St. Charles Singers travel to sing life of Mozart
The St. Charles Singers, the acclaimed professional chamber choir led by Jeffrey Hunt, and the Metropolis Chamber Orchestra will bring the newest installment of their Mozart Journey concert series to St. Charles and Chicago this month.
Mozart Journey is an ambitious multiyear initiative during which audiences will hear the complete sacred choral music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Each concert in the series is seasoned with selected Mozart instrumental works for variety and to provide context for the choral works.
“Mozart Journey IV: Teenage Mozart,” a concert spotlighting music from the composer's late teen and early adult years, will take place at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 10, at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, 307 Cedar Ave., St. Charles; and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 11, at Holy Family Church, 1080 W. Roosevelt Road, Chicago.
“Mozart's sacred choral music brims with the melodic vocal lines and vibrant, colorful instrumental writing that opera audiences know and love,” Hunt says.
He says Mozart, like other composers of the classical era, wrote sacred music in the same vein as the music they wrote for the theater and other secular performances. It doesn't look back to the mysticism and severity of Renaissance church works.
“Despite Mozart's age at the time, you won't hear any adolescent angst in these works,” Hunt says.
One of the few major public buildings to survive the Chicago Fire of 1871, Holy Family Church, the location of the St. Charles Singers' March 11 concert, is a renowned example of Victorian Gothic architecture.
The sanctuary's acoustics are especially flattering to choral music, according to Chicago audio expert Hudson Fair, an independent music producer and recording engineer.
Among several other projects, Fair has engineered live, remote concert broadcasts for Chicago classical radio station WFMT-FM for more than 25 years.
Fair says Holy Family has “a sumptuous and spacious sound and imparts a beautiful glow” to choral singing.
He says the location “works very nicely for chorus and chamber orchestra,” which is what audiences will hear at the Mozart Journey concert. “Everything blends very nicely and emerges for the listener as an organic whole.”
Audiences will hear Mozart motets, a short mass, and two graceful and charming instrumental works composed for light entertainment but challenging to play. All of the choral works will be accompanied by the chamber orchestra.
The shorter choral pieces are rarely performed and will be discoveries for many listeners, Hunt said.
Motets include the joyful Venite populi, K. 260, for double-choir; the seldom-performed Sub tuum presidium, K. 198, for women's voices, which will be sung by two soprano sections rather than two soloists; the offertory Alma Dei creatoris, K. 277, with soprano, alto, and tenor solos; and Sancta Maria, mater Dei, K. 273, unusual for its personal tone and nonliturgical Latin text.
The Missa Brevis in C Major, K. 220, is known as the “Sparrow Mass” because of the chirping violin sounds heard in the Sanctus and Benedictus movements.
The Divertimento in D Major, K. 131, for four French horns and orchestra; and Divertimento in F Major, K. 138, were intended as background music diversions for garden parties and other social events. Mozart wrote singing, melodic lines for the instrumentalists that hint at his future success as an opera composer.
The second half of the concert will give audiences a taste of the crazy-quilt way music was programmed in Mozart's day: short choral works will be performed between the three movements of the K. 138 Divertimento.
For the Mozart Journey's “Teenage Mozart” program, St. Charles Singers sopranos will include Carelle Flores of Aurora; Ingrid Burrichter of Batavia; Amanda Brex-Castillo of Cary; Meredith DuBon of Chicago; Kate Jeffrey, Candace Kless, and Jennifer Mamminga of Geneva; Laura Johnson of Hanover Park; Cynthia Spiegel of La Fox; Elizabeth Selden of St. Charles; and Karen Lukose of Winfield.
Alto voices will include Valerie Heinkel and Sara Underhill of Aurora, Bethany Wolford of Cary, Julie Popplewell of North Aurora, Bridget Kancler of Oak Park, Liz Hutchinson of Plainfield, Kate Boyens and Jennifer Hunt of St. Charles, and Debby Wilder of Wheeling.
Tenors are Wes Robinson of Chicago, Bryan Kuntsman of DeKalb, Andy Jeffrey and Gregor King of Geneva, Tim Bergman and David Hunt of St. Charles, and Jay Cunningham and Steve Williamson of West Chicago.
The bass section will include Doug Peters and Phil Nohl of Aurora, Anthony Quaranta of Carol Stream, Nathan Coon of Crystal Lake, David Hartley of Lake in the Hills, Ernie Klapmeier and Mike Popplewell of North Aurora, Brent Boyens of St. Charles, and Michael Thoms of Warrenville.
Single tickets for “Mozart Journey IV: Teenage Mozart” are $40 adult general admission, $30 for seniors, and $10 for students. Student pricing for this concert was just recently announced.
Tickets are available at stcharlessingers.com or by calling (630) 513-5272. Tickets also are available at Townhouse Books, 105 N. Second Ave., St. Charles; checks or cash only at this ticket venue. Tickets also may be purchased at the door on the day of the concert, depending on availability. Group discounts are available.