For their 32nd season, Musica Angelica performed a Christmas program featuring various composers, excellently directed by Martin Haselböck, on Dec. 15. Even while performing in the huge (yet beautiful) main sanctuary of First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, they kept the venue intimate, recreating how it would have felt in 1700 on a Sunday.
The program opened with two exquisite Joseph Haydn pieces: the Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo “Little Organ Solo Mass” (Hob. XXII:7) and the Concerto in F-Major (Hob. XVIII:6). The musicians and singers (guest artists Ashley Fabian, soprano; Ianthe Marini, alto; Pablo Cora, tenor; Scott Graff, baritone) performed the pieces beautifully.
Then, introducing the program’s second half, Musica Angelica played a Michel Corette piece Symphonie sur un Noël Allemand. The composer and the performers surprised me here — implying the holiday theme through the soft, flowing touch of the strings section and the jolly bell-like sound of the rückspositiv organ even without the more versatile storytelling of voices. I also enjoyed their decision to use the smaller rückspositiv organ instead of the much larger pipe organ to create that feeling of intimacy and balance with the other instruments.
Haselböck then improvised a quick passage on the organ, leading to the Mozart piece Ergo interest – Quaere superna(KV 143). This piece especially highlighted the soprano’s talent, starting with a recitative passage with solo voice and continuo, then expanding to a more complicated accompaniment of two violins, viola and continuo.
Then, generously, Musica Angelica added a piece not listed on the program, with the singers at the back of the sanctuary out of view singing the Praetorius setting of Lo, how a rose, which led into the Schoenberg Weihnachtmusik, yet another example of Musica Angelica’s relaxing holiday interpretation of this program.
The Schoenberg piece led seamlessly, and almost unnoticeably, into the Michael Haydn piece Lauft, ihr Hirten, allzugleich, a complement to both the performance of the pieces and the composer Schoenberg for replicating the style of composition from a hundred years before his time.
The only thing I would have changed from this experience would have been the positioning of the performers. Don’t get me wrong — the venue was incredible and a perfect fit for the music. However, the musicians performing on the same plane as the listeners led to them being partially obscured for audience members further to the back. Otherwise, I have no complaints, and the reception afterwards was notably enjoyable.
I think I speak for many when I say I can’t wait for the St. Matthew Passion!
—Haydn Schlinger, Culture Spot LA
For information about upcoming concerts, including the St. Matthew Passion on Saturday and Sunday, April 12 and 13, 2025, visit https://www.musicaangelica.org.