Tuesday, August 2, 2022 | 1 p.m.Christ Church Cathedral

Subscriptions: To purchase tickets to this performance as part of a subscription to 3 or more concerts and receive a 25% discount off the full ticket price, please call Early Music Vancouver’s box office at 604-732-1610 or email boxoffice@earlymusic.bc.ca. Please note the subscription discount is not eligible in combination with other discount programs or on special events Rondeau and Tea Table Miscellany.

Artists: Suzie LeBlanc, soprano; Vincent Lauzer, recorder; Marie Nadeau-Tremblay, violin; Sylvain Bergeron, archlute and baroque guitar

There is no doubt that the majority of traditional Acadian songs come from France, their origins can even be traced back to certain regions. Songs, just like people, are nomadic: they have no borders! The lyrics, like the melodies, often change as they travel. Songs also varied, not only from one Acadian region to another, but also from one performer to another, with each artist lending their own version.

Here, we juxtapose Acadian folk songs from Shippagan with 17th century ‘airs de cour’ from France and the court of Louis the XIV. The folksongs from Shippagan were collected by Dr. Joseph Dominique Gauthier between 1950 and 1957 who, after receiving a visit from two folklorists from Laval University, embarked on his own quest to find songs. Doctor Gauthier, a physician in Shippagan, said that getting songs and stories from his informants was the best way to do geriatrics!

The songs collected by Dr. Gauthier have melismas that are reminiscent of the ornamentation found in French ‘air de cour’ and this reveals the presence of certain archaisms in this isolated northeastern region of New Brunswick.

Friday, July 29, 2022 | 7:30 p.m.Christ Church Cathedral

Subscriptions: To purchase tickets to this performance as part of a subscription to 3 or more concerts and receive a 25% discount off the full ticket price, please call Early Music Vancouver’s box office at 604-732-1610 or email boxoffice@earlymusic.bc.ca. Please note the subscription discount is not eligible in combination with other discount programs or on special events Rondeau and Tea Table Miscellany.

Artists: Contrasto Armonico

Born in 1668, François Couperin was the only son of Charles Couperin, the harpsichordist and organist at the old Parisian Church of Saint-Gervais. During his lifetime, François Couperin, the most illustrious member of a distinguished musical family, was highly esteemed, both as performer (on the organ and the harpsichord), and as composer, and it was his contemporaries who conferred upon him the surname of “The Great.”

Les Nations is a vast project of extended trio sonatas in which the virtues of both the French and Italian styles are set next to each other. Each of the four Ordres celebrates a Catholic power of Europe, France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Savoy dynasty of Piedmont, and each is a combination of an Italianate trio sonata with its free-form virtuosity and a large-scale and elaborate French dance suite. 

Although the collection was published in 1726, some of the pieces were composed by Couperin some thirty or more years earlier, inspired by his enthusiasm for the newly-discovered Italian instrumental style, like many other composers of his generation.

Friday, July 29, 2022 | 1 p.m.Christ Church Cathedral

Subscriptions: To purchase tickets to this performance as part of a subscription to 3 or more concerts and receive a 25% discount off the full ticket price, please call Early Music Vancouver’s box office at 604-732-1610 or email boxoffice@earlymusic.bc.ca. Please note the subscription discount is not eligible in combination with other discount programs or on special events Rondeau and Tea Table Miscellany.

Artists: Pierre-Antoine Tremblay, horn; Alexander Weimann, fortepiano

In 1805, the Irish poet Thomas Moore wrote a short poem entitled “The Last Rose of Summer,” which was later set to a traditional tune called “Aisling an Óigfhear” (The Young Man’s Dream). The poem and the tune were published together in 1813 in Volume 5 of Moore’s Selection of Irish Melodies. Dozens of classical composers created their own arrangements and fantasies based on the tune, including three of the five composers on this program, Beethoven (twice, in 1814 and 1818), Moscheles in 1826 in a work for piano and orchestra, and Mendelssohn (in 1830) with a piano piece that opens with a short Adagio introduction in which the melody is presented, after which it is subjected to a steady succession of treatments in terms of tempo, mood, and fragmentation.

The horn and the piano had been around for many years before anyone thought of writing a sonata combining the two instruments. That “anyone” was Beethoven, and the year was 1799. Scholars have so far found no precedent. It was to be the only sonata by this composer for a wind instrument, and it was written for a particular horn player named Jan Václav Štich (1748-1803), born in Bohemia, and who became Giovanni Punto when he moved to Italy. Renowned for his virtuosity, Punto had ample opportunity to prove himself in Beethoven’s acrobatic writing for the instrument. As Beethoven was a formidable pianist, he gave himself a substantial part as well. 

Another composer to highlight on this programme is Fanny Mendelsshon who was an outstanding pianist and one of the foremost women composers of the nineteenth century. 

Generously supported by Anona Thorne and Takao Tanabe

Thursday, July 28, 2022 | 7:30 p.m.Christ Church Cathedral

Subscriptions: To purchase tickets to this performance as part of a subscription to 3 or more concerts and receive a 25% discount off the full ticket price, please call Early Music Vancouver’s box office at 604-732-1610 or email boxoffice@earlymusic.bc.ca. Please note the subscription discount is not eligible in combination with other discount programs or on special events Rondeau and Tea Table Miscellany.

Artists: Arkora; Jonathon Adams, baritone; Lan Tung, erhu

The electric chamber consort Arkora, conceived in Vancouver, continues its exploration of connections between past and present with a project of new works by Canadian composers and ancient masterworks highlighting the oeuvre of Hildegard von Bingen. The program offers a combination of historically-informed performance and contemporary re-envisioning of early work performed by Arkora’s ensemble of early and new music specialists. At the heart of the program lie Arkora-commissioned works by Dorothy Chang, Tova Kardonne, and Jonathan Wild, as well as world premieres by Curtis Andrews and Benton Roark, composer-performers that have each forged distinct voices in the world of contemporary music through the fusion of different styles. Alongside medieval and Renaissance chants and motets, these works find a meeting place in a concert of voices and instruments from different centuries and traditions, including mridangam, electric guitar, strings, and microtonal keyboard and percussion. For this project Arkora is also joined by special guests EMV’s 2021 Artist-in-Residence Jonathan Adams, baritone and master erhu improviser, Lan Tung. The early works will include the chants Nunc Gaudeant and O Virtus Sapientiae and more by Hildegard von Bingen as well as motets by Pérotin, Vicentino and Lassus. 

Generously supported by Dorothy Jantzen

Pre-concert talk: Join us at 6:45 p.m. for a pre-concert interview with Bill Richardson and the co-Artistic Directors of Arkora, Kathleen Allan and Benton Roark. This talk is included in the live concert ticket price.