August 16, 2001|By Phil Greenfield | Phil Greenfield,SPECIAL TO THE SUN
You might think that to avail yourself of choral music, operettas, an organ concerto, a Broadway show and an appearance by one of the greatest opera singers of all time, you'd have to subscribe to several concert series.
But with the slate of concerts recently announced by the Annapolis Chorale for its 2001-2002 season, nothing could be further from the truth. The local music lover need travel no further than Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts and historic St. Anne's Church in downtown Annapolis to experience all this and more.
"It's quite an array of events we've got going this season," says the chorale's conductor, J. Ernest Green. "We've got something for everyone."
Franz Schubert's intimate, supremely melodic Mass in G opens the Choral Classics season at Maryland Hall in November, paired with the Requiem of Gabriel Faure.
On Dec. 15 at St. Anne's Church, we get a complete Messiah that will approximate one of the later versions of the great oratorio that Handel himself crafted and conducted.
The abbreviated Christmas portion of what has become the standard version of Messiah will be sung at St. Anne's the next afternoon, along with Christmas carols.
The season's third classics concert in March presents three fine, 20th-century works anchored by Lobet den Herrn (Praise the Lord), one of the great motets by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The most notable contemporary work is Lux Aeterna (Eternal Light) by Morten Lauridsen, a composer-in-residence at the University of Southern California.
So, St. Anne's it will be when Lauridsen shares March billing with the music of Arvo Part, Maurice Durufle and Bach.
The Classics season concludes in April with Johannes Brahms' German Requiem, conducted by Sherrill Milnes, the great Metropolitan Opera baritone with whom Green has collaborated several times.
Aficionados of the "king of instruments" will be pleased to note the inclusion of Francis Poulenc's Organ Concerto in the Classics series in November. Larry Molinaro, organist at St. Anne's, will play the solo part.
Gilbert and Sullivan's sassy, satirical and songful HMS Pinafore, with soloists culled from the ranks of Baltimore's Young Vic Theatre, opens the chorale's pops season at Maryland Hall on Sept. 22.
Broadway lovers will want to hear the February concert performances of The Secret Garden, the enchanting musical based on Francis Hodgson Burnett's novel about the healing power of love and the miracle of rebirth.
The December Celebration of Christmas and the Jan. 5 performance of Johann Strauss' Viennese operetta Die Fledermaus will bring musical joy to the holiday season in yet another year.
