Volume 13, Issue 1
Cantabile Choral Guild, 953 Industrial Ave. Ste 118, Palo Alto CA 94303, 650.424.1410
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Welcome to the first issue of a renamed and redesigned newsletter. Yes, we’ve taken the needle off The Baroquen Record because our organization’s new name is “Cantabile Choral Guild.” Last year, as the Guild Chorus of the Baroque Choral Guild, we celebrated our 25th anniversary season with a string of major works in performances that achieved a new level of artistry and musicianship. Now, as the Cantabile Chorale, our chorus begins a new quarter century not just with a new name but also with renewed enthusiasm for our continuing growth and success.
Attendance at concerts was way up last season, in part because we presented familiar masterworks, but also, we trust, because our audience members noticed the quality of our music-making. The music critics certainly did. This season we intend to sustain our tradition of excellence by presenting cross-sections of music from the Renaissance and the modern era. All three programs juxtapose early and modern music. Our long-time fans already expect the lesser-known choral repertoire on our programs to be as exquisite as last season’s Bach B Minor Mass and Beethoven Choral Symphony, but I want to assure our newer audience members, too, that you will be impressed with what we have found for our 26th season.
The Seasons of Christmas on December 10, 11, and 12 is the most straight-forward Christmas program we’ve presented in my five seasons with the group. I’ve grouped pieces into sets with thematically connected texts for the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. The program places beautiful motets by such Renaissance masters as Josquin, Andrea Gabrieli, and Spanish composers T. L. Victoria and Francisco Guerrero alongside a-cappella compositions of our own time by, among others, Herbert Howells, Healey Willan, and myself. It should be very interesting to hear the old and new music side by side. This gorgeous program is sure to make your Christmas season merry!
On March 11, 12, and 13 the Cantabile Chorale again sings unaccompanied in Songs of Love and Liturgy, a program featuring the music of three masters from distinctly different eras and nationalities. The first half of the concert is devoted to G. P. Palestrina’s Song of Songs, a collection of motets on biblical love poetry, offering a most satisfying sampling of this Italian master’s oeuvre. After intermission we’ll tackle a new masterwork in the choral canon, Vigilia, by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, born in 1938. This exquisite choral tour de force was the first setting in Finnish of the Russian Orthodox vespers liturgy. As a tasty Baroque dessert after those hearty courses of Renaissance and modern fare, we’ll close the program with another in our cycle of J. S. Bach’s motets, this year Motet No. 6, Lobet den Herrn, a delightfully happy work.
We wrap up the season on June 4 and 5 with another exciting triptych, Winds of Time, presenting larger works for brass, keyboard, and chorus. The Chorale will open with a rousing Magnificat for three choirs by Giovanni Gabrieli, then reprise a work we commissioned and premiered 15 years ago, the Mass for chorus, brass, and organ by local composer William Ludtke. The piece was a hit in our 1989 performances, and we look forward to presenting it again.
Seven Ghosts by Minnesota composer Libby Larsen, a fascinating and enchanted work for chorus with brass, piano, and percussion, concludes our June program. In her settings of letters written to George Washington by poet Phillis Wheatley, to Harriet Beecher Stowe by soprano Jenny Lind, by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, by aviator Charles Lindberg, and by jazzman Louis Armstrong, seven famous ghosts haunt the wonderful climax to our 26th season.
We look forward to having you along as we explore the many wonderful genres of beautiful choral music.
Cantabile Choral Guild, 953 Industrial Ave. Ste 118, Palo Alto CA 94303, 650.424.1410
| Home | About | Youth Singer Resources | Chorale Resources | Concerts | | Directions | FAQ | Contact |