Choral concerts in Kitchener, Waterloo begin Holy Week
Two concerts featuring choral and orchestral music are planned for Sunday, which marks the beginning of a significant week for Christians as they look ahead to Easter.
In Waterloo, Nota Bene Players & Singers will perform Handel’s “Messiah” at First United Church at 3 p.m. The concert is dedicated to the memory of Jan Overduin, former music director at the church, who died last year.
In Kitchener, the Elora Singers will perform a concert featuring contemporary works.
Latvian composer Äriks Ešenvalds’ “Passion and Resurrection” will be performed, along with works by Estonian composers Arvo Pärt, Toivo Tulev, Riho Esko Maimets, and Ukrainian-born composer Galina Grigorjeva.
This concert will take place at St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Kitchener, at 4 p.m.
Handel’s work is most often heard at Christmas, with its depiction of the nativity scenes.
It may therefore come as a surprise to hear this music just before Easter, but that is when Charles Jennens, Handel’s librettist, said it should be performed, said Nota Bene music director Howard Dyck.
Dyck is the former artistic director of the Grand Philharmonic Choir, and is marking his 10th anniversary with Nota Bene this year. The performance will feature 12 professional singers and a small ensemble of 13 musicians on period instruments.
By his reckoning, Dyck has conducted “Messiah” about 120 times, and says he never gets tired of it.
“Every time I sit down to study the music now, I’m overcome by the drama the beauty the originality, the joie de vivre, and the sheer intensity of this timeless score,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Elora Singers performance will feature music in a deeply mystical style from these contemporary composers of the Baltic states.
Instrumentalists from the former Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony will join the Elora Singers, a professional ensemble that was nominated last year for a Juno award.
Ešenvalds’ “Passion and Resurrection” is “a powerful setting in the tradition of the great choral works about Christ’s death,” said Elora Singers artistic director Mark Vuorinen.
“It weaves together his warm, rich, harmonic language with influences of Byzantium and places the drama at the forefront through both the choral and instrumental writing,” Vuorinen said.
Messiah
■ Sunday, March 24, 3 p.m., First United Church, Waterloo notabeneplayersandsingers.ca Passion and Resurrection
■ Sunday March 24, 4 p.m., St. Matthews Lutheran Church, Kitchener elorasingers.ca