Messiah 2018
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Vancouver Chamber Choir Pacifi ca Singers Vancouver Chamber Orchestra Nathalie Paulin, soprano Daniel Cabena, countertenor Isaiah Bell, tenor Stephen Hegedus, bass-baritone Jon Washburn, conductor 8pm Friday, December 7, 2018 | The Orpheum VANCOUVER CHAMBER CHOIR e Vancouver Chamber Choir is one of Canada’s national treasures, an Board of Directors outstanding professional vocal ensemble noted for George Laverock its diverse repertoire and President performing excellence. Dr. Jeanette Gallant (Oxford) Vice President e Choir has been Kassia Grewal, C.P.A., C.A. performing to audiences Treasurer at home in Vancouver and on tour across Canada Brent Hunter Secretary since it was formed in 1971 by conductor Jon Janis Hamilton Past President Washburn. International excursions have taken the Wendy D Photography Matthew Baird JoAnne Barnum Vancouver Chamber Choir to the USA, Mexico, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Anne Bonnycastle Finland, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. Cameron Haney Honoured with the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence by Chorus America, the Dr. Donna Hogge Vancouver Chamber Choir has to its credit countless performances and broadcasts, over 30 Wendy Kish recordings and numerous awards. Foremost supporters of Canadian music, Jon Washburn and Emily McClendon Colin Miles the Choir have commissioned and premiered more than 250 Canadian choral compositions. Over Laurent Munier the years they have sung nearly 3,000 performances of 350 pieces by 120 Canadian composers in Yuliya Neverova addition to their extensive international repertoire. David Rosborough e Choir’s award-winning educational programs include the National Conductors’ Symposium Dr. Robert Rothwell for advanced choral conductors, Interplay interactive workshops for choral composers, Focus! Cara Ventura Marianne Werner professional development program for student singers, OnSite visitations for school choirs, the Jennifer Wilnechenko biennial Young Composers Competition, and many on-tour workshops and residencies. Honorary Patrons John Bishop JON WASHBURN, Maurice Copithorne, Q.C., LL.D. ARTISTIC & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Dr. Stephen Drance, O.C. Sam Feldman Jon Washburn is the longtime Conductor and Artistic Director of Charles Flavelle the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Well known internationally for his Ben Heppner, O.C. mastery of choral technique and interpretation, he travels widely as Don Hudson guest conductor, lecturer, clinician and master teacher. He is also an Dr. John MacDonald, O.C. R. Murray Schafer active composer, arranger and editor and has had many compositions published, performed and recorded around the world. Administrative Staff In 2001 Mr. Washburn was named a Member of the Order of Canada Jon Washburn, C.M. Photo: Yukiko Onley (the nation’s highest civilian honour) and in 2002 received Queen Artistic & Executive Director Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee Medal for his lifetime contribution to Steven Bélanger Canadian choral art. Mr. Washburn received a Distinguished Service Award from the Association General Manager of Canadian Choral Conductors in the spring of 1996 and the Louis Botto Award from Nat Marshik Chorus America in June 2000, in recognition of “innovative and entrepreneurial spirit in the Bookkeeper/Office Coordinator development of a professional choral ensemble of exceptional quality.” He was given the Friends Karen Seaboyer of Canadian Music Award 2000 by the Canadian Music Centre (CMC) and the Canadian League Manager, Communications & Production of Composers in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Canadian composers’ music. In the fall of 2009, he was named a CMC Ambassador and in 2010 received a star on the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame’s Starwalk. In 2012 Mr. Washburn received the Queen Elizabeth II Vancouver Chamber Choir Diamond Jubilee Medal. In June 2014 he received the Michael Korn Founders Award for 1254 West 7th Avenue Development of the Professional Choral Art, presented by Chorus America. Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6H 1B6 Tel: 604.738.6822 • Fax: 604.738.7832 The Vancouver Chamber Choir acknowledges that it operates and performs on the unceded Indigenous land [email protected] belonging to the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We are grateful for this privilege. www.vancouverchamberchoir.com 2 VANCOUVER MESSIAH CHAMBER CHOIR GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL Beth Buono Emily Cheung PROGRAMME NOTES Christina Cichos Lorraine Reinhardt Madeline Lucy Smith Messiah is quite possibly the greatest success story in the history of choral music. e premiere performance, conducted by Handel himself more than 250 years ago, was well enough received to encourage the composer to present the work several more times. Since then, the growth and spread Dinah Ayre of the work’s popularity has been nothing short of phenomenal. Many of the North American Fabiana Katz choral societies established in the past century and a half were rst founded specically to perform Karen Mang Dolores Scott this piece. Now beloved worldwide, the piece receives well over a hundred performances annually Kar yn Way in a wide variety of versions. Handel was a great composer, and an equally great pragmatist. He wrote the massive work in only Tom Ellis twenty-four days: a near-miraculous pace by modern standards, but by no means unusual for Matt Gaskin him. With each successive performance, he adjusted the work to suit the situation, taking into Carman J. Price account especially the availability and abilities of vocal soloists. e “autograph” score, as originally Eric Schwarzhoff written, was in fact never performed by him without some (and usually several) alterations, Grant Wutzke additions, deletions or transpositions. As a result, the cumulative material handed down to modern interpreters permits a wide degree of latitude in customizing performances. Jacob Gramit Handel spent his maturity working in London during the reign of King George II. Both George, the Cameron Haney Paul Nash last foreign-born English monarch, and Handel were German imports who had known each other George Roberts well in the “old country”. Handel’s last position in Hanover had permitted him generous allowance Wim Vermeulen for travel, and the city of London with its growing wealth and splendour exerted a strong pull on the young and ambitious composer. By virtue of extended trips, he was able to establish himself as an opera composer in England before nally moving there on a permanent basis. Georgian oratorio grew directly out of opera, as an accommodation to a church prohibition. During Kathleen Allan Advent and Lent, the two principle periods of solemn preparation within the liturgical year, staged Fiona Blackburn entertainments were regarded as inappropriate. But the drama, spectacle and narrative force of George Roberts opera was so popular with its public that the demand did not simply vanish. Accordingly, Handel Carrie Tennant met his public half-way by setting major biblical narratives to music, scoring them for musical Joel Tranquilla forces every bit as impressive as opera (orchestra, chorus and soloists), but without costumes, props, sets or specialized lighting. e sacred subject matter avoided conict with church authorities, and provided the composer with a task betting his genius: to write music so compelling that it would set a mood, tell a story and touch the emotions, all without extra-musical theatrical assistance. e occasion for the composition of Messiah was a 1742 benet concert for a foundling’s home (a shelter for children in need) in Dublin, Ireland. As was becoming increasingly common, the performance occurred not within a church or cathedral, but within a public “Musick hall”. ough In order to sustain the mood, Messiah, like most oratorios, is closely based on well-known biblical narratives, it is unusual in it is best to hold your applause two respects. To begin with, its subject is taken not from the stories of Old Testament prophets or until the end of each set. kings, but from the New Testament: of the three main parts, the rst addresses the annunciation Please turn off all phones. and events surrounding Jesus’ miraculous birth, the second his suering, execution and the spread Recording devices of any kind of his message, and the third of the redemption of the world by faith. Furthermore, though it is are strictly prohibited. chronologically organized in terms of events related to Jesus’ life, the piece is not, strictly speaking, narrative. e libretto is a compilation of verses from the Bible, most of which do not primarily Yvan Morissette forward the plot, but rather provide ample opportunity for reection, exultation and contemplation. Stage Management Perhaps the composer judged that the stories of Christmas and Easter were so well known to his Corporate Graphics audience as to make a mere re-telling unnecessary. Graphic Design Violet Goosen ough the narrative is less tightly structured than much opera or oratorio, the drama is every Development bit as intense. e dotted-rhythm French Overture style of the opening evokes the Kingship of José Verstappen Christ, while the minor mode makes clear that this is no merely triumphalistic tale. roughout the Programme Typography work, major choruses act as structural pillars, containing scenes of powerful dramatic and ironic 3 We are Singers/ We are Song! IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO SUBSCRIBE!