conservation and sustainability. We’ll also hear a musical interpretation of poetry by Heinrich Heine… told through solo piano. Without using sung text, Edward MacDowell’s 6 Poems after Heine translates the poetry of the German writer with sensitivity and feeling. “Afternoon on a Hill,” by Eric William Barnum, exquisitely captures an introspective, sun-filled scene through poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay. We’ll end with Part II of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, wrapping up the transcendent journey we began in last week’s episode, Earth & Sky.
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