Bach, Haydn, Vivaldi
Cantate Singers of Ottawa & Thirteen Strings
Back to back last weekend, we attended the last concerts of the season of two venerable Ottawa ensembles: The 60th Anniversary Concert of the Cantata Singers of Ottawa, and the Thirteen Strings’ last concert under the baton of Kevin Mallon.
The CSO’s concert at Dominion-Chalmers started with two short and rather mushy pieces, Song for Athene (1993) by John Tavener (1944-2013) and Ouvre tes ailes (2021, commissioned by the CSO) by Marie-Claire Saindon (a living Franco-Ontarian composer who refuses to divulge her birthyear). Song for Athene became famous when it was sung at the funeral for Princess Diana in 1997. Appreciation of the pieces would have been enhanced had we had the texts in front of us but it was not to be. Tavener’s can be found in the above Wikipedia link. Saindon’s was provided for the premiere in 2022 and is on page 13 here.
In both pieces the choir had some pitch issues. The performance was on firmer ground with the main offerings: Bach’s Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret, BWV 31, and Haydn’s Missa in angustiis (“Nelson Mass”), with the Ottawa Baroque Consort.
BWV 31, composed in 1715, is one of several of Bach’s Easter Sunday cantatas. As the title suggests, it is full of joy though also, as Alfred Dürr notes, at the end it “gives way to a mystical longing for death.” The text is by Salomo Franck and has numerous biblical references. A rich array of bass, tenor and soprano recitatives and arias were sung by Ryan Hoffman, Adam Sperry and Carmen Harris respectively. While all performed adequately, Hoffman, a baritone, did not produce the required volume in the lower register, and Harris’ voice is better suited for cabaret than baroque. (We heard her as Daisy in The Great Gatsby, where she was outstanding. Adam Sperry, by the way, sung the title role in that work.) The choir performed admirably. (Here is the cantata performed by the Netherlands Bach Collegium.)
While we again sorely missed having the lyrics in hand for the Bach cantata, that was less of an issue for the Haydn work, which uses the well-known text of the Latin mass. It and its nickname have an interesting back story. Titled Mass for Troubled Times, it was composed “at a time of intense fear for the future of Austria, whose citizens were not in the best of spirits. In 1797-1798 Napoleon Bonaparte had defeated the Austrian army in four major battles, even crossing the Alps and threatening Vienna itself.“ However, as Haydn was composing the mass “the British … dealt Napoleon a stunning defeat in the Battle of the Nile. As the news reverberated around the world, Nelson was heralded as the 'saviour of Europe.' It’s possible that reports of his victory may even have reached Haydn and his audience on the day of the Mass’s first performance in September 1798.“ Admiral Nelson’s name became firmly affixed to the Mass when he visited the Esterhazy court in 1800, accompanied by his mistress, Lady Hamilton. It was likely performed in his honour on that occasion, along with a brief cantata, Lines from the Battle of the Nile, which Haydn composed for Lady Hamilton. “Nelson and Haydn reportedly became friends; some accounts say that the heroic Admiral gave Haydn a gold watch in exchange for the pen that he had used to compose Lady Hamilton's cantata.“
Back to the concert. (Here is a 2021 recording of the Mass from Cathedral Brixen.) It was an excellent performance. The mezzo-soprano part was sung by Sonya Sweeney, who possesses a beautiful, velvety voice.
To close off the evening, the audience was invited to join in on singing Händel’s Halleluja chorus — standing up, of course.
A final note: I saw few young people in this 49-member choir, which is a bit worrisome for its future.
Probable portrait of Vivaldi (1678-1741), c. 1723. Source: Wikipedia
For Thirteen Strings’ last concert of the season, Kevin Mallon chose six Vivaldi pieces — as he said in his introduction, to prove critics wrong when they claim that Vivaldi wrote the same concerto 600 times. And indeed, while the basic structure is almost invariably three movements — fast, slow, fast — and drama is typically achieved by forte fast notes repeated piano, each of the works was very different in theme and setting. First we heard Sinfonia for strings (La tempesta di mare; RV 146) — not quite as evocative as Debussy’s La mer, but still quite steamy. Then came a Concerto for two cellos (RV 531) where principal cellist Julian Armour was joined by invited guest, Korean-Canadian Daniel Hamin Go.1 What a show! Especially the fast parts rival the fiery brilliance of the Four Seasons, as Go himself said in his interview on CBC Radio’s All in a Day. The virtuoso parts would certainly have put Vivaldi’s students in the Ospedale della Pietà to the test!
Then we heard Concerto Grosso Op. 3 No. 3 (L’estro Armonico; RV 578) where first and second violins as well as the cello had solo parts. Go came back for a Cello Concerto (RV 407), followed by Concerto Grosso Op. 3 No. 4 (L’estro Armonico; RV 550) for four violins.
The final piece was a Trio sonata for two violins and basso continuo which included sections of another Concerto Grosso, arranged by Mallon.
Great variation indeed, all brilliantly played! After the flowers and the thank-yous, Go came back and joined the ensemble playing Danny Boy, in honour of Kevin Mellon’s departure.
The allsaints events space was filled to near-capacity.