“It’s guaranteed to be the first and last time the complete cycle of sonatas is ever presented in Freehold,” quips Mark Hyczko, artistic director of the Downtown Concert Series in Freehold, NJ.

German-born Austrian pianist Stephan Möller will conclude the organization’s 2014-2015 season, offering the grandest of grand finales, by undertaking an epic journey encompassing all 32 Beethoven sonatas. The sonatas will be presented in chronological order, on eight recitals over the course of a week, beginning tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. The concerts will be held at historic St. Peter’s Church in Freehold.

Interestingly, the venue is just about as old as Beethoven himself. The construction of St. Peter’s began all the way back in 1771, the year after the composer’s birth. Originally conceived on a design of Philadelphia architect Robert Smith, the structure’s completion was delayed by the Battle of Monmouth, when the site is alleged to have served as a hospital.

Following the Revolution, it was employed as an army storehouse, until the 1790s. It was in the last decade of the 18th century that the interior was finally completed so that services could be held. Throughout the 1800s, continued renovations and expansions transformed the original meeting house design into the gothic structure which stands today.

In anticipation of Möller’s Beethoven marathon, Hyczko has been posting a “Sonata-a-Day” feature on the Downtown Concert Series Facebook page, with links to complete performances of the works by different pianists and little-known facts about the composer.

On Sunday, the Capital Singers of Trenton will present music by one of Beethoven’s teachers, Franz Joseph Haydn. Haydn’s setting of the “Te Deum” will appear on the first half of the program, alongside selections from “The Creation” and the “Mass in Time of War.” The second half will feature works by contemporary composers Franz Biebl and Stephen Paulus. The most grandiose entry should be a second “Te Deum” setting by Mark Hayes.

“It’s more romantic, almost like film scores of the 1950s,” says the chorus’ artistic director, Richard Loatman. “I don’t know if you know the composer Miklós Rózsa, who wrote the music for ‘Ben-Hur’ and ‘El Cid’ and those biblical epics, but it has that kind of a feel to it.”

Sounds good to me!

The concert will be held on Sunday at 4 p.m., at Sacred Heart Church in Trenton. You can read more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2015/05/classical_music_haydn_coming_t.html

PLEASE NOTE: I’m not responsible for the malaprop in the headline.