Anyone who heard Christopher Jackson's Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal at Metropolitan United Church last weekend experienced one of the highlights of Canadian Voices, the three-concert Soundstreams Canada festival celebrating the 50th anniversary of professional choral singing in Canada. The Montrealers sang 16th- and 17th-century music as if nothing could have sounded more natural coming from their throats.

It comes as something of a surprise to find them performing, apparently with equal conviction, music composed by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt within the last three decades. But their performance of Pärt's Stabat Mater (1985), written originally for three solo voices but heard here in a version for three-part choir, violin and two violas da gamba, sounds entirely convincing.

The hypnotic power of Pärt's music derives in part from its simplicity of means. In the case of the Stabat Mater, the music is built entirely on the scale and triad of A minor, and the other works on this disc are similarly constructed from basic building blocks.

The choir also sings the original choral version of the Christian creed, Summa, but a second version for violin, two violas and cello is also valuably included, featuring the Quatuor Franz Joseph. The quartet's other contributions to the program include Psalom and Fratres. An excellent disc through which to make the acquaintance of one of the most distinctive of living composers.

WILLIAM LITTLER
Toronto Star

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