Key Chorale is teaming up with Church of the Redeemer to perform two nights of Baroque choral blockbusters. The concerts are called “Opus 1700.”
Sam Nelson is the church’s Music Director, organist and choir director. He's conducting the first night of the performances, which features the second and third parts of Handel’s famous “Messiah.”
“Messiah” is a household work — maybe one of the most famous Baroque works out there. And the reason we're doing parts two and three is because everyone probably just heard part one a few times during December, it's the Christmas section,” he said.
That section features famous songs like “For Unto Us a Child is Born” and “Every Valley.”
Parts two and three feature music that the public rarely hears. But the famous “Hallelujah Chorus” is included in context, as is the finale, “Worthy is the Lamb.”
Messiah is a massive oratorio, comprising 260 pages. Handel created it in less than a month. It was a labor that brought Handel to tears, and he reportedly told his servant that, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me and the great God himself seated on His throne.”
The second night features Bach’s famous B-minor Mass, which Joseph Caulkins, Key Chorale’s artistic director, will conduct.
And unlike the swiftly written Handel work, this was not originally composed as a single work. Bach expanded the work in the last years of his life. And it made it even bigger.
“And what's amazing about the piece is that he never heard the piece ever in its total form. But what's interesting to me about this work is it's a little bit like feeling like you're at the altar of a creator. Because there are a handful of pieces that are just monumental and in every phase of the word. Beethoven's Ninth, “The Missa Solemnis” of Beethoven. Verdi Requiem.” This is just one of those pieces that, as an interpreter and a performer, you just kind of sit in awe of what you created,” Caulkins said.
Key Chorale and Church of the Redeemer’s choruses will be joined by eight of the country’s leading Baroque soloists, including WSMR Classical Music Host, Thea Lobo, a mezzo-soprano who has been nominated for a Grammy.
Other soloists include: Adelaide Boedecker, soprano, Tenor Corey Shotwell, Mezzo-Soprano Amanda Crider, David Tayloe, tenor, Stephen Mumbert, Soprano Nicole Estima, and Edmund Milly. They will perform with The Key Chorale Chamber Orchestra.
Nelson said the concerts will feature a rare instrument, known as a continuo.
"We'll be using a continuo organ, and you open it up, it's just a box full of whistles, and you plug it in, there's a little blower in there, and it just kind of plays nice ensemble blending tones," he said.
For details on the concerts, which are Jan. 23 and 24, visit Key Chorale’s website.
