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Mendelssohn Chorus Concert

Mendelssohn Chorus presented a concert entitled “Mass for the Endangered” Saturday, Oct. 26, in the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. The program boasted two works – Antonio Caldara “Missa dolorosa” in E minor and Sarah Kirkland Snider’s “Mass for the Endangered.” Artistic director Dominick DiOrio conducted the latter; associate artistic director Heather Mitchell led the former.

Although Snider’s score does not faithfully follow the liturgy of the Catholic Church’s “Requiem Mass,” it does employ certain movements of it along with poetry written by Nathaniel Bellows. While the two don’t always mesh together flawlessly, they do project a sense of a world-weary grief at the destruction of the environment of nature God has given to our charge.

In her score, Snider displays a delicate ear for the texture of choral writing, an imaginative feel for harmony and a lilting lyricism that sets the mood of the text beautifully. DiOrio led the Mendelssohn Chorus and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia with technical command and emotional vitality, eliciting a stirring ovation from the audience that nicely filled Holy Trinity’s stately Victorian/Romanesque sanctuary.

Caldara's “Mass” is a generic setting at its best, pedestrian at its worst. A successful reading would have needed more than Mitchell gave it Saturday afternoon.

Mendelssohn Chorus will present its traditional “A Feast of Carols” Saturday, Dec. 7, at 2 & 5 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill. For more information, visit mcchorus.org.

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