Volume 25 Issue 3 - November 2019
On the slim chance you might not have already heard the news, Estonian Canadian composing giant Udo Kasemets was born the same year that Leo Thermin invented the theremin --1919. Which means this is the centenary year for both of them, and both are being celebrated in style, as Andrew Timar and MJ Buell respectively explain. And that's just a taste of a bustling November, with enough coverage of music of both the delectably substantial and delightfully silly on hand to satisfy one and all.
On the slim chance you might not have already heard the news, Estonian Canadian composing giant Udo Kasemets was born the same year that Leo Thermin invented the theremin --1919. Which means this is the centenary year for both of them, and both are being celebrated in style, as Andrew Timar and MJ Buell respectively explain. And that's just a taste of a bustling November, with enough coverage of music of both the delectably substantial and delightfully silly on hand to satisfy one and all.
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that focuses on various aspects of the<br />
Christmas story.<br />
Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël is<br />
a cantata-oratorio hybrid written<br />
for soloists, chorus, organ, strings<br />
and harp, composed while he was<br />
an organist at La Madeleine in Paris.<br />
Distinctly French in harmonic<br />
language, yet clearly indebted to the<br />
form of the Baroque cantata and<br />
dramatic element of the oratorio,<br />
this work combines arias, recitatives<br />
and chorus movements with the<br />
Latin texts of the Catholic lectionary,<br />
creating a piece of music with distinct characteristics and fascinating<br />
form. The cantata theme continues with Buxtehude’s Das neugeborne<br />
Kindelein, a Protestant church cantata for chorus and chamber<br />
orchestra, and Pergolesi’s Magnificat. These works will not only frame<br />
Saint-Saëns’ unconventional cantata with more traditional essays in<br />
the form, but delight the audience with infrequently performed works<br />
by renowned masters of their craft.<br />
Two Bits of Bach<br />
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos are stunning masterpieces,<br />
as virtuosic a display of compositional prowess as their instrumental<br />
interpreters must be to convey the secrets contained therein.<br />
This <strong>November</strong>, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin visits Kingston<br />
on <strong>November</strong> 26 and Koerner Hall on <strong>November</strong> 27 in a performance<br />
of the first five Brandenburgs, a not-to-be-missed musical event.<br />
The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Akamus for short), founded in<br />
East Berlin in 1982, is one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras<br />
on period instruments. It has established itself as one of the<br />
pillars of Berlin’s cultural scene, holding its own concert series at<br />
the Konzerthaus Berlin for more than 30 years, as well as a concert<br />
Ottawa Bach Choir<br />
series at Munich’s Prinzregententheater. Having sold more than one<br />
million CDs, their highly successful recordings have won all important<br />
awards for classical recordings; with such extraordinary international<br />
performers making a rare Canadian appearance, tickets for these<br />
concerts will certainly be in high demand.<br />
Now in its 18th season, the Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC) continues<br />
to impress with their high level of skill and devotion to the art of<br />
their namesake composer. As a testament to their dedication and<br />
continued excellence, the OBC has been invited to return to Leipzig<br />
for the 2020 Bachfest as one of a select number of ensembles worldwide<br />
to present Bach’s entire chorale cantata cycle, a remarkable and<br />
imposing proposition! On <strong>November</strong> 30, the Ottawa Bach Choir, led<br />
by founding artistic director Lisette Canton, will visit Toronto for A<br />
Bach Christmas, providing us with the opportunity to hear a miniature<br />
Bachfest of our own. This program includes the cantatas the<br />
choir will perform at Bachfest Leipzig 2020 (Meinen Jesum laß ich<br />
nicht, BWV124; Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid, BWV3; Was mein<br />
Gott will, das g’scheh allzeit, BWV111), as well as the Christmas interpolations<br />
from the Magnificat, BWV243 (Vom Himmel hoch, Freut<br />
euch und jubiliert, Gloria in excelsis Deo, Virga Jesse floruit), the<br />
<strong>2019</strong>-2020: The Fellowship of Early Music<br />
Great seats start at only $32!<br />
416-964-6337 | TorontoConsort.org<br />
COUNTRYSIDE<br />
Schütz’s<br />
and CHRISTMAS<br />
COURT<br />
OCTOBER<br />
STORY<br />
<strong>25</strong> & 26 at 8pm<br />
Artistic Direction by Katherine Hill, with Emilyn Stam<br />
DEC. 13 & 14 at 8pm | DEC. 15 at 3:30pm<br />
Whether Artistic enjoyed Direction in refined by David 16th-century Fallis courts or in<br />
today’s traditional music scene, the undeniable appeal<br />
Celebrate the season with one of the brightest<br />
of French music has endured through the centuries! We<br />
musical jewels of early-Baroque Germany: Heinrich<br />
kick off the season whirling and twirling through the<br />
Schütz’s The Christmas Story. We welcome acclaimed<br />
English popular “voix tenor de Charles ville” songs Daniels and in exquisite the role courtly of the music<br />
Evangelist, of Claude Le with Jeune a and gloriously his contemporaries, colourful band combined of singers,<br />
recorders, with the magic cornetti, of guest sackbuts, traditional violins, fiddler violas and dancer<br />
gamba, Emilyn Stam. keyboards, and theorbos.<br />
thewholenote.com <strong>November</strong> <strong>2019</strong> | 39
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