A clip from this outstanding concert featuring soprano Joan Kirchner, performed in Chatham, MA on November 9-10: Handel's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day.
"What passion cannot Music raise and quell!” mused the poet John Dryden.
This November, Music Director Joe Marchio led the Chatham Chorale, with guest soloists and chamber ensemble, in an “Ode to Music” and all its delights, at the First Methodist Church in Chatham.
Featured in the program was George Frideric Handel’s “Ode for Saint Cecilia’s Day,” in which the chorus and vocal soloists take turns praising the harmony that tunes all of Creation. Tenor Charles Blandy, soprano Joan Kirchner, and the Quartett Giocosa joined the singers in Handel’s cantata, composed in just ten days in 1739. Cecilia is the patron saint of music, and the text by John Dryden celebrates the “harmony of the spheres”—the theory that music was a force in Earth’s creation. Verses depict the role of various instruments: violins, flute, organ, and others. Some of the musical “tone painting” suggests primordial chaos, or atoms arranging themselves in order, the warlike qualities of the trumpet, or the mythical harp of Orpheus.
Charles Blandy is a much-heralded tenor based in Boston, specializing in music of the Baroque and praised by the Globe as “unfailingly, tirelessl lyrical.” Joan Kirchner, a frequent soloist with the Chorale, performs in a variety of styles regionally and on the Cape, and teaches voice at her Brewster studio. The instrumentalists of Quartett Giocosa—Heather Goodchild Wade and Irina Fainkichen (violins), Irina Naryshkova (viola), and cellist Elizabeth Schultze—met in the Cape Symphony and have performed as a quartet since 2017.
Marchio has frequently programmed the masses of Franz Joseph Haydn, and the Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo is a favorite. Performed as originally scored, for choir, organ, and a small string ensemble, this short Mass is “elegant and expressive, with a beautiful sense of mysticism,” says the conductor. Haydn layers the words of the Gloria and Credo in different vocal lines, which helps keep the piece “short”! The longest movement (“Benedictus”) is a gorgeous dialogue for soprano Joan Kirchner and organist Donald Enos, the Chorale’s longtime accompanist.
Kirchner takes center stage to perform Franz Schubert’s beloved lied “An die Musik” (“To Music”), accompanied by Enos on piano. Its sweeping melodic line and poetic devotion to musical art have made the song a favorite of musicians since Schubert wrote it in 1817.
The great Victorian choral composer Charles Villiers Stanford created his energetic “Te Deum laudamus” in B flat as part of a complete church service marking the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s reign. One reviewer called it “a major milestone in the development of Anglican church music . . . harnessing Brahmsian symphonic technique to the needs of the liturgy.” Notes Marchio, “It’s never been recorded and is rarely performed, but it’s a riveting example of Stanford’s work and perfect for this concert highlighting the chorus, organ, and small orchestra.”
Chatham Chorale is one of Cape Cod’s longest-established choral ensembles, for 49 years presenting an annual concert series with programs ranging from choral masterworks to Broadway, pops stylings, and premieres of new works by regional composers. The Chorale also regularly collaborates with the Cape Symphony—for example, in the upcoming Holiday Pops concerts—and sings in service to the community.
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