Exultant Spring

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Saturday, June 4th, 2016
7:30 PM to 9:30 PM

Victoria Baroque Players with St John's Chamber Singers, conducted by Timothy Vernon Mozart: Exsultate, jubilate Telemann: Die Tageszeiten Corrette:Laudate Dominum based on “Spring” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Soloists: Monica Orso, soprano; Rebecca Genge; soprano: Rebecca Claborn, mezzo soprano: Zachary Windus, countertenor: Kevin Myers, tenor: Andrew Erasmus, baritone

As the trees bloom, the days grow longer, and nature bursts with new life, the Victoria Baroque Players closes its fifth season with music equally effulgent in spirit. “Exultant Spring” is an extravaganza for six soloists, choir and orchestra, conducted by Pacific Opera Victoria’s Timothy Vernon.

The three works in the programme were written within a sixteen year period on the cusp of the turn from Baroque to Classical style. The latest of these is Mozart’s well-loved Exsultate Jubilate (1773) for solo soprano and orchestra, written when Mozart was only or a mere lad of  17 years for a singer whose virtuosic vocal skills he greatly admired.  The other works featured on evening are likely being performed in Victoria for the first time: Georg Philip Telemann’s “Die Tageszeiten” (1757) and Michel Corrette’s “Laudate Dominum” (1765). “Die Tageszeiten" (“The Times of Day") is full of nature-references, and its musical language and drama hints similarities to Haydn’s Oratorios and classical opera.  It consists of four cantatas, each written for a solo voice, obligato instrument and orchestra, each finishing with a joyous chorus. The opening “Morning” pairs a soprano and horn, “The Midday” mezzo soprano and viola da gamba, “The Evening” a tenor and two tender flutes, and “The Night” a baritone and solo bassoon.

The concert will finish with a ravishing curiosity, “Laudate Dominum” by Corette. The French composer Corrette, inspired by Vivaldi’s “Spring” from the “Four Seasons”, re-worked the famous Italian violin concerto into a larger scale work employing three vocal soloists, a five-part choir, and on top of the original violin solo and string parts, a full wind section with flutes, oboe, horns and bassoon.

Though including all the familiar material of Vivaldi's concerto, “Laudate Dominum” infuses flavours of French Baroque and the grandeur of a classical orchestra in a most imaginative and colourful fashion.