Volume 21 Issue 8 - May 2016

Beat by Beat | Art of Song
From Monteverdi
To A Mad King
HANS DE GROOT
The Toronto Consort performs Monteverdi’s Vespers: there is a
strong case to be made that Monteverdi’s Vespers and Bach’s
B-Minor Mass constitute the finest baroque choral and liturgical
works. They are, of course, very different, but one thing they have in
common is that we know next to nothing about
their early performance history.
Bach’s work dates from the end of his life
and it seems unlikely that he himself ever
heard it in its entirety. Monteverdi’s Vespers
was published in 1610, at a time when he was
still employed at the ducal court in Mantua.
Dismissed two years later, in 1613 he received
an appointment as conductor at St. Mark’s
Basilica in Venice, so there have been attempts
to link the Vespers either with Mantua or with
Venice. One musicologist has even proposed
that there was an earlier version of the Vespers,
written for Mantua and dedicated not to the
Virgin Mary, but to St. Barbara. This remains
unproven, as are attempts to link the work
with St. Mark’s in Venice, although John Eliot
Gardiner recorded a visually spectacular performance
there.
This is not the first time the Toronto Consort has performed the
work; for these performances, May 6 to 8, the tenor Charles Daniels
will direct, while there is also a guest performance by another tenor,
Kevin Skelton. Instrumental accompaniment will be provided by the
Montreal cornetto and sackbut ensemble, La Rose des Vents. With
its intricate interweaving of sections for choir and soloists (six, eight
and ten-voice choir, solo tenor, tenor duet, tenor plus two three-voice
choirs, etc) it is a work of remarkable interest for lovers of vocal music.
Louis de Nil and César Aguilar: I first became aware of Louis de Nil
when he performed the leading male role in The Nutcracker for the
Pia Bouman Dance Studio. I also heard him play the oboe. After that
he went to study at McGill and he has just completed an M.A. program
at the University of Western Ontario. Accomplishments as a dancer
and an oboist notwithstanding, he is now primarily a tenor. His
recitals over the last two years include a performance of Schubert’s
Winterreise, no less, in April 2015. May 1 he will sing in a joint recital
with the countertenor, César Aguilar, who grew up in Mexico, came
to Canada in 2006, largely to improve his English, and later became
a music student at the University of Lethbridge. The program for
their Gallery 345 recital includes arias from Handel’s Tamerlano,
Canticle II (Abraham and Isaac) by Britten and songs by Vuillemin,
Rachmaninoff and Schubert. The pianist is Helen Becqué.
The Talisker Players present “Cross’d by the Stars,” May 3 and 4, in
which readings from letters, diaries and memoirs are coupled with
performances of works by Purcell (When I Am Laid in Earth), Gluck
(Che farò senz’ Euridice), Mahler (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen),
Burry (The Highwayman) and Bernstein (West Side Story). The
singers are Krisztina Szabó, mezzo, and Aaron Durand, baritone.
Lunchtime recitals at the Four Seasons Centre: There are several
vocal recitals in the Richard Bradshaw Auditorium this month. On
May 3, the mezzo, Anita Rachvelishvili, will sing Rachmaninoff, Falla,
Ravel, Fauré and Taktakishvili. On May 10, Aviva Fortunata will sing
Strauss’ Four Last Songs and the bass-baritone, Ian MacNeil, will
perform the Songs of Travel by Vaughan Williams. On May 17, Karine
Boucher, soprano, sings Shéhérazade by Ravel and Andrew Haji,
tenor, performs Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.
Toronto Bach Festival: Oboist John Abberger is the artistic director
of First Annual Toronto Bach Festival which will present its inaugural
concert May 27. The focus will be on Bach’s Weimar cantatas and
the program will include the cantatas Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen
BWV 12 and Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben BWV 147a. The soloists
are Ellen McAteer, soprano, Daniel Taylor, alto, and Lawrence
Wiliford, tenor.
Toronto Masque Theatre presents Purcell’s Fairy Queen: Henry
Purcell wrote only one opera, Dido and Aeneas, but several so-called
semi-operas combining spoken texts with songs. One could indulge
in regret that none of these became fully operatic works but it seems
better to accept them as they are. One of them, The Fairy Queen,
is based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with
Shakespeare’s text replaced by that of an anonymous versifier. Toronto
Masque Theatre gives us a new production of
the work, May 27 to 29, in which the singers
are Juliet Beckwith, Vania Chan, Charlotte
Knight and Janelle Lapalme, sopranos, Simon
Honeyman, alto, Cory Knight and Jonathan
MacArthur, tenors, and Alexander Dobson and
Graham Robinson, baritones.
Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey:
soprano Kathleen Battle returns to Toronto after
a long absence for a concert of Negro spirituals
backed up by the Nathaniel Dett Chorale. The
concert, at Roy Thomson Hall, May 29, will also
include readings of major Abolitionist writers
like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.
Mamele: The Mother’s Eyes: Show One
presents Tamara Gverdtsiteli, with the soloists
of the Moscow Male Jewish Cappella and
symphony orchestra, performing Yiddish,
Georgian, Russian, French and Italian songs at Roy Thomson
Hall, June 3.
Aradia performs Handel and Peter Maxwell Davies: The centre
of the repertoire of period orchestras tends to be the baroque era
but ensembles have begun to juxtapose earlier works with contemporary
material. Such is the case with the Aradia Baroque Ensemble,
which in its next concert, June 4, will give us arias by Handel but also
Peter Maxwell Davies’ 1969 monodrama Songs for a Mad King. Stacie
Dunlop, soprano, and Vincent Ranallo, baritone, will sing.
QUICK PICKS
May 7: Charlene Pauls, soprano, Christina Stelmacovich, mezzo,
Chris Fischer, tenor, and Daniel Hambly, bass will be the soloists in
Mendelssohn’s Elijah, with the Univox Choir.
May 10: Jennifer Taverner, soprano, Lyndsay Promane, mezzo, and
Daevyd Pepper, tenor, are the soloists in a concert of English and
Italian art songs at Islington United Church.
May 13: Emma Hannan, soprano, Emily D’Angelo, mezzo, Cian
Horrobin, tenor, and Nicholas Borg, bass are the soloists in Mozart’s
Requiem, with the North Toronto Choral Ensemble and the North
Toronto Symphony Orchestra at North Toronto Collegiate Institute.
May 13: Hawksley Workman will present songs by Bruce Cockburn,
with the Art of Time Ensemble.
May 13 and 15: The Toronto Symphony Orchestra concerts on May 13
and 15 will include Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 “Babi Yar” with
the Russian bass Petr Migunov as soloist.
May 15: A performance of Mozart’s Requiem at the Westben Arts
Festival will feature soloists Virginia Hatfield, soprano, Kimberly
Dafoe, mezzo, Tom Sharpe, tenor, and Joel Allison, baritone.
May 19: Janet Obermeyer, soprano, will perform a free noontime
concert at Metropolitan United Church.
May 20: Jenni Cook, soprano, will perform a free noontime recital at
St. Andrew’s Church.
And beyond the GTA: The soprano Shannon Mercer will sing Seven
Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok by Shostakovich at the First
Unitarian Church of Hamilton, May 21.
Kathleen Battle
Hans de Groot is a concertgoer and active listener
who also sings and plays the recorder. He can be
contacted at artofsong@thewholenote.com.
32 | May 1, 2016 - June 7, 2016 thewholenote.com