Concerts

2011-2012 Season

Click here for the 2011-2012 season brochure

All concerts will be performed at Holy Name Parish, 1689 Centre Street, West Roxbury

Saturday, November 19, 2011 at 8pm
Royal Riches: Beethoven Mass in C and Haydn Te Deum
Soloists: Dana Schnitzer, soprano, Oriana Dunlop, mezzo, Ethan Bremner, tenor, and Dana Whiteside, baritone

Our season begins with intriguing contrasts: Two pieces composed in the same decade for the same patron, but a world apart in structure and feeling. Beethoven’s Mass in C has been called “a long underrated masterpiece.”  The composer’s first mass, written in 1807, was a major departure from those of his one-time teacher Haydn.   More daring and less predictable, it pushed the boundaries of harmonic development for the time.  Critics have compared Mass in C favorably to Beethoven’s famous Missa Solemnis, written 15 years later, for its greater directness and emotional appeal.

Haydn’s Te Deum represents the composer at the height of his powers.  Written for Empress Marie Therese, over the objections of Prince Esterházy who coveted Haydn’s genius for himself, it was first presented in 1800 during the visit of Lord Nelson.  This three-part choral drama is filled with joyous festivity, complete with trumpets and drums.

Sunday, March 11, 2012 at 3pm
Luxurious Harmonies: Frank Martin Mass for Double Chorus and Pinkham Wedding Cantata

Shake off the winter blues with the rich harmonies of Swiss composer Frank Martin, and Boston’s own Daniel Pinkham.  Martin, son of a Calvinist minister, wrote his Mass for Double Chorus in 1922, but considered it a “youthful sin” and did not allow it to be performed till 1963.  It has since emerged as one of the great works of the 20th century for unaccompanied chorus.  Offering rich vocal textures, it is noted both for its grand scale and profound intimacy.

Daniel Pinkham composed Wedding Cantata in 1956 as a gift for the marriage of two friends.  Using Biblical texts from the Song of Solomon, it encompasses many moods in the course of its four movements. Mark Feldhusen will accompany on piano.

Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 8pm
The Splendor of Bach:
Singet dem Herrn, Cantata 182, Lobet den Herrn and Cantata 51
Soloists: Susan Consoli, soprano, Deborah Rentz-Moore, mezzo, Charles Blandy, tenor, and David McFerrin, baritone

Prepare for an evening of delights!  We conclude our season with a rich array of Bach’s choral music, including one of his most ambitious motets, Singet dem Herrn for double chorus, along with Cantata 182, Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, one of Bach’s earliest cantatas featuring an unusual orchestration, with recorder, a single violin, two violas, plus cello and organ.  Lobet dem Herrn, alle Heiden, a motet based on Psalm 117 will be performed by a chamber chorus drawn from NCS singers.  Cantata 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, a jubilant and virtuosic soprano cantata, will be performed by Susan Consoli.

2010-2011 Season

Johannes Brahms, Requiem
Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 8:00pm
Holy Name Parish, 1689 Centre Street, West Roxbury
Soloists: Leah Hungerford, soprano and David McFerrin, baritone

With the death of his mother in 1865 and then his friend composer Robert Schumann in 1866, Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) set to writing a composition to console all who grieve. The result was Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem). Written over the course of several years, his Requiem was a departure from the traditional Latin mass for the dead and offered instead a moving and comforting message of hope that has endeared this masterpiece to generations. James M. Orent and the Newton Symphony Orchestra will join NCS, along with soloists Leah Hungerford, soprano, and David McFerrin, baritone. Our program also features Brahms’s motet O Heiland, reiss die Himmel auf (Oh Savior, open wide the heavens), Op. 7, No. 2 (pub. 1879) – a smaller setting of five choral variations that ingeniously incorporate both Renaissance and Baroque influences.

Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vespers
Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 3:00pm
Holy Name Parish, 1689 Centre Street, West Roxbury
Soloists: Stephanie Kacoyanis, alto, and Matt Anderson, tenor

Written in 1915 on the eve of the Russian revolution, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Vespers, All Night Vigil, is both a devotional masterpiece and powerful statement of Russian nationalism. The Vespers is an extended work of unaccompanied chorus which displays a wide range of emotion and colors all rooted in the beauty and richness of the Russian Orthodox liturgy.

Franz Josef Haydn, Missa Sancta Nikolai (St. Nikolai Mass) and
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vesperae de Dominica (Sunday Vespers)
Saturday, May 7, 2011 at 8pm
Our Lady Help of Christians Church, 573 Washington Street, Newton
Soloists: Maria Ferrante, soprano, Julia Teitel, mezzo, Martin Kelly, tenor, and Thomas Jones, baritone

We close our 35th season with a concert featuring works by the two masters – Haydn and Mozart. Franz Joseph Haydn’s (1732-1809) Missa Sancta Nikolai (St. Nikolai Mass) in G, Hob. XXII, No. 6 is thought to have been composed to celebrate the Feast of St. Nicholas – the name day of his employer, Hungarian Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy – on December 6, 1777. Vesperae de Domenica (Sunday Vespers) K. 321 was written two years later in 1779 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).