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Christmas at the Chan - Concert 2:Festive Bach Cantatas for ChristmasEarly Music Vancouver's popular Christmas tradition continues with a programme of festive works, featuring 3 trumpets, 2 oboes, 2 flutes, bassoon, timpani & strings, including the third Cantata from his beloved Christmas Oratorio.
Suzie LeBlanc soprano with
PLEASE NOTE: Tickets for this concert at $59, $44 and $29 are only available at the Chan Centre Ticket Office in person, or through Ticketmaster: 604 280-3311 or www.ticketmaster.ca. (Note: Surcharges apply to orders made through Ticketmaster). Rush Seats for Students with valid ID on sale for $10, at the door only, from 7:00 pm on the evening of the concert. This concert is included in our “Bring a Youth for Free” programme.
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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750):
BWV 120:
i n t e r v a l
BWV 248-III:
– programme subject to changes
Most of us are used to hearing these cantatas and oratorios with much larger forces than Bach would have had at his disposal – partly as the result of Mendelssohn’s interest in reviving these works on a nineteenth-century scale which established a new tradition, and partly because these cantatas have since become the domain of choral ensembles. In fact, during Bach’s time when these cantatas were performed as part of church services, the “choral” parts would, in most cases, have been sung by the four vocal soloists rather than a choir, while the instrumental accompaniment would often have consisted of a small, one-on-a-part instrumental ensemble. At special festive occasions, however, Bach would have the opportunity to expand these forces and also include additional wind instruments and a larger string section. In this performance, we follow the tradition of Bach’s time, and the four choral parts will be sung by the vocal soloists rather than by a separate choir. It is strange to us that early 18th-century composers had no concept of composing for posterity. Given that musical culture consisted almost exclusively in the performance of new music, a composer such as Bach had no idea that a given work of his would ever be performed again, and certainly not several centuries hence. The composer’s job was essentially a practical one, not unlike that of our modern-day film composers. As a result of this, and also strange to us with our principles and laws concerning ‘intellectual property rights’, composers freely borrowed from each others’ music and from their own, adapting and reworking earlier pieces to suit new purposes. Tonight’s programme gives ample demonstration of this so-called parodying, in all its manifestations. * * *
BWV 34: “O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe” Cantata BWV 34, for the first Sunday of Pentecost, is a relatively late work – richly scored for three trumpets, timpani, two flutes, two oboes, strings and continuo. It began life twenty years earlier, in the 1730s, as a wedding cantata; certainly the ardent text of the opening chorus is both appropriate to a wedding as well as Pentecost. The opening movement is one of Bach’s greatest choruses with trumpets. In none of his works are the trumpets more perfectly integrated into the choral and orchestral texture; the fugue on the text “Entzünde die Herze” is one of the most wonderful and passionate of all the Bach choral fugues. After a tenor recitative, the alto aria with flutes and muted strings provides an amazing contrast. This is arguably the most beautiful aria Bach ever composed: the gently rocking melody with its rich contrapuntal underpinning is magical in its floating harmony and its evocation of the “floating spirits”. A bass recitative then leads forcefully into the great choral exhortation for peace in Israel. The joyous energy of the chorus that follows brings this great cantata to a rousing close. BWV 120: “Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille” Cantata BWV 120, suited for a festive occasion (it was written for Election Day 1727 in Leipzig) has many sources for its music. The cantata does not open with the usual chorus, but with a graceful and ceremonial aria for alto, which probably has its beginnings in a lost violin concerto. This re-working is nevertheless a gorgeous and completely convincing setting of Psalm words, miraculously combining elegance with a genuine supplicating tone. This tranquil praise of God is succeeded by the shouting of the crowds: a brilliant chorus with trumpets and drums. This is likely the one movement in this cantata that will be familiar to most listeners: it is the only concerted movement that is entirely original to this work, but is best known for its appearance some ten years later as the “Et expecto” movement in the B Minor Mass – although there it lacks the original and interesting middle section to the movement in this cantata. By 1727 Bach had a huge body of earlier secular vocal and instrumental works at his disposal to flesh out his sacred works. In some of these transformations there is a sense of awkwardness and inappropriateness of the secular material in a sacred context. In this cantata the fleshing out of a movement for violin and harpsichord to include a string orchestra and soprano for the aria “Heil und Segen” looks like it might fail – but succeed it does, and magnificently. In fact it is hard to hear the piece without the beautiful and completely fluent text setting that Bach incorporates. Both recitatives in the cantata concern themselves with the “official” side of the holiday. The cantata ends with a four-voice setting of the fourth verse of the German “Te Deum”. BWV 57: “Selig ist der Mann - Dialogus” Cantata BWV 57 is an unusual work. Written in his third year in Leipzig, the work is nominally for the second day of Christmas, and conceived as an allegorical dialogue between Jesus and the Soul. The Cantata should be seen less as a Christmas piece but rather regarded in the light of the martyrdom of Saint Stephen, commemorated on the day after Christmas. It has virtually nothing of either the Christmas story or spirit about it, and seems much more suited to the sobriety of the Lenten period. Except for the four-voice chorale in the final movement, it is written for solo bass and soprano. Contrary to the normal practice in these dialogue cantatas, the two voices do not combine for a duet aria, but only for two duet recitatives. The opening, dense aria for strings and winds presents Christ at his most imposing and, in a way, forbidding; the long phrases are sinuous and in some ways tortured. The Soul answers in a poignant recitative, followed by an astounding aria of extraordinary chromatic intensity, scored for string orchestra. Christ returns as military commander with a dazzling aria of full of bravura string writing and long and difficult vocal melismas. The Soul’s final answer is an especially expressive aria with solo violin, that projects not only relief but a genuine religious fervour. This superb cantata ends with a harmonization of “Lobe den Herrn”, perhaps the only unequivocally joyful movement in the cantata. BWV 248-III: “Herrscher des Himmels, erhöre das Lallen” In our annual “Festive Bach Cantatas for Christmas” performances, we continue with our tradition of including one of the six parts of the Christmas Oratorio – a work which includes much music that Bach had originally written for earlier secular cantatas. The third part of the Christmas Oratorio sees the shepherds eventually arriving in Bethlehem but first, to introduce them, another brilliant chorus with trumpets and drums – this time a recycling from an earlier secular cantata, BWV 214/9. In the first recitative, the Evangelist sets the scene, telling the shepherds to make their way to Bethlehem, followed by a lively turba (crowd) chorus. A further bass recitative is followed by a chorale and then a gentle duet for bass and soprano (taken from BWV 213/11, where it is somewhat more erotic!) accompanied beautifully by a pair of oboe’s d’amore. The evangelist then tells us that they have seen the child and that they spread the news of his arrival. The alto aria accompanied by solo violin which follows is thought to be the only original aria in the Christmas Oratorio; it is a gentle and beautiful reflection on Mary’s innermost feelings about the miracle that has just taken place. The work draws nearly to a close in relatively low-key fashion with the pattern recitative-chorale-recitative-chorale, both chorale settings being straightforward. The opening chorus is then repeated as if a grand da capo.
Suzie LeBlanc was born in New Brunswick of Acadian heritage. Critically acclaimed by the international press for her luminous presence, vocal magic and impeccable phrasing, she enjoys performing a wide range of musical styles from the Renaissance and Baroque periods to French Mélodies, German Lieder and Acadian traditional songs. In 2008, she made her debut in the film world as the lead character in the feature film Lost song, directed by Rodrigue Jean. The film won the City TV’s Best Canadian Feature Film Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, Best Acadian picture at FIFA (Moncton) and was chosen as one of the Top Ten films of the year in Canada. Before this, she had starred in the music documentaries More than a thousand kisses and Suzie LeBlanc and a man named Quantz, both for Prometheus Productions, and more recently in Suzie LeBlanc: A musical quest, directed by Donald Winkler. Her passion and research into Acadian traditional music has resulted in two recordings: La Mer Jolie and Tout passe, released on the ATMA label. Her 2008/2009 season saw the release of a Messiaen recording, Chants de terre de de ciel, with Robert Kortgaard, Laura Andriani and Lawrence Wiliford, as well as Humori with Les Voix Baroques (both on the label ATMA). In concert, she performed recitals of Mozart and French art song with Robert Kortgaard, Purcell’s Dido with Theatre of Early Music, The Faerie Queene, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Calgary Symphony, Palazzo Romano with La Nef, Graupner with Les Idées Heureuses, The St-Matthew Passion with the Madrid Symphony and returned to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Jonathan Miller’s version of Bach’s St-Matthew Passion. In the coming season (2009/2010) she performs Japanese songs with the Montreal Symphony and Kent Nagano, and appears with the Handel and Haydn Society, the Mendelssohn Choir, the Toronto Consort, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Theatre of Early Music, Les voix Humaines, Ensemble Caprice and Tafelmusik as well as with Yannick Nézet-Seguin in Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben and with Mark Simons (clarinet) and Robert Kortgaard (piano) in an eclectic programme featuring Schubert, Brahms, Parker and some Acadian repertoire. With Robert Kortgaard, she will aslo perform at the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival in St-Johns, Newfoundland, and in Barrie, Ontario with James Campbell and Louis-Philippe Marsolais. Her discography of over 50 cds includes Mozart Lieder with Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Die Zauberflöte (Pamina) with La Petite Bande and Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri with Les Voix Baroques, awarded the Best Early Music cd for 2007 by the Opus awards in Montreal. Recordings to be released in 2009/2010 include Caldara’s La conversione di Clodoveo with Le Nouvel Opera, and Carissimi oratorios with Les Voix Baroques, both directed by Alexander Weimann. In May 2008, Suzie LeBlanc was awarded an honorary doctorate from King’s College University in Halifax and she receives one on May 25th, 2009 from Mount Allison University, N.B. She is one of the artistic directors of Le nouvel Opéra, an organisation committed to the performance and education of Early Opera (resident ensemble of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal from September 2009) and also teaches baroque singing at the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal.
Laura Pudwell's reputation as a superb vocalist has been well-established as a result of her performances in London, Paris, Salzburg, Houston, Vienna and Boston. Her vast repertoire ranges from early music to contemporary works. She is equally at home on the opera, oratorio or recital stage, and has received international acclaim for her recordings. A frequent guest of many national and international presenters, Laura has had the privilege of working with many outstanding conductors, including Hans Graf, Hervé Niquet, Andrew Parott, Ivars Taurens, David Fallis, Marc Destrubé, Brian Jackson, John Sinclair, Bernard Labadie, Lydia Adams, Howard Dyck and Robert Cooper. On the opera stage, she has performed across Canada with such companies as Opera Atelier, the Calgary Opera, Vancouver Early Music and Festival Vancouver, as well as with the Houston Grand Opera and the Cleveland Opera. Her many roles include Cornelia (Giulio Cesare), Marcelina (Le Nozze di Figaro), Nerone and Arnalta (L'Incoronazione di Poppea), Mrs. Quickly (Falstaff), and Dido/Sorceress (Dido & Aeneas), which also was an award-winning recording performed by Laura Pudwell in Paris. She is a regular participant in many festivals, including the Vancouver Early Music Festival, Festival Vancouver, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Summer Festival, the Elora Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Grand River Baroque Festival, and the WinterPark Bach Festival in Orlando. She appears regularly with the Toronto Consort, and is a frequent guest soloist with Tafelmusik, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toronto Chamber Choir, Symphony Nova Scotia, the St. Lawrence Choir, Le Concert Spirituel, Chorus Niagara and the Menno Singers. Laura Pudwell lives in Kitchener-Waterloo with her husband and two children. She is a Professor of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University. Canadian tenor Colin Balzer has established an international career with repertoire ranging from the 17th to 20th century. He has appeared in concert, opera and recital across Europe and North America and has collaborated with such conductors as Simone Young, Phillipe Herreweghe, Marc Minkowski, Simon Preston, Kenneth Montgomery, Bernard Labadie, Hans-Christoph Rademann, and Helmut Rilling. In 2008-09 he will sing the title role of Monteverdi's Orfeo at the Edmonton Festival of Ideas, the role of High Priest in Mozart's Idomeneo at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, tours of Handel's Brockes Passion and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with Collegium Vocale Gent, Handel's Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin, Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium with the Berlin Phillharmonischer Chor, Schütz's Weihnachtshistorie with Berlin's Lautten Compagney, Bach Cantatas for Early Music Vancouver, Handel's Messiah with the Calgary Philharmonic, Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Mozart's Requiem with the National Philharmonic in Washington DC, Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri with Les Voix Baroques and Houston's Mercury Baroque, Haydn's Die Schöpfung with L'orchestra symphonique de Quebec, and Purcell's Fairy Queen for Early Music Vancouver in addition to recitals in Canada and Germany. Highlights from past seasons include performances of Handel's Solomon and Messiah and Bach's St John Passion with Tafelmusik in Toronto, Britten's War Requiem at the Aldeburgh Festival, Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 under Phillipe Herreweghe, Handel's Athalia with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, a tour Mozart's Requiem with Les Violons du Roy under Bernard Labadie, a tour of Handel's Chandos Anthems with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, Mendelssohn's Paulus with L'orchestra symphonique de Quebec, and singing the role of Vulcain in the Boston Early Music Festival's production of Lully's Psyché. He has won numerous prizes from various competitions including the ‘s-Hertogenbosch Competition, the Wigmore Hall Song Competition, the Hugo Wolf Competition, the 55th International ARD Competition, and holds the rare distinction of earning the Gold Medal at the Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau, Germany with the highest score in 25 years. An alumnus of the Franz Schubert Institute in Baden, Austria, the Britten-Pears Young Artist Program in Aldeburgh, and the prestigious Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia, he holds degrees from both the University of British Columbia where he studied under David Meek, and the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg/Augsburg where he studied under Prof. Edith Wiens. Recordings to date include Hugo Wolf's Italiensches Liederbuch, Hanns Eisler Lieder, Hans Werner Henze Lieder, Bach's Mass in B-minor with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, several recordings of various repertoire with Les Voix Baroques, and the Boston Early Music Festival's Grammy nominated recording of Lully's Psyché.
Hailed as “the real thing” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and praised for his “elegant style” (Boston Globe), baritone Sumner Thompson continues to be lauded by audiences and music cognoscenti alike. His impeccable technique, beautiful sound and elegant musicianship are quickly making him one of the most sought after young baritones in this country and abroad. His appearances on the operatic stage include the role of Orfeo in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Contemporary Opera Denmark in Copenhagen, Uberto in La Serva Padrona with Apollo’s Fire, The Traveller in Britten’s Curlew River with the Britten-Pears School in Nagaoka, Japan, and at the Aldeburgh Festival in the UK, Schaunard in La Bohème with Granite State Opera, and The Count in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with the Commonwealth Opera. He recently made his debut as guest soloist with Tafelmusik in Bach’s St. John Passion in Toronto, and returned to both the Boston Early Music Festival in Lully’s Psyché and the Carmel Bach Festival as soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Recent concert performances include the Boston Early Music Festival in concert with the King’s Noyse, as well as a North American tour of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers with Tragicomedia and Concerto Palatino; Händel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall with the Masterwork Chorus, Finzi’s In terra pax with the National Symphony and the Choral Arts Society of Washington at the Kennedy Center, as Pilate in a staged version of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Apollo’s Fire, Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem with the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, La Discorde in Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants with the Camerata Pacifica, Bach’s St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion in Bloomington, IN under the direction of Paul Hillier, Schaunard in a concert version of La Bohème with the Newton Symphony Orchestra, and as Zebul in Händel’s Jephtha with NYS Baroque in Ithaca, NY. Among his many awards and distinctions, Mr. Thompson is the winner of the 1995 Atlanta Pro-Mozart Society Competition, the Willi Apel Scholarship at Indiana University in 1997, and the 1999 Indiana University Early Music Institute Concerto Competition, for which he was the only singer to ever be accorded this honour. In 2003, Mr. Thompson placed as a semi-finalist in the prestigious Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. He was also twice a semi-finalist in the New York Oratorio Society Competition. Sumner Thompson records for the harmonia mundi usa, Dorian, Plectra and Arsis labels.
A native of Victoria, Marc Destrubé is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster or director/conductor of orchestras and divides his time between performances of the standard repertoire, particularly music of the 20th century, on modern instruments, and performing baroque and classical music on period instruments. He has appeared as soloist and guest director with symphony orchestras in Victoria, Windsor and Halifax as well as with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Lyra Baroque and Portland Baroque Orchestra, and he led the Belgian ensemble Anima Eterna in acclaimed recordings of the complete Mozart Piano Concerti with Jos van Immerseel. A founding member of the Tafelmusik Orchestra, he has appeared with many of the leading period-instrument orchestras in North America and Europe including as guest concertmaster of the Academy of Ancient Music and of the Hanover Band. He is first violinist with the Axelrod String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., where the quartet plays on the museum’s exceptional collection of Stradivari and Amati instruments. He has also performed and recorded with L’Archibudelli (Vera Beths, Jurgen Küssmaul, Anner Bijlsma) and is a member of the Turning Point Ensemble in Vancouver specializing in 20th century music and new music. As a concertmaster he has played under Sir Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Helmuth Rilling, Christopher Hogwood, Philippe Herreweghe, Gustav Leonhardt and Frans Brüggen. He is co-concertmaster of Brüggen’s Orchestra of the 18th Century with whom he has toured the major concert halls and festivals of Europe, North America, Japan and Australia, and most recently directing the orchestra for two concerts at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. He was concertmaster of the CBC Radio Orchestra from 1996 to 2002, and of the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra. He was artistic director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra from its founding in 1991 until 2007, and was responsible for commissioning works for the orchestra from a number of Vancouver-based composers, as well as instigating other innovative projects such as a program of French baroque and First Nations dance and music. He has also directed several Modern Baroque Opera productions, including the premiere of Peter Hannan’s 120 Songs for the Marquis de Sade . A highly-respected teacher, he gives annual classes at international academies in Mateus (Portugal) and Vancouver. He has also been an invited teacher at the Paris, Moscow and Utrecht Conservatoires and at Indiana University and the Macphail School, and has presented children’s concerts at the Cité de la Musique (Paris). His recording of Haydn Violin Concertos on the ATMA label has been praised by the Strad Magazine (London) for the “stylish solo playing..., individual yet unselfconscious” and by Whole Note Magazine (Toronto) for its “bold and daring solo playing”. He has also recorded for Sony, EMI, Teldec, Channel Classics, Hänssler, Globe and CBC Records as well as being broadcast regularly on the CBC. He lives in West Vancouver with his wife and two children.
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Willem Benson (Flemish, mid 16th-century): “Nativity”, detail
Suzie LeBlanc
Laura Pudwell alto
Colin Balzer
Sumner Thompson baritone
Marc Destrubé