Featuring Bach’s great Mass in B Minor

TORONTO BACH FESTIVAL CELEBRATES ITS FIFTH SEASON

OF THE BEST IN BAROQUE, MAY 29-31, 2020

Performances and Free Lecture by Distinguished Bach Scholar John Butt

300^th Anniversary of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin

with Leading Baroque Violinists

Air on the G String, Oboe Concerto and Cantatas

 

“Without doubt, the Toronto Bach Festival is an artistic entity that ought to have many more seasons ahead.” – James Wegg Review

“A very enjoyable and worthwhile concert of relatively unknown Bach quite excellently presented in an appropriate setting” – John Gilks, Operaramblings

“From the intimacy of works for solo violin to one of Bach’s grandest works, the great Mass in B Minor, the fifth annual Toronto Bach Festival proves in its most splendid way yet why the music of Johann Sebastian Bach remains so universally accessible and engaging.”  That is the summation of the 2020 event by the Festival founder and artistic director, oboist John Abberger.

Between May 29 and 31, the Toronto Bach Festival (www.TorontoBachFestival.org) presents historically informed performances of these works and of rare cantatas, concertos and masterful organ works, along with insightful commentary, in three Toronto locations.

 

SPECIAL GUEST JOHN BUTT IN TWO PERFORMANCES AND LECTURE

Highlighting the Festival is the special appearance of award-winning, British Bach authority John Butt, OBE, conductor, organist, harpsichordist, Gardiner Chair of Music at the University of Glasgow and music director of the Dunedin Consort.  Author of several books on Baroque era music, he will make his Festival debut playing the great Karl Wilhelm 1983 instrument in an all-Bach organ recital, Saturday, May 30, 2 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Church, 73 Simcoe Street (at King). Appropriately enough, St. Andrew’s was Canada’s first Presbyterian church to introduce organ music.

 

The following day, Sunday, May 31, 1 p.m. at Eastminster United Church, 310 Danforth Avenue (near Chester), Butt will deliver the Festival’s annual free lecture, this year an exploration of Bach’s great Mass in B Minor – a work he will conduct at 4 p.m. as the Festival finale.

 

MASS IN B MINOR

“The B Minor Mass reaches inside you and grabs you.  Its music is unbelievably gorgeous!” says John Abberger.  Bach wrote the first two parts (Kyrie and Gloria) of his iconic work at the midpoint of his career, and completed the work in 1749, the year before his passing. Although a Lutheran, he took the best of his sacred works from over the years and adapted them to the Latin text, adding two new parts found in the Catholic mass.

 

While not written for a specific purpose, the Mass will be presented the way Bach intended – but is believed not to have lived to hear.  Five carefully chosen vocal soloists with no vibrato, mirrored by a chorus of equal size, are joined by an orchestra that includes natural horn and trumpets, and baroque strings, flutes, oboes and bassoons– “an unusually intimate ensemble that will provide amazing clarity,” promises Abberger.

 

CELEBRATING SOLO BACH VIOLIN SONATAS AND PARTITAS – A TWO-PART CONCERT

This year also marks the 300^th anniversary of the publication of Bach’s beloved Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin – works Abberger describes as “unusually passionate for the period, technically challenging, and almost orchestral in their rich palette of musical colours.” The Toronto Bach Festival celebrates with a two-part performance of all six works by three of Toronto’s foremost period violinists, all members of Tafelmusik – Festival regular Julia Wedman, Tafelmusik Music Director Elisa Citterio in her first TBF appearance, and Patricia Ahern.  Their musical journey includes the Partita No. 2 in D Minor, with its famous Chaconne. The concerts take place Saturday, May 30, 5:30 and 9 p.m. at Eastminster United Church, preceded at 4:30 p.m. by noted music broadcaster and writer Rick Phillips in a pre-concert chat. 

 

OPENING CONCERT – CANTATAS, CONCERTO & AIR ON THE G STRING

The Festival opens Friday. May 29, 8 p.m. at St. Barnabas on-the-Danforth, 361 Danforth Ave. (near Chester) with Air on the G String. John Abberger is both conductor and oboe soloist in a program featuring two early cantatas (Alles, was von Gott geboren, BWV 80a; and Wachet! betet!, BWV 70), the Oboe Concerto in G minor, and the Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D with its famous theme known as the Air on the G String.  In the spirit of Bach, who created new works by recycling his earlier music for other instruments, Abberger performs his own arrangement for oboe of the F minor piano concerto.  Rick Phillips will preface the concert with his commentary at 7 p.m.

 

ARTISTS AND INFO

The Toronto Bach Festival has engaged some of the finest Baroque interpreters as vocal soloists in 2020.  Festival regulars alto Daniel Taylor, and bass Joel Allison (recently seen as Fiorello in The Canadian Opera Company’s production of The Barber of Seville) are back, joined by sopranos Hélène Brunet (lauded in her 2019 debut) and Ellen McAteer, alto Nicholas Burns and tenor Charles Daniels.

 

In addition to the above singers, organist John Butt, oboist John Abberger and the three violin soloists, the Festival features the Toronto Bach Festival Singers and Orchestra, which comprise leading performers from Toronto’s Baroque music scene

 

The 2020 Toronto Bach Festival is presented in partnership with The New Classical FM,  The WholeNote, and Chamber Factory.

 

TICKET INFORMATION 

Single tickets are $15-60.  A complete four-concert Festival Pass is $175; $58  for youth 30 and under, a saving of up to 13%. Early Bird passes, available until March 21 (Bach’s birthday) offer greater savings, at $160; $53 for age 30 and under.

 

Passes and single tickets may be ordered online at www.TorontoBachFestival.org. More information can be obtained by emailing Info@TorontoBachFestival.org.

Passes will be available for pick-up at the Festival box office at the first concert. Ticket confirmation will be sent by email, and a list of ticket orders will be kept at the door for each concert.

 

The Toronto Bach Festival is supported only by donations and ticket sales. Tax-deductible donations may be made through the website, www.TorontoBachFestival.org (Support button), or by emailing Donations@TorontoBachFestival.org.

 

BACKGROUND – TORONTO BACH FESTIVAL & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

The Toronto Bach Festival was founded in 2016 by internationally recognized Bach authority John Abberger, to perform the music of J.S. Bach through historically informed performances that engage the wide diversity of Toronto audiences.  As success builds, the Festival has grown significantly since its inception, both in regards to audience size and donations to the Festival.

 

Abberger describes Bach as “the consummate artist, who channeled the human spirit into music. His musical language culminated in his extraordinary skill in musical text setting, and his use of complex harmony for musical expression. Tastes had changed by the end of Bach’s life, but centuries later, his music is still deeply moving.”

 

One of North America’s leading performers on historical oboes, John Abberger (www.TorontoBachFestival.org/johnabberger) has been principal oboist with Toronto’s Tafelmusik since 1989. He has performed extensively in North America, Europe and the Far East with the company,  and appears regularly with other prominent period-instrument ensembles across North America.  His critically acclaimed recordings on Analekta include his reconstruction of Bach’s oboe concertos and orchestral suites, and Gramophone Magazine called his recording of Alessandro Marcello’s Concerto for Oboe “one of the best there is”.

 

A native of Orlando FL, he trained at the Juilliard School and Louisiana State University, and holds a Performers Certificate in Early Music from New York University.  He has taught at the City College of New York, and serves on the faculty at the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School.

 

The complete Festival lineup is below.

 

Toronto Bach Festival presents its Fifth Annual Festival

Friday-Sunday, May 29-31

John Abberger, Artistic Director

4 Main Concerts, Free Lecture

St. Barnabas-on-the-Danforth, 361 Danforth Avenue

Eastminster United Church, 310 Danforth Avenue

St. Andrew’s Church, 73 Simcoe Street

Info & Tickets: www.TorontoBachFestival.org

Email: Info@TorontoBachFestival.org

Phone:  416-466-8241

– 30 –

 

2020 TORONTO BACH FESTIVAL CONCERTS LINE-UP

 

Friday, May 29 at 8 p.m. – St. Barnabas on-the-Danforth, 361 Danforth Ave.

Opening concert: Air on the G String

Pre-concert chat by Rick Phillips – 7 p.m.

 

Directed by John Abberger

Ellen McAteer, soprano

Nicholas Burns, alto

Charles Daniels, tenor

Joel Allison, bass

John Abberger, oboe

Julia Wedman and Cristina Zacharias, violins

Brandon Chui, viola

Felix Deak, violoncello

Christopher Bagan, organ/harpsichord

 

Concerto for oboe in G minor, after BWV 1056

Cantata Alles, was von Gott geboren, BWV 80a

Cantata Wachet! betet!, BWV 70

Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068

 

Opening night of the Toronto Bach Festival brings together four powerhouse baroque vocalists and orchestra in a fifth anniversary celebration of Bach’s orchestral and choral works. The program features one of Bach’s most immediately recognizable orchestral pieces, Air on the G String, alongside lively and resonant works that draw on the vast power of creation and the drama of earthly existence.

 

Saturday, May 30 at 2 p.m. at St. Andrew`s Church, 73 Simcoe Street (at King) 

Organ Recital – featuring John Butt

 

All-Bach Program:

Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV 544

Concerto in D minor after Vivaldi, BWV 596

Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541

 

Award-winning English keyboardist John Butt takes control of the St. Andrew’s 1983 Karl Wilhelm organ. Mr. Butt is an authority on the music of J.S. Bach and its performance, and his collaboration with our musicians will be an unforgettable highlight of this year’s Festival. Author of several books on music of the Baroque era, Mr. Butt is the Gardiner Chair of Music at the University of Glasgow. He is coming to Canada exclusively for this appearance with the Toronto Bach Festival.

 

Saturday, May 30 at 5:30 p.m. at Eastminster United Church, 310 Danforth Avenue

Part 1: 5:30 p.m.; Part 2: 9 p.m. 

Solo Bach in 2 Parts

Pre-concert chat by Rick Phillips – 4:30 p.m.

 

Julia Wedman violin

Elisa Citterio violin

Patricia Ahern violin

 

Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001

Partita No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1002

Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003

Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004

Sonata No. 3 in C major, BWV 1005

Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006

 

“Not just one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, but one of the greatest achievements of any man in history. It’s a spiritually powerful piece, emotionally powerful, structurally perfect.” – violinist Joshua Bell, speaking of the Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in D minor

 

Three of Toronto’s best period violinists take on Bach’s edifying but challenging Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, on the 300th anniversary of their publication. Tafelmusik Music Director Elisa Citterio, Festival regular Julia Wedman and fellow Tafelmusik violinist Patricia Ahern take us on a musical journey from darkness to brilliant luminescence. Presented in two parts on a single ticket.

 

Sunday, May 31 at 1 p.m. at Eastminster United Church, 310 Danforth Avenue

Free Public Event – Lecture: J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor

 

Prominent scholar and musician John Butt explores what many consider to be Bach’s crowning achievement, from its inception, through the historical context, and on to the enduring admiration of musicians and audiences over the last 270 years.

 

Sunday, May 31 at 4 p.m. at Eastminster United Church, 310 Danforth Avenue

Mass in B Minor

 

Directed by John Butt

Hélène Brunet and Ellen McAteer, sopranos

Daniel Taylor, alto

Charles Daniels, tenor

Joel Allison, bass

The Toronto Bach Festival Singers and Orchestra

 

A monumental achievement in classical music, this sacred work of immense proportion and profound emotion is one of J.S. Bach’s final compositions, and ranks among his greatest. Directed by renowned conductor and Bach scholar John Butt, this iconic work is presented as it was in the composer’s time with an intimate ensemble, to offer a performance of the utmost clarity and brilliance.

 

The most ambitious project presented by the Toronto Bach Festival to date, the Mass in B Minor is a powerfully transcendent celebration of the human spirit.

 

ARTIST WEBSITES

John Abberger: www.TorontoBachFestival.org/johnabberger

Patricia Ahern: www.tafelmusik.org/about/orchestra/bios/patricia-ahern

Joel Allison: www.joelallisonbassbaritone.com

Christopher Bagan: www.christopherbagan.com

Hélène Brunet: www.helenebrunet.com

Nicholas Burns: www.tafelmusik.org/about/choir/bios/nicholas-burns-countertenor

John Butt: www.dunedin-consort.org.uk/artist/john-butt; www.gla.ac.uk/schools/cca/staff/johnbutt

Brandon Chui: www.tafelmusik.org/about/orchestra/bios/brandon-chui

Elisa Citterio: www.tafelmusik.org/about/orchestra/bios/elisa-citterio

Charles Daniels: https://lesvoixhumaines.org/en/charles-daniels-en/

Felix Deak: https://lesvoixhumaines.org/en/felix-deak-en

Ellen McAteer: www.ellenmcateer.ca

Daniel Taylor: www.danieltaylor.ca

Julia Wedman: www.tafelmusik.org/about/orchestra/bios/julia-wedman

Burning River Baroque continues their 8th season with a series of thought-provoking performances crafted to connect baroque music to present-day issues of othering, bullying, and stigmatization. “Witches: Revered & Reviled” delves into early modern society’s desire for an ordered society, a trend that frequently led to the persecution of individuals accused of straying outside the established conventional boundaries. In particular, the program focuses on the criminalization of women who were labelled as not fitting into social norms. 

Ironically, while women ascribed with supernatural abilities were often severely outcasted, punished, and even brutally executed, they could also be viewed as powerful and revered resources to help those who suffered from mental and spiritual maladies. Thus, the program looks closely at reverence, as well as repulsion, through the stories of Circe, the Witch of Endor, and the Furies in a broad range of national styles and traditions of the 17th century.

Audience members will also experience the premiere of a newly-commissioned work by Alexis Bacon, which portrays the story of Mary Todd Lincoln and her spiritualist medium Margaretta Fox. Co-directors Malina Rauschenfels (soprano) and Paula Maust (harpsichord) will be joined by guest artists Kristine Caswelch (soprano); William Marshall (baritone); Sarah Elizabeth Cranor (violin); Stephanie Zimmerman, (violin); and Jamie Gallupe, (cello). 

Their week-long series begins with outreach workshops and performances at the Renee Jones Empowerment Center and at Bard High School Early College, generously supported by an EMA Engagement Award. “Witches: Revered & Reviled” runs from March 18 through 22, with public venues that include downtown Cleveland, Youngstown, Lorain, and Cleveland Heights, OH. All public performances have a $10 to $20 suggested donation. 

Founded in 2012, Burning River Baroque has been praised by the Boston Music Intelligencer as “a group that left an indelible print on my psyche.” Audience members report that they appreciate the opportunity to experience the marriage of critical thought and musical performance in a welcome and engaging atmosphere. One attendee described the experience as “not classical music as a privileged escape from reality, but classical music as a way to engage with and reframe current reality.”

Visit www.burning-river-baroque.org to learn more.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 21, 2020

Rutgers University and The Raritan Players explore the eighteenth-century salon and its music

Marianna Martines, an eighteenth-century composer, singer, keyboardist, and salon hostess, is the focus of a concert with commentary

 

New Brunswick, NJ – An interdisciplinary conference with an innovative musical program is set to take place at Rutgers University on April 2–3, 2020. The conference, titled The Salon and the Senses in the Long Eighteenth Century, features scholars and performers seeking to understand the ways that salons, held in elite homes and led by women, shaped their cultural environments. The conference will feature The Raritan Players in the concert In the Salon of Marianna Martines, exploring the music in the Viennese salon of a remarkable eighteenth-century woman. Martines was a student of Franz Joseph Haydn and Nicolo Porpora, and she played keyboard duets with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. She was also a composer in her own right, and this concert features music by Martines, little known today, as well as works by these other figures.

 

All events are free and open to the public.

 

The concert In the Salon of Marianna Martines is part of a series of salon-based programs undertaken by The Raritan Players, whose playing been called “simply mesmerizing” (Early Music America) and “an unexpected treasure” (American Record Guide). Named for the historic Raritan Valley, The Raritan Players seek to revive lost musical repertoire and performance practices from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—especially those associated with women. Their award-winning programs are based on the work of the group’s founder and leader, Rebecca Cypess (Department of Music, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers).

 

The concert, to be played on period instruments, will feature the Raritan Players’ core ensemble together with guest artists to fill out the large orchestra for which Marianna Martines wrote. In addition to a keyboard sonata and a cantata composed by Martines herself, the concert will feature the concerto for two keyboards and orchestra by Mozart, played by Rebecca Cypess on harpsichord and Yi-heng Yang on fortepiano. Also featured will be soprano Sonya Headlam, singing cantatas by Martines and her teacher Porpora. Cypess will provide historical commentary throughout the program. “It is amazing that Martines wrote so many beautiful works, and these survive today, yet so few of them are ever performed,” said Dr. Cypess. “The cantata that Sonya Headlam will sing is a remarkable work with a robust scoring and sensitive text-setting. It is wonderful to participate in the revival of the music by Martines, whose reputation as a composer, keyboardist, and singer extended across Europe during her own lifetime.”

 

The conference The Salon and the Senses in the Long Eighteenth Century is the outgrowth of an interdisciplinary research group led by Rebecca Cypess and Jennifer Jones (Department of History, School of Arts and Sciences) and supported by the Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers. The conference brings together scholars from across the United States and Europe to consider the institution of the Enlightenment salon—social gatherings led by women that featured conversation, games, and engagement with a variety of arts and sciences. Conference presentations address the roles of objects, images, smells, and sounds in the salon. Rather than looking for evidence about salons only in written texts, conference participants seek to understand the salon as a multimedia, multi-sensory experience.

 

During the eighteenth century, few women had access to formal education, and the lines between the public and private spheres were being drawn with increasing rigidity, with women often discouraged from participation in public life. The salon offered elite women an opportunity to engage with the intellectual and artistic worlds around them—even shaping those worlds through the social network that gathered in their salons. Some salons hosted the leading minds of Europe—figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Samuel Johnson, among many others. In the salon, women socialized and conversed with such figures on all the topics of the day, influencing their thinking and affecting their intellectual and cultural environments.

 

Other noteworthy aspects of the conference are a theatrical workshop to be led by Professor Christopher Cartmill (Department of Theater, Mason Gross, Rutgers) on April 2 at 2:00 p.m. and a “pop-up salon,” an immersive salon experience designed with high-school and college-level pedagogy in mind, at 1:30 p.m. on April 3.

 

The conference will begin with at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 2 in the Mabel Smith Douglass Room of Douglass Library, Douglass Campus, 8 Chapel Drive, New Brunswick, New Jersey. The concert will take place in the same room at 7:30 p.m. with a reception following. All events on Friday, April 3 will take place on the College Avenue Campus. The presentations on Friday will be held in the Academic Building West Wing, 6^th floor, 15 Seminary Place, New Brunswick, New Jersey. The “pop-up salon” will be held in the chapel of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, 35 Seminary Place, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

 

Event co-sponsors:

 

• Office of Research and Innovation, Office of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Rutgers University
• Center for Cultural Analysis, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University
• Department of French, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University
• Department of Music, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University
• Department of History, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University
• Rutgers University Libraries
• Department of German, Russian, and East European Languages and Literatures, School of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University

 

For more information please contact Rebecca Cypess: rebecca.cypess@rutgers.edu.