by Stephen Brophy

Harry Christophers has put together another excellent musical package for Handel and Haydn Society fans, with a big focus on Mozart.  Titled “Passion in Vienna,” the program focused on religious music, but also offered a highly dramatic exerpt from an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787).  The overall impression of the evening was of great power contained by, but also informing, the classical forms that were being established in just this late 18th Century period.

Christophers first gave us a substantial taste of the chorus with Crucifixus a 16, a work by Antonio Caldara.  This unfamiliar (at least to me) composition served almost as a form of oral calisthenics for the chorus lined up at the back of the stage, and served notice to the audience that this group of singers knew exactly what it was doing.  The program then moved on to Mozart’s Venite populi, to give us a sample of the beloved composer whose work gave us the desire to be part of this audience.

After this double warm-up, the ensemble moved into its first major offering of the evening – a complete scene from Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, composed in 1762.  Here the orchestra really had a chance to shine, with music evocative of a wide range of emotion, built around the story of a hero’s descent into the underworld to reclaim his wife.  Countertenor Iestyn Davies, singing for the first time with the Society, well matched the drama of the orchestra with his presentation.

The most compelling music of the evening was saved for after the intermission, a Mass in c, composed by Mozart in 1782-83.  As a “recovering Catholic,” I have tried over the years to listen in a structured  way to Masses and other music composed for religious purposes, but find myself always moving back to more secular sounds with a feeling of relief.  Listening to this Mass reminded me of how much cross-over there can be between the secular and the sacred.

In part this recognition was brought on by the entrance of soprano Gillian Keith along with the other principals after the break.  She wore the sort of slinky, beaded gown with a slit up one leg that a torch singer would desire; given the weather of the day I have expected her to start cooing “Baby It’s Cold Outside” to the audience.  I was also thinking that the still-young-when-he-died Mozart would have delighted at the incongruity of the dress and the music almost as much as I was doing.  The incongruity was only increased when she started singing the sort of sounds we usually expect from angels.

Fans of the Queen of the Night from Mozart’s Magic Flute will want to hear the parts of the Mass sung by mezzo-soprano Tove Dahlberg; in fact anyone with even a passing acquaintance with Mozart’s music would recognize quite a few themes from his most familiar works embedded throughout this work.

Christophers conducted the entire evening with his usual energetic flair.  At the end of the Gluck piece he momentarily kissed his fingers to his ensemble, a sign of the near perfection of the over-all performance.  And at several moments during the Mass he could be seen to be singing along, reflecting his earlier career as a chorister before he chose to take up the baton.  The overall experience of the evening was one of complete satisfaction and occasional bliss.