Choral Society of the Hamptons Opens 70th Season

[caption id="attachment_46368" align="alignleft" width="240"] Soprano Mizuho Takeshita[/caption]

A shimmering Christmas cantata with soloists and chamber players, and works from an earlier period that inspired it, will begin the 70th anniversary season of The Choral Society of the Hamptons on Sunday, December 6 in performances at 3 and 5:30 p.m. at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church on Main Street in Bridgehampton.

Led by the Society’s music director, the well-known conductor Mark Mangini, the chorus will present its annual Christmas program, this year entitled “A Rose in Winter,” featuring Ottorino Respighi’s Laud to the Nativity, a work which critics have said outshines the composer’s better-known “Pines” and “Fountains of Rome”. The program will feature two soloists known from previous Choral Society concerts, the mezzo-soporano Cherry Duke and the tenor Nils Neubert, and a rising star, the soprano Mizuho Takeshita, along with the South Fork Chamber Ensemble.

Reaching back to music that Respighi knew, the Society also will perform shorter selections, all composed before Bach, including medieval English carols, a Venetian polychoral work by Gabrieli, and Christmas music by composers including Vulpius and Praetorius. The concert title, “A Rose in Winter,” refers to a medieval expression for the nativity, and, in modern times, an evocation of humanity’s persistent capacity for hope.

Though composed in 1930, Respighi’s cantata has a mysterious antique quality, inspired by his love of early musical forms. Scored for chorus, three soloists, and a wind sextet, Respighi’s gentle pastoral music in moments suggests liturgical chant, Renaissance dance music, and baroque polyphony, though the joyful conclusion adds the modern sounds of piano four hands, triangle, and rich vocal harmony.

Tickets to individual concerts are $30 in advance ($35 at the door), with youth tickets $10 in advance ($15 at the door) and preferred-seating tickets for $75. Subscriptions to all three programs of the Society’s season are available at discounted prices. Before the first performance, the Society will host an elegant brunch at the Bridgehampton Inn & Restaurant (Main Street and Butter Lane) on Sunday, December 6 at 12:30 p.m. Wines will be provided by Channing Daughters Winery. Brunch tickets, which include preferred seating at the concert, are available from the Society at $225 per person. Reservations are being accepted until Thursday, December 3.Tickets and information are available at choralsocietyofthehamptons.org, (631) 204-9402, and the Romany Kramoris Gallery on Main Street in Sag Harbor.