Camerata Ama Deus Baroque Chamber Orchestra will present “Vivaldissimo” Saturday, Nov. 9., at 8 p.m., at the Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in Chestnut Hill. Music director Valentin Radu will conduct the ensemble in a program that includes Sinfonias, Concerti, and excerpts from “The Four Seasons,” Antonio Vivaldi’s masterpiece and one of the pillars of the Baroque instrumental repertoire.

 Both “Autumn” and “Winter” from “The Four Seasons” will be played as well as the Sinfonias in C major from “Il Giustino” and in C major from “La verita in cimento.” The Oboe Concerto in C major, the Trumpet Concerto in A minor, the Concerto for Two Violins in D major and the Concerto for Trumpet in C major will also be performed.

 For more information, call 610-688-2800 or visit VoxAmaDeus.org.

 Muti’s return to Philadelphia

 Former Philadelphia Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti returned to the podium of the ensemble he once led to conduct three performances of one of his specialties. In concerts Oct. 24-26 at the Kimmel Center’s Marian Anderson Hall, Muti conducted the Orchestra, the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir and four vocal soloists in the “Manzoni” Requiem Mass of Giuseppe Verdi. 

 Verdi’s “Requiem Mass,” composed in 1874 to commemorate the life of the Italian patriot and poet, Alessandro Manzoni, was never meant for liturgical use even though it uses the liturgy of the Mass for the Dead of the Roman Catholic Church. In fact, it’s often been dubbed Verdi’s greatest opera. And why wouldn’t it be? It boasts, after all, the finest libretto he ever set to music. 

 The score’s division of the liturgy’s individual and communal statements of faith in life after death is masterful. The choral writing, in particular, is Verdi’s best and the score’s orchestration stands head-and-shoulders above his other works. The solo vocal writing displays Verdi at the height of his powers.

 For my taste, Muti’s interpretation Friday evening was too cerebral and analytic to convey the composer’s passionate belief in the teachings of the Catholic Church in spite of his distaste for the Church as an institution. The music – vocal, choral and instrumental – delineates a deep-seated conviction of the truths behind the words. It projects them in ways that profoundly deepen the listener’s understanding of what the next world promises and threatens.

 The evening’s substitute soprano soloist, Angela Meade, stole the show. The recent alumna of Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts sang with such amplitude of tone and intensity of phrasing that she carried her audience into Verdi’s world of heaven and hell. The other three soloists were weak in volume and pale in color. The Symphonic Choir, on the other hand, sang with stentorian magnificence and the Philadelphians played dramatically.

 Mendelssohn Chorus Concert

 Mendelssohn Chorus presented a concert entitled “Mass for the Endangered” Saturday, Oct. 26, in the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. The program boasted two works – Antonio Caldara “Missa dolorosa” in E minor and Sarah Kirkland Snider’s “Mass for the Endangered.” Artistic director Dominick DiOrio conducted the latter; associate artistic director Heather Mitchell led the former.

 Although Snider’s score does not faithfully follow the liturgy of the Catholic Church’s “Requiem Mass,” it does employ certain movements of it along with poetry written by Nathaniel Bellows. While the two don’t always mesh together flawlessly, they do project a sense of a world-weary grief at the destruction of the environment of nature God has given to our charge. 

 In her score, Snider displays a delicate ear for the texture of choral writing, an imaginative feel for harmony and a lilting lyricism that sets the mood of the text beautifully. DiOrio led the Mendelssohn Chorus and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia with technical command and emotional vitality, eliciting a stirring ovation from the audience that nicely filled Holy Trinity’s stately Victorian/Romanesque sanctuary.

 Caldera's “Mass” is a generic setting at its best, pedestrian at its worst. A successful reading would have needed more than Mitchell gave it Saturday afternoon.

 Mendelssohn Chorus will present its traditional “A Feast of Carols” Saturday, Dec. 7, at 2 & 5 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill. For more information, visit mcchorus.org.

 Mario Lanza remembered

 The historic Mary Louise Curtis Branch of Settlement Music School in Queen Village was the site of the 65th Anniversary Commemoration of the career of the South Philadelphia tenor, Mario Lanza. The Oct. 26th recital featured selections performed by this year’s competition winners – tenor Michael Butler, mezzo-soprano Julianna Smith, and bass-baritone Benjamin Sokol. 

 The repertoire boasted arias and songs by a host of classical and popular composers, all accompanied superbly by Luke Housner, a master vocal coach at Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts.

 You can contact NOTEWORTHY at Michael-caruso@comcast.net.