OSNJ to celebrate 70th anniversary with Mozart and Beethoven

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MONTCLAIR, NJ — The Oratorio Society of New Jersey will be performing works by two giants of classical music — Mozart’s “Requiem” and Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy” — on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 8 p.m. at Union Congregational Church, 176 Cooper Ave. in Montclair. The concert will be conducted by OSNJ music director Sándor Szabó. Tickets can be purchased in advance at oratoriosocietynj.org or at the door.

The concert will feature soloists: soprano Elizabeth Perryman, mezzo-soprano Eunjoo Lee-Huls, tenor Christopher Lucier and bass-baritone Nate Mattingly. The concert will also feature Szabó as the piano soloist in “Choral Fantasy.”

Many moviegoers may recall hearing parts of Mozart’s “Requiem” during the 1984 film “Amadeus,” but that experience can’t really compare with listening live to this great masterpiece of choral music. Mozart wrote “Requiem” as he himself, at the age of 35, was dying; unfinished when he died, the piece was completed by his student, Franz Xaver Süssmayr, based on Mozart’s instructions. From the almost terrifying “Dies Irae” to the deeply moving “Lacrimosa,” “Requiem” propels the listener through a profound and memorable emotional journey that has to be experienced in person.

Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy” will open the program. This is a bravura piece for piano soloist, orchestra and chorus that foreshadows the famous “Ode to Joy” final movement in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. While fans of OSNJ know Szabó as a superb conductor, this concert offers an opportunity to see Szabó perform on the piano, the instrument for which he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts from Boston University.

Photos Courtesy of OSNJ

  Oratorio Society of New Jersey, Union Congregational Church