The Greenwich Choral Society announces its April Concert, “Transcendence and Triumph,” featuring works by Franz Joseph Haydn, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Eric Whitacre, and Ola Gjeilo.
The concert will be held Saturday, April 20, at 4:00 pm, with pre-concert talk by Dr. Kathryn Libin at 3:15 pm, at the Greenwich High School Performing Arts Center, 10 Hillside Road.
The featured performance will be of Haydn’s Missa in angustiis, (the Mass for troubled times), commonly known as the Lord Nelson Mass. Written only weeks after the phenomenally successful premiere of Haydn’s Creation, his new work responded to a public hunger for spiritual connection and uplift. People throughout Europe were riveted that summer by Napoleon’s advance into Egypt; despite Austria’s uneasy truce with France, Haydn and other Austrian citizens were fearful about what might come next. His Missa in angustiis addressed those fears and offered a powerful solace for troubled times.
Kathryn Libin, Professor of Music on the Mary Conover Mellon Chair at Vassar College, will give a pre-concert talk on Haydn’s Missa in angustiis (Lord Nelson Mass) starting at 3:15 pm.
After Napoleon’s terrifying invasion of Austria in 1797, many members of the aristocracy, Haydn’s employers among them, instigated austerity measures. Prince Esterházy dismissed his elite wind band shortly before Haydn began to write his new Mass, so the composer’s orchestra lacked its usual wind section.
Soloists for the performance will be: Sara LeMesh, soprano; Teresa Buchholz, mezzo-soprano; Dann Coakwell, tenor and Enrico Lagasca, bass-baritone. Christine Howlett will conduct.
Tickets are $55, $45 and $25, and are free for students K-12. For tickets and additional information, visit the Greenwich Choral Society’s website at www.gcs-ct.org or call 203-622-5136.
