The Guelph Chamber Choir begins its choral season with War and Peace: Remembering the Great War 1914 – 1918 at the River Run Centre on Nov. 1 at 7:30pm.
A century after WWI, conflicts over geography, power, money and religious extremism still threaten our delicate and shrinking world. We come together to remember and to call for peace through music.
The first half of the program is devoted to two great works: Haydn’s Mass in Time of War and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. The second half will present works by Canadian composers including: Eleanor Daley’s For the Fallen, Alexander Tilley’s In Flanders Fields, Mark Sirett’s arrangement of Where have all the flowers gone and Rupert Lang’s pleading Earth Teach Me.
Haydn composed his Mass in Time of War in 1796 during the European War that followed the French Revolution. At times the piece expresses an anti-war sentiment through an unsettled nature not normally associated with Haydn but resolves in harmonious beauty.
Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy was written for a benefit concert in 1808 which also saw the premieres of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. To conclude the evening Beethoven wanted a “brilliant finale” that would unite in a single piece the musical elements of the night: piano solo, chorus and orchestra. The work shares both a harmonic and textual kinship with his later Ninth Symphony.
Beethoven played the piano himself at the first performance, but in Guelph Stéphan Sylvestre, head of keyboard studies at Western University is taking the keys. Compared by critics to Arthur Rubinstein for his natural talent, he performs and records around the world. His teachers included Leon Fleisher and Marek Jablonski.
Joining the talents of a full orchestra are soloists, Sheila Dietrich, soprano, Carolynne Davy Godin, mezzo-soprano, Chris Fischer, tenor and Neil McLaren, bass.
There will be a podium talk at 6:30pm on the WWI centenary. David Murray, historian and former dean of the College of Arts, University of Guelph, speaks on the conflict that was to end all war.
Tickets are $30 each, $10 for youth under 30, $5 with EyeGo or 4 for $100. Tickets are available through the River Run Centre by calling 519-763-3000 or online at riverrun.ca.
