April 7th & 8th the Santa Barbara Choral Society celebrated its 70th anniversary and JoAnne Wasserman’s 25th year as Artistic Director and Conductor. The reverberant First Presbyterian Church was filled with glorious music, beginning with Hayden’s “Missa in Angustilis: Mass for Troubled Times.” Composed in response to the Napoleonic wars, a time of upheaval, death and destruction in Europe, its meaning changed when news arrived in Vienna (perhaps on the same day as the work’s premiere performance) that Lord Nelson had defeated Napoleon in Egypt. From then on this monumental work was interpreted to follow an arc from fear and despair in the first movement, through desperate conflict to victory in the end. Though Santa Barbara’s recent troubles were not caused by war, Hayden’s Mass seemed a fitting musical tribute to the coming together of the community during and after a catastrophe. The second half of the program was devoted to liturgical works by modern composers: Ralph Vaughn Williams’s “5 Mystical Songs” from the beginning of 20th century, and pieces by Christopher Tin and Ola Gjeilo, created in the 21st. Tin’s “Baba Yetu (The Lord’s Prayer)” won the first classical music grammy awarded to a work composed for a video game. The subjects were in the same vein as Hayden’s Mass – a plea for peace, longing for love, resurrection – ending with Mr. Tin’s humorous and uplifting “Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flying).” The chorus and orchestra were joined by soprano Rena Harms, mezzo Nina Yoshida Nelsen, Tenor Benjamin Brecher and bass Ralph Cato for a beautiful concert of vocal music you don’t hear very often. Bravo!
