Thursday 20 October 2022 at 19.00

Hall of the Cultural Palace

Gioachino Rossini – Petite Messe Solennelle

Conductor: Robert Daniel Rădoiaș

Soloists:
Elisabeta Marin soprano
Aura Twarowska mezzo-soprano
Marius Zaharia, tenor
George Proca baritone

Sorin Dogariu – piano

Radu Rotaru – piano

Adriana Dogariu –harmony

More than three decades have passed since Gioachino Rossini ended his career as a composer of opera music and the appearance of his little Parisian works, both instrumental and vocal, which the maestro called “Péchés de vieillesse” (“Sins of old age”) and which he had presented in private salons, surrounded by artistic and public personalities of Paris, around 1860.

Among them was the “Petite messe sollenelle” (“Little Solemn Mass”), which Rossini considered “the last of the sins”, and which represented a performance of creative self-renewal for the 71-year-old composer.

Full of spirit, grace and last but not least, feeling, “Petite Messe Solenelle” is a last testament, a score for twelve voices (soloists and choir) and an unusual instrumentation – two pianos and harmonium – written in full harmony with the Neapolitan tradition, cultivated in France at the beginning of the 19th century.

A masterpiece, which, as Napoleon III appreciated, “is neither small, nor solemn, nor especially liturgical in spirit”, in which the sacred tones blend perfectly with the allusions to his comic works, in which everything it sounds unmistakably Rossinian, continuing to delight listeners to this day.

A repertory rarity, which returns to our desks after more than twenty years, in the performance of the academic choir, conductor Robert Daniel Rădoiaș and guest soloists – Elisabeta Marin (soprano), Aura Twarowska (mezzo-soprano), Marius Zaharia (tenor) and George Proca (baritone).