Choral Scene

As I wrote in last month’s column, much Western choral music denotes and illuminates the celebrations and rituals of the Christian year. Over a span of many centuries, European temporal powers employed composers and performers to create thousands of religious masses and motets giving praise to God.

These works reflected the genuine piety of religious and political leaders, in a way in which a post-Enlightenment society can scarcely understand. But at the same time, those who commissioned these works surely understood the power of art to reinforce their temporal power. A performance of a mass was more than pleasant musical setting of a sacred text. It was a statement of cultural and ethnic identity,  and a potential rallying point in times of strife.

At the beginning of the 21st century, many find themselves in the odd position of encountering religious choral music most often in the rarified atmosphere of the concert setting, rather than as part of a sacred service. Although we may come to know much of this music well, we have little knowledge of, or interest in, the societies from which it sprang. We’re more likely to venerate Mozart than we are to regard with much interest or respect the autocratic Salzburg Archbishop who employed him to fill his church with music.

Composers’ mass settings had their part to play in the sectarianism and strife of past centuries. But what do they mean to us today, in a society in which religious plurality is buttressed by law, and multiculturalism is an essential if imperfectly realized aspect of Canadian identity?

A definitive answer to this question is (thankfully) beyond the scope of this article. But upcoming performances of Bach’s St. John Passion, given by Chorus Niagara and led by veteran conductor Robert Cooper on March 6-7, illuminate this ongoing question. One of the most important works of the classical repertoire, the St. John Passion can be alarming in its depiction of the Jewish hordes as a mob of Christ-killers, in light of some of the anti-semitic excesses of 18th-century Europe.

But while anti-semitism has by no means disappeared from the modern world, the concert setting in which Bach’s music is now most often heard in many ways removes it, in a positive sense, from the more problematic aspects of the Baroque church. What is left is Bach’s extraordinary settings of the Passion scriptures. The finger-pointing inherent in the text is to a great degree mitigated by music filled with compassion, tenderness, and a vast understanding of human frailty.

Various other sacred settings can be enjoyed in the weeks to come. The Elora Festival Singers sing Rachmaninoff’s Vespers (Guelph, March 21); The Etobicoke Centennial Choir sings Beethoven’s Mass in C and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms (March 27). The Hart House Singers perform Brahms’ German Requiem (also March 27). Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Piano Concerto No. 21 will be heard at Jubilee United Church on March 28. And Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts performs Fauré’s Requiem and Duruflé’s Messe Basse as part of an all-French programme on 30 March.

Good Friday, which this year falls on April 2 , brings with it many concerts. One can choose from among the following: Cantabile Chorale of York Region’s The Rose of Calvary; Toronto Chamber Choir’s Membra Jesu Nostri, an oratorio setting by J.S. Bach’s idol, Dietrich Buxtehude; the Durham Philharmonic Choir’s programme that includes Fauré’s Requiem; and the Metropolitan United Church Festival Choir performing Brahms’ German Requiem. As well, the Grand Philharmonic Choir of Kitchener performs Bach’s Mass in B Minor in Kitchener with a as good a group of solists as one is likely to hear anywhere: Suzie Leblanc,Laura Pudwell, Michael Schade, and Russell Braun.

Other unusual “non-mass” concerts are of note in March and April. Lovers of Brahms can also hear two interesting choral works: Rinaldo, and the beautiful Alto Rhapsody, performed by the Victoria Scholars on March 7. David Fallis conducts the March 13 debut concert of Choir 21, an intriguing new ensemble specializing in 20th century music (though I note that they are throwing in some Hildegard of Bingen as well). The excellent Toronto Children’s Chorus teams up with American counterparts the Boston City Singers, for a March 5 concert that includes Schumann’s often overlooked Mädchenlieder. And the Tafelmusik Orchestra and Choir mount a programme, from March 10 to 14, entitled “Bach in Leipzig,” which focuses on Bach’s work in the final stage of his career, as Cantor of the Thomasschule and music director of Leipzig’s two largest churches.

Two world music/classical-hybrid concerts stand out in March. Echo Women’s Choir is a lively Toronto ensemble led by husband and wife team Becca Whitlaw and Allan Gasser. These musicians are as at home with folk music as they are with classical music, and their repertoire choices always reflect this easy pairing. Their offering on March 20 is “Ceilidh: A Down-East Kitchen Party.” Also, in a short number of years, world music ensemble Autorickshaw has established itself as one of the more inventive and interesting groups around. They team up with the Jubilate Singers on March 27.

Benjamin Stein is a tenor and theorbist. He can be contacted at: choralscene@thewholenote.com.

The first months of any new year are not often wildly busy for choirs. Western choral repertoire is in many ways shaped and anchored by the holidays of Christmas and Easter, and it’s during these times of the year that ensembles jostle for audience attention. One way to avoid the traffic jam is to schedule a concert prior to spring, and hope that the desire for live choral timbres will entice concert-goers to brave the cold. Two large-scale works loom behemoth-like over the southern Ontario choral scene during the coming weeks.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir lead the charge with Verdi’s Requiem on February 18. This work, which will be led by guest conductor Gianandrea Noseda, is a study in contrasts. Verdi imbues the text with all the drama of a 19th-century Romantic opera composer, but also pays homage to earlier traditions of mass-setting with the fugal writing that pervades the choruses. The four soloists must have voices with enough operatic heft to sail above Verdian orchestration, but be able to tune the delicate a cappella section of the “Lacrymosa.” like singers of Renaissance motets. It’s a rewarding work for singers and audience alike.

On February 28, Toronto’s Orpheus Choir combines with the Guelph Chamber Choir to sing a programme with Rachmaninoff’s Vespers as the centerpiece. The Vespers has a certain notoriety among choral singers for having some of the lowest bass writing in the choral repertoire. A colleague protested to Rachmaninoff that few basses would be able to handle the tessitura set out in several of the movements. Rachmaninoff replied simply, “I know my countrymen.” Perhaps what Rachmaninoff meant to say was, “I know what my countrymen sound like after a night of drinking Russian vodka.”

Thanks to the LCBO, it ought to be possible for southern Ontarian choristers to use this method as well. Watch the Orpheus and Guelph basses carefully as they ascend the steps: if any of them stagger or weave, you know what has occurred. There are of course other methods for lowering one’s voice to which choral singers might resort; staying up all night works very well, or singing with a cold in winter, which can be seen as a particularly Canadian solution to this problem.

Joking aside, Rachmaninoff’s Vespers is very simply one of the highlights of the European choral repertoire. It combines brilliantly the lucid part-writing of a classically trained composer with the dusky, incense-imbued mystery and ritual of the Russian Orthdox Church. This sequence of motets is not, strictly speaking, a Vespers service. Rather it is a selection from what is known in the Russian Orthodox Church as the All-Night Vigil, a combination of the three canonical hours Vespers, Matins and First Hour. The work was an instant success in Russia when premiered in 1915, although it was suppressed for a period following the 1917 revolution. Its haunting austerity is perfect suited to a Canadian winter.

For those whose tastes run to less gigantic mass-settings, there are a few other options. The John Laing Singers of Hamilton and the Univox Choir of Toronto both perform concerts that showcase the Fauré Requiem (February 7 and 26, respectively); the Durham Philharmonic Choir takes on Gounod’s Messe Solennelle de Sainte Cécile in Oshawa (February 21); the University of Western Ontario Singers sing Mozart’s D minor Requiem in London (February 26). On March 6, the Bell’Arte Singers sing Howells’ Requiem, the Oriana Women’s Choir sing a mixed programme that includes Canadian composer Imant Raminsh’s Missa Brevis, and the Tallis Choir performs the serene but passionate music of Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria.

Elsewhere, there are concerts by the Georgetown Bach Chorale (Norval and Caledon on February 6 and 7, respectively) and the Da Capo Chamber Choir in Kitchener (February 27). The Uxbridge Chamber Choir presents a programme that includes American composer Morten Lauridsen’s setting of the Lux Aeterna text and Brahms’ whimsically named but decidedly un-frothy Liebeslieder Waltzes (March 7).

Themed concerts are being given by several groups. A Celtic Valentine features the  University of Toronto Women’s Singers in a concert that includes Celtic fiddlers and dancers (February 12). The Burlington Civic Chorale offers a Valentine Cabaret in Guelph (February 13). The Mississauga Choral Society sings Broadway melodies in Broadway With Heart (February 20), the Toronto Beach Chorale weds choral singing to hits from the 50s to the 70s with Sweet Sixteen (February 27), and the Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir honours the 1st of March with a St. David’s Day Concert.

On 17 and 20 February, the Nathaniel Dett Chorale performs Voices of the Diaspora, a concert that showcases music of the Gullah people. The Gullahs, based in South Carolina and the Georgia Sea Islands, have preserved more traditional elements of African culture than any other pan-African group in North America. It should be interesting to see what the Detts come up with in this programme. The Amadeus Choir is busy as well, mounting their own Celtic concert on March 6.

Altogether, the next couple of months offer a rich variety of concert choices. We can congratulate ourselves that Canadians will brave the cold not only for hockey, skiing and curling, but for choral singing as well.

Benjamin Stein is a tenor and theorbist. He can be contacted at: choralscene@thewholenote.com.

From Medieval times to well into the 19th century, to state in company that December was the month to sing carols would have drawn a quizzical look or a mocking laugh. Carols were lively celebratory songs sung all year round, with dance rhythms and vivid, colloquial lyrics. Their subject matter could be anything from celebrations of the spring planting and the summer harvest, to robust appreciations of good food and drink on a cold winter’s night. Medieval carolers assembling music for dancing at a village party would have regarded Mendelssohn’s stately, regal music attached to Wesley’s poem “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” as distinctly unpromising.

In our time, the word “carol” has become a catch-all term for the various musics sung around Christmas time: popular songs, with subjects like the dreaded Rudolph and Frosty, stirring and high-toned hymns like the Mendelssohn mentioned above, plainchant or folk music from diverse sources arranged into massive vocal workouts by modern choral specialists such as Rutter and Willcocks.

One thing that has remained the same from ancient times to the present is that this music is meant to be sung and enjoyed in a group setting. For many people, a carol concert is often the only time in which they are called to raise their own voice, in an era in which music is ubiquitously supplied by electronic means of every type. Little wonder then, at the enthusiasm with which we attend Christmas concerts, and the array of choices that invite us this December.

Christmas concerts are offered by the Bravado! Show Choir (Barrie, 4-6 December), the County Town Singers (Oshawa, 4-5 December), Toronto Accolades (6 December) and the East York Choir has an inventive programme titled “To Drive the Cold Winter Away” (6 December). Other Christmas programmes on the first weekend of December are offered by the Mississauga Festival Choir, Mississauga Children’s Choir, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Bell’arte Singers, the Echo Women’s Choir and the Irish Choral Society of Canada, among others. The following weekend, look for concerts given by the Annex Singers, Kingston Symphony Orchestra and Choral Society, and the Hannaford Street Silver Band in collaboration with Amadeus Choir. A notable concert not concerned with Christmas repertoire this December is that of the visiting Moscow Male Jewish Cappella on 13 December. (See The WholeNote’s listings for details on all of the above.)

On 19 December, the Toronto Chamber Choir gives an intriguing concert of Finnish and Swedish music from the Piae Cantiones. This 1582 collection of Latin songs from Sweden was plundered for its musical riches by English hymn composers in the 19th century, and it’s the source for many well known English language hymns and carols, such as “Unto Us A Boy Is Born” and “Good King Wenceslas.” It should be fascinating to hear melodies from Piae Cantiones sung by an ensemble that specializes in historically informed performance, as an alternative to modern arrangements of ancient carols that are often sugary or bombastic by turns.

Performances of Handel’s Messiah account for another significant aspect of December music-making. While Messiah is not the most difficult choral work in the repertoire, to get through a series of performances with the vocal cords intact requires careful management of the voice, combined with a conductor who utilizes choral forces reasonably. I remember participating in one harrowing Messiah, directed by a conductor who shall remain nameless, in which the dynamic range was forte to triple-fortissimo for almost every chorus. It didn’t help that he was using Mozart’s orchestration, which calls for added brass and woodwind players, who of course learn early on in their training that singers are to be drowned out whenever possible. The audience loved the show, and the conductor came out for repeated bows, stepping across the prostrate bodies of exhausted choristers as he did so.

Toronto concertgoers may choose between Messiah performances by the Elmer Iseler Singers and the Vocal Horizons Chamber Choir on 4 December, Aradia Ensemble’s “Dublin Messiah” (after the original 1742 performance) on 12 December, Tafelmusik’s Baroque interpretation from 16-19 December, and the Toronto Symphony’s series with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir from 18-21 December. Two sing-along versions are being offered by Eglinton St. George’s United Church (13 December) and Tafelmusik (20 December).

Outside Toronto, there are Messiah offerings by Aradia Ensemble in Port Hope (5 December), the Grand River Chorus in Brantford (6 December), Elora Festival Singers in Elora (13 December) and Orchestra London (16 December).

Notable works other than Messiah are often combined with Carol concerts in December. Britten’s luminous Ceremony of Carols is part of concerts by the John Laing Singers (Hamilton, 5 December), the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (9 December) and the Toronto Children’s Chorus (19 December).

Bach’s wonderful group of six cantatas that comprise the Christmas Oratorio contain some of his very best choruses and arias. The Pax Christi Chorale performs cantatas IV and V on 5-6 December, and the Toronto Choral Society sings Christmas Oratorio excerpts on 5 December. The latter group reprises part of this programme on 13 December, in a benefit concert for Street Haven Women’s Choir.

The Canadian Sinfonietta and Toronto Cantata Chorus perform Rutter’s Magnificat as part of their “Holiday Sounds from the 20th Century,” the Cantores Celestes Women’s Choir performs Vivaldi’s Gloria (RV58), and the Jubilate Singers sing Charpentier’s delicate Messe de Minuit, all on 5 December.

In the aftermath of such seasonal festivities, January is generally understood to be Worldwide Choral Hangover Month. Singers soak their throbbing vocal cords in hot chocolate or more grown-up substances; choir librarians gaze in dismay at the piles of music to be re-filed; conductors put icepacks on their forearms and ignore the phone. In other words, we’re all hibernating in January. But a few concerts stand out for those not sated by December offerings.

The Grand Philharmonic Choir and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony weigh in with The Dream of Gerontius on 16 January, as part of the ongoing celebrations of Howard Dyck’s final season as conductor of the GPC. On 30 January The Elmer Isler singers and the Toronto Children’s Chorus combine with the Polish Chamber Choir in a concert of works by Penderecki, Gorecki, and Palej, in collaboration with Soundstreams.

Looking ahead to February, the Georgetown Bach Chorale will mount a programme that includes the Allegri Miserere and Bruckner’s setting of Christus factus est (6 Febuary), and the John Laing Singers will sing works that include the Fauré Requiem and Britten’s Festival Te Deum (February 7). These are slim pickings compared to December’s riches – but elegant and intriguing choices worth seeking out in the cold first weeks of the new year.

Benjamin Stein is a tenor and theorist. He can be contacted at: choralscene@thewholenote.com.