Greenwood Singers embrace love in final concert

Love is the language of spring and no one knows that better than the Greenwood Singers as they rehearse for their season finale Songs from the Heart.

Music director Robert de Frece has selected a repertoire that covers a span from 10th century Gregorian chants to contemporary Broadway. It celebrates love in all its forms from the initial blinding passion to the heartbreak of love lost.

“Some are introspective. Some are passionate. Some are even angry. It’s about love and the huge range of emotions in love,” de Frece says.

Now concluding its 31st season, de Frece believes Greenwood’s challenges have heightened with the years. “We’ve become more discriminatory in our choice of music,” he chuckles.

Fortunately, his inexhaustible curiosity for incorporating fresh scores always keeps audiences invigorated. For instance, this concert’s centrepiece is Johannes Brahms’ Liebesliederwaltzer Op. 52, a 20-minute romantic set of 18 waltzes, some as short as one minute.

“Brahms didn’t always write happy music, but he lived in Vienna for a while and was influenced by Johann Strauss, the waltz king. This work was astounding to people who knew him,” explains de Frece.

Accompanying the 45 choristers in this composition are dual pianists Margaret King and Helen Stuart.

Opening the program are Renaissance and Elizabethan madrigals. “The Elizabethans were not just in love. They were sick in love. They poured it on so thick, but they are a delight musically.”

At the opposite end of the spectrum are the more poignant tunes of lost love. One of de Frece’s favourites is Newfoundland folk song arranger Edward T. Chapman’s arrangement of She’s Like the Swallow. It is the wounded tale of a woman deserted by her love when he discovers she is carrying his child.

“It’s the most beautiful melody. It’s in a Dorian mode. It’s absolutely haunting.”

And then there’s American composer Houston Bright, who wrote Rainsong in the 1950s shortly after his wife’s death. “The rain is a metaphor for his tears.”

Sensitive to the audience’s mood, de Frece closes the concert with Gershwin and Porter on Love, a nostalgic medley of seven well-known romantic tunes such as Embraceable You, The Man I Love and Just One of Those Things.

“I like to think of a concert as a menu with something for everyone. This concert is a banquet of love.

“I hope the music will touch the heart and uplift the soul. Love means different things to different people. But all the music is beautifully crafted and when it’s right your heart knows it.”

Songs from the Heart is performed this Friday at All Saints Anglican Cathedral at 8 p.m.