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Church of St. John the Divine
June 4, 2016
The Victoria Baroque Players' Fifth Season concluded in grand style this evening with one hoary chestnut and two musical novelties.
The first novelty was Telemann's Die Tageszeiten (The Times of the Day) (TWV 20:39). This is a fascinating work in four parts: Morning, Midday, Evening and Night. Each part consists of two arias, a recitative and a concluding chorus. The first part features soprano and trumpet (the trumpet part played here on horn), the second for mezzosoprano and viola da gamba, the third for tenor and two flutes, and the fourth for baritone and bassoon.
Right from the opening Sinfonia it was clear that we were in for a treat. Under the direction of Timothy Vernon, the playing of the orchestra was delightful, with well-judged tempi and lots of dynamic variation.
All of the soloists, Rebecca Genge, Rebecca Claborn, Kevin Myers and Andrew Erasmus, gave good accounts of themselves. I was particularly struck by the singing of Myers. Possessed of a strong instrument, he sang with ease, expression and a good sense of style. I was also impressed by Erasmus, a singer familiar to Victoria audiences from his roles in Pacific Opera Victoria performances. The combination of baritone and bassoon, played by Katrina Russell, was highly effective. The direction on the first baritone aria is "Very humbly, somewhat cheerfully". That is a hard combination to pull off but Erasmus was convincing. His second aria, marked "Brightly", was truly joyful.
The St John's Chamber Singers gave a good account of the short choruses, though I strongly suspect that Telemann intended the choruses to be sung one to a part by the soloists. The choir's singing was crisp and well articulated.
Andrew Clark's horn playing was beyond reproach, but I think that the first part would have sounded better with a trumpet, as Telemann specified. Still, for all of the resources of the Island's early music scene, we still don't have a baroque trumpet player.
The chestnut on the programme was Mozart's "Exsultate Jubilate". Composed only 17 years after the Telemann piece, it manifests a completely different musical sensibility. Telemann's work still had one foot in the baroque period, but Mozart's is purely classical.
This work is clearly Monica Orso's party piece. She tossed it off effortlessly without a single note of music in front of her. Orso raced through the difficult coloratura passages with ease and a big smile on her face. I felt, however, that she used far too much vibrato. The orchestra provided a warm and gracious accompaniment.
The concert concluded with a real rarity: Michel Corrette's "Laudate Dominum de coelis". Corrette (1707-95) is today perhaps best known for his twenty-five concertos comiques, but he published a large number of works in almost ever genre known to the eighteenth century, including liturgical works such as the one on this evening's performance.
This work was composed in 1765, almost exactly 40 years after the publication of Vivaldi's Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione. This collection of twelve concerti includes the Red Priest's most famous works: the Four Seasons. I mention this since Corrette draws freely on this concerto in his "Laudate Dominum". It is really quite strange: one is listening to a piece of French liturgical music, and all of a sudden the melody of the Spring concerto appears in the vocal part or the solo violin part is lifted whole out of Vivaldi's concerto and placed in the context of Corrette's work. Corrette adds two horns, two flutes and an oboe to the strings of Vivaldi's concerto.
Genge returned to handle the solo soprano part and again sang in a completely stylish manner. Zachary Windus made a nice cameo appearance. Erasmus also returned for a nice encore, but somehow introduced some inappropriate vibrato. Christi Meyers did an excellent job with the solo violin part and I must add a shout out to Marea Chernoff, the oboist, whose instrument was delightfully reminiscent of a rustic pipe.
Kudos to the Victoria Baroque Players for such inventive programming.
Congratulations to the Victoria Baroque Players, to Artistic Director Soile Stratkauskas, and to the dedicated band of volunteers who have made their first fine years such a great success. Victoria is almost certainly the smallest city in North America to boast its own baroque orchestra. That it is an orchestra of such high quality only enhances the achievement of all concerned. I look forward with pleasure and anticipation to the next five years.
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