Viola solo: Luosha Fang
Conductor: James Bagwell
The Orchestra Now
Based on Song of Solomon, (an erotic poem), Vaughan Williams Flos Campi: solo viola, small chorus and small orchestra is seldom programmed and persistently misunderstood. This wordless setting of erotic verses from the biblical Song of Solomon is lush, sensuous, and boldly bitonal.
As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters … Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples; for I am sick with love."
For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land."
I sought him whom my soul loveth, but I found him not … 'I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him I am sick with love' … Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? Whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee."
Behold his bed [palanquin], which is Solomon's, three score valiant men are about it … They all hold swords, being expert in war.
Return, return, O Shulamite! Return, return, that we may look upon thee … How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O Prince's daughter."