11/24/2010
The Choral Union at SUNY Cortland will present a concert of four works from the baroque, classical and romantic periods on Tuesday, Nov. 30, in the College’s Dowd Fine Arts Center Theatre.
Presented by the Performing Arts Department, the performance begins at 8 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
The ensemble, under the direction of Professor of Performing Arts Stephen B. Wilson, will open the concert with George Frederick Handel’s birthday ode to Queen Anne, “Eternal Source of Light Divine.”
Composed and performed in 1713, this colorful and seldom-performed work is in nine movements, featuring soloists the community members Deborah Pritts, Gail Behrenfeld, Douglas Hatch, Thomas Bonne, Mary Frankel, Barbara Jo Williams, Charlotte Wallace and Bonnie Hutchinson. A solo quartet, comprised of SUNY Cortland senior adolescence education English major Heather Fairchild of Almond, N.Y., and community members Andrea O’Hara, Chuck Feiszli and Steve Jones, will be heard in the final movement.
Two shorter works will then be sung. Josef Haydn’s “Psalm 26” is for three voices — soprano, alto and men — and will be performed without accompaniment. Franz Schubert’s “Adieu! ‘Tis Love’s Last Greeting” is a poignant song of two parting lovers, never to be reunited. This, too, is an a capella selection.
The last work on the program is Mozart’s brilliant “Te Deum.” The famous liturgical text is set in highly colorful and dramatic ways. Composed in three movements, it is an early work by the Salzburg genius, revealing many of his unique ideas that would be used in his later, more familiar masses and Requiem.
Noted pianist/harpsichordist Allan Giambattista will provide keyboard accompaniment for the Handel and Mozart pieces.
For more information, contact Wilson at (607) 753-4615.