Enjoy the brilliance of Beethoven on Sunday, April 30 as the Fox Valley Orchestra and Chorus perform Beethoven’s Mass in C Major at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Aurora.
Stephen Squires will conduct with Lisa Fredenburgh as chorus master as the FVO performs the underappreciated work along with a “sampling” of other works from the master, including Allegro con brio (Sym. #5), Allegretto (Sym. #7), Allegretto scherzando (Sym. #8) and Presto (Sym. #7).
Beethoven composed the Mass in C major to a commission from Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II in 1807. The mass, scored for four vocal soloists, choir and orchestra, was premiered that year by the Prince’s musical forces in Eisenstadt. Beethoven performed parts of it in his 1808 concert featuring the premieres of four major works including his Fifth Symphony.
Both the Prince and contemporary critic E. T. A. Hoffmann were generally displeased by the work, though the latter still considered it “entirely worthy of the great master [because of its] inner structure [and] intelligent orchestration”. The work has since been overshadowed by the later and better known Missa solemnis, though critics such as Michael Moore have noted the Mass in C major’s superiority in “directness and an emotional content.”
St Mark’s Lutheran Church is located at 27 S Edgelawn Drive in Aurora.
The performance begins at 3pm. Tickets are available here.
