Aylesbury Choral Society (ACS) will be performing a most exciting concert, a first of its kind in Aylesbury and introducing to its audience to two fantastic musicians of the Viennese Classical period.
One of these musicians will be arguably the most famous of the period, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. ACS will be performing his much loved and extremely popular Coronation Mass in C major (K.317), written in 1779, probably for a premiere in Salzburg Cathedral at the Easter of that year. This is an exuberant, lively piece frequently performed at royal coronation services in the years after its composition. What is, perhaps, most striking though is the work that ACS is performing alongside the Mozart.
Marianna Martines was a well known female composer, pianist and singer in Vienna in the late 18th century and was a contemporary and friend of Mozart. Mozart and she were known to have played piano duets together at musical soirees, some of which were composed specially for Marianna and he to play; and he is said to have greatly admired her own compositions. The fact that Marianna had developed some fame as a composer at a time when women were just not expected to take on such a role is a testament to the ambition and enlightenment of her father, Nicolò Martines (a musician of Spanish descent who served as ‘master of ceremonies’ to the papal nuncio and who was knighted by the Empress Maria Theresia) and the teacher he engaged for her education, Pietro Metastasio. In music, she was taught singing, piano, and composition and Joseph Haydn – who was a lodger for a time in the family home in Vienna – additionally gave her some piano and theory lessons. Yet, despite all this and Marianna’s fame at the time, Marianna is almost unheard of today, though she left behind her a large body of the most beautiful and engaging works. ACS’s concert will include a performance of one of her most major works and the largest that whe wrote for soloists, chorus and orchestra, the Quarta Messa (writtwn in 1765). This is, we understand, just the third performance of this work in the UK and will certainly be a first for Aylesbury and the Vale. This music must be experienced for its joy, its masterful writing and for the chance to hear a significant work from a female composer.
ACS will be joined by The Aylesbury Sinfonia and will be directed by Jeff Stewart. Tickets are £18 (£7 for under 18) and are available via https://www.aylesburychoral.org.uk or https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/aylesbury-choral-society (booking fees are applicable); or by contacting the Society’s chairman at acschairman@gmail.comincluding your contact details for receipt of tickets, and from the Society members.
