From Russia - with Music - November 2018

Chromatica, a popular Danville chorus that recently performed two concerts with the Diablo Symphony and several other choirs to great acclaim, will perform choral music from the great Russian composers in its three fall concerts. The first will be at Clayton Valley Presbyterian Church at 1570 Kirker Pass Road in Clayton at 7pm on Saturday November 3. The next concert is at the Lafayette Library, 3491 Mt. Diablo Boulevard, Lafayette at 3pm on Sunday November 4. The final concert will be at Peace Lutheran Church, 3201 Camino Tassajara in Danville at 7pm on Saturday November 10.

Chromatica is noted for the extraordinary range of its repertoire ranging in time from the 12th to the 21st century and in genre everywhere from classical to contemporary. This time, Chromatica's focus is on the spectacular choral compositions of Russian composers. And yes, both Irving Berlin and George Gershwin have Russian roots as well.

From Russia with Music includes two pieces from Rachmaninov's glorious Vespers — Bogoroditse Devo and Priidite, both sung in Russian. A group of five Russian composers known as the Mighty Handful who focused on defining a specifically Russian form of classical music in the mid-19th century are represented by Cesar Cui, with Hunger and The Dawn, Modest Mussorgsky, with the humorous Gopak, Rimsky-Korsakov with Chertog Tvoy and Mily Balakirev with Angel Vopiyashe. From American composers with a Russian origin, the concert includes Gershwin's Love Walked In and Irving Berlin's Give me your Tired, your Poor and Let's Face the Music and Dance.