Bel Canto Performs ‘Cathedral Music’

The 75 voices of the Bel Canto Chorus will fill the magnificent space of Basilica of St. Josaphat with “Cathedral Music,” a program of choral works written for the majestic acoustics of a large cathedral.  The concert will be performed Friday, May 20.

Bel Canto Music Director and conductor Richard Hynson chose music that would be “edified, amplified and enhanced” by the venue. “A building of that scope and with that kind of resonant acoustic fully immerses the audience in the music, actually becoming a performer,” he said.

Adding context to the performance venue, Colleen Cheney-Trawinski, executive director of the St. Josaphat Basilica Foundation, will provide short spoken commentary throughout the concert. Her remarks will focus on the Basilica’s unique history, outstanding architecture, and its role today. Concertgoers are invited to tour the building following the performance.

The program samples choral works from six centuries, reflecting a variety of sacred traditions. Miserere Mei Deus by Gregorio Allegri, a 16th century Italian Roman Catholic priest, uses the text from Psalm 50. The Cherubic Hymn, sung in settings by both Peter Tchaikovsky (composed 1878) and Sergei Rachmaninoff (composed 1910), is an excerpt from liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church. An Our Father composed by Nikolai Golovanov was published in 1917, just a month before the Russian Revolution; he was Assistant Conductor of the Moscow Synodal Choir. The choir trained the finest musicians for the Russian Orthodox Church.

The chorus will also sing a set of Three Funeral Motets composed by Hynson, written to commemorate the 9/11 attacks and to memorialize a beloved mentor who served on the Bel Canto board. Also featured are two contemporary pieces with texts that draw on ancient spiritual traditions.

Rúnatal by Martin Romberg (b. 1978) is based on an Old Norse poem recounting the ancient myth of Odin, who hung on a tree for nine days and nights in order to be granted the ability to read sacred Runes that imparted knowledge.

Earth Teach Me Quiet, written by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds (b. 1977), draws its text from a poem of the Ute Native American tradition. The words implore the Earth to impart wisdom and virtue to humankind.

The program closes with American composer Randall Thompson’s familiar “Alleluia.” Thompson (1899-1984) wrote the a cappella piece for chorus in 1940 for the opening of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Bel Canto’s May concert is a fitting conclusion to this year’s season, Hynson said. Live performance signals a return to normal life, and an opportunity for listeners to experience “emotional catharsis and healing.”

“Cathedral Music” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 20, at the Basilica of St. Josaphat, 601 W. Lincoln Ave. Tickets are available by calling the Bel Canto on weekdays at 414-481-8801, extension 1, or online. Livestream tickets also are available through the web site. Masks are optional.