Event

REJOICE

The Bennington County Choral Society, in its third year under the leadership of Music Director Cailin Marcel Manson, opens its exciting 2016-2017 season with Rejoice! a concert that looks at the narrative of Messiah from a different viewpoint, using selections from the oratorio repertoire.

This joyous and expressive concert explores the Old Testament expectations of the coming Messiah to be a warrior-judge-king and how the described coming of Messiah in the New Testament contrasts that with an opportunity to recreate the world into a place of peace and reconciliation.

The Old Testament view is presented through Händel's evocative Dixit Dominus, a setting of Psalm 109 for five-part chorus, soloists, and strings. In the Dixit, Händel exhausts the color possibilities of choral singing for his time and is at his best when "text painting" -- writing music that shows the physical meaning of the text in sound. The concert then moves to The Heavens Are Telling from Haydn's Creation, one of the most beloved choruses in the repertoire, where the chorus of the heavenly host (led by the Archangels Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael) praise God for beauty of his work -- reminiscent of the heavenly host appearing to the shepherds in the Nativity story. All of the incidental solos will feature talent within the ranks of the Choral Society.

The late Robert Shaw, the "dean" of American choral conductors, and composer Robert Russell Bennett set four suites of Carols to show different facets of the Christmas story -- The Many Moods of Christmas. BCCS will be performing the fourth of those suites, which includes the chorale Break Forth, o Beauteous Heavenly Light, The First Nowell, I Saw Three Ships, and Deck The Halls. The concert will end with the famed Hallelujah chorus from Händel's Messiah.

Rejoice! offers a moving and joyous concert to celebrate not only the happiness of the holiday season but also the opportunity we have, each new year, to make our world a better, more beautiful place for all.