This concert explores works evoking faith, praise, and deliverance, beginning with Mozart’s great masterwork Vesperae Solennes de Confessore K 339, written in Salzburg in 1780. Confessors were martyred saints, usually male, imprisoned or tortured for confessing their faith.
The confession theme continues, with Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo’s Dark Night of the Soul, set in 2010 to text of the same name, written by the 16th Century mystic and confessor, St. John of the Cross, during his solitary imprisonment. After nine months of torture, kept in a tiny windowless hole, St. John escaped his captivity. Gjeilo’s music perfectly captures the first breath of freedom, the amazement at being alone in the dark night and free, the sheer grace of deliverance.
The program closes with featured composer Dr. Rollo Dilworth, conducting chorus and accompanists in his settings of traditional African-American gospel and spiritual music of the 19th Century American South and his original compositions, including the West Coast premier of his new work, Shine the Heavenly Light, commissioned in part by the Choral Society.
