Photo credit: Foter - Public domain
Baroque Instruments
The time is fast approaching! Musikay’s final concert of the season draws near, and you don’t want to miss the opportunity to see this exciting ensemble one more time this Spring. On April 18, 7:30 p.m. at the beautiful St. John’s United Church in downtown Oakville, Maestro Stéphane Potvin and Musikay offer you an eclectic program of music featuring compositions from the seventeenth and the twenty-first century.
If you love baroque then you are in for a treat. The foremost composer on the program is J. S. Bach, who needs no introduction. The ensemble presents three works by this singular giant of the baroque era: the eight-part motet Komm, Jesu, Komm, the double-chorus motet Ich Lasse dich Nicht, and the magnificent final Kyrie from the celebrated B minor Mass. Staying in the baroque period, Musikay presents two works by French composers: the Missa ad Majorem Dei Gloria by André Campra and an intimate yet powerful setting of the Te Deum by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The Campra mass is a beautiful example of French choral baroque style. Charpentier wrote several settings of the Te Deum text—the most famous in D major being over an hour long and the delight of tympanists and trumpeters everywhere. The setting presented by Musikay is shorter and not as well-known, but just as breathtaking.
Rounding out the program is the Ontario premiere of three motets—set to the verse of seventeenth-century Welsh poet Henry Vauhgan—by contemporary Canadian composer Allan Bevan. These ethereally magnificent works are a perfect complement to the earlier compositions.
The choir is accompanied by cello and organ and has a few surprises for its audience.For those who want to learn more about the music, join us at 6:30 p.m. for a pre-concert chat and tea. Ticket information can be found on Musikay's website.
