Bach Choir Masterworks: All-Beethoven

The Chattanooga Bach Choir and Orchestra, David Long, artistic director and conductor, continues its 35th season with an All-Beethoven program celebrating the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The concert takes place on Saturday, February 22, 2020, at 8:00 p.m. at The Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul (214 E. 8th Street, Chattanooga). Admission is $25; students are free. Tickets can be purchased in advance at www.chattanoogabachchoir.org or at the door on the evening of the concert.

The Chattanooga Bach Choir’s All-Beethoven concert features works for orchestra and for chorus and orchestra, including the Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 (1807); Calm Seas and Prosperous Voyage, Op. 112 (1815); Elegiac Song, Op. 118 (1814); and the Mass in C, Op. 86 (1807). The Bach Choir and Orchestra will be joined by guest artists Beth DuRoy, soprano; Rosella Ewing, mezzo-soprano; Christopher Reames, tenor; and Robert Harrelson, bass.

David Long, the Bach Choir’s artistic director, comments, “Beethoven is probably the most performed composer in concert halls around the world. When we think of classical music, we think of Beethoven’s iconic works for orchestra and chorus that have brought hope and joy to humanity for over 200 years. We open our concert with his tragic Coriolan Overture composed in 1807 and filled with his signature heroic themes and restless orchestration alternating between major and minor. The program continues with his cantata for chorus and orchestra, Calm Seas and Prosperous Voyage, composed in 1815 and based on a pair of poems by the renowned German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. This expressive work begins quietly as the hushed voices depict the ship becalmed in still waters; the mood changes when the winds pick up and the music explodes jubilantly as the ship resumes its journey. Beethoven’s rarely performed Elegiac Song dates from 1814 and sets a brief lyrical poem for mixed voices and strings. The Mass in C was composed and premiered in 1807, a year before his famous Symphony No. 5, as a commission from Prince Esterhazy who also employed Haydn among other notable composers. The work is very much in the classical style, but characteristic elements including sudden contrast between loud and soft passages along with syncopated rhythms let the listener know that this is Beethoven and no one else. The work is scored for a quartet of soloists, SATB chorus and orchestra (winds, brass, strings and timpani). Joining the Bach Choir as guest artists are Chattanooga residents Beth DuRoy and Rosella Ewing, along with Christopher Reames of Cookville, TN and Robert Harrelson of Shelby, NC. The Chattanooga Bach Choir last performed the Mass in C in 2007, on its 200th anniversary.”

Established in 1985 by conductor James Greasby, the Chattanooga Bach Choir and Orchestra focuses on performing the choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as choral-orchestral masterworks of all periods. David Long, artistic director and conductor of the Bach Choir since 2005, has expanded the programs and repertoire to include a yearly series featuring Bach cantatas, as well as performances of a wide range of music from the past to the present. During its thirty-five year history, the Chattanooga Bach Choir has performed the works of more than sixty composers from the Renaissance to the present, including Josquin, Tallis, Allegri, Handel, Telemann, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Fauré, Duruflé, Rachmaninoff, Lauridsen, and Gjeilo.

The Chattanooga Bach Choir and Orchestra’s concerts are made possible in part with funds from the Tennessee Arts Commission and ArtsBuild. The Times Free Press is the Bach Choir’s exclusive print sponsor.