Victoria Baroque Players

Emma Hannan, soprano

Eve Richardson, soprano

Chelsey Ternes, soprano

Alana Hayes, mezzo soprano

Kiiri Michelsen, mezzo soprano

Adam Dyjach, tenor

Steven Bélanger, bass

Victoria Baroque Players

Soile Stratkauskas, Artistic Director

St. John's Chamber Singers

David Stratkauskas, Director

Church of St. John the Divine
April 5, 2014

By James Young

The Victoria Baroque Players continue to be popular with Victoria audiences. Knowing this, I left home a little earlier than usual, hoping to get a good seat. I lucked into a parking spot only a block from the church. And still I was confronted with the choice of sitting off to one side, with my view obstructed by pillars, or sitting at the very back of the central section of the sanctuary. The lesson of this story: arrive over 30 minutes in advance if you want a good seat. (I settled for a seat in the very rearmost pew.)

From this vantage point, I survey the scene and the concert programme and found that Buxtehude's Cantata , BuxWV 60 was the first offering in this programme of music by Buxtehude and his younger contemporary J.S. Bach. (There is, of course, a direct connection between the two composers. In 1705 Bach, then a young man of 20, walked the 400 kilometers from Armstadt to Lübeck, where Buxtehude was the organist in the principal church. Bach stayed almost three months in Lübeck, hearing Buxtehude play the organ and attending his chamber music performances. Bach later noted that his goal was "to comprehend one thing and another about his art". Bach had so much to learn from Buxtehude that he overstayed his leave and earned a reprimand from his employer upon his return to Armstadt.)

I had been thinking, on the way to the concert, about the merits of singing German baroque cantatas one to a part or with a choir. Generally speaking, I favour one to a part, for both musical and musicological reasons. I was pleased then to find that BuxWV 60 was sung one to a part, with Emma Hannan, Eve Richardson and Steven Bélanger doing the honours. The results were, I thought, very successful. The cantata took on a pleasingly ethereal quality. In the first half of the concert, Christi Meyers took on the role of concertmaster. Not the least of the pleasures of seeing the Victoria Baroque Players develop has being seeing Meyers grow in confidence and ability as a baroque violinist and a leader of the ensemble.

BuxWV 60 was followed by BuxWV 92, Quesmadmodum desiderat cervus, a solo cantata with an accompaniment in the form of a chaconne (that is, with a repeated ground bass). This was performed by Adam Dyjach, who proved to have a pleasant light tenor voice and excellent diction.

Next up was Bach's familiar Overture in b minor, BWV 1067. This was performed in Victoria little more than a month ago by Simphonie Nouvelle and flautist Jeffrey Cohan. (For Elizabeth's review, follow this link.) The contrast between Cohan's performance and Solie Stratkauskas's was quite striking. Cohan employed much more rubato - some would say too much since the other players had difficulty following his rhythmic forays. Stratkauskas's performance was more straightforward but it had its own appealing features. Her tempi were generally quicker than Cohan's and this often imparted an excitement. Another nice touch was the use of the bassoon (unsupported by other instruments) to realise the bass in the central section of the Polonaise. The combination of flute and Katrina Russell's bassoon was quite delicious.

After the interval, we heard the pendant to BuxWV 60: Bach's setting of the same text, but with passages from Chapter 8 of Romans interspersed. This was performed with a choir of 26 voices and the warm, resonant results made me want to reconsider the virtues of performing this repertoire one to a part. This was, by far, the most dramatic performance I have heard by St. John's Chamber Singers. The credit undoubtedly belongs to David Stratkauskas, who did an excellent job of preparing and conducting the choir. Some credit can also be given to Paul Luchkow, who acted as concertmaster in the second half of the concert. (Luchkow, incidentally, stole the show at the recent Pacific Baroque Festival.)

Another solo cantata by Buxtehude, Herr, wenn ich nur Dich hab, BuxWV 38, was the next offering. One of the highlights of this piece was the playing of Luchkow and Meyers: the cantata is described as for "Canto solo con doi Violini". Hannan was the soprano soloist and again impressed. I overheard a prominent local choir leader, who shall remain nameless (*), note that Hannan's singing is becoming "better and better all of the time".

The evening concluded with Buxtehude's Alles was ihr tut, das in Namen Jesu, BuxWV 4. With all of the instrumentalists on stage (except the flautist), this piece provided the best opportunity to gauge the state of the Victoria Baroque Players. And I have to say that they sounded pretty good. They were every bit as good, I would say, as Vancouver's Pacific Baroque Orchestra. (Mind you this is not surprising. There is some overlap in personnel.) Chelsey Ternes was the soprano soloist. She has a lovely voice, but is plainly new to singing baroque music. Of all the evening's soloists, she was the only one not to display a good sense of the appropriate style. I look forward to hearing more from her once she gets the hang of baroque music.

The Victoria Baroque Players are an excellent ensemble and are now encouraging the development of good young singers by giving them the opportunity to perform with professional musicians.

(*) OK, I will tell you. It was Brian Wismath.

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