Clara Rottsolk soprano
Monica Reinagel alto
Aaron Sheehan tenor
Sumner Thompson bass
Melinda O’Neal conductor
Handel Choir and Handel Period Instrument Orchestra

Buy tickets to the Messiah here.

Handel Choir holds the distinction of having performed Messiah annually since 1935, the longest consecutive run in Baltimore. Ever fresh, ever new, our performance offers this cherished work with period instruments and distinguished guest soloists in the architecturally stunning, acoustically beguiling Church of the Immaculate Conception. Join us to enjoy this annual holiday tradition!

Handel rarely performed Messiah in the same way, from the première in Dublin in 1742 to annual performances at London’s Foundling Hospital to performances in Covent Garden Royal Opera House and the three performances he led in 1759, the year of his death. He varied the content to suit the occasion, sometimes re-writing arias or recitatives and assigning them to different voices to best showcase the singers he had available at the time. All the choral parts were sung by males, with boy choristers singing the soprano parts and male altos or counter tenors singing the alto parts, for a total of about 30 choristers. The vocal soloists were usually international stars from the opera house. In 1788 Mozart arranged Messiah for performances in Vienna, adding new woodwind instruments, translating the work into German, modernizing phrasings, adding dynamic markings and enlarging the performing forces. Messiah fell into obscurity in England after Handel’s death but was rediscovered in the 1820’s and performed with expanded, “romantic” musical forces and performance conventions. In 1834 there were 644 performers in Westminster Abby for the Royal Music Festival, and there were 3,000 performers and 10,000 audience members for later renditions in the gigantic Crystal Palace.

The Handel Choir’s performance cannot be called authentic just by virtue of returning to smaller performing forces and using period instruments, for such a thing as authenticity is not attainable. But we would like to think Handel might at least give a little smile at our efforts to enjoy this work in perhaps a closer resemblance to its original renderings, all the while sharing in the “infinite self-renewal” of this marvelous work.

The next concert in the Handel Choir of Baltimore’s 2008-2009 season is Eternal Rest: Requiem by Duruflé. Get concert information here.

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

November 5, 2006 at 4:00 p.m.
St. Paul’s School Chapel, Brooklandville

Bach motet “Jesu, meine Freude” BWV 227
Bach Cantata BVW 55 for tenor solo, “Ich armer Mensch, ich Sünderknecht”
Bach Wedding Cantata BVW 196, “Der Herr denket an uns.”

Clara Rottsolk soprano

Tony Boutté tenor

Phillip Collister baritone

Stephen Bard baroque oboe and oboe d’amore

Colin St. Martin baroque flute

and Emily Noel, John Bradford Bohl, Kristen Dubenion-Smith and David Kirkwood

with period instruments

Handel’s Messiah

December 2, 2006 at 8:00 p.m.
Grace United Methodist Church, Northern Parkway and N. Charles Street, Baltimore

Susan Consoli soprano

Kristen Dubenion-Smith mezzo soprano

Jeffrey Fahnestock tenor

Sumner Thompson baritone

with the Handel Choir Period Instrument Orchestra

Courtly Splendor

A collaboration if Pro Musica Rara, Peabody’s Early Music Department and Handel Choir of Baltimore

March 25, 2007 at 4:00 p.m.
Friedberg Hall, Peabody Institute, 1 E. Mt. Vernon Place, Baltimore

Bach’s Brandenberg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047
Selections of late Renaissance music
and
Handel’s Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (“Eternal Source of Light Divine”), HWV 42

Jennifer Ellis soprano

Christopher Dudley countertenor

David Arnold baritone

Cynthia Roberts violin

Stephen Bard baroque oboe

John Thiessen baroque trumpet

Barbara Weiss harpsichord

Allen Whear Director of Pro Musica Rara

Mark Cudek Director of Peabody Early Music

Melinda O’Neal Conductor of Handel Choir of Baltimore

Haydn’s The Creation (Die Schöpfung)

April 29, 2007 at 4:00 p.m.
The Church of the Redeemer, 5603 North Charles Street, Baltimore

Clara Rottsolk soprano

Tony Boutté tenor

Craig Phillips bass-baritone

with the Handel Choir Period Instrument Orchestra

Back to index of Past Repertoire

Bach & Handel:
Oratorio in Perspective

December 18 at 4:00 p.m.
Kraushaar Auditorium, Goucher College in Towson

Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium (Christmas Oratorio), BWV 248,
Part VI: “Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben”
for the Feast of Epiphany in the New Year
Handel’s Messiah, HWV 56 (selections from Parts I-III)

Emily Noel soprano
Jessica Medina mezzo-soprano
Jason McStoots tenor
Benjamin Park baritone
with the Handel Choir Period Instrument Orchestra

A Mozart Birthday Celebration!

March 4, 2006 at 8:00 p.m.
Cathedral of the Incarnation at E. University Blvd. and N. Charles St., Baltimore

Mozart’s “Coronation” Mass, KV 317, Church Sonata, KV 317a (329)
and Regina Coeli, KV 276
Handel’s Coronation Anthem No. 2, HWV 259 “Let thy hand be strengthened”
and selected organ works and vocal arias by Handel and Mozart

soprano
Leneida Crawford mezzo-soprano
Matt Heil tenor
Phillip Collister baritone
Thomas Hetrick organ
with the Handel Choir Period Instrument Orchestra

The French Connection

May 6, 2006 at 8:00 p.m.
Grace United Methodist Church at Northern Parkway and N. Charles St., Baltimore

Gabriel Fauré Messe de Requiem, Op. 48 and Cantique de Jean Racine
Leonard Bernstein Chichester Psalms
Lili Boulanger Pie Jesu
Poulenc Litanies à la Vierge Noire and Ave verum Corpus

Casey Hutchinson soprano
Jay White countertenor
Steven Combs baritone
Jonathan Moyer organ
Julia Martin harp
Barry Dove percussion
with the Handel Choir Orchestra

Handel’s Alexander’s Feastor The Power of Music, HWV 75

October 29 at 8:00pm
New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C.

Amanda Balestrieri soprano
Scot Cameron tenor
Phillip Collister bass-baritone
presented by the Bach Sinfonia, Daniel Abraham conductor

Back to index of Past Reperoire ]]> http://www.snibbles.com/blog/handel-choir-repertoire-2005-2006-concert-season/feed/ 0 http://www.snibbles.com/blog/handel-childrens-choir-spring-concert/ http://www.snibbles.com/blog/handel-childrens-choir-spring-concert/#comments Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:01:35 +0000 Handel Choir http://www.snibbles.com/blog/?p=278 Spring Concert Sunday 17. May at 4:00 First English Lutheran Church]]> with Molly Day Peterson, director

Spring Concert

Sunday 17, May at 4:00
First English Lutheran Church

Find directions to this venue here.
Watch for more information

An ecumenical feast of musical delights! The Handel Children’s Choir, joined by the Handel Choir, will perform music for the season.

Conductor Melinda O’Neal has been praised for her “lucid and musical understanding of the score”, “moving and satisfying interpretations” and her “stylish and clear manner on the podium” by Hugh Macdonald, Berlioz scholar and music critic. The 2008-2009 concert year marks her fifth season as artistic director & conductor of the Handel Choir of Baltimore.

Under O’Neal’s leadership, Handel Choir has become a newly reconfigured community oratorio ensemble of 45 voices presenting baroque and classic style works of Handel, Bach, Mozart and Haydn with period instrument orchestras as well as collaborating with colleague ensembles to perform music from the 19th-century to the present. O’Neal also teaches music theory and conducting courses at Dartmouth College where she has been professor of music since 1979.

From 1979-2004 O’Neal was music director and conductor of the Handel Society of Dartmouth College, a student-community oratorio society performing choral and choral-orchestral works with guest vocal artists and professional Hanover Chamber Orchestra. Under O’Neal’s 25-year leadership, the Handel Society performed two-to-three major choral-orchestral works each year, including Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette, John Adams’ Harmonium, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Haydn’s Harmoniemesse, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, to name a few. The ensemble concertized in Austria, Germany and Canada, and performed the closing scene of Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ in Carnegie Hall. Recent projects have included Handel’s Choir’s recording of Handel’s Alexander’s Feast with the Bach Sinfonia (Washington DC) on Dorian, commissioning of Jonathan Leshnoff’s Requiem for the Fallen, performance of Berlioz’s rarely heard individual songs and choruses, and commission and première of The Staff of Aesculapius by Charles Dodge. O’Neal was conductor of Sonique, Boston Vocal Artists’ ten-voice professional chamber ensemble, a visiting professor at Indiana University, University of Georgia and Towson University, and she was guest conductor-in-residence for the Seattle Symphony Chorale.

O’Neal holds masters and doctoral degrees in choral-orchestral conducting from Indiana University in Bloomington and a bachelors in music education from Florida State University in Tallahassee. She studied score preparation, choral literature and conducting with Julius Herford, Jan Harrington, Fiora Contino, Helmuth Rilling, Robert Shaw, Marcel Couraud, John Nelson and Thomas Dunn. Her research and performance interests include the relationship of text and music, historical performance practices, and the music of Hector Berlioz. She is a past national board member of the Conductors Guild and serves on the research and publications committee of the American Choral Directors Association.

Additional Biographical Information

O’Neal’s collaborative work has included conducting the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra and Handel Society in performances of Poulenc’s Gloria and Brahms’ Schicksalslied and preparing the singers for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. As guest conductor-in-residence for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra Chorale in 1995, O’Neal prepared Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust for Gerard Schwarz. While chorus master for the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, O’Neal prepared the singers for Berlioz’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Of the Verdi Requiem performance, Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote, “The chorus master Melinda O’Neal had trained them to sing everything musically—there was none of the fancy murmuring and false theatrics that disfigure so many performances of this genuinely dramatic music. Everything they did was clean and honest.” Of Monadnock Music’s performance of Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, Richard Binder wrote, “The 12-member chorus, prepared by Melinda O’Neal, was divine. Singing stylishly and with a superb balance both internally and in relation to the [solo] singers, they were one of the evening’s highlights.”

Dedicated to teaching and nurturing young singers, O’Neal conducted the all-undergraduate Dartmouth College Chamber Singers for seventeen years. This 32-voice ensemble presented an annual Feast of Song renaissance music-drama banquet and inaugurated a series of collaborations with the period instrument orchestra Arcadia Players (Amherst, MA), performing vocal-instrumental works by Purcell, Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Handel. Chamber Singers concertized on tour in England, Spain, Germany/Austria as well as the United States’ east coast and midwest, and they regularly premièred works by Dartmouth faculty and students as part of the music department’s New Music Festival. In Hanover, O’Neal also founded and conducted the professional twelve-voice Groupe Vocale de St. Denis (Hanover, NH) which performed for evensong services and commissioned Musica Dei Optimum by Dartmouth music faculty member Charles Dodge. O’Neal was also co-founder and conductor of Sonique, Boston Vocal Artists’ ten-voice professional chamber ensemble, 2003-2005.

Throughout her conducting career, O’Neal has been an active and devoted teacher. Since 1979 O’Neal has advised and mentored countless Dartmouth College students enrolled in music courses (on campus and in London for the department’s study term abroad), independent private conducting students and members of performing ensembles. Many alumni/ae continue a life-long involvement in music, and some have pursued graduate music studies at institutions including Royal Academy of Music (UK), Royal College of Music (UK), Columbia University, Indiana University, Eastman School of Music, University of Illinois, Peabody Institute, Florida State University and Boston University, to name a few. While visiting professor and conductor at Indiana University (Fall semester, 1999), O’Neal conducted the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, taught and advised graduate conducting students. As a visiting professor for the 1996-7 academic year at University of Georgia-Athens, O’Neal taught conducting at the doctoral, masters and undergraduate programs; she also conducted the Concert Choir, University Chorus and Camerata. From 1987-90 O’Neal founded, administered and taught in the Dartmouth Conducting Institute, a summer workshop for professional conductors which she founded.

In 2002, O’Neal brought her versatility and knowledge of vocal repertoire to Boston Vocal Artists’ Sonique, a 10-voice professional ensemble performing solo and ensemble vocal chamber music composed from the 19th century to the present. Her work was in collaboration with vocal coach and pianist Steven Morris. Concerts with Sonique included new compositions by Christian Wolff, Charles Dodge, John D. McDonald and Ileana Perez Velazquez, and a selection of music based on folksong and myth by Ravel, Britten and Brahms. Concerts in 2003 and 2004 focused on music by Hector Berlioz and 20th-century British and American music.

O’Neal’s continuing research and performance interests include the relationship of text and music, historical performance practices, and the music of Hector Berlioz. O’Neal presents lectures and workshop demonstrations on Berlioz’s vocal music, and she is currently writing a guide for study and performance of this repertoire. Her articles on Mozart, Berlioz and performance practices may be located in the Choral Journal, Journal of the Conductors Guild, and Becoming the Complete Conductor (ECS Publishing).

For more information about Dr. O’Neal check her website: www.melindaoneal.net

Haydn’s Paukenmesse, Hob. XXII: 9 in C Major

Emily Noel soprano
Jenna Lebherz alto
Gran Wilson tenor
Sumner Thompson bass
Melinda O’Neal conductor
Handel Choir and Handel Period Instrument Orchestra
Special guest: Handel Children’s Choir

Buy tickets to this concert here.

Resplendent with innovations, Haydn’s mature six symphonic-style Masses are the classical period’s crowning achievement in the Mass genre. Paukenmesse (Kettledrum Mass), also known as Missa in tempore belli (Mass in Time of War), is among the most popular of the six, with increased and freshened use of counterpoint, a unified sense of motivic construction and clear overall structural cohesion. Hear the beautiful duet for bass voice and cello solo in “Qui tollis,” the dramatic setting of Agnus Dei with solo timpani, Handelian “amens,” and even an operatic ensemble finale!

Suite for Organ, Op. 5
Quatre motets sur des Thèmes Grégoriens, Op. 10
Requiem, Op. 9

Jonathan Moyer organ
Catherine MiEun Choi mezzo-soprano
Robert Cantrell baritone
Melinda O’Neal conductor
Chandos Singers and Handel Choir

Buy tickets to this concert here.

Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986), organist at St. Étienne-du-Mont in Paris and professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatory, wrote his Requiem in 1947 in memory of his father. Originally set for orchestra, he recast this transcendent work a year later for organ. His melodic material is based either literally or in the character of traditional Gregorian chant, while his astonishing harmonic language is lush with post-romantic richness. Duruflé’s Suite for Organ (1932) and his only set of a cappella motets (1960) also take their inspiration from Gregorian chant.

The next concert in the Handel Choir of Baltimore’s 2008-2009 season is A Symphony with Voices: Haydn’s Paukenmesse.  Get concert information here.