Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 19, 1990 TAG: 9004190079
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF DeBELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The concert will be in Clara Black Auditorium at Patrick Henry High School, starting at 8 p.m.
"I call it the most difficult choral piece ever written," said Jeff Sandborg, director of the group. "It's the ultimate challenge."
Few would disagree. The Mass is one of the artistic benchmarks of western civilization.
Musically, it is long and complex. Spritually, it is a profound expression of what Sandborg regards as Bach's singular power "to uplift the spirit."
Tickets are $10. They can be bought in advance from choral society members and at offices of The Arts Council of Roanoke Valley in Center in the Square, which is supporting the concert with a grant. Tickets also will be available at the door.
The concert originally was scheduled for April 22. It was moved back a day because Sandborg was unable to book enough musicians for the original date.
He will conduct the Mass with a 25-piece orchestra, an 80-voice chorus and five soloists, most from outside the Roanoke Valley. The single exception is soprano Marianne Sandborg.
Elaine Fields of Blacksburg will be the other soprano soloist. Diane Thornton of Winston-Salem, N.C. will be the contralto soloist.
Bass and tenor soloists, respectively, are Philip Sargent of Winchester and Michael Henry of Richmond.
Sally Goff of Roanoke's Grandin Court Baptist Church will be organist.
The choral society will skip two sections of the Mass, which runs more than two hours in its entirety.
The Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei will be performed as written. The Credo and Osanna sections will not be done.
Sandborg said the full B Minor Mass is extraordinarily long even by the standards of Bach's day and may not have been intended for performance in its entirety.
"It's a collection of mass movements that Bach wrote for various occasions and assembled over 20 years of his life."
When the composer brought it all together and added the Credo, Sandborg said, "he saw it as a sort of musical last will and testament."
by CNB