Bounty of Choral Music

While the ranks of today’s working composers still weigh heavily toward the Y chromosome, the status of female composers has improved greatly in recent years. But back in the era of composer Amy Beach (1867-1944), for a female composer to have her work performed was rare.

Beach is therefore regarded as an American heroine for breaking through a gender barrier.

But that aspect of her life and work shouldn’t overshadow the pure virtues of her musical imagination.

She wrote easily accessible music bridging the waning Romantic era and, in subtle degrees, hints of Modernist thought.

This Sunday, her music lands in Ventura High School’s auditorium. Beach’s mass in E flat, “Passionate Victorian,� will be presented by the Ventura Master Chorale, fortified with an orchestra, in what promises to be one of the town’s most important musical events this year.

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Joyful Choral Noise, Cont.: This is also the weekend that the other important chorale in the county, the Los Robles Master Chorale, will present a significant program. On Saturday night, the chorale will perform at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Kavli Theatre, and again on Sunday in Granada Hills, led by maestro Paul Salamunovich. His name looms large in the choral world, having inherited the position of leading the Los Angeles Master Chorale after Roger Wagner.

The music on this program will range from things ancient, a la Palestrina, to a trusty favorite, Faure’s Requiem, to a more recent and much admired entry in the choral repertoire, Morten Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna.� Salamunovich’s guest appearance continues a noble tradition in the Los Robles ensemble’s history. The ensemble’s guest conductors have included Wagner himself, San Francisco’s Vance George and the esteemed British choral conductor Sir David Willcocks.

An unofficial choral festival will enliven county this weekend.

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DETAILS

Ventura Master Chorale and Orchestra, Sunday, 4 p.m., Ventura High School auditorium, 2155 E. Main St. Tickets are $5-$20; 653-7282.

Los Robles Master Chorale, Saturday, 8 p.m., Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd., and Sunday, 4 p.m., St. John Baptist de la Salle Catholic Church, 16545 Chatsworth St., Granada Hills. Tickets are $12-$30, general admission, and $6 for children 12 and younger; 497-0386.

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Triumphant Beethoven: Whatever one’s musical politics or biases, well-played Beethoven is still one of the best reasons to visit a concert hall, come rain, parking problems or other distractions. Even his Fifth Symphony, heard one more time--when approached with passion and precision--can be one of the timeless gateways to the irreplaceable experience of live orchestral music.

Fortunately, Boris Brott’s New West Symphony is a solid, smooth-running Beethoven machine, which was proved once again last weekend during an all-Beethoven program.

Yes, Beethoven does fill seats, as Saturday’s sold-out house at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza proved, but it’s also the persuasive power of the musical ensemble that brings ‘em in.

New West had sterling assistance in the person of guest pianist Anton Kuerti. From Austria, by way of Canada, Kuerti appeared with the New West for a second time and brought dazzling clarity to the Fourth Piano Concerto.

Leaning, as this work does, toward the classical end of the Classical-Romantic transition, Kuerti’s exacting touch and avoidance of emotional excess illuminated the score. He partnered well with the orchestra, which in the second movement swaps extroverted lines with his tender, prayerful ones. Kuerti got inside the music, without losing objective perspective.

On orchestral turf, Brott and company comported themselves with a kind of respectful muscularity. The “Leonore� Overture No. 3 emerged as a glowingly forceful entity unto itself, with its trumpet clarion calls from offstage adding a spatial enigma.

The Fifth Symphony--and its opening four notes, which are among the most famous in musical history--is a prize warhorse that must be nurtured to ensure emotional authenticity.

Brott coaxed from the symphony those critical twin qualities of heroism and vulnerability, with the help of a responsive orchestra.

The Fifth can still be stirring after all these generations.