In times of angst and uncertainty, nothing helps heal the soul like the experience of glorious uplifting choral music performed live. So for those in search of a respite from the world of today and a healing moment, come hear Franz Joseph Haydn’s response to the trials of his era, the Lord Nelson Mass also called a Mass for Troubled Times, performed by the 70 voices of the Con Brio Choral Society.
Haydn’s chief biographer, H.C. Robbins Landon, has written that this mass “is arguably Haydn’s greatest single composition.”
The mass calls for four soloists and this concert features four of the best. Con Brio welcomes for the first time soprano Louise Fauteux, and returning favorites of Con Brio audiences, Clea Huston, Contralto; Terrence Fay, Tenor; and Christopher Grundy, Baritone – performing with the Con Brio Festival Orchestra under the baton of Dr. Stephen Bruce.
The concert is on Sunday, April 15, at 4 p.m., at Christ the King Church, 1 McCurdy Lane, Old Lyme, CT.
Soprano Louise Fauteux has performed in a solo role in Peer Gynt with the New York Philharmonic and actor John de Lancie, on a tour in Venice with DeCapo Opera and with the Fairfield County Chorale. The Hartford Courant described her performance in Un Ballo in Maschera with Connecticut Concert Opera as a “pert, boyish Oscar” with “clarion tone in her two showpiece arias and a soaring top in the great Act I ensemble.”
Contralto Clea Huston has a unique and powerful voice, “with formidable virtuosity over a wide range” (The Boston Globe) and “her mezzo-soprano voice is nothing less than spectacular in its power, agility and beauty” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Ms. Huston enjoys both the concert and operatic stage where she has performed across the country and internationally. Highlights of her solo symphonic engagements include a Wagner program with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic and Verdi’s Requiem with the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra; a few of her many opera roles include the title role in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Jo in Little Women and La Principessa in Suor Angelica.
Lauded as a “musical polymath” by the New London Day, Tenor Terrence Fay is enjoying a burgeoning career as a tenor soloist and an active choral artist while also serving as principal trombonist of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theater of Connecticut, and assistant principal trombonist of the New Haven Symphony. As tenor soloist, he has performed with the Eastern Connecticut and New Haven Symphony Orchestras, the Greater Middletown Chorale and Con Brio.
Baritone Christopher Grundy has performed as a soloist throughout North America and Europe in opera, oratorio and recital. In the title role of Don Giovanni a reviewer said he “made an impact in the part, vocally and dramatically.” As the baritone soloist in Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, he “brought eloquence and musicality to the performance.” Connecticut soloist appearances include with the Stamford Chorale, Fairfield County Chorale, Connecticut Lyric Opera, Orchestra New England and Con Brio.
The concert’s second-half will open with C. Hubert H. Parry’s grand anthem I Was Glad, written for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902 and performed at coronations and royal weddings ever since. The next two pieces honor the host countries for Con Brio’s upcoming European tour: a Slovenian piece, Handl’s Ascendit Deus, long a standard in Renaissance choral literature, and a fun Croatian nonsense song, Terezinka.
As in every Con Brio concert, two eight-part pieces for double choir, Regina Coeli Laetare by Victoria and Dona Nobis Pacem by Rheinberger, will be performed in the round, with singers arrayed all around the Sanctuary of Christ the King church.
Rounding out the program will be Unclouded Day arranged by Shawn Kirchner, Mack Wilberg’s arrangement of Homeward Bound, Somewhere from Bernstein’s West Side Story, and two American pieces, one performed by the Ladies of Con Brio – Rosephanye Powell’s Still I Rise, and by the Gentlemen of Con Brio, Coney Island Baby/We All Fall.
For the rousing ending to the program, the Con Brio chorus, the four soloists and the Con Brio Festival Orchestra will perform the twelve-part Grand Finale from Act III of Verdi’s opera Falstaff.
Tickets for the performance are $30 each, $15 for students. Purchase them in advance online at www.conbrio.org or call 860-526-5399.