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A Mass for Troubled Times to be Performed by Con Brio

In times of angst and uncertainty, there are those who believe nothing helps heal the soul like the experience of glorious uplifting choral music performed live. Those in search of a respite from the world of today and a healing moment, are welcome to hear Franz Joseph Haydn’s response to the trials of his era, the Lord Nelson Mass, also called a Mass for Troubled Times, performed by the 70 voices of the Con Brio Choral Society in their Spring Concert on Sunday, April 15 at 4 p.m. at Christ the King Church, 1 McCurdy Lane, Old Lyme.

Haydn’s chief biographer, H.C. Robbins Landon, has written that this mass “is arguably Haydn’s greatest single composition.”

The mass calls for four soloists and this concert features soprano Louise Fauteux, appearing with Con Brio for the first time, and returning favorites, Clea Huston, contralto; Terrence Fay, tenor; and Christopher Grundy, baritone. They will be performing with the Con Brio Festival Orchestra under the baton of Dr. Stephen Bruce.

Fauteux has performed in a solo role in Peer Gynt with the New York Philharmonic and actor John de Lancie, on a tour in Venice with DeCapo Opera and with the Fairfield County Chorale. The Hartford Courant described her performance in Un Ballo in Maschera with Connecticut Concert Opera as a “pert, boyish Oscar” with “clarion tone in her two showpiece arias and a soaring top in the great Act I ensemble.”

Formidable Virtuosity

Huston has a unique and powerful voice, “with formidable virtuosity over a wide range” (The Boston Globe) and “her mezzo-soprano voice is nothing less than spectacular in its power, agility and beauty” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Huston enjoys both the concert and operatic stage where she has performed across the country and internationally.

Lauded as a “musical polymath” by the New London Day, Fay is enjoying a burgeoning career as a tenor soloist and an active choral artist while also serving as principal trombonist of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theater of Connecticut, and assistant principal trombonist of the New Haven Symphony. As tenor soloist, he has performed with the Eastern Connecticut and New Haven Symphony Orchestras, the Greater Middletown Chorale and Con Brio.

Grundy has performed as a soloist throughout North America and Europe in opera, oratorio, and recital. In the title role of Don Giovanni a reviewer said he “made an impact in the part, vocally and dramatically.” As the baritone soloist in Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, he “brought eloquence and musicality to the performance.” Connecticut soloist appearances include with the Stamford Chorale, Fairfield County Chorale, Connecticut Lyric Opera, Orchestra New England, and Con Brio.

Honoring Host Countries

The concert’s second-half will open with C. Hubert H. Parry’s grand anthem I Was Glad, written for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902 and performed at coronations and royal weddings ever since. The next two pieces honor the host countries for Con Brio’s upcoming European tour: a Slovenian piece, Handl’s Ascendit Deus, long a standard in Renaissance choral literature, and a fun Croatian nonsense song, Terezinka.

As in every Con Brio concert, two eight-part pieces for double choir, Regina Coeli Laetare by Victoria and Dona Nobis Pacem by Rheinberger, will be performed in the round, with singers arrayed all around the Sanctuary of Christ the King church.

Rounding out the program will be “Unclouded Day,” arranged by Shawn Kirchner; Mack Wilberg’s arrangement of “Homeward Bound”; “Somewhere” from Bernstein’s West Side Story; and two American pieces, one performed by the Ladies of Con Brio, Rosephanye Powell’s “Still I Rise,” and by the Gentlemen of Con Brio, “Coney Island Baby/We All Fall.”

For the rousing ending to the program, the Con Brio chorus, the four soloists and the Con Brio Festival Chorus will perform the 12-part Grand Finale from Act III of Verdi’s opera Falstaff.

Tickets for the performance are $30 each, $15 for students, and can be purchsed in advance online at www.conbrio.org or by calling 860-526-5399.