Seasonal Singing

Ah, Christmas. Carols begin to fill the air, decorations sparkle, pleas for commerce are everywhere, as are heightened feelings of fraternity and angst.

And we can rest fairly assured that, in classical quarters, venues will be reverberating with the sounds of two trusty holiday chestnuts--Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” ballet and Handel’s “Messiah.” The latter, originally written for Easter, has nevertheless become synonymous with the yule season, and the audience could do a lot worse. After all these years, it remains a great feast of music, worth hearing at least once a year.

Around Ventura County, the annual “Messiah” performance has come to represent something beyond just an obligatory seasonal gesture. For the past few years, the New West Symphony has expended extra effort to present Handel’s music in a baroque mode and has also made it an annual gathering of community musical forces.

Tonight, as in the last two years, the choral parts will be handled by both the Ventura County Master Chorale and Los Robles Master Chorale.

It makes for a big and glorious sound, needless to say, and one intermittently amended by . . . you, the audience joining in on cue on the “Hallelujah” chorus.

DETAILS

Handel’s “Messiah,” 8 p.m. Friday at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd.; $8-25; 449-2787.

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Chamber Adventures, Continued: Next up in the Camerata Pacifica’s season is a program that seems to neatly sum up the organization’s strengths. Founded by the irrepressible flutist and raconteur Adrian Spence as the Bach Camerata 11 years ago, the group has, among other things, had twin commitments to the baroque sounds of its original namesake and to select contemporary music.

This weekend’s program features work of two Bachs--Johann Sebastian’s “Italian Concerto,” played on harpsichord by Corey Jameson, and son Wilhelm Friedemann’s “Sonata for Viola and Harpsichord,” with Jameson and violist Donald McInnes. After intermission, we’ll hear the great Estonian composer Arvo Part’s 1992 composition, “Adagio for Violin, Cello and Piano,” inspired by Mozart, but in Part’s unique minimalist-meets-early-music language.

Closing out the program will be the “Phantasy Trio” by British composer Frank Bridge, best-known as the teacher of Benjamin Britten, who, in turn, wrote the piece “Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge.” The Bridge piece is another example, like last month’s performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Phantasy Quintet,” of Spence’s tendency to dig up rarities from United Kingdom culture.

As always, the program will be repeated in various locations--tonight at Santa Barbara City College, Saturday at Temple Beth Torah in Ventura and Sunday at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks.

DETAILS

Camerata Pacifica, 8 p.m. Friday at Santa Barbara City College, 721 Cliff Drive; 8 p.m. Saturday at Temple Beth Torah, 7620 Foothill Road, Ventura; and 8 p.m. Sunday at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2000 Thousand Oaks Blvd.; $25; (800) 557-BACH.

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Josef Woodard, who writes about art and music, can be reached by e-mail at joeinfo@aol.com.