Tucson choir opens season, pianist brings own works to recital

Helios Ensemble will open its 2023-24 season with Duruflé’s Requiem on Sunday, Nov. 5, at Catalina United Methodist Church.

It is one of two classical concerts this week, including an Arizona Friends of Chamber Music recital on Wednesday, Nov. 8, with pianist/composer Michael Stephen Brown in a program that includes his own works.

Duruflé’s Requiem is based on the Latin text of the Requiem Mass infused with themes from the Mass for the Dead in Gregorian chant, which the French composer set for mixed choir and baritone and mezzo-soprano soloists. Duruflé was initially commissioned by France’s Vichy regime in 1941 to compose a symphonic poem for 10,000 francs, but changed gears in 1944 and wrote the requiem instead. By the time he finished it in 1947, the regime had long collapsed. Because of the work he put into the nine-movement piece, Duruflé demanded and received 30,000 francs.

Helios’ program on Sunday also includes the premiere of Dane Carten’s “Pathless Woods,” which Helios founder and Music Director Benjamin Hansen described as “innovative in its own ethereal sound palette.” Powerful works by Hanson, Paweł Łukaszewski and Cook round out the program.

The concert begins at 4 p.m. at Catalina United Methodist Church, 2700 E. Speedway. Tickets are $18 or two for $30 in advance through heliosensemble.org or by calling 202-262-3634. It’s $20 or two for $35 at the door, and preferred seats are $40; students are free with ID.

Helios will return to the stage on Dec. 3 for the holiday-themed “A Ceremony of Carols” by Benjamin Britten, which will include Helios and the Catalina United Methodist Sanctuary Choir. That concert also will be held at Catalina United Methodist.

Pianist/composer to play own works

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Pianist/composer Michael Stephen Brown is slipping in a few of his own works in his Arizona Friends of Chamber Music recital on Wednesday, Nov. 8, including a piece he wrote for right hand only.

Brown composed the virtuosic “Breakup Etude for Right Hand Alone” in summer 2020 after he suffered a minor finger injury that led to the “breakup” of his hands playing in tandem. Brown puts the five fingers on his right hand through a workout that includes furious runs up and down the keyboard to create a work that is alternately melodic and maddening.

His “Etude-Fantasy on the Name of Haydn,” which he also wrote in 2020, comes after Haydn’s “Fantasia” in C major, which opens the concert, and works by Debussy and Ravel. Brown, who won the 2018 Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, also will perform “Three Songs Without Words” by 19th-century German composer Delphine von Schauroth, who is best known for being Felix Mendelssohn’s “flirtatious pre-marital distraction,” according to historical accounts.

The von Schauroth is the perfect segue to Mendelssohn’s Fantasy in F-sharp Minor and his “Two transcriptions from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’” which includes the Scherzo from Mendelssohn and Rachmaninoff and the “Wedding March” from Mendelssohn, Liszt and Horowitz, with Brown adding his voice to the mix.

Wednesday’s recital at Leo Rich Theater, 260 S. Church Ave., begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $45, $12 for students through arizonachambermusic.org. The concert will also be livestreamed; tickets are $45.