Live performance at Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels on 3 June 2012
chorus: Octopus Symphony Chorus
orchestra: Le Concert d'Anvers
conductor: Bart Van Reyn
soprano: Ida Falk Winland
tenor: Yves Saelens
bass: Birger Radde
more info: www.octopusensembles.be
TRIO & CHORUS
Trio: The sun is rising in the sky, rising, coming closer, beaming, shining.
Chorus: It shines in wondrous glory, in flaming majesty!
Hail to thee, O sun! Thou fount of light and life, all hail! Hail to thee, O sun! O thou, the soul, the eye of all the world, fairest likeness of God! We greet thee thankfully!
Trio: Who could express the joy thy beauty awakes within us? Who could number the blessings thy goodness showers upon us?
Chorus: The joy, oh, who could express it? The blessings, oh, who could count them?
Trio: We thank thee, bringer of delight. We thank thee, cheerer of the heart. We thank thee, giver of support. And we thank the Creator too who endowed thee with such power.
Chorus: Hail to thee, O sun! Thou fount of light and life, all hail! Hail to thee, O sun! Every voice exalts thee, all nature shouts with joy.
All nature shouts with joy, etc.
RECITATIVE
Simon (bass): Now all the folk bestir themselves, a colourful crowd bedecks the fields. Waves of golden corn bow down before the sunburnt reaper, the scythe flashes, the corn falls; but soon it stands again, now bound into sturdy stooks.
Lucas (tenor): The midday sun now blazes at full strength, beating down through the unclouded sky in mighty waves of heat. Over the parched meadows lies
a gauzy veil, a dazzling sea of sunlight and reflections.
CAVATINA
Lucas (tenor): Nature bows before the onslaught; wilted flowers, arid fields, dried-up springs, all demonstrate the heat's ferocity,
and man and beast lie languishing, stretched upon the ground.
