Sacred Music Series - Easter Concert

10 - 11/4/2004 星期六 20:00 / 星期日 11:30     St. Dominic's Church    

F. Schubert: Symphony Nº 5 in B-flat major, D 485 ▍Mass Nº 5 in A-flat major, D 678
Soprano: Victoria Lambourn ▍Alto: Yang Jie ▍Tenor: Bongani Tembe ▍Bass: Richard Weigold

Hong Kong Oratorio SocietyConductor: En Shao


Schubert’s Symphony Nº 5 in B flat major is a symphonic piece written for chamber orchestra and is referred to as the “symphony without drums and trumpets”.

Schubert created numerous compositions during his lifetime, but his tendency to compose sacred music was no coincidence: he grew up in a church-going family in Catholic Vienna, and when he was seven began to sing frequently at celebrations of the Mass at Court. From the age of fifteen until his last year, he produced some forty sacred compositions, which include six full-scale Latin Masses. The first four Masses were written between 1814 and 1816 on request for specific occasions. His Mass Nº 5 in A-flat Major, D. 678 was composed between 1819 and 1822, and was revised several years later. Schubert completed a revision of this Mass in late 1825 or early 1826, and it is this revised version that is performed in today’s concerts. Although it cannot be compared with Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis written during the same period, it reflected Schubert’s brave ideas about the dramatic force of harmonic juxtapositions.