Saturday, April 4 at 8:00pm
First Parish Church
Dover, NH
Sunday, April 5 at 3:00pm
Christ Episcopal Church
Exeter, NH
Community Chorus at South Berwick to Perform Handel’s Easter Messiah Palm Sunday Weekend
When George Frideric Handel wrote his Messiah he was hoping for a hit. He was in poor financial and physical health and wanted to give the public something new and popular. But he probably did not anticipate that his oratorio would be an enduring masterwork playing to enthusiastic audiences around the world 250 years after his death in April 1759.
To mark this anniversary, the critically acclaimed Community Chorus at South Berwick will perform Messiah Parts II and III, which some call the “Easter Messiah,” over Palm Sunday weekend in Dover and Exeter, N.H. It will be presented much as it premiered in April 1742, with soloists and a full chamber orchestra. The Saturday concert will be at 8:00 p.m. at First Parish Church in Dover, and the Palm Sunday performance will be at 3:00 p.m. at Christ Church Episcopal in Exeter. The Exeter performance is presented as part of the Aliento Chamber Players concert series.
While Handel’s Messiah is the most famous oratorio ever written and has remained securely in the classical canon since 1750, it is known to most people through Part I, associated with the Christmas season. Parts II and III are less frequently heard, though they have some of the richest sections of the masterwork, notably including the popular Hallelluja and Amen choruses.
The Community Chorus at South Berwick, now in its 35th year, is a 60-voice mixed group that draws its singers from across the Seacoast region of Maine and New Hampshire. In recent years, under the leadership of Music Director Dr. Harry Moon, it has tackled a challenging repertoire of great works from every period of musical composition. One reviewer said of the group’s Christmas concert last December that the performance of difficult selections was “superior” in nearly every choral category.
Soloists for the April 4 and 5 performances will be sopranos Morgan McCurdy and Sara Laczynski, contralto Marlene Hudson Moon, tenor Edward Hinson, baritone Dennis Boyd, and bass William Wieting. The orchestra will consist of strings, woodwinds, tympani, organ, and harpsichord.
Aliento Chamber Players, Inc., presenter of the Palm Sunday concert, is a nonprofit corporation which aims to bring New Hampshire’s finest performers to monthly concerts at Christ Church throughout the year.
Tickets are available in advance at the York Flower Shop, South Berwick Pharmacy, and Gary’s Guitars (Portsmouth) for $10; and at the door for $12, $10 seniors and students. First Parish Church in Dover is at 218 Central Avenue; Christ Church in Exeter is at 43 Pine Street.
