The Washington University Chamber Choir and the Washington University Symphony Orchestra will present the 2006 Chancellor’s Concert at 3 p.m. April 30 in Graham Chapel.
The concert will honor of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) with a performance of the composer’s popular Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, K. 339, for chorus and orchestra.
In recognition of the Russian Orthodox Church’s observance of Easter April 23, the program will open with Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Festival Overture. Written in 1887-88, the piece depicts the spectacle of this importance Orthodox celebration while using liturgical chants from the obikhod, a collection holding those chants of great importance to the faith. The finale of the work is based on the canticle Christ Is Risen!
The program will continue with Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, composed in 1779 for liturgical use in one of the main churches of Salzburg, the composer’s hometown.
The program will conclude with Howard Hanson’s Second Symphony, which the composer wrote in 1930 and subtitled “Romantic” for its lush harmonies and large orchestral forces, which recall the symphonic repertoire of the late 19th century.
As director of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., for 40 years, Hanson exerted considerable influence on American composers and the direction of American music in the middle of the 20th century. Second Symphony has remained his most popular composition.
Dan Presgrave, instrumental music coordinator in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences, conducts the 70-plus-member symphony orchestra. John Stewart, director of vocal activities, conducts the 60-plus-member chamber choir.
The Chancellor’s Concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call 935-4841 or staylor@wustl.edu.