When critics write about The Hilliard Ensemble descriptors like ‘astounding’, ‘flawless’, ‘other-worldly’ and ‘thrilling’ inevitably pour out. Founded in 1974, the group has built a formidable reputation in the fields of both old and new music. On average, the ensemble performs one hundred concerts a year for their substantial followers in Europe, Japan, the United States and Canada, and they have recorded extensively on EMI, Virgin and ECM labels. Great champions of Arvo Pärt’s music outside the Soviet bloc, they have premiered and recorded several of the composer’s vocal works including the Miserere.
Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) studied at the Tallinn Conservatory and began his career as a recording engineer with Estonian Radio, writing numerous film scores and music for the stage. As Pärt’s music began to be performed in the West and his frustration with Soviet regime increased, he decided to emigrate with his family in 1980. With the assistance of his publisher in the West, they settled in Vienna and relocated a year later to West Berlin, where he still resides. Since leaving Estonia, Pärt has concentrated on setting religious texts, which have proven popular with choirs and ensembles around the world. By the mid-1990s, his music started to enjoy massive popularity in the West and a variety of his compositions have been incorporated into television programs and film scores such as Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha (1994), and Wit (2001) directed by Mike Nichols. In 1996 Pärt was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Miserere (1989) is the third in Pärt’s series of liturgical works devoted to the Biblical Passion story.
Soundstreams Canada, with the assistance of the Laidlaw Foundation and the Ontario Arts Council, commissioned Omar Daniel and Anne Michaels to write The Passion of Lavinia Andronicus, an oratorio for solo soprano, four solo male voices, chorus and ensemble. Based on Shakespeare’s early tragedy Titus Andronicus, Daniel’s oratorio takes place following the rape and mutilation of Titus’ daughter Lavinia. Alone in the woods, Lavinia dreams that her murdered husband Bassianus is still alive and that they live “happily ever after” and grow old together. Upon awakening, she realizes that she has imagined this happy ending and that she cannot change what has happened. Afterwards Lavinia “meets” a series of historical personalities – Joan of Arc, Anne Frank, John the Baptist – who comment on the meaning of suffering and sacrifice. Lavinia finally accepts her role with the understanding that it is her destiny to suffer and die. She proceeds to her spiritual resting place with comfort and resolution.
Tickets for Sacred & Secular are $35 for adults, $30 for seniors, and $12.50 for students with valid I.D. and may be purchased in person at The St. Lawrence Centre Box Office (27 Front Street East) or by calling 416-366-7723, or on-line at www.stlc.com.
Soundstreams gratefully thanks the Estonian Arts Centre for their continued support in promoting Estonian culture in Canada.