The Cape Symphony Orchestra will perform with the Chatham Chorale on Sunday, April 27 at Monomoy Regional High School. The concert, titled “Grandeur and Glory,” features masterworks by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Joeph Haydn’s Mass in D minor, known as the Nelson Mass. Joseph Marchio will conduct.
The performance includes Mozart’s Symphony No. 34 and Ave verum corpus. Mozart composed the festive and exuberant Symphony No. 34 in 1780 at age 24; it is the last symphony he wrote in Salzburg before moving to Vienna. Ave verum corpus (“Hail true body”) is a short Eucharistic hymn with words attributed to the 14th century pope Innocent VI. Mozart set the hymn to music in 1791 for his friend Anton Stoll, musical director of St. Stephan, Baden.
Four Chorale soloists will be featured in the performance of the Nelson Mass. Written in 1798 for the Esterházy family of Hungarian nobility, it is Haydn’s largest mass and said to be his greatest composition. World affairs were then in turmoil as Napoleon’s advancing armies threatened Vienna. Unbeknownst to Haydn, British forces led by Admiral Horatio Nelson had just defeated Napoleon in the Battle of the Nile. The coincidence gave the mass its nickname. The association was cemented in 1800, when the Mass was performed for Admiral Nelson himself during a visit to the Esterházy palace.
Conductor Joe Marchio serves as Assistant Conductor of the Cape Symphony and Music Director of the Chatham Chorale. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music and a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from Boston Conservatory. He is also Pastor and Director of Music of the First Congregational Church of Chatham.
“Grandeur and Glory” will be performed Sunday, April 27, 2025 at 3:00 PM at Monomoy Regional High School, 75 Oak Street, Harwich, MA. Tickets are $30.00, available through Eventbrite and at the door.