With a Rapture of Delight - EMV's Hail! Bright Cecilia
Thursday, August 08, 2019
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| Curtis Daily |
I have a
particular connection to this work. The standup bass player, Curtis Daily is my
friend and whenever he is in town I go to any performance that has him firmly
in command of the lower register of the orchestra.
Of Purcell’s
work he has informed me that Handel listened to a lot of this man’s output and
did what Handel did besides copying himself, he copied a lot of Purcell. Purcell
sounds like Handel because Handel sounds like Purcell!
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| Alex Weimann |
In my new
vein of going (because I am allowed and in this case Weimann gave me a green
light) to rehearsals I get to see and listen to stuff that is mostly not known
or ignored in actual performances like tonight’s.
This is
illuminating as besides finding out that musicians put on their pants one leg
at a time I know they knit, play with their smart phones and read good
literature such as Men Without Women
by Haruki Murakami.
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| Saint Cecilia - Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino) |
The
rehearsal yesterday at the lovely UBC Chapel of the Epiphany featured a most unusual
configuration. The singers sat in chairs facing Weimann which must have been
strange as no musical director would ever hear the singers in that way. And
this photographer was able to go to the back of the orchestra and watch Weimann
direct, something that nobody will see in tonight’s concert.
I listened
to a fractured potpourri of tonight’s performance. Of the Purcell I particularly was in awe of movement 11 The Fife and all the Harmony of War with tenor Samuel Boden , who was terrific! (I believe he rehearses his parts while working out.)
The other movement I heard was Chorus (the 13th and last): "Hail! Bright Cecilia, hail to thee" with tenor Boden, Bass-Baritone Matthew Brooks and Alex Potter and bass-baritone Matthew Brook singing With Rapture of Delight dost see Thy Favourite Art. Special to this was accompanying (alto-ripieno) Vancouver countertenor Nicholas Burns. This movement was beautiful and simply showed that lots of stuff happened before Bach came into the baroque scene and why Musical Director Matthew White had other composers in this year’s EMV Bach Festival.
The other movement I heard was Chorus (the 13th and last): "Hail! Bright Cecilia, hail to thee" with tenor Boden, Bass-Baritone Matthew Brooks and Alex Potter and bass-baritone Matthew Brook singing With Rapture of Delight dost see Thy Favourite Art. Special to this was accompanying (alto-ripieno) Vancouver countertenor Nicholas Burns. This movement was beautiful and simply showed that lots of stuff happened before Bach came into the baroque scene and why Musical Director Matthew White had other composers in this year’s EMV Bach Festival.
The rehearsal
to me seemed inspired but then we do know that St. Cecilia is the patron saint
of musicians!
Curtis
Daily pointed out to me that because Matthew White was a fine countertenor in
his time he knows how to find the best singers around to bring into our city. I did not get a chance to listen to the sopranos,
including Suzy LeBlanc but will look forward to that tonight.
Because for
years I worked as a magazine photographer I decided that today’s blog entry
would start with Curtis Daily’s bass being retrieved from overnight storage and
then finally being loaded into his Prius. The bass was in the chapel basement and because it was cold there the bass had to be brought up half an hour before the rehearsal to warm it up or it would have been difficult to keep it tuned.
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| Curtis Daily's music stand with glasses and rosin. |
