Orchestra or chorale? Choose between these April 8 concerts
Published 1:30 am Thursday, March 29, 2018
Music lovers will have to make a choice on April 8.
The Everett Chorale and the Pacifica Chamber Orchestra both have scheduled afternoon performances that day in Everett — at exactly the same time.
The Everett Chorale’s performance is themed “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
The featured works are “Requiem,” by John Rutter and “Alleluia” by Randall Thompson.
The pieces offer quite the contrasting musical styles.
“Requiem” the more musically dramatic of the two pieces, was composed in 1985. It will be performed by the choir, chamber orchestra and a soprano soloist, Linda Tsatsanis.
This concert is in preparation for the chorale’s planned Carnegie Hall performance of the piece on Memorial Day.
They will join six other choirs in a program conducted by the composer, said Lee Matthews, the chorale’s conductor.
“John Rutter is probably the best known living choral composer,” he said.
The chorale’s April 8 performance also will include “Alleluia,” known for its more subdued musical meditation.
The Pacifica Chamber Orchestra will be performing four compositions.
“Suite for String Orchestra,” by Frank Bridge, what the orchestra’s artistic director, Fred Chu, calls a “lush, playful and energetic suite for strings” by the English composer.
“Wind Quintet,” was written by the female French composer Hedwige Chretien. “This piece could remind you of some paintings depicting early 1900s Paris,” Chu said.
He described Luis Ignacio Marin-Garcia’s “Wind Quintet No. 1,” as a “somewhat impressionistic, neoclassic and nationalistic” piece written by the Spanish composer in 1981.
The concert concludes with Ernest Bloch’s “Concerto Grosso No. 1 for Strings and Piano.”
All his compositions were influenced by the Jewish suffering of World War II, Chu said. The first movement begins rhythmically and powerfully, he said, while the second movement reflects a somber mood.
He characterized the third movement as having “wonderful melodies,” and piano, violin, viola and cello solos. The composition’s fourth movement includes Baroque-like fugue that Chu described as “very exciting.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
If you go
The Everett Chorale’s concert is at 3 p.m. April 8 at the Everett Performing Arts Center, 2710 Wetmore Ave., Everett. Tickets are $20 for adults, $17 for students, seniors and military members. More at everettchorale.org.
The Pacifica Chamber Orchestra will be performing at 3 p.m. April 8 at First Presbyterian Church, 2936 Rockefeller Ave., Everett. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors and students. More at www.pacificachamberorchestra.org.
