Concerts: Music at the Mission

Sunday, August 12
4:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.
Mission San Juan Bautista

Featuring the Cabrillo Music Festival Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop

The soaring arches and sacred history of Mission San Juan Bautista combine as the perfect setting to explore the spiritual realms of music. For the 27th year, the season's grand finale concerts will take place in the magnificent sanctuary of Mission San Juan Bautista. An unparalleled setting for unparalleled programming.

"Music at the Mission" features the West Coast premiere of Christopher Rouse's Rapture, which he describes as being "about a state of spiritual ecstasy – ever more blinding and active." From a composer whose work typically confronts the darker aspects of life comes a work which explores the notion of limitless bliss. Rouse calls Rapture "the most light-filled of all" his work. "It begins slowly, and gradually gets faster and faster until it ends really in a whirl of prestissimo music," he says.

Rapture shows off the orchestra collectively and individually. Its resplendent scoring is both rich and bright. Rouse writes for virtuoso orchestra, with solos within sections and not just for principal players. A tonal work, devoid of darkness and dissonance, Rapture is "absolutely brilliant!" says conductor Marin Alsop.

Scottish composer James MacMillan's work often delves into his religious roots and has been featured at the Mission for the past several seasons. This year he joins us in person for the very first time for the U.S. premiere of his Symphony No. 2, where he continues his exploration of the Scottish identity, this time in an elegiac mood. Notable for his extraordinary directness, energy and emotional power, MacMillan informs his music with strongly held religious and political beliefs, woven like a thread throughout.

To complete a perfect program at the Mission, Marin Alsop introduces us to a Finnish composer already wildly popular in Europe, Einojuhani Rautavaara. Marin has chosen his ethereal work, Angel of Light (Symphony No.7) for today's performance. "His expressive palette extends from lyrical soaring melodies to incisive rhythms and massive cascades of sound," says one author, describing the opulent sonority and grand romantic gestures in his work." Rautavaara is a mystic who considers that his compositions already exist in another reality and that his job is to bring a composition into the world in one piece. He struck gold with Angel of Light. Flowing epic music characterizes the first movement, preparing for the violence of the second, while the dreamlike end resolves into melodic variations on a hymn motif. Rautavaara says that it is his belief "that music is great if, at some moment, the listener catches a glimpse of 'eternity through the window of time'."

Always magnificent, always compelling — the music, the Mission and the spirit of the Festival's day at San Juan Bautista leads us, like travellers, on a journey from our everyday lives. Focus on the experience, exist in the moment and feel time stop.

Read more:

Christopher Rouse's Rapture program notes

James MacMillan's Symphony No. 2 program notes

Einojuhani Rautavaara's Angel of Light (Symphony No. VII) program notes

Tickets: $24-28

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