Westmoreland Symphony to wrap 53rd season with 'Beethoven's Brilliance'

The Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra will conclude its 53rd season with “a brilliant, energetic, and touching musical document from the grand tradition established by Mozart and Haydn,” according to Artistic Director Daniel Meyer.

The piece is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Mass in C, which will conclude “Beethoven’s Brilliance,” set for 7:30 p.m. April 23 at The Palace Theatre in Greensburg.

Composed in 1807, “It teems with the drama found in the ancient texts of the Latin Mass, in a concert format exemplary of the very finest in sacred music from that glorious era,” Meyer said.

The work will be performed in its entirety, with the symphony joined by lyric tenor David Walton; Pittsburgh Opera resident artists Maire Therese Carmack, Veronique Filloux and Jeremy Harr; and the WSO Chamber Choir.

The chamber choir was founded about 10 years ago to perform special works with the symphony, said director Marc Tourre, a retired music educator from Greater Latrobe Senior High School and Seton Hill University.

Tourre originally assembled the group by reaching out to fellow musicians and friends who sang in choirs.

“We have a potpourri of singers — eye doctors, dentists, accountants, people in different professions — it’s definitely a community-based choir,” he said.

The group previously has performed works including Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Magnificat,” Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms,” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Requiem” and Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana.”

Mass in C is new to most of the 41 choir members, Tourre said.

“It’s a beautiful work with shades of classical, almost Haydn-esque touches,” he said. “It’s very, very well-written, with beautiful harmonic lines, and they’re loving it.”

It might also be new to the audience.

“Often when people think of the choral works of Beethoven, they think of the ‘Missa Solemnis’ or his Ninth (Symphony) or ‘Fidelio’ — although that one’s an opera — so I’m not sure that a lot of people know it,” Tourre said. “But this one really is a jewel.”

The season finale will open with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite in G minor, followed by Welsh-born classical composer Hilary Tann’s nature-inspired “With the Heather and Small Birds,” a 1994 celebratory overture for chamber orchestra.

The symphony also has scheduled “Summer Sparklers,” its annual free program of classics, pops and patriotic favorites, for 7 p.m. July 3 in St. Clair Park in downtown Greensburg.

Tickets for “Beethoven’s Brilliance” are $18-$53. A link for the livestream is $20 per household.

For information and reservations, call 724-837-1850 or visit westmorelandsymphony.org.