SOUNDS of the SEASON
Christmas music performances from VSO, Laudate Singers and Vancouver Bach Choir strike the perfect holiday note >>
Magnificent music is a perennial holiday season treat, and the gifts for lovers of the classics in 2015 are glittering.
A Traditional Christmas is eagerly awaited by multi-generational audiences across Metro Vancouver, and is a mammoth holiday undertaking for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the singers and tech crews.
The formula is pretty much worked out by now: orchestral favourites, contributions from the UBC Opera Ensemble and EnChor, seasonal readings by Bard on the Beach’s Christopher Gaze, and a carol or two.
Rosemary Thomson, conductor of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and a veteran of many Christmas shows, leads the festivities and spoke to The Sun about her survival strategy for the intense schedule of 15 performances at six venues.
“I’m such an extrovert that as soon as I step onto the stage with the singers and the instrumentalists, the music just feeds me,” says Thomson, who has put her own spin on the playlist. “For me the fun part is choosing the repertoire, looking for a fresh mixture of text and music, and new arrangements of classics.
“So, some of the classics have a new twist — Leroy Anderson’s A Christmas Festival for orchestra has lots of uplifting sections, but I decided to add some of the chorus singing along. You always want to show off the orchestra, so we have a couple of greats, like Waldteufel’s The Skaters Waltz, which people know even though they don’t know they know it. After all, if you’re Canadian you must have skated at Christmas at least once in your life! And then there’s an audience singalong at the end with Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”
Another key part of the enterprise is the singer.
“Our mix of students and seniors is really special. It’s sadly become rare in our time to do intergenerational performances. Because we are doing it in so many different parts of the Lower Mainland, it is really a community effort.”
A Traditional Christmas runs until Dec. 20.
Another major project for VSO is performances of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons concertos at UBC’s Chan Centre.
It’s hard to pinpoint the moment when music from the baroque era — roughly the 17th century and half of the 18th — became so associated with our seasonal soundtrack.
Technically, Vivaldi’s quartet of concertos has nothing to do with Christmas. True, there is a winter concerto, which evokes chattering with cold, slipping on ice, and other seasonal horrors, but the other three celebrate spring, summer and autumn.
The VSO invited star violinist Vadim Gluzman to lead this sparkling concert, which also includes Mozart and, in a real holiday surprise, a piece by contemporary Georgian Giya Kancheli — A Little Daneliade.
Even more Vivaldi is on tap from the North Shore-based Laudate Singers, a performance of his Gloria — a choral hit if ever there was one — and his Magnificat.
To accompany, artistic director Lars Kaario put together a period instrument ensemble that appears to hearken back to Vivaldi’s own all-female orchestras in 18th-century Venice.
With all due respect to the Venetian master, the real foundation of the baroque for Christmas movement is Handel’s Messiah (even though it is really more of an Easter piece). This year the Vancouver Bach Choir once again tackles the great work at the Orpheum, with players from the VSO all under the practised baton of Leslie Dala.
Of course there are Messiahs and there are Messiahs. The annual discussion relates to how “authentic,” how big, even from which edition any particular production will be. Beyond the participation of Vancouver’s oldest continuously singing music ensemble, now celebrating its 85th season, the glory of this particular reading is its cast of soloists.
Tenor Andrew Haji, making his Vancouver debut, is on loan from Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio.
“He has an incredible beautiful voice,” Dala says. “On top of that there’s a kind of sincerity about his way of communicating which I find so incredibly moving — and very rare. He’s just one of those people who comes out on stage and opens himself, and suddenly you forget about everything else that going on.”
The rest of the cast is well known to Vancouver audiences. Mezzo Susan Platts came close to stealing the show in Vancouver Opera’s Albert Herring a few seasons ago, and her performances with the VSO have had genuine distinction.
“(Platt’s voice) is such a beautifully, rich sonorous instrument,” Dala says. “She’s someone who has so much class and experience.”
Bass baritone Daniel Okulitch is also part of the distinguished group, doing his first Messiah.
“He has that very rare thing where he can be totally convincing as a baritone or as a bass.”
Then there’s soprano Simone Osborne, also doing her first Messiah. We don’t have to search our memories for her last spectacular gig: Gilda in Vancouver Opera’s fall success, Rigoletto.
Even listeners who’ve done Messiah year after year may want to experience this particular dream cast live at the Orpheum. As Handel might have remarked, Hallelujah!