“It’s the holiday season, so we’re trying to capture the joy of season with the music we’re performing,” he said. “The title is also taken from the couple of pieces we are singing. It is in the refrain of ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel,’ arranged by G. Winston Cassler.”
The first half of the concert will feature two pieces by Russian composers — Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Glory to God in the Highest” and Peter Tchaikovsky’s “It is Truly Meet,” which sings praise to Mary, Jesus’ mother, Shtangrud said.
The two Russian pieces will be sung a cappella, he added.
“We always like to start our concert singing a cappella, so the audience can hear them sing with and without the orchestra,” he said.
In the chorale’s program, Shtangrud said he tries to incorporate multicultural pieces because the audience comes from different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Two other pieces will team the chorale with piano accompaniment by John Tveit, Shtangrud said. “Light the Legend” a Hanukkah piece, is included because the holiday starts the next evening, and another is the carol, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
“Light the Legend” is a favorite of Lynda Willner, a soprano who lives in Glendale.
“It’s peppy, it’s light and is a song for everyone,” she said. “It has a Hebrew lyric and is sung in almost a whisper. It talks about candles flashing in the night, and it’s indicative of the whole holiday season.”
Following intermission, an orchestra will join the chorale on Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Handel’s “Zadok the Priest.”
Mozart is a favorite for performers and audience members, said Brad Worsley, a tenor from Burbank.
