Con Brio Celebrates 20 Years
Con Brio’s Gala 20th Anniversary Spring Concert will be Sunday, April 23, at 4 p.m., at Christ the King Church, 1 McCurdy Road, Old Lyme.
The acclaimed shoreline chorus, directed by Stephen Bruce, will be joined by soloists Patricia Schuman, soprano; Clea Huston, mezzo-soprano; Steven Humes, tenor; Matthew Cossack, bass; and Associate Music Director Susan Saltus, organ, with the recently augmented Con Brio Festival Orchestra. Con Brio will offer the most beloved pieces from its 20-year repertoire.
Beethoven’s Mass in C, sung by Con Brio at Carnegie Hall during its very first year, opens the program. Composed in 1807, Beethoven was already suffering hearing problems, and yet he produced a masterpiece that is fresh and innovative.
Robert Schumann wrote that this Mass “still exercises its power over all ages, just as those great phenomena of nature that, no matter how often they occur, fill us with awe and wonder. This will go on centuries hence, as long as the world, and the world’s music, endures.”
Opening the second part of the program is the Coronation Anthem of Handel, Zadok the Priest. Then, in a more reflective style, Con Brio presents Brahms’ Trõste mich wieder—one of the most beloved a cappella pieces of all time, showcasing Brahms’s mastery of choral writing.
Mendelssohn’s Heilig and Lotti’s Crucifixus, other well-known motets, will be performed in the round, as has become Con Brio’s custom in the wonderful sanctuary of Christ the King Church. Et in Saecula Saeculorum, from Vivaldi’s Dixit Dominus, is an exemplary fugue, even more amazing for having been discovered only in 2005.
Mascagni’s Easter Hymn, the renowned chorus from the Cavalleria Rusticana, is a world-wide, as well as a Con Brio, favorite; internationally acclaimed soprano Schuman will perform in the role of Santuzza.
In a lighter vein, Con Brio offers the Ward Swingle arrangement of Bach’s G minor organ fugue, as well as Arlen’s version of “Over the Rainbow”—an audience favorite since 1939, and “When I Fall in Love” by Victor Young, made famous by Doris Day and Natalie Cole recordings.
Bernstein’s “Make Our Garden Grow,” the radiant finale from the operetta Candide, is one of his great ensemble numbers, scored for soprano (Cunegonde) and tenor (Candide) soloists, chorus and orchestra. Celebrating imperfect people who try to do the best they know, the piece has been sung by performers such as June Anderson, Renée Fleming, Jerry Hadley, Barbra Streisand, and Judy Collins.
Over two decades, virtually every Con Brio concert has featured audience participation. Maintaining this tradition, Bruce, the director, will ask the audience to join with Con Brio in Hairston’s arrangement of the great African-American spiritual, “In Dat Great Gittin’ Up Mornin’.” Bruce has taught this to audiences all over Europe, with Con Brio featuring this ever-popular piece in all its six concert tours to Europe—and doubtless again, in its 2018 concert tour to Croatia and Slovenia.
Tickets are $30 for adults, $15 for student and are available at www.conbrio.org, from any Con Brio member, or by calling 860-526-5399.