Some unexpected charisma

Classical Requiem not by Mozart opens BCO season

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The Boulder Chamber Orchestra (BCO) will launch its 11th season with a somber, almost mystical classical-era Requiem.

No, it’s not the Requiem you are thinking about; it’s by Haydn, not Mozart. And no, it’s not the Haydn you’re thinking about, either; it’s by Michael Haydn, not his older brother Joseph.

Before I confuse you any further, some simple facts: Conductor Bahman Saless and the BCO open this season, titled “Mystique,” with a performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19, at First United Methodist Church in Boulder. They will repeat the program at 7:30 p.m. the next evening, Saturday, Sept. 20, in the Broomfield Auditorium.

The concert program itself is titled “Charisma.” The principal work on the program is the Requiem in C minor by Michael Haydn, a friend and colleague of the Mozarts in Salzburg as well as the younger brother of Joseph Haydn. Performing with the BCO will be St. Martin’s Chamber Choir of Denver, under director Timothy J. Krueger, and vocal soloists Sylvia Schranz, soprano; Marjorie Bundy, alto; Todd Teske, tenor; and Luke Williams, baritone.

Also on the program will be two shorter pieces, a church sonata for strings by Mozart, and a sonata for strings by Rossini.

In recent years, Saless has enjoyed giving the BCO seasons and concerts one-word titles. With “Mystique” and “Charisma” — and later this year, “Glamour,” “Allure” and “Charm” — the titles are getting ever more enigmatic.

“By intention,” Saless says, adding, “I was trying to come up with a good name for an orchestra that’s been around for 10 years and is going into its second decade. I thought we have now developed some mystique.”

The concert titles, it turns out, are all synonyms for “mystique.”

“One of the definitions of charisma is the ability to bring belief in people, and so we have the Requiem,” Saless says. Similarly, “Glamour” is a program of chic French and Spanish music, “Allure” is a program of great pieces for winds that you might want to know better, and so forth. 

An interesting feature of the season is that two of the soloists Saless has invited to Boulder will also present solo recitals while they are here. Spanish pianist Victoria Aja will be the soloist for the Oct. 3 and 4 “Glamour” concert, playing both de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain and César Franck’s Symphonic Variations and she will also present a solo recital of Spanish piano music Oct. 10.

“She is coming all the way from Spain and I really wanted to expose her to the Boulder audiences,” Saless explains. “I decided we will host her the entire week, and have her do a Spanish music recital.”

A month later, cellist Inbal Segev will be the soloist in the Concerto for Cello and Winds by Friedrich Gulda on the “Allure” Concert Nov. 7 and 8. She too will play a solo recital in Boulder, giving a CD pre-release performance of J.S. Bach’s suites for solo cello on Nov. 9.

But it is the opening concert that has Saless excited at the moment.

“I personally think Haydn’s Requiem is a more sophisticated structure than Mozart’s,” he says. “The whole thing is much more varied. The orchestration is fabulous, it has a lot of color and it has a very beautiful arch.”

Apart from relative quality of the two works, Michael Haydn’s Requiem likely did have an influence on Mozart. Wolfgang and his father attended the first performances of Haydn’s Requiem in Salzburg, and Wolfgang is known to have heard other performances. And it is clear that Haydn’s music was in Mozart’s memory when he wrote his own Requiem. 

“It’s impossible not to hear the connection,” Saless says. “The beginning is very much like Mozart’s “Requiem.” It starts with this walking tempo in the basses, and then the choir comes in and the entrances are very similar. You can almost hear the more famous one immediately.”

Saless is happy to be bringing attention to the younger Haydn.

“I want people to recognize him as a great composer,” he says. “A lot of people got overshadowed by the big guys. Michael Haydn has an older brother who’s writing 104 symphonies, and then he’s got Mozart on this side, and Beethoven on the other side.

“But even [Joseph] Haydn, the older brother, wrote that ‘My younger brother is a much better choral writer than I am!’ So even the older brother knew that.”

And Saless hopes you will know it too, after hearing the BCO performance of the “Requiem.”

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