In November 2011, the Grail Singers and guest soloist Lorna Young Hildebrandt (a Grail Singers alumna) performed the Ann Arbor premiere of a Gasparini Mass in five parts for high voices. Debra Lonergan and Shin Hwang accompanied the choir on viola da gamba and chamber organ. We recorded the Mass in December 2011, and performed it again in Adrian in May 2012.
Gasparini composed the Mass for the women singers of the Pio Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, where he was Maestro di Coro from 1701 to 1713 and employed Antonio Vivaldi. Although not as well-known as his famous subordinate, Gasparini composed dozens of operas as well as sacred music. He was thought to have studied under Corelli, and one of his students was Domenico Scarlatti.
For these concerts—and the recording—Grail Singers’ director Carmen Cavallaro prepared a new edition of this unusual piece, long out of print. To ensure the accuracy of their performing Concerts for Grail Singers Website Page 1 August 27, 2014 edition, the Grail Singers commissioned photographs of the composer’s autograph score from its owner, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England.
In 2010 and earlier in 2011, the Grail Singers presented two other programs. The February and March 2011 concerts featured liturgical music of the Spanish Renaissance, with a special focus on Tomás Luis de Victoria, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his death. Other Spanish composers on the program included Cristobal de Morales and Francisco de Montanos.
Our May 2010 concert showcased Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music based on the Marian antiphons, four Gregorian chants sung in honor of the Virgin Mary: Alma Redemptoris Mater, Ave Regina Caelorum, Regina Caeli, and Salve Regina. The program included works by Palestrina, Lully, Grandi, Vizzana, and medieval composer Lionel Power; it concluded with the dynamic Credidi by Nicola Porpora.