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LI Philharmonic and Chorus to perform Mozart

BY VERNE GAY | verne.gay@newsday.com

May 16, 2008

Mozart's "Requiem" is probably not the greatest piece of vocal or choral music ever written; that distinction likely belongs to "Don Giovanni" or Verdi's "Otello." (Debate among yourselves.) But it certainly must be one of the more interesting. Unfinished by the time the composer was felled by rheumatic fever in 1791, his widow, Costanza, was eager to collect the fee for the work, so she commissioned another composer (Franz Süssmayr) to complete it.

The result: One of the most glorious hodgepodges in the Western canon. The last movement is a repeat of the first, and about three-quarters of the way through, the great Requiem seems to stumble and fall, then expire altogether. Nevertheless, what's there to that point is beautiful enough to move a rock to tears.

All this, however, is only part of the story behind this weekend's season finale, "Music for the Spirit: Mozart's Uplifting Requiem," performed by the Long Island Philharmonic and Chorus at Staller Center (8 p.m., tomorrow) and Tilles Center (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.), under the baton of David Wiley and chorus director Frances C. Roberts. The hundred or so singers onstage who will bring this to life are collected from one end of the Island to the other - a hodgepodge themselves, of businessmen and women, teachers, engineers who perform for free and with a passion that perhaps even a decent paycheck couldn't enhance.

The philharmonic's choral group is different from its orchestra members, who are paid and patch together an artist's living by working dozens of other music gigs in the tri-state area. The chorus is a unique institution within an institution - nearly as old as the orchestra itself (born in 1979) and similarly dedicated to the proposition that Mozart (or Shostakovich or Bernstein or Handel) makes life worth living.

Credit for this accomplishment belongs to Roberts, a former high school teacher from Commack who has molded this group from the days when then-maestro Christopher Keane believed that for a world-class orchestra to flourish on Long Island, it must also have a world-class choral group. At the time, Roberts had 200 singers under her aegis, but when the orchestra had to move to smaller venues, the size was halved.

Roberts says that "about 15 of these singers have been here from the beginning. I have one from Baldwin, from Center Moriches, Port Washington, Douglaston, Port Jeff. These are Long Island natives and singers, and I make my rehearsal times [in Patchogue] so that people who have a long drive can still do it. This is your next-door neighbor. These are volunteers - in fact, they pay and hire baby-sitters or take time off [from jobs].

"I would call this more than an avocation - I would call it the love of their lives. The people who do this love the choral community. The thing about making music in concert with others is a very powerful thing. I don't know how to express it, but it changes lives." (She adds that anyone can audition and encourages walk-ons; best to call the philharmonic's business office in Melville for directions.)

And lest we forget, the other Long Island connection this weekend - Charles Temkey, from Patchogue, will sing bass. (He'll be joined by Arianna Zukerman, soprano, Jan Wilson, mezzo, and Yeghishe Manucharyan, tenor.)

Also on the program: Gordon Jacob's concerto for horn, performed by the philharmonic's own Sharon Moe.

WHEN&WHERE

Long Island Philharmonic and Chorus perform "Music for the Spirit: Mozart's Uplifting Requiem" tomorrow at 8 p.m. at Staller Center at Stony Brook University and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at Tilles Center at C.W. Post University. Tickets: $50, $68 (Staller); $38, $50, $68 (Tilles). info: 631-293-2222.