| Saturday,
January 17th, 2004 8:00
p.m., Alex
Theatre,
Glendale
Concert Preview by Alan Chapman at 7:00 p.m.
"The B-Minor Mass expresses
everything there is to say in the most perfect form
ever written. No man
has been as perfect as Bach in expressing universal things:
life and death, faith, joy and sadness."
— Roger Wagner
|
The
B-minor Mass is regarded as the pinnacle of Bach’s musical legacy. It
was not composed as a single entity, but rather evolved
over a number of years, incorporating sections written
much earlier into the final composition. Completed
during the last five years of his life, from 1745-1750,
Bach never heard it performed as a unit. In fact, it
was not until a century after his death that the entire
Mass was performed at a single sitting – in
Leipzig in 1859.
Los Angeles audiences have been
treated to multiple performances of the work in
the past
two or three years. The most grandiose was a
staged performance by the Los Angeles Opera, in
which a
reduced chorus was seated in the orchestra pit.
The most intimate was a rendition by Musica Angelica
with a chorus of 12 voices. The Angeles Chorale
performance
will feature a rich chorus of 120 voices, outstanding
soloists and the Angeles Chamber
Orchestra.
Neuen was
a protegé of Robert Shaw and is dedicated
to continuing his work of performing great works
from the choral literature to the highest standards
of excellence. Glendale audiences will remember two
outstanding presentations of Messiah, which he conducted
with the Glendale Symphony Orchestra and the Angeles
Chorale in recent years. It was after a performance
of the great Mass in B-Minor, that Robert Shaw’s
long-time teacher, Julius Herford, hailed Don Neuen
as “the great conductor of his generation.” |
