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The Rockbridge Choral Society presents a concert of works by Handel and Bach, given by the Rockbridge Chamber Singers, William McCorkle, director, with chamber orchestra and soloists, this Sunday, Feb. 12, at 3 p.m. at Lexington Presbyterian Church. Participating with the Chamber Singers will be several singers from Southern Virginia University’s Origin Ensemble, directed by Kyle Nielson.
Over the past 20 years, the Rockbridge Chambers Singers, a small ensemble from within the ranks of the Rockbridge Chorus, has presented many performances of short choral masterpieces, exploring music of many composers, periods, and styles. In addition, the ensemble has functioned frequently as a semi-chorus of the larger chorus in performances of extended choral works.
The Sunday program will feature the genius of two of music’s giants, George Frideric Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach. The two composers (both born in Germany in 1685) have come to be recognized as among the most important and influential figures in the history of music in the western world, and particularly in the area of vocal and choral music.
The concert will open with two cantatas, Cantata 4: Christ las in Todesbanden and Cantata 54: Widerstehe doch der Suende, both composed by Bach before the age of 30. In his role as a church musician, Bach was charged with providing a cantata ‒ a work in several movements for choir, soloists, and orchestra ‒ for every Sunday of the church year. Of three yearly cycles of such pieces, about 200 survive. This body of music is considered by many to represent the pinnacle of Bach’s instrumental and vocal compositional accomplishment. The Easter cantata, No. 4, perhaps the best known of all the cantatas, is based on a great Easter hymn, with each movement treating a stanza of the hymn text, and with the music created around the hymn melody. Cantata 54 is a short work for alto solo with instruments, though to be the earliest of several surviving cantatas Bach wrote for a solo voice.
The concert will conclude with George Frideric Handel’s dazzling Dixit Dominus, an extended setting of Psalm 110, in several movements. Composed in 1707, when Handel was just 22, this work shows the extent to which the young musician, having traveled to Italy to learn the prevailing styles, had risen quickly to astonishing mastery of complex and elaborate techniques. Dixit Dominus is regarded as one of Handel’s most brilliant accomplishments, a work providing singluar challenges for singers and players, and delivering a kaleidoscope of music effects in virtuosic style.
Joining the Chamber Singers for this performance will be five exceptional vocal soloists, several of whom are well known to area audiences: sopranos Christine Fairfield and Asherah Capellaro; mezzo-soprano Barbara Hollinshead; tenor Scott Williamson; and baritone Karl Hempel. A chamber orchestra of strings and continuo will be led by violinist Risa Browder and cellist John Moran, longtime collaborators with the Rockbridge Choral Society.
Advance tickets for the performance are available online at rcs. org ($12.50 / $35 family), or at the door ($15 / $40 family).
For more information, call (540) 460-9650.
The Rockbridge Chamber Singers are a component of the Rockbridge Choral Society, which realizes its mission thanks to contributions from individuals, businesses, and organization.
