Johannes F. Somary (1935-2011)

[Lisz]

It is with great sadness that I share with the members of this Forum the passing of Johannes F. Somary, who was a composer, conductor, and founder and Music Director of the Amor Artis Chamber Choir and Orchestra in New York City. He was a well-known and beloved figure in the New York City music circuit, having conducted Amor Artis for almost 50 years.

Maestro Somary was born in Switzerland and received degrees in music from the Yale University School of Music. Through the years, he conducted numerous orchestras including the English Chamber Orchestra, London's Royal Philharmonic, and the Vienna Philharmonic. His many recordings include works by Bach, Handel, and Mozart. With Amor Artis, he conducted the first performances in the U.S. of Handel's oratorios Esther, Theodora, and Susanna. Maestro Somary was also a committed educator and served as Chairman of the Arts at the Horace Mann School in New York for more than 30 years. Many of today's well-known classical musicians are known to have passed through his tutelage at some point in their educational paths.

Hannes, as he is known to family and friends, was also a personal friend and influential figure in my daughter's classical music education for more than a decade. I hold many fond memories including concerts in Prague, Salzburg, and Vienna during the Mozart 250th Anniversary Celebration. My most memorable event, however, is when as Music Director at St. Patrick's Cathedral in March 2002, he conducted the Cathedral Choir and Vienna Philharmonic in a venerable rendition of Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus at a memorial concert for the victims of September 11th.   

Amor Artis is scheduled to celebrate its 50th Anniversary on April 16th with a performance of Bach's Mass in B-minor.  Hannes's son, Stephen Somary, a conductor in his own right, will take the baton for his father and conduct this monumental piece. Stephen Somary is also known as the Artistic Director and Musical Conductor of The Mendelssohn Project, an effort dedicated at researching and making available to the world Mendelssohn's vast collection of unpublished music, letters, and artworks.

Although my heart is heavy at this loss, I know that Hannes lives on in the hearts of the thousands of lives he touched while he was here on earth. Music is a gift of beauty, love, and peace. Would we that we could all leave the world such a lasting legacy.

http://amorartis.org/


      http://www.youtube.com/v/rvKH-5Uhaxg

[Harry]

All is said, may he rest in peace and conduct heavenly choirs.

[val]

I discovered Semele, one of the greatest masterpieces of Händel, thanks to the recording of Somary with Armstrong. It was my favorite version until the recording made by John Nelson with Kathleen Battle.

[Lisz]

From The New York Times

Johannes Somary, Conductor of Neglected Works Dies at 75
Published: February 8, 2011
By WILLIAM GRIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/arts/music/08somary.html?_r=2&ref=music

Johannes Somary, 75, Founder of Amor Artis Choral Group
Published: February 9, 2011
By WILLIAM GRIMES

Johannes Somary, the founder and music director of Amor Artis, a chorus and orchestra that for the last half-century has presented neglected choral masterpieces, primarily from the Baroque and Classical periods, died on Feb. 1 in the Bronx. He was 75 and lived in Riverdale.


James Healy/In Sync Photography
Johannes Somary

The cause was complications of a stroke, his son Stephen said.

Mr. Somary, an organist, composer and conductor, formed Amor Artis in response to the disbanding of the American Concert Choir, a chorus and orchestra created by the conductor Margaret Hillis. As an experiment, he and the group’s manager, Milton Goldin, staged the first complete performance in the United States of the Handel oratorio “Esther” at Town Hall in April 1961.

A rousing reception encouraged Mr. Somary (pronounced so-MAHR-ee) to form Amor Artis, whose first concert, in January 1962, presented works by Schütz, Schubert, Hindemith and Bruckner — choral works from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

Under Mr. Somary’s leadership the ensemble, which added a chamber choir in 1980, made a specialty of neglected Baroque and Classical works. It was known in particular for its performances and recordings of Handel’s oratorios, and for imaginative programming that allowed audiences to hear rarities like Dvorak’s “Te Deum” and Gounod’s “Messe Solennelle.”

In the 1970’s, the Amor Artis Chorale made the first recordings of the Handel oratorios “Theodora” and “Jeptha” with the English Chamber Orchestra. More recently, the group began recording on its own label, Amor Artis Edition. Its first CD, released in 2010, was “Sacred Jewels,” a selection of motets and a mass by Tomás Luis de Victoria.

Johannes Felix Somary was born on April 7, 1935, in Zurich. His father, an economist and banker, brought the family to the United States in 1940, and Johannes grew up in Washington, D.C.

He attended Yale, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1957 and a master’s in music in 1959. In addition to his work with Amor Artis, he was for many years the chairman of the arts and music department of the Horace Mann School in New York, where he taught from 1959 until his retirement in 2002.

He was the choirmaster and organist at the Church of Our Saviour in Manhattan in the 1960s and ’70s; the music director of St. Patrick’s Cathedral from 2001 to 2003; and the conductor of the Fairfield County Chorale in Connecticut, the Great Neck Choral Society on Long Island, and the Taghkanic Chorale in Westchester County, N.Y.

In addition to his son Stephen, of Manhattan, the founder and artistic director of the Mendelssohn Project, Mr. Somary is survived by his wife, Anne; another son, Geoffrey, of Arlington Heights, Ill.; a daughter, Karen Somary Healy of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.; a brother, Wolfgang, of Zurich; a sister, Maria Twaalfhoven of Hilversum, the Netherlands; and seven grandchildren.

© 2011 The New York Times Company (Reprinted under Fair Use)

[Lisz]

Music for a Fond Farewell

A Mass for Johannes Somary
Amor Artis Chamber Choir
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola
New York City*

Hark! A Voice Says, All Are Mortal, J.S. Bach
Introit and Kyrie, Requiem, Gabriel Faure
How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place, Johannes Somary
Sequence: Dies Irae, Gregorian**
Regina Caeli, Gregor Aichinger
Rosymedre, Ralph Vaughan Williams
Sanctus: Requiem, Gabriel Faure***
Dying You Destroyed Our Death, J. Lee
Amen, Johannes Somary
Agnus Dei: Mass C, Gregorian**
O Welt, Ich Muss Dich Lassen, Johannes Brahms
Sicut Cervus, G.P. da Palestrina
In Paradisum, Requiem, Gabriel Faure***
O God, Our Help in Ages Past, Tune: St. Anne, William Croft
Fugue in E-flat, BWV 552 "St Anne," J.S. Bach
Postlude, J.S. Bach

*The music for this Mass had been carefully selected by Johannes Somary.
**Chanted by the Men of the St. Ignatius Choir
***Yuval Waldman, solo violin; Victoria Drake, harp; Nancianne Parrella, organ

[Lisz]

I discovered Semele, one of the greatest masterpieces of Händel, thanks to the recording of Somary with Armstrong. It was my favorite version until the recording made by John Nelson with Kathleen Battle.

Val -- thank you for posting this.

Some time ago, as I was going through my LP collection, I came across a recording on the Vanguard label that I had completely forgotten about. It is a 1972 recording of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks and also The Water Music by the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Johannes Somary.

The Fireworks is performed in original scoring with the ECO's Augmented Wind Ensemble. What a great  historical record this is. 

It also features pictures of a very young J. Somary and the Orchestra at work. If I can find a way to scan such a large image, I'll  post at some point. (Tips on how to accomplish this are appreciated.) Meanwhile, I think this LP will make for great listening this weekend.

Actually, here's a cover from Amazon:

[Lisz]

Johannes F. Somary Memorial Concert