St. Matthew’s Music Guild concludes its season with a program of music by Beethoven and Los Angeles composer Ross Wright on Friday, June 7, 8 p.m., in the St. Matthew’s Santuary, 1031 Bienveneda Ave. Tickets at the door are $35.
The concert features saxophonist Phil Feather in Wright’s “Concerto for Tenor Sax and Orchestra” and a newly composed work, commissioned by the Music Guild, “The Days Before Cell Phones.” Beethoven’s “Mass in C Major,” sung by the choir and soloists of St. Matthew’s Parish, will highlight the remainder of the program.
Wright’s concerto was written in honor of the orchestra’s longtime principal oboist, Phil Feather. A well-known studio musician in L.A., Feather is also a virtuoso sax player and requested the concerto be for sax, an instrument he rarely has the opportunity to play with orchestra.
“The Days Before Cell Phones” is a quick, exciting overture-like piece with light-hearted and nostalgic reminiscences of 1960’s and ’70’s TV soundtracks.
Classical music scholar Charles Rosen (“The Classical Style”) recounts how Prince Nikolaus Esterházy commissioned the “Mass in C” from Beethoven, extending a tradition established by Esterházy and his court composer, Franz Joseph Haydn.
The piece, written in 1807, did not enjoy particular favor by the prince, leading to public humiliation of Beethoven. Nevertheless, it is one of Beethoven’s most beautiful choral works, on an emotional par with the more famous “Missa Solemnis” and Ninth Symphony finale though certainly smaller in scope and required forces. The “Penguin Guide to Compact Discs” calls it a “long-underrated masterpiece.”
For complete information, call (310) 573-7422 or visit musicguildonline.org.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
