Elgin Choral Union to create drama with contrast

The Elgin Choral Union will blend the cheerful simplicity of Schubert, the joyfulness of Haydn and the romantic clarity of Beethoven into its "Magnificent Masses of Schubert and Haydn" concert. The show is at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Elgin Community College Visual and Performing Arts Center's Blizzard Theatre.

The Elgin Choral Union, an in-residence ensemble at the ECC arts center, boasts 115 volunteer members from 22 northern Illinois communities. They will perform Franz Schubert's Mass in G Minor, Franz Joseph Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass and Ludwig van Beethoven's rare work, Elegiac Song (Elegischer Gesang). The Elgin Symphony Orchestra will join the choral union.

Music director Andrew Lewis said the selections span several eras.

"There is Beethoven who is late classical, Haydn who was early classical and Schubert who helps to bridge to the romantic era," he said.

"Anyone who is a music lover of any kind, if they come to a live performance of ours, they will be captivated," Lewis said. "This is some of the best work of the western tradition."

Lewis said Elegiac Song will be a special treat for music aficionados as well as novices.

"I am guessing there will be a lot of people out there who have never heard this piece," Lewis said. "This Beethoven piece is something rare and special."

Choral union member Patty Dowd Schmitz said the concert will blend old and new pieces.

"This will be a great concert because we are doing the Haydn Mass and Schubert Mass and a less well-known Beethoven piece," she said. "It is a short, really gorgeous, serene piece. I think people who come to the concert will get a great combination of pieces that they know and have heard before, and something they probably have never heard."

Choral union member JoAnne Dowdell said Lewis' presentation of the composers' history has helped her develop an emotional attachment to the music. She found the dichotomy between Schubert and Haydn interesting.

"It draws me in more, I feel a closer connection with the music. Schubert was 18 years old when he composed this piece, while Haydn was well up in years," she said.

"Haydn had enjoyed a long, long association under the patronage of the aristocratic counts who had hired him. He was very well-known in Europe in his lifetime. On the other hand, Schubert had composed almost 1,000 pieces of music but very little of it was ever published in his lifetime."

For those who would like to know more history of the music, there will be a pre-concert lecture at 6 p.m. Saturday.