Les Boréades de Montréal. Hugo B Lefort photo.
A two-night performance of the complete Brandenburg Concertos opens the 2019 Vancouver Bach Festival.
A presentation of Early Music Vancouver, the 14-concert festival takes place July 30-Aug 9 at Christ Church Cathedral and the Chan Center for the Performing Arts. This year marks EMV’s 50th anniversary, and the arts company is pulling out all the stops with performances by top West Coast artists specializing in period performance, and guest artists from across Europe and North America.
Find out more about the programming, including the Concertos, below.
Part 1 of the Concertos is at the Chan Centre on July 30, and Part 2 on July 31 at Christ Church Cathedral. The six concertos are universally regarded as some of the greatest musical works ever written, and will feature Ensemble Les Boréades, a Montreal company internationally celebrated for their mastery of Baroque aesthetics.
Additional concerts include the Vancouver Bach Choir. Partnering with the festival for the first time, the choir will perform a programme featuring Faure’s Requiem with a
core of 20 of the region’s best professional singers, accompanied by award-winning organist Christina Hutten.
Pacific Baroque Orchestra. Jan Gates photo.
Other highlights include audience favourite soprano Amanda Forsythe with Pacific
MusicWorks, in a performance of Handel’s early cantatas. Sopranos Suzie LeBlanc and Dorothee Mields’ will interpret female composer Barbara Strozzi’s 17th-century musings on love and loss.
The festival is also presenting a weekday afternoon concert series. Among the musicians are Byron Schenkman, who plays Chopin Preludes on a 19th-century fortepiano, and David Jalbert, who performs Shostakovich’s Preludes and a Bach Toccata.
A presentation of Purcell’s Hail Bright Cecilia at the Chan Centre, starring six internationally renowned vocal soloists and the PBO, closes the festival.
For tickets and complete schedule visit earlymusic.bc.ca.
Early Music Vancouver presents the Vancouver Bach Festival
Dates: July 30 – August 9
Tickets: $10 – $68
Address: Christ Church Cathedral (690 Burrard Street) and the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC (6265 Crescent Road)
Box Office: earlymusic.bc.ca or 604-822-2697
