March 2, 2006
Chorus pro Musica will perform liturgical music by two renowned modern composers, Anton Bruckner and Igor Stravinsky, on Friday, April 7, 2006, at 8 pm at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, located at 138 Tremont Street opposite Boston Common. The concert features Bruckner's Mass in E minor and four Graduals, and Stravinsky's Mass of 1948, Pater Noster, and Credo.
While best known for large-scale works, both Bruckner and Stravinsky wrote masterful intimate Mass settings for chorus and small wind orchestra. This music was intended not for the stage but for the altar, and will be heard to good advantage at the Church of St. Paul. Soloists include soprano Junko Watanabe, mezzo-soprano Thea Lobo, and tenor Thomas Gregg.
Concert tickets are $15 to $45, with discounts available for groups, students, seniors and WGBH members. Seating is reserved by pew. Seats may be selected and tickets purchased online at www.choruspromusica.org, or by phone (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) at 800-658-4CPM (800-658-4276). For wheelchair-accessible seats, call 617-267-7442.
Anton Bruckner's Mass in E minor for chorus and wind instruments is considered his first great work, premiering in 1866 when he was 42 years old. It is a beautiful combination of intricate Italian Renaissance polyphony and the dark sonorities and lush harmonies of the Romantic period. Often overlooked because of their brevity, Bruckner's Graduals are among the most beautiful short choral works in existence, simple but profoundly expressive.
Igor Stravinsky's Mass of 1948 is written for chorus and ten wind instruments, which, in Stravinsky's words, “tune” the chorus. Unmistakably Stravinsky in its incisive harmonies and rhythms, the Mass evokes pre-classical music with Gregorian modes and early polyphony, achieving an austere beauty that Stravinsky hoped would “appeal directly to the spirit.” Stravinsky's sacred music expresses a profound spiritual impulse dating to 1926, when at age 44 he rejoined the Russian Orthodox Church, an experience he called “the most real in my life.”
Now in its 57th season, Chorus pro Musica is a distinguished, independent Boston-based chorus recognized for versatility and excellence in performing traditional, adventurous and seldom-heard works. The chorus was founded in 1949 by the late Alfred Nash Patterson and quickly built a superb reputation for its professional-level musical standards and innovative programming. These strengths have led to collaborations with such organizations as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Opera Company of Boston and Commonwealth Opera. Jeffrey Rink, now in his 16th year as Music Director, is the 2005 recipient of the Jacopo Peri Award of the New England Opera Club.
The 2005–2006 season concludes on Sunday, June 4, 2006 at NEC's Jordan Hall with the Boston premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's grand opera Attila, with bass Stephen West and soprano Paula Delligatti, in a concert performance sponsored by Concert Opera Boston.
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For more information contact Peter Pulsifer, Concert Promotions Director, at 617–267–7442.