Join Bel a cappella and Musical Director Anthony Pasquill for the second concert of their 2018 season SALVE REGINA.
Music Director Anthony Pasquill answers some questions about the Salve Regina program. SAG: Why/how did you select the program for this concert, Salve Regina? ANTHONY: I have been working with Bel a cappella since the start of 2009 and have always enjoyed programming concerts with themes. The idea of a concert around the Marian antiphon of Salve Regina came about when sat listening to a CD of the ‘Messe Salve Regina’ by the titulaire of the orgue de chœur at Notre Dame, Yves Castgnet. The CD starts with the antiphon before launching into an evocative, post-Duruflé mass setting that uses the plainchant throughout. The choir has performed many works by Francis Poulenc over the years but his 'Mass in G' is one of the most important a cappella works to be written in the 20th century. It is a difficult, but exhilarating sing for the choir and it fits with the other repertoire in the program perfectly! SAG: What challenges does this program present? ANTHONY: Each individual work has various challenges. There are some solo works for voices who will be positioned in different parts of the church who will need to be flexible with the acoustics and with the sound from the choir at the other end of the building. Allegri’s famous and haunting ‘Miserere' is well known for its challenging solo soprano lines, again giving the solo quartet the experience of working together without a conductor from a seperate space to the main choir. The works by Vivancos, Grigorjeva and Basden push the choir into wonderful harmonies that are somewhat reminiscent of choral works by György Ligeti, but remain more ‘good-natured’ to the ear! Then there is the Poulenc which is challenging for so many reasons! You should come to the concert to experience those.
Francis Poulenc is considered to be among the most important composers of choral music of the 20th Century. Bel a cappella has presented most of his dazzling unaccompanied choral music over the years and is delighted to be performing his Mass in G, a work that demonstrates the fusion of playfulness and devotion which characterises Poulenc’s sacred music.
The program also includes works by Arvo Pärt, Hildegard von Bingen and Gregorio Allegri‘s Miserere, known by most people for its soaring top C, sung by one soprano voice in a solo ensemble, and by the rich harmony of the larger choir, punctuated by simple plain chant.
Interpretations of ‘Salve Regina’ by Hermann Contractus, Felice Anerio and David Basden will also be performed alongside Australian Premieres of Aeternam by Bernat Vivancos from his haunting Requiem, and In paradisum by Galina Grigorjeva – a work which was commissioned by the international choir festival Tallinn 2013. In Grigorjeva’s In paradisum, a majestic and increasingly solid feeling of eternal peace prevails along with the joy for returning to the spiritual home.
Bel a cappella [Facebook] presents SALVE REGINA [Facebook event] on August 5th at 3 pm, St Augustines Church, Jane St Balmain, NSW. Tickets at Trybooking.
Program: Gregorio Allegri: Miserere mei, Deus Bernat Vivancos: Aeternam (Australian Premiere) Francis Poulenc: Mass in G Hildegard von Bingen: Spiritus Sanctus Vivificans Arvo Pärt: Prayer after the Canon (from Kanon Pokajanen) Galina Grigorjeva: In Paradisum (Australian Premiere) and interpretations of Salve Regina by Hermann Contracts, Felice Anerio and David Basden