Performances of Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio,” and the long-awaited return of baroque specialist Harry Bicket, highlight Music of the Baroque’s 2018-19 season.
The group’s 48th season will run from September to May, with most concerts presented at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, and the Harris Theater for Music and Dance at Millennium Park.
Music director Jane Glover will direct the unfinished Mozart masterpiece to begin the season Sept. 15-16. Vocal soloists include soprano Amanda Majeski and bass Eric Owens. Three of Handel’s “Coronation Anthems” complete the program.
In the first of two appearances, principal guest conductor Nicholas Kraemer will lead Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” with concertmaster Gina DiBello as soloist, along with works by Telemann and Rameau. Concerts are Nov. 4 and 5.
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Glover will return Nov. 25-26 to lead the Bach oratorio, with soloists Yulia Van Doren, Elizabeth DeShong, Thomas Cooley and Tyler Duncan.
Chorus director William Jon Gray will take charge of the annual holiday brass and choral concerts Dec. 13-16 at churches in River Forest, Chicago and Northbrook.
Pianist Angela Hewitt will join Glover and the MOB orchestra for all-Mozart concerts Jan. 26-27 honoring the composer’s 263rd birthday. The program holds Piano Concerto No. 27 and the “Gran Partita” for winds.
Bicket’s all-orchestral program includes concerti grossi by Corelli and Handel, and pieces by Vivaldi, Rameau and Venetian composer Evaristo Felice Dall’Abaco. Absent from the MOB roster since 2002-03, Bicket also will be conducting Handel’s “Ariodante” at Lyric Opera concurrent with his MOB concerts on March 3 and 6.
The rising young soprano Joelle Harvey will make her MOB debut March 31 and April 1 in a program under Glover’s direction that includes Bach’s “Coffee” Cantata and Orchestral Suite No. 2, along with Haydn’s “Fire” and “Philosopher” symphonies.
Kraemer will conclude the season with a choral-instrumental program May 12-13 that holds Handel’s “Dixit Dominus,” Bach’s Cantata No. 131 and excerpts from Purcell’s semi-opera “The Fairy Queen.”
For subscription ticket information, call 312-551-1414, or go to www.baroque.org.
John von Rhein is a Tribune critic.