Music at St. Matthew’s will present music by Pergolesi, Sibelius and Fran’aix on Friday, March 18, at 8 p.m., 1031 Bienveneda Ave. The Chamber Orchestra, the South Bay Children’s Choir and soloists Diane Plaster and Sara Campbell will perform. The concert will feature Giovanni Pergolesi’s masterpiece, ‘Stabat Mater,’ incidental music for ‘P’lleas and M’lisande’ by Jean Sibelius and ballet music from ‘The Misfortunes of Sophie’ by Jean Fran’aix. The South Bay Children’s Choir is a group of boys and girls ages 7 to 17, from more than 25 Los Angeles and South Bay communities, sponsored by El Camino College in Torrance. ‘Stabat Mater’ will be performed by the chorus’ Bel Canto Singers’a select group of teenage choristers with extensive concert and touring experience throughout the United States. Though he died from tuberculosis at the age of only 26, Pergolesi managed to turn out at least two undisputed masterpieces, the ‘Stabat Mater,’ a meditation on Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the two-act intermezzo, ‘La Serva Padrona’ (The Servant’s Mistress) which, in many ways, established the musical vocabulary for 18th-century opera through Mozart. Sibelius composed incidental music for ‘P’lleas and M’lisande’ in 1905, at the height of his compositional creativity. The incidental music is on a smaller scale than his grand symphonies and tone poems and is particularly well suited for chamber orchestra. ’The Misfortunes of Sophie,’ ballet music written by Fran’aix and scored for 10 woodwinds, is witty, lively and sometimes even comical, despite its story of the misfortunes of a runaway girl. ‘ The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s is made up of some of the finest freelance and studio musicians in Los Angeles. For information: (310) 573-7422 or musicguildonline.org.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
