Choral Singing / Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
Saturday 20 April at 2pm Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
Free pre-concert talk in the Northern Foyer 45 minutes prior to the concert. Sponsored by Fine Music FM.
Between the solemnity of Good Friday and the joy of resurrection on Easter Morning, Easter Saturday might be the ‘deadest day of the church calendar’, but in 2019 you can spend Saturday afternoon with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs at the Sydney Opera House for a musical expression of faith that will lift your soul.
At the heart of the program is Johann Sebastian Bach and his brilliant Magnificat. Voices ring out – ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord!’ – and the music resounds with trumpets and drums in a spirit of festive celebration. Five soloists bring their dazzling virtuosity and expressive powers to a text that ranges between sheer elation and a profound expression of humility as Mary responds to the news that she will be the mother of Christ.
Framing the Magnificat are two works that, each in their own way, look to Bach for inspiration. The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs have commissioned a new motet for 50 voices from The Song Company’s artistic director Antony Pitts, who takes the explosive harmonies from Bach’s setting of the words ‘In the imagination of their hearts’ as his starting point. As he describes it, Bach’s moment of collective madness is frozen in a kind of anachronistic bullet time and scattered to the four winds and back to Bach.
After interval you can eavesdrop on the newly married Mozart through his work in Great Mass in C minor, embarking on a grand mass for choir and orchestra, to be performed in Salzburg when the couple make their first visit to his disapproving father. Wolfgang Mozart found fresh inspiration in the Baroque techniques of Bach and Handel, combining their complex weaving of voices with the elegance and drama of the Classical style. But he didn’t finish – no one’s entirely sure why – and so it remains ‘half a mass’, tantalising nevertheless magnificent.
The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs invited the Capella St Crucis of Hannover and its conductor Florian Lohmann to join the Sydney Philharmonia's Chamber Singers and Symphony Chorus as they continue their much-loved tradition of Easter concerts.
PROGRAM
Antony PITTS XLX Mente cordis sui (Premiere)
"Song of the Elders" - Revelation 5: 9-10
"Song of theAngels" - Revelation 5:12
"Song of All Creatures" - Revelation 5: 13-14
JS BACH Magnificat in D major BWV 243
from the Magnificat - Luke 1:51
(in the imagination of their hearts, He hath scattered the proud ...)
WA MOZART Great Mass in C minor KV 427
ARTISTS
Florian Lohmann conductor (Mozart)
Brett Weymark conductor (Bach, Pitts)
Sara Macliver soprano
Anna Dowsley mezzo-soprano
Nicholas Tolputt countertenor
Nicholas Jones tenor
David Greco baritone
Capella St Crucis Hannover
Chamber Singers
Symphony Chorus
Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra
Fiona Ziegler, concertmaster
(The performance will be recorded by Fine Music 102.5FM for future broadcast. Recording engineer Peter Bell)
Reviews of Performance
Bach & Mozart: In the Imagination of their Hearts. Stage Whispers. Accessed April 26, 2019.
Bach & Mozart: In the Imagination of their Hearts @ The Sydney Opera House. Sydney Arts Guide. Accessed April 26, 2019.
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: A dazzling Easter dip into Bach and Mozart. Reviewer: Peter McCallum. The Sydney Morning Herald. Accessed April 21, 2019.
(Personal note: I found this concert timely, performed right on a Holy Saturday. It is compelling and meaningful. I'm not just talking about the superb repertoire, the magnificent choirs, soloists, orchestra, and quality conducting. I'm talking about an extra depth that one experiences as an audience-member ... when I was transposed into something divine ... I have no words, I can only feel. Everything started with Antony Pitts' featured new work XLX MENTECORDIS SUI. The delightful voices of various split choirs well-positioned inside the Sydney Opera House sounded like calm ocean waves that washes away the weariness of the soul, in reflection of the Holy Week. And Bach's Magnificat! What an enthralling interpretation. How can one not be touched! And the program's finale: Mozart's Great Mass in C minor. I lie if I don't admit that the main attraction for me is this Wunderkind's Mass in C. SPC did not disappoint. Whilst listening intently to the performance came to mind the 1984 Milos Forman movie Amadeus, for in parallel with the Great Mass in C, unfinished like WAM's Requiem but considered also his greatest work. What an uplifting glorious performance! Bravo, and thank you, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Capella St. Crucis. / Tel)
Saturday 20 April at 2pm Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
Free pre-concert talk in the Northern Foyer 45 minutes prior to the concert. Sponsored by Fine Music FM.
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Capella St Crucis Choristers.
Photo Courtesy: Eric Hansen.
Photo Courtesy: Eric Hansen.
Between the solemnity of Good Friday and the joy of resurrection on Easter Morning, Easter Saturday might be the ‘deadest day of the church calendar’, but in 2019 you can spend Saturday afternoon with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs at the Sydney Opera House for a musical expression of faith that will lift your soul.
At the heart of the program is Johann Sebastian Bach and his brilliant Magnificat. Voices ring out – ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord!’ – and the music resounds with trumpets and drums in a spirit of festive celebration. Five soloists bring their dazzling virtuosity and expressive powers to a text that ranges between sheer elation and a profound expression of humility as Mary responds to the news that she will be the mother of Christ.
Framing the Magnificat are two works that, each in their own way, look to Bach for inspiration. The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs have commissioned a new motet for 50 voices from The Song Company’s artistic director Antony Pitts, who takes the explosive harmonies from Bach’s setting of the words ‘In the imagination of their hearts’ as his starting point. As he describes it, Bach’s moment of collective madness is frozen in a kind of anachronistic bullet time and scattered to the four winds and back to Bach.
After interval you can eavesdrop on the newly married Mozart through his work in Great Mass in C minor, embarking on a grand mass for choir and orchestra, to be performed in Salzburg when the couple make their first visit to his disapproving father. Wolfgang Mozart found fresh inspiration in the Baroque techniques of Bach and Handel, combining their complex weaving of voices with the elegance and drama of the Classical style. But he didn’t finish – no one’s entirely sure why – and so it remains ‘half a mass’, tantalising nevertheless magnificent.
The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs invited the Capella St Crucis of Hannover and its conductor Florian Lohmann to join the Sydney Philharmonia's Chamber Singers and Symphony Chorus as they continue their much-loved tradition of Easter concerts.
PROGRAM
Antony PITTS XLX Mente cordis sui (Premiere)
"Song of the Elders" - Revelation 5: 9-10
"Song of theAngels" - Revelation 5:12
"Song of All Creatures" - Revelation 5: 13-14
JS BACH Magnificat in D major BWV 243
from the Magnificat - Luke 1:51
(in the imagination of their hearts, He hath scattered the proud ...)
WA MOZART Great Mass in C minor KV 427
ARTISTS
Florian Lohmann conductor (Mozart)
Brett Weymark conductor (Bach, Pitts)
Sara Macliver soprano
Anna Dowsley mezzo-soprano
Nicholas Tolputt countertenor
Nicholas Jones tenor
David Greco baritone
Capella St Crucis Hannover
Chamber Singers
Symphony Chorus
Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra
Fiona Ziegler, concertmaster
(The performance will be recorded by Fine Music 102.5FM for future broadcast. Recording engineer Peter Bell)
Reviews of Performance
Bach & Mozart: In the Imagination of their Hearts. Stage Whispers. Accessed April 26, 2019.
Bach & Mozart: In the Imagination of their Hearts @ The Sydney Opera House. Sydney Arts Guide. Accessed April 26, 2019.
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: A dazzling Easter dip into Bach and Mozart. Reviewer: Peter McCallum. The Sydney Morning Herald. Accessed April 21, 2019.
(Personal note: I found this concert timely, performed right on a Holy Saturday. It is compelling and meaningful. I'm not just talking about the superb repertoire, the magnificent choirs, soloists, orchestra, and quality conducting. I'm talking about an extra depth that one experiences as an audience-member ... when I was transposed into something divine ... I have no words, I can only feel. Everything started with Antony Pitts' featured new work XLX MENTECORDIS SUI. The delightful voices of various split choirs well-positioned inside the Sydney Opera House sounded like calm ocean waves that washes away the weariness of the soul, in reflection of the Holy Week. And Bach's Magnificat! What an enthralling interpretation. How can one not be touched! And the program's finale: Mozart's Great Mass in C minor. I lie if I don't admit that the main attraction for me is this Wunderkind's Mass in C. SPC did not disappoint. Whilst listening intently to the performance came to mind the 1984 Milos Forman movie Amadeus, for in parallel with the Great Mass in C, unfinished like WAM's Requiem but considered also his greatest work. What an uplifting glorious performance! Bravo, and thank you, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Capella St. Crucis. / Tel)
Suggested Listening:
Mozart Mass in C minor K.427 Gardiner. YouTube, uploaded by vse vsad. Accessed April 1, 2019. (Monteverdi Choir.
Eric Ericson. Chamber Choir.
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mia Persson soprano.
Ann Hallenberg mezzo-soprano.
Helge Rønning tenor.
Peter Mattei bass.
Nobel Prize Concert 2008.)
Video Credit:
In Conversation: Brett Weymark, Bach, Mozart at Easter. Uploaded by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Accessed April 1, 2019.
Resources:
Antony Pitts: 50 is the new 40. Limelight Magazine. Accessed April 16, 2019.
Bach & Mozart. Sydney Opera House. April 15, 2019.
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs / Bach & Mozart (available at this time of Posting). Accessed April 1, 2019.
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Program.
(c) April 1, 2019. Updated, April 20, 2019. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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