This concert is at 5pm on Saturday 17 September at Hawthorn Arts Centre and the program includes three wonderful pieces of music.

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Mozart Kyrie in D minor K 341 is a late composition from about 1789, the time of his three da Ponte Operas and his last 3 Symphonies 39, 40 and 41. The importance of the Kyrie has only recently discovered. It was not included in Mozart’s own list of his compositions and was thought to date from 1780. Almost all his other choral works were composed 10 years earlier and only the Ave Verum and the Requiem were composed after 1780. It is now thought that Mozart composed the Kyrie as the first movement of a major mass. The Kyrie is certainly composed on a large scale with flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets, 4 horns and organ which is a large orchestra. The Kyrie is a wonderful piece of music and Victoria Chorale believe that this will be one of its first performances in Australia, if not the first.

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Haydn's Seasons is one of his last compositions. Only a string quartet and the Harmoniemesse and Schopfungsmesse came after it. Many experts say it is musically better than the Creation, and we have our own Austrian Musical Director conducting to bring out the best in this celebration of nature. The principal reason it is not performed more often is its length of two hours plus. In order to resolve this issue Victoria Chorale have split it in half and plan to mount the second half in autumn next year.

 

Haydn was a devout Christian and a lover of nature and the Seasons presented him with a wonderful opportunity to extol these two important facets of his life. Spring and Summer have six wonderful choruses and Haydn uses his trio of soloists to great effect in most of the choruses as well as the arias and recitatives. The bass aria in Spring is one of the favourite arias in the bass-baritone repertoire. Victoria Chorale have engaged 3 of Australia’s leading soloists in Joanna McWaters, Christopher Busietta and Christopher Richardson to sing the parts of Hanna, Lucas and Simon in the Seasons.

 

Vaughan Williams Lark Ascending has always been a popular work but has in recent years become one of the favourite classical works in Australia as evidenced by its placing in the top 5 of 3 ABC Classic 100 polls. It is arguably one of the 5 most uplifting pieces of classical music ever composed. This year marks the 150th anniversary of Vaughan Williams birth in October 1872 and Vaughan Williams, who was also both extremely devout and a nature lover, would approve of its performance with Haydn’s Seasons. The violin soloist will be one of Melbourne’s leading violinists, Yi Wang.