Saturday, May 19, 2007

Spring Cappella Clausura concert!

Come hear Cappella Clausura's spring concert! This is our final new program of the year - we have a BEMF concert in June, and a concert on Cape Cod in July, but those will both involve music we've already sung. The centerpiece of this concert is a Dixit Dominus by Marianne von Martines, a contemporary of Mozart. Also featured will be three pieces by Hilary Tann (who will be in attendance!) with some thundering organ accompaniment. This is also the Allegra show - Amy is letting me conduct one of the pieces, a Dixit Dominus by Isabella Leonarda (which includes orchestra!) and I have several solos - my favorite is the duet I get to sing with one of our sopranos who has a beautiful voice, and the one I'm most worried about is the one with lots of very fast old Spanish.

Here is the longer blurb, stolen from the website:

Cappella CLAUSURA adds a full baroque orchestra and a few tenors and basses to its core of singers and players to present what is believed to be the second performance ever of Marianne von Martines' "Dixit Dominus". This lively and delicious piece of classical composition was written to commemorate her election as the first woman to the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna in its 108 years of existence. Martines was an aristocrat, friend and musical colleague of Mozart, whose musical accomplishments were much revered in her day. This excellently crafted composition includes some exquisite solos and duets as well as full choral sections. Together with this remarkable work, we bring you an exciting Dixit Dominus by prolific baroque composer Isabella Leonarda, for chorus, continuo and two violins, which we will play with full orchestra colla parte, and a Dixit Dominus for full chorus, with some verses chanted, by Juan de Araujo of Lima, Peru whose works reflect the lush and jaunty baroque style of the New World.

Opening our concert, in our tradition of championing new works by women, will be the US premiere of Hilary Tann's magnificent Psalm 86, "Incline Thine Ear" scored for full chorus, organ and trumpet, for the first time surrounded by its set partners, Psalms 136 for full chorus and organ, and Psalm 104 for chorus, organ and two trumpets. These are joyous works of praise and complete delight in all of creation’s beauty.

Meet the composer: Ms. Tann has graciously consented to be our guest at the concert!

The concert is at 8 pm TOMORROW night, Sunday, and directions can be found here. I hope to see you all there! We've been getting some good press in the Globe, etc., so hopefully we'll have a good audience! (Although part of me feels that the fewer people hear me butcher early Spanish, the better. Speaking of which, I'm going to go practice.)