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Contact: David West
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
11/13/98
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES - The Natchitoches - Northwestern Symphony Orchestra and NSU Concert Choir will perform together Thursday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Tickets are $5. Northwestern State and Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts students are admitted free with I.D. Dr. George Adams will conduct the combined orchestra and the 100-voice choir.
The program will consist of the first movement of Johannes Brahms' "Violin Concerto" and Franz Joseph Haydn's "Mass in The Time of War."
Graduate student Hong Chen of Beijing, China, will be the featured soloist on the Brahms concerto. Chen, a student of Northwestern adjunct professor of music Paul Loundin, was the winner of the NSU Concerto Aria competition.
Four members of Northwestern's voice faculty will be featured on "Mass in The Time of War." The soloists are soprano Terrie Sanders, an instructor of music, mezzo soprano Phyllis Seigler, an associate professor of music, tenor Michael Rorex, an assistant professor of music and bass Dr. Burt Allen, a professor of music and director of choral activities at NSU.
Brahms composed the violin concerto between the time he wrote his second and third symphonies.
"It was a product of his full musical maturity," said Adams. "The concerto is one of the four great concertos of the 19th century."
The concerto was dedicated to violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim, who premiered the work.
"Brahms would ask Joachim for advice on how to write for the violin," said Adams. "Joachim said Brahms made the concerto too hard. Joachim complained that Brahms did not always follow his advice. In a Brahms work, everything had to be musical. Nothing was for show. That idea was at conflict with some composers who wrote showy pieces that were often vacant musically."
"Mass in The Time of War," also known as "Timpani Mass" was written by Haydn during a war between the Holy Roman Empire and revolutionary France.
"At times the war went badly for the Holy Roman Empire, but Haydn was upbeat and had faith," said Adams. "Because of that, the work is joyful sounding and isn't gloomy or depressing."
Adams said the work follows the outline of the Catholic mass, but was not designed to be part of a worship service. Haydn did intend for "Mass in The Time of War" to be performed in church or concert halls.