There’s nothing like an uplifting classical mass with full choral and orchestral forces to uplift the soul after a year of pandemic restrictions and for some social isolation. Key Chorale’s new online program “Coronation: Mozart & Haydn” is a crowning achievement and well worth pulling up more than once.
Josef Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were contemporaries, friends, mentor and mentee. The younger Mozart composed his Coronation Mass, KV 317 in 1779 for an Easter service at Salzburg Cathedral, although the mass got its name from a second performance for the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II.
There is a gracious elegance that shines through this score and is well captured by the chamber singers and orchestra under the vigorous leadership of conductor Joseph Caulkins.
Gayle Williams, Correspondent
The coronavirus pandemic has created many obstacles for performing arts organization, particularly in limiting how live shows can be presented. But it has also provided them with new opportunities.
“One of the silver linings of this pandemic is that we are bringing our music and our outdoor beauty together,” said Elisabeth Spahn about the Sarasota Orchestra’s series of outdoor concerts presented this season as SO on the Road: Parks & Partners.
Five of these concerts are scheduled now through the end of the season at locations as varied as G.T. Bray Park and Nathan Benderson Park in Manatee County and the Ringling Museum courtyard and Bay Preserve at Osprey in Sarasota County.
There are only three – the strong-willed servant, Serpina; the badgered old master, Uberto; and the mute manservant, Vespone.
Ample recitative drives the bickering and narrative between Stefano de Peppo’s Uberto and Anna Mandina’s lofty-minded Serpina. The musical highlights are found in their respective arias and duets.
De Peppo captures the contrast of Uberto’s gruff complaints and submissive resignation to his servant-mistress first in “Sempre in contrasti,” where he talks a good game of standing up to Serpina’s constant arguments. Supremely confident and sure of voice, De Peppo keeps all eyes on himself with clear gestures highlighting his intent. His deeply resonant bass-baritone voice is as captivating and agile as his movement.
Gayle Williams, Correspondent
Sarasota Orchestra musicians are handling the adversity and challenges of the pandemic with aplomb. Thursday’s debut of “Serioso,” the latest of their live concerts in Holley Hall, showed off serious talent and considerable ensemble strength in three widely diverse compositions, the last of which knocked our socks off.
Violinist Christopher Takeda took the lead in the absence of a conductor and the results were rock solid in Arcangelo Corelli’s Concerto Grosso in F Major, Op. 6 No. 12. The ensemble of 11 string musicians, joined by Jonathan Spivey on harpsichord, confidently captured Corelli’s Baroque style and spirit.
EnsembleNEWSRQ served as our guide once again in the adventures with new music in Monday’s program “Solitude and Suffrage,” performed live online from the First Congregational Church and available for an extended period on the group’s website ensrq.org.
While I miss the live performance and communal experience of concerts, there are some surprise benefits to video performances, chief among them the opportunity to listen a second time to catch what you might have missed. That is invaluable for the brash new music in enSRQ programs. Instead of hearing familiar favorites and cozy sounds, at times we are confronted by uncomfortable dissonances and strange noises.