Hear Dale Warland's final appearance at the Minnesota Beethoven Festival

On July 15-16, 2017, Dale Warland conducted the Minnesota Beethoven Festival Chorale for the final time. Dale Warland began the Chorale eight seasons earlier as a one-off concert, at the invitation of the Festival. But audience demand quickly led to an invitation the following year, with a second concert added to the performance schedule.

This choir of 40 singers was handpicked by Warland each summer. Their level of artistry was frankly stunning - especially considering the choir reconstituted itself for only one week each summer, with intense daylong rehearsals before the two concerts. Concerts were routinely standing-room-only. Afterward the Chorale would disband and the singers return to their homes across the US until the following summer. In 2017, though, at 85, Warland chose to wrap up this initiative "while I'm still ahead of the game."

Warland has indicated this was potentially his last concert in Minnesota - his home since the 1960s, where he and the Dale Warland Singers helped make Minnesota the nation's center of choral singing. This brought a special poignancy and power to the 2017 Festival concert.

Classical MPR broadcast this concert live, hosted by Brian Newhouse. To honor audience demand we're pleased to present it here.

Concert Program

I. An American/ Scandinavian Eclectic Mass
Kyrie (Nystedt)
Gloria (Hovland)
Credo (Rautavaara)
Benedictus (Jocelyn Hagen)
Agnus Dei (Albright)

II. Britten: The Ballad of Little Musgrace and Lady Barnard

III. Elgar Meets Bach
Bach: (Nystedt) Immortal Bach
Elgar: Lux Aeterna

IV. Holst: Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda
Hymn to the Dawn
Hymn to the Waters
Hymn to Vena
Hymn to the Travelers

V. Russian Splendor
Golovanov: Otche Nash ("Our Father")
Gretchaninoff: Of Thy Mystical Supper

VI. Henk Badings: Trois Chansons Bretonnes
La nuit en mer
La complainte des âmes
Soir d'été