PREVIEW
Good Friday at the Winspear
Pro Coro Canada
Friday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Winspear
4 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Tickets: $36 to $46 plus fees. Call 780-420-1757
For many parts of the population, chamber music has shifted from being a cultural pinnacle to one of many entertainment options available.
One concert that always draws an audience and creates mini epiphanies for even the most jaded listeners is Pro Coro Canada’s Good Friday requiem traditionally held at Winspear Centre.
This year artistic director Michael Zaugg features Johannes Brahms’ majestic masterpiece titled Ein deutsches Requiem or A German Requiem.
“It premiered in 1868 exactly 150 years ago on Good Friday,” said Zaugg.
Brahms addresses the historic themes of life, love and loss in this lush, romantic and heartfelt requiem. Written in German, it is based on the Lutheran Bible, unlike most traditional requiems sung in Latin and based on the Roman Catholic Mass for the dead.
“This requiem is for the living to give consolation, hope and acknowledgement to those who sorrow. It’s a humanist, broader approach to the moment when someone dies. It’s how we deal with who are left behind,” said Zaugg.
Brahms chose to write the seven-movement composition as a concert piece expressing hope for the future instead of following the practice of previous requiems written as sombre eulogies or liturgical works for the dead.
Speculation is that he wanted to write something for grief-stricken people without preaching at them. The idea for a requiem occurred to the young artist in 1854 after a suicide attempt by his compositional mentor Robert Schumann, who died in 1856.
Brahms made a false start on the work, but the requiem idea only came to fruition after the death of his mother in 1865. Brahms enjoyed a close relationship with his mother adding a final movement with the words, "I will comfort you as one whom his own mother comforteth."
Zaugg adds, “This requiem is very spiritual in its broad, humanistic approach."
The full Pro Coro choir of 24 singers, including St. Albert sopranos Carole Kube and Catherine Kubash and bass Michael Kurschat, will sing the warm passages along with 14 additional support vocalists. Soprano Jolaine Kerley and baritone Alexander Dobson will take the lead.
Accompanying the choral contingent on two pianos are Roger Admiral and Leanne Regehr.
“Brahms originally wrote the piece for an orchestra. The original piece requires 50 musicians on stage. It was also common in that period for composers of large symphonies to condense the score so it could be played at a tea or at a salon. We have also split the score between two pianists on two grand pianos.”
Opening the concert is modern Spanish composer Bernat Vivancos’ Aeternum text of the Latin Mass.
“It’s very atmospheric, very quiet and a big contrast to the German Requiem with all its colours, keys and big Romantic outburst.
Zaugg will host a pre-concert talk on the third floor upper lobby at 6:45 p.m.
