Requiem Adventures, Part Two

No one can accuse the Santa Barbara Symphony (SBS) of being an insular organization or exclusive club. Especially in recent years, the orchestra has put extra emphasis into community outreach — both in cultivating a wider audience and sharing the stage with other locally based arts organizations.

Maestro Nir Kabaretti, currently in his 20th year in charge, comments that “collaboration with other arts organizations and engaging with the community are vital parts of our artistic DNA. They inspire creativity, enrich everyone involved, and bring something truly special to our community.”

Such a collaborative principle was a driving force in the season opener Romeo and Juliet in conjunction with State Street Ballet. The trend continues this weekend, as conductor Kabaretti and company will be abetted by a vast contingent of voices making up a new Santa Barbara Symphony Chorus. 

Thinking big is in the air here. The Symphony Chorus made its official debut last season with Brahms’s masterful German Requiem and is about to take on another challenging and popular liturgical opus, Mozart’s Requiem, this weekend at The Granada Theatre. Here, Kabaretti has changed the game plan of past liaisons in this voice-rich city, creating a singular new aggregate under the Symphony umbrella.

He explains that the Symphony Chorus “was a natural next step in our mission to be more inclusive and accessible. Santa Barbara has such a vibrant choral scene, with established choirs, vocal ensembles, college choruses, and church groups that keep music alive all year long.

“In the past, we’ve collaborated mainly with the Santa Barbara Choral Society, and those experiences were wonderful. But we also felt it was time to open the door wider. The new Symphony Chorus gives anyone in our community with the talent and passion for singing the opportunity to perform with a professional orchestra on the Granada stage.”

Along with orchestral credentials, Kabaretti has a close connection to voice, leading him to conduct opera in such lofty locales as La Scala and the Royal Swedish Opera. “My first love in conducting was instrumental music,” he says, “but while studying in Vienna, I discovered the magic of vocal music and opera. This led to my first full-time position as chorus master at the Vienna State Opera. That experience revealed the unique power of combining voices and instruments, and bringing these two worlds together remains one of the greatest joys of my musical life.”

Though long recognized as one of the more profound examples of the Requiem form in classical music, Mozart’s Requiem has gained general public awareness in recent decades, thanks to Hollywood, and the piece’s central role in the Mozart biopic Amadeus. Kabaretti says, “Amadeus and the mysterious circumstances surrounding the creation of Mozart’s Requiem have certainly contributed to its legendary, almost mythical status. Musically, I believe it is the first Requiem in history written by a highly experienced opera composer, someone who could use his extraordinary theatrical sense to bring the metaphoric text vividly to life.

“Mozart apparently said that sacred music was his favorite form of composition, and the Requiem represents its highest expression. Yet with its immense dramatic and musical power, it feels as though Mozart intended the work to be far more than just a Catholic religious function.”

Also on this weekend’s program are two accessible contemporary works. Aaron Jay Kernis’s Musica Celestis is, Kabaretti comments, “inspired by the medieval idea of the ‘singing of the angels in heaven,’ a kind of perpetual sound praising God, and has an almost meditative quality.”

The second piece is a specially commissioned trombone concerto by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi. The double trombone soloist honors go to renowned Swedish trombonist Christian Lindberg and the symphony’s own Principal Trombone, Dillon MacIntyre.

On a personal note, reflecting on his two decades as SBS music director, Kabaretti takes a broad view of the time’s passage. “We live in a very different world than we did 20 years ago,” he says. “So much has changed, technologically, socially, culturally, and beyond. With these changes have come new opportunities, and I’m proud to be part of an organization that has adapted with integrity and artistic vision to this evolving environment, making the Symphony more indispensable to our community than ever before.”

The Santa Barbara Symphony performs Mozart Requiem Saturday, November 15, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 16, 3 p.m., at The Granada Theatre (1214 State St.). See bit.ly/48Z7nSy.