Last month I argued that classical music’s shift, from cultural pinnacle to just one of many multicultural entertainment options, was a good thing. But classical musicians who love, believe in and make a living from playing music that has to fight with increasing difficulty for listeners’ ears and market share, may feel differently. What are the challenges for these musicians in a new century?
One advocate for this tradition is veteran Canadian conductor Robert Cooper. And one possible solution to the question above is exemplified by Cooper’s work with the Orpheus Choir of Toronto.
A tireless musical dynamo, Cooper conducts Chorus Niagara and the Opera in Concert Chorus as well as the Orpheus Choir. A personal aside: he was the first conductor I sang for, in the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir, the youth wing of Canada’s Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.
My prior experience of music centred around folk guitar and the Beatles, and my first encounter with choral music, from the Renaissance to the modern era, was both exciting and disorienting. But Cooper was an excellent choral ambassador for me and other young musicians. I remember being struck at the energy of this diminutive but authoritative figure who insisted on precision, focus and depth of engagement.
Cooper was also for many years the producer of CBC’s Choral Concert, along with host and fellow conductor Howard Dyck. Between them these musicians introduced the country to the world’s excellent choirs and promoted the work of Canada’s best ensembles.
Cooper celebrates his tenth anniversary as conductor or the Orpheus Choir this year. Asked about his work with Orpheus, he points out that the group is for hire as a recording ensemble and can handle pops and carol concerts — the meat and potatoes of any working ensemble. But Cooper has led the choir towards repertoire that he finds the most interesting — the lesser-known works of great composers and works by contemporary composers who are a modern extension of that tradition.
Modern choral composers have, for the most part, left behind the modernist experiments of the early to mid-20th century and are writing in idioms that extend the possibilities of tonal music, rather than eschew it. On March 22 the Orpheus Choir performs a double bill of two substantial but approachable modern works, English composer Howard Goodall’s Every Purpose Under the Heaven and young Latvian Ēriks Ešenvalds’ Passion and Resurrection.
Goodall has enjoyed a very successful career and is a well-known choral personality in Britain. His television lectures on music carry on the Bernsteinian tradition of using modern technology to educate new generations on music history. His music is instantly accessible, but challenging to execute well and stylishly.
This concert is the Canadian premiere of Every Purpose Under the Heaven, which was first performed in 2011 at Westminster Abbey. It was commissioned to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, likely the most renowned translation of this text yet written. While later versions drew on more accurate scholarship, the King James is a cultural touchstone that has drawn and inspired musicians and writers for centuries.
The Ešenvalds composition, Passion and Resurrection, is an intense work that blends tonal elements with turbulent rhythms and harmonies. Compared sometimes to the choral works of Arvo Pärt, it seems to sidestep elements of romantic and modernist musical gesture and combine instead elements of folk music, Northern European liturgical chant and an individual spiritual vision. The composer has often worked with the Latvian State Choir, considered to be one of the best choral ensembles in the world.
In a nod to the increasingly important role of theatre in choral presentation, and a welcome change from the dry-as-dust concert hall paradigm that we all endured last century, the Orpheus Choir’s rendition of Passion and Resurrection will use sound and lighting design to heighten and enhance the music making. And as an added bonus, the composer himself will also be travelling to Toronto to attend the event and give a lecture about his work.
Concerts to note: This is the time of year that concerts often take place on Good Friday and include requiems and masses. Church choirs often marshall their forces for appealing and interesting concerts, many of which have free admission or very reasonable ticket prices. Please have a look in the listings to see what is being offered. Some unusual concerts of note:
The Hart House Singers perform Dvořák’s Mass in D on March 17. Admission is free and food donations to the U of T Foodbank are welcome.
On March 19, the touring Grinnell Singers, from Ohio’s Grinnell College, presents a concert that includes A Bluegrass Mass. I’ve never heard this work, but I love it already. This concert is also free, and takes place at the Franciscan Church of St. Bonaventure in Toronto.
Does Toronto hold special appeal to Ohioans? Ohio’s Avon Lake High School Chorale also performs a free concert at Kingston Road United Church on March 22.
On March 23 the Mohawk College Community Choir performs works by two late 19th century European organist/composers: Maurice Duruflé’s very appealing Requiem and Josef Rheinberger’s setting of the Stabat Mater. The Metropolitan Festival Choir also performs the Duruflé work on Good Friday, March 29.
For those who would like to further explore French choral repertoire, the Victoria Scholars Men’s Choral Ensemble performs “The French Connection”on March 3, with music by Caplet, Debussy, Fauré, and Poulenc.
On March 5 the Toronto Children’s Chorus takes part in “Fujii Percussion and Voices,” an event presented by Soundstreams. This concert sounds fascinating. Canadian musicians team up with the virtuoso Fujii family of Japan to perform modern works by Canadian and Japanese composers. The Fujii family are percussionists who specialize in the sanukite, a mallet instrument fabricated from an unusual volcanic stone located in the Sanuki region of Japan.
Ben Stein is a Toronto tenor and theorbist. He can be contacted at choralscene@thewholenote.com. Visit his website at www.benjaminstein.ca.
