Three-concert Benjamin Britten festival a fitting swan song for Toronto’s Aldeburgh Connection
Read article by John Terauds in Musical Toronto
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These concerts honour the greatest English composer of the last century, born one hundred years ago on St Cecilia’s Day. His music put Aldeburgh on the map, drew performers and music-lovers to his part of the world and, ultimately, provided the inspiration an example for our own “Connection”.
The Canticles
Friday, April 26, 8 pm
Glenn Gould Studio
Canadian Broadcasting Centre
250 Front Street West
Program and texts
Daniel Taylor countertenor
Benjamin Butterfield tenor
Alexander Dobson baritone
The Choir of St. Thomas’s Church, director John Tuttle
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In his five Canticles, Britten created a unique musical genre which contains some of his greatest vocal music. Our outstanding singers build their program around the heart-rendingly dramatic Abraham and Isaac and the mysterious and haunting Journey of the Magi, together with other pieces to provide a context for these masterworks.
The Song-Cycles
Tuesday, May 7, 8 pm
Glenn Gould Studio
Canadian Broadcasting Centre
250 Front Street West
Program and texts
Shannon Mercer soprano
Susan Platts mezzo
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Two brilliant soloists showcase some of Britten’s most varied music, inspired by the excellence of poets from several countries. On This Island, to poems of W.H. Auden; A Charm of Lullabies, songs of great tenderness and beauty setting William Blake, Robert Burns and others, and The Poet’s Echo, six poems of Alexander Pushkin set (in Russian) for Galina Vishnevskaya – these provide an exotic and delicious vocal feast.
A Time There Was
Sunday May 26, 2:30 pm SOLD OUT
Walter Hall, Edward Johnson Building
University of Toronto, 80 Queen’s Park
Virginia Hatfield soprano
Scott Belluz countertenor
Colin Ainsworth tenor
Geoffrey Sirett baritone
Members of the Principal Chorus of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company,
artistic director and conductor Ann Cooper Gay
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The opening of the last song of Winter Words provides the title of the last concert of our final season.
It presents a vocal tapestry of the music of Benjamin Britten, acknowledging the tremendous debt we owe him and his partner, interpreter and muse, Peter Pears, the Founding Patron of the Aldeburgh Connection.
