Ambleside Choral Society’s Spring Concert, ‘Vienna’s Golden Age’, celebrates the extraordinary years between 1770-1810, when three of the world’s greatest composers, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, all lived and composed in Vienna. All three works in this Concert were first heard in Vienna, all making their debuts in its grand concert halls.
To perform them, Ambleside Choral Society will be joined by Soloists Laurie Ashworth, Wendy Sharrock, Nicholas Hurndall and Robert Gildon together with the Lonsdale Ensemble and its leader Julian Cann, under the baton of Ambleside & District Choral Society’s Conductor and Musical Director, Marco Giudici.
The Concert begins with Mozart’s haunting and evocative ‘Requiem Mass in D Minor’, which has, over centuries, become a powerful universal expression of grief and sadness. The work proved, ironically, to be the prelude to Mozart’s own death just before he had completed the Mass, which was finished by fellow composer Franz Sussmayr.
In contrast to this, Josef Haydn’s motet, “Insanae et Vanae Curae” (which translates as ‘Insane and Stupid Worries Flood Our Mind’) sets off with passionate excitement describing those very familiar human emotions of fear and dread, only to calm troubled minds with a lyrical second section of quiet reflection.
The Concert ends on a joyous note with Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy” in which he creates a playful musical dialogue between piano and orchestra, with piano soloist Juanjo Blázquez, and brings it to closure with an uplifting choral finale, precursor of the stirring ‘Ode to Joy’ in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Tickets £15 including glass of wine (under 21 £7; children free) available online at amblesidechoralsociety.org.uk or from Fred’s Bookshop, or choir members, or at the door.
