Événement

Hudson Chorale 2012 Spring Concert

Mass in D by John Knowles Paine, the first large-scale work for chorus and orchestra composed by an American, was written during the Civil War era and premiered in Berlin on February 16, 1867. German audiences, already well-acquainted with the genius of John Knowles Paine as the brilliant young organist and pianist from Maine, were astonished by the power and scale of the work, and impressed with its sophistication and complexity. A Berlin critic wrote that the Crucifixus "reached the highest ideals," a noteworthy departure from the general opinion abroad that America was only a country of steam engines. The conductor of the performance which so electrified Berlin audiences that winter night was John Knowles Paine, himself. He was twenty nine years old.

Written in the style of European classicists, Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven, theMass is also reminiscent of the requiems by Verdi and Faure, neither of which were written until many years later.

The Mass in D was recorded over a century later (1978) by conductor Gunther Schuller with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Saint Louis Chorus. In discussing both the piece and its composer Schuller remarked, "How can one explain that an American composer in his early twenties and in a young, not even settled land, in a society with as yet only the merest cultural accoutrements (and those imported from Europe at that!), could write a work so impressive, so precocious, so technically sophisticated, and so profoundly musical as this Mass?"

Learn more about this extraordinary work (including why you've never heard of it) and the remarkable young man who composed it (including why you never heard of him, either!) in a FREE PRE-CONCERT TALK (7:00-7:30 pm), HOSTED BY HUDSON CHORALE'S MUSIC DIRECTOR, MICHAEL CONLEY.

If you love Bach's B Minor Mass, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, and Verdi's Requiem, don't miss this opportunity to hear one of the greatest American compositions of the 19th Century!