The Finger Lakes Choral Festival
Performance History
  
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2011 – St. Matthew Passion
 
Continuing on a quest to perform the world's greatest choral works, one by one, we went to the heart of superlative music this summer to perform Bach's towering St. Matthew Passion - - only this time in a ground-breaking new version tailored to replicate the experience of Bach's original audience.  The performance was in English, with most of the recitatives converted into spoken narratives.   This gave clarity to the story line and focused attention on the arias and choruses that make the Passion one the most profound musical works ever written.  And the program again was offered with no admission charge as our musical gift to the community.


2010 – The Berlioz Requiem
 
Searching for the right words to describe our two performances of the Grande Messe des Morts, "WOW!" seemed the most appropriate. Judging from the responses of the near-capacity audiences at Hochstein Performance Hall, it was an emotional tour de force, with reactions ranging from awe at the sheer power of this magnificent work, to tears from the stunning beauty of its quieter moments. And the ending - - WHAT an ending! A haunting, ethereal wisp of sound that floated weightlessly into eternity.
 

2009 – Beethoven Missa Solemnis

So many great choral works - so little time! With this in mind, we went right to the top of the short list to take on the challenge of performing possibly the greatest choral work of all, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis - - a towering masterpiece that bursts at the seams with unforgettable power, pathos and soul-searing beauty. Performances took place on Saturday, July 25 at 8 PM and Sunday, July 26 at 4 PM, at Hochstein Performance Hall in Rochester. We hope you were able to hear this seldom performed majestic work. Beethoven himself thought it to be his finest effort and inscribed on the title page, "From the heart, may it in turn return to the heart."


2008 – Beethoven Rocks!

This was a powerful All-Beethoven program, featuring seldom performed works from the Ruins of Athens, King Stephan and more, plus the Choral Fantasy and Ode to Joy movement of the Ninth Symphony. Performances were held at Hochstein Performance Hall on June 29, and at Chautauqua Institution on July 26, our fifth year in a row to be invited to sing at this world-class venue before another audience of 5000. An excerpt of a review of the concert from the Daily Chautauquan follows:

"The all-Beethoven program presented by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra Saturday night at the Amphitheater was anything but routine. In fact, for a concert devoted to arguably the biggest of the so-called three B’s, this one was practically wild. Not that the performances were out of control. On the contrary, the CSO, music director Stefan Sanderling, the Finger Lakes Choral Festival and the many guest artists who joined them were, for the most part, paragons of musical virtue."

2007 – OUR DEVILISHLY EXCITING PROGRAM - FAUST, CARMINA & THE NINTH

We raised the roof at Hochstein Performance Hall on Saturday, July 28, and Sunday, July 29, with a rollicking celebration of earthly pleasures and capricious fate, and blew the audience away with the devilishly exciting final scenes from the Faustian operas of Berlioz and Boito. As advertised, our massive chorus took that pulse-pounding ride through Pandemonium and emerged triumphant over the forces of evil in the breathtaking, jaw-dropping finale. Comments like: the best, the most exciting, amazing, exhilarating concert they ever heard. One woman in the audience said that it was even better than chocolate!

On August 18, as an encore to our 2007 season, the Choral Festival once again visited Chautauqua Institution, this time to sing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at Uri Segal's farewell performance as regular conductor of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. The historic amphitheater, pictured above, was packed to the gills with over 6,000 enthralled spectators, and when the music stopped, there was an explosion of cheers that rocked the gentility of this peaceful oasis of art and culture. It was electric!

2006 – Beethoven and Mozart

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Saturday, July 8, with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, to celebrate the opening of the new state of the art CMAC Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua.

Mozart Grand Mass in C Minor, Saturday, July 29, at Chautauqua Institution, with an additional performance on Thursday, July 27, at Hochstein Performance Hall in Rochester.

Not only did we have the privilege of performing at the RPO's inaugural concert at the brand spanking new spectacular 5000 seat Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua, we performed at Chautauqua Institution again. This was our third year in a row to be invited to perform at this idyllic summer oasis of art and culture.  Interesting factoid: with combined CMAC and Chautauqua audiences totaling over 7,000 in 2006, the Choral Festival has performed before almost 20,000 concert goers in just four short years.

2005 – Verdi Requiem at Chautauqua Institution

After stirring performances of the Brahms Requiem at Chautauqua Institution in 2004 (see comments below) and the Verdi Requiem with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra at the Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center in 2003, it was a challenge to come up with a program to match these exhilarating experiences - - but we did!

It was a day few will forget, with an afternoon rehearsal in the historic Amphitheater, surrounded by brilliant sunshine with temperatures in the upper 70's, followed by a sumptuous buffet dinner for singers and their guests in the Victorian spendor of the Athenaeum Hotel, an hour or two for a leisurely stroll on the timeless Institution grounds, an then a magnificent performance under the sparkling stars over crystal clear Chautauqua Lake.

Nearly 300 voices of the combined Finger Lakes Choral Festival and Rochester Oratorio Society shimmered in the night air with the haunting strains of "Requiem aeternum" and then exploded into the roof-raising "Dies irae," thrilling the audience of over 4000 appreciative music lovers. Glowing comments abounded afer a performance, under the direction of internatonally acclaimed conductor Uri Segal, that was nothing less thanspectacular.

As reviewed by the Chautauquan Daily: "This vibrant and beautiful performance of Verdi's masterpiece will rank as the outstanding event of this summer's Chautauqua Symphony season."
To read the complete review, click on the "Photos" link below.

2004 – Brahms Requiem with the RPO and at Chautauqua

"Peak experience" and other superlatives were in the air at the conclusion of the 2004 Finger Lakes Choral Festival. After an inspirational performance of the Brahms Requiem on July 25, with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, we didn't think there could be a more exciting encore - - but we were wrong!

On July 31, the chorus traveled to historic Chautauqua Institution for a repeat performance as part of a 465 voice massed chorus of singers from the Choral Festival, symphony choruses from Buffalo and Erie, and a Chautauqua regional chorus. The legendary Chautauqua Amphitheater drew an audience of well over 4,000. Now that was an experience we won't soon forget!


2003 – Debut performance: Verdi Requiem with the RPO

The newly formed Finger Lakes Choral Festival created an instantaneous sensation on the local music scene by drawing together 200 singers from over 50 regional communities, including visitors from a dozen states and countries, to stage a rousing performance of Verdi's great masterpiece at the Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.