April 16, 2010 - Glebe Report

MUSIC
St. Matthew’s spring concert
by Frances Berkman
Saturday, May 15, at 7:30 pm, the
combined choirs of St. Matthew’s
Anglican Church in the Glebe, under
the direction of Stephen Candow,
will present their spring concert of
music by J.S. Bach and G. F. Handel.
Featured soloists will be sopranos
Martha Coulthart and Clare Jackson,
countertenor Kevin Hassell, tenor
Michael Ruddy and bass Philip
Holmes.The choir will be accompanied
by a string orchestra, continuo
and oboes. The concert will open with
Bach’s Cantata No. 179, Siehe zu,
Das Deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei
sei, followed by Bach’s Missa
Brevis in G major. The second half
of the concert will feature Handel’s
Chandos anthem No. 9, O Praise the
Lord with One Consent.
Cantata 179 was originally written
for the 11 th Sunday after Trinity
in 1723, shortly after Bach moved
to Leipzig to assume the post of director
of choir and music. That year,
along with his duties of teaching and
organizing and rehearsing the music
for services at the four main churches
of Leipzig, Bach undertook the task
of composing a new cantata for every
Sunday and feast day of the year.
The cantata would be integral to the
church service with the text based on
the set readings for the day.
For Bach or other Lutheran composers
of his time, a missa brevis or
short mass consisted of the Kyrie
and Gloria. Bach wrote four missae
breves, all of which are known
as parody works, that is works based
on pre-existing music. While it was
not uncommon to compose music
based on well-known folk or popular
songs, Bach used music from his
own earlier works for each of his
short masses. In his Missa Brevis in
G major composed in 1735, Bach reworked
some of the musical themes
from Cantata no. 179 into the mass
setting. In this concert, the earlier
work and the “parody mass” have
been paired – see if you can recognize
the “recycled” material
The final piece, Handel’s O Praise
the Lord with One Consent is based
on texts from Psalms 135, 117 and
148. This is one of 12 anthems
composed from 1717-1718 for the
Duke of Chandos, while Handel was
composer-in-residence at his estate
outside of London. These anthems,
which combine choral and solo
movements, were quite distinct from
earlier English church music and in
fact are similar in style to Bach’s
church cantatas.
St. Matthew’s, the Anglican Church
in the Glebe, has two active choirs
which take part in sung services.
The Men and Boys’ Choir, founded
in 1956, practises twice a week and
sings 3-6 services a month. The
Women and Girls’ Choir, founded
in 1990, practises once a week and
sings 1-2 services each month. The
choirs will combine forces for major
feast services and for our two
annual concerts.
The choirs provide an opportunity
for children from the Glebe, Old
Ottawa South and beyond to receive
musical training and to learn to sing
a wide variety of liturgical music
throughout the year, as well as the
chance to sing with a full voice
choir and orchestra in concert. For
a number of choir members, singing
with St. Matthew’s is a family affair,
with children singing with siblings,
parents and even grandparents.
Tickets are $20 for general admission
and $15 for students; they are
available at St. Matthew’s Anglican
Church office (217 First Avenue,
613-234-4024), CD Warehouse and
Compact Music.
The Men, Women, Boys’ and Girls’
choirs hope you will join us May 15
for an evening of beautiful and uplifting
Baroque music.
Photo: Sim-Canetty-Clarke
Celtic North
Gerald Finley
nominated for a Juno
Glebe Report April 16, 2010 25
Lois Siegel, Dan Perkins
and Marie Deziel who make
up Celtic North all started
playing together at the Glebe
Community Centre in 1999 as
part of the Celtic Slow Jam.
Recently, they performed
on “Daytime” at Rogers TV
with future dates to be confirmed.
In their group as on
this CD, Lois Siegel plays
fiddle, spoons and bodhran;
Dan Perkins sings the vocals
and plays guitar, Irish bouzouki
and bodhran and Marie
Deziel plays the accordion
and fiddle.
Canadian baritone Gerald Finley
began singing as a chorister at St.
Matthew’s Anglican Church in the
Glebe before completing his musical
studies in the UK at the Royal
College of Music, King’s College,
Cambridge and the National Opera
Studio.
This month he was nominated
again for a Juno in the category of
“Classical Album of the Year: Vocal
or Choral Performance” for his
Songs By Ravel, on the Hyperion
label. Three years ago, he returned to Ottawa from the United Kingdom to
perform at St. Matthew’s 50 th anniversary concert, a highlight of the Men &
Boys’ Choirs’ reunion weekend.
After his initial appearances at Glyndebourne in the Mozart baritone repertoire,
he now appears in a variety of leading roles at the world’s opera houses
including London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Salzburg, New York, Chicago
and San Francisco. His Don Giovanni has been seen in Vienna, Prague, Rome,
New York, Paris, Tel Aviv and London. He has created the lead roles in major
premieres: J. Robert Oppenheimer (Doctor Atomic), Harry Heegan (The Silver
Tassie), Mr. Fox (Fantastic Mr. Fox) and Jaufre Rudel (L’amour de loin). He
played Owen Wingrave in the Channel 4 film. His most recent engagements
include playing Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and
Oppenheimer (Doctor Atomic) at the Lyric Opera Chicago.
The Juno Awards will be presented at the St. John’s Convention Centre on
Saturday, April 17 and can be watched on CTV the following day.
Recordings of St. Matthew’s 50 th anniversary concert are still available.
Photo: Gordon Metcalfe
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