Vancouver Bach Choir kicks off season with two masterworks by Mozart & Haydn, at the Orpheum on October 7
Coronation Mass and Nelson Mass were written barely two decades apart
The Vancouver Bach Choir presents Mozart & Haydn on October 7, 7:30 pm, at the Orpheum
THEY ARE TWO iconic works in the choral canon, and they premiered only a few decades apart.
At just 23, after a commission from the Archbishop of Salzburg, Mozart wrote his Coronation Mass in 1779—and understandably, it was an immediate success that year, when it was first performed at the Salzburg Cathedral. Along with the rich choral lines, it’s underscored with oboes, horns, and trumpets, along with singing strings.
Joseph Haydn, meanwhile, penned his master choral work—the Nelson Mass—in 1798, late in his career. It’s a huge work with big sound, intertwined with nuanced emotional moments. The Austrian composer had titled it Mass for Troubled Times, and expect to hear a darker edge to the piece than in Mozart’s festive yet solemn mass.
It’s a major concert with two large-scale works to open the Bach Choir season, the group joined by stellar soloists Magdalena How, Katie Fraser, Ian McCloy, and Philip Wing, as well as members of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. It should be fascinating to see the masses performed side-by-side in a sonic journey back to the creatively fertile world of the late 18th century.
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