A few thoughts on last season’s Great Mass by Mozart and looking ahead to holiday performances
Being in a choir is kind of like being in a revolving door – you spin around in rehearsals for a while, jump off for a performance, and then jump back in again for rehearsals for the next stop. The last stop was for Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor, performed last April at Benaroya Hall, and at present we are spinning around through intensive rehearsals for our next stop in December for a series of what will be spectacular holiday concerts.
Mozart’s Great Mass was the last mass Mozart wrote, reputedly to celebrate his marriage to Constanze Weber. It was unfinished at his death, but was later completed in 2004 by Mozart scholar Robert D. Levin. It presents, therefore, a series of unique challenges as the completed work, with the movements by Mr. Levin, adds different tonalities and styles which clearly embrace but also diverge from Mozart’s stylings. Last April, regardless of the authorship of the music, from the first notes of the Kyrie to the Dona Nobis Pacem, the orchestra and choir delivered a stunning performance, greatly enhanced by the contributions of soloists Jennifer Ceresa (Soprano I), Juliana Rambaldi (Soprano II), Christopher J. McCafferty (Tenor), and Victor Benedetti (Baritone). In the spring, the SCC will undertake another great work, this time Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms.
After a respite over the summer, the SCC reconvened this fall with a new season’s programming, starting with the upcoming holiday concerts. On December 5th, the choir will perform at the Bastyr University Chapel in Kenmore and on December 11th and 12th at St. Mark’s Cathedral on Capitol Hill, offering A Cathedral Christmas. Both venues offer spectacular acoustics for a holiday program composed of glorious music for women's and men's voices as well as for the full SCC chorus.
The program consists of Holiday classics including traditional favorites in contemporary settings as well as some less known but equally enjoyable holiday music. Among those you may not know, but appealing to the Scandinavian heritage that permeates Seattle, is a song performed by the men of the SCC, Jõulud Tulevad by Veljo Tormis. In all honesty, it feels and sounds like a drinking song, but what would the holiday season be without a bit of warm holiday cheer? The treble voices of the choir are featured on A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten, with text from medieval Christmas carols, which he wrote during a month-long Atlantic crossing. Always a favorite, the SCC will also be performing Franz Biebl’s setting of Ave Maria, which was originally scored for men’s voices but later rearranged by the composer himself for full choir.
The choir will also perform Over the Skies of Israel, a piece written by Robert Seely for Seattle’s own Men’s Chorus in 1999. In 2002, the SCC premiered a new arrangement by Mr. Seely for full choir, and we are again proud to be performing this work, a reflection on the spirit and prayers of Hanukah. Joining the chorus as guest artists will be harpist, Bethany Man, the Bells of the Sound hand bell choir, and organist Thomas Joyce.
We hope you will be able to join us for these wonderful performances which, I can guarantee, will provide a few moments of respite, reflection, and enjoyment during the always busy holiday season.
~James Newton, Tenor
