Ninth Season, 2009-2010
Concert one
Musica Espana
Masterpieces from Renaissance Spain
Continuing Chantry's Victoria series
- GUERRERO Missa Sancta et immaculata
- Music of MORALES and PENALOSA
- VICTORIA motets
Saturday, October 10, 8:00 p.m. at St. Mary Mother of God
Saturday, October 17, 8:00 p.m. at St. Bernadette
- Victoria, Morales, and Guerrero are the triumvirate at the pinnacle of the Spanish Renaissance, while Penalosa was its greatest early master
- Experience the remarkable expressive power of the music of Spain
Concert two
Music for Sinter Klaas
Celebrating the Haydn anniversary
with Modern Musick
Washington's premiere Baroque orchestra
- Medieval conductus and Renaissance motets for St. Nicholas
- HAYDN Symphony No. 45, "Farewell"
- HAYDN Missa Sancti Nicolai
Saturday, December 5, 8:00 p.m. at St. Mary Mother of God
- Third century Saint Nicholas, celebrated in music for millenia and called Sinter Klaas in the Low Countries, became our Santa Claus
- Haydn wrote his famous Farewell Symphony, at the end of which the players leave the stage one by one until only two violins are left, to hint to his patron Prince Nicholas Esterhazy that it was time for the court to leave the summer palace, where the musicians were away from their families
- Haydn composed his supremely beautiful, beloved Mass for St. Nicholas for performance on St. Nicholas Day the following December, as a thank-you to the Prince for taking the hint
Concert three
Music for Saint Mary
Continuing Chantry's Gradualia series
- PALESTRINA Missa Salve Regina
- BYRD Gradualia Propers for the Feast of the Purification
Saturday, February 6, 8:00 p.m. at St. Mary Mother of God
- Byrd's Gradualia, with motet Propers for the entire liturgical year, was the crowning massterpiece of his magnificent career
- Palestrina's Salve Regina Mass is a serenely beautiful example of the music of one of the Renaissance's most famous composers
Concert four
On The Other Handl
Music of the great Slovenian-Czech master Jacob Handl
- Missa super Adesto dolori meo
- Motets from Opus Musicum
Saturday, May 8, 8:00 p.m. at St. Mary Mother of God
Saturday, May 15, 8:00 p.m. at St. Bernadette
- Sometimes called "the Bohemian Palestrina", Handl was perhaps the greatest Renaissance master from Eastern Europe
- Revel in Handl's mastery of Renaissance styles from contrapuntal to polychoral to madrigalian chromaticism