Early Music Vancouver (EMV) announces its 2017 Vancouver Bach Festival and 2017/18 Main Season, bringing a staggering list of events to venues in and around Vancouver. Throughout the season, EMV will play host to a dazzling array of returning favourites and world-class artists, including Angela Hewitt, Gli Angeli Genève, Austria’s Ensemble Cinquecento, Karina Gauvin, Amanda Forsythe, Suzie LeBlanc, Charles Daniels, The Tallis Scholars, Stephen Stubbs and Monica Huggett. The festival and season will also introduce groundbreaking collaborations with an eclectic array of local organizations, including Vancouver Opera, Friends of Chamber Music, Vancouver Chopin Society, Vancouver Cantata Singers, and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra led by conductor Alexander Weimann.
Following its inaugural success last summer, the Vancouver Bach Festival returns August 1 through August 11 with fourteen concerts over two weeks mostly centered around Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Vancouver. The festival kicks off with an intriguing new perspective on Bach’s Cello Suites performed by star Canadian cellist Matt Haimovitz. This programme includes new “overtures” preceding each of the suites written by composers including Philip Glass and David Sanford. Similarly intimate and exciting festival offerings include Bach’s Italian Concerto and French Overture performed by harpsichordist Alexander Weimann, as well as virtuosic chamber cantatas performed by two of Europe’s emerging stars of the baroque singing world, American counter-tenor Terry Wey and Sweden’s Jenny Högström. Larger scale concerts include Songs of Religious Upheaval; an exquisite program of English Reformation polyphony from Austria’s superb Ensemble Cinquecento; and The Fountains of Israel, a transitional masterpiece written in 1623 by Johann Schein, a composer and organist who previously held Bach’s posting at the Thomas Kirche in Leipzig.
EMV will start the New Year with a duo of two-night collaborations: First, Friends of Chamber Music partner for a weekend of concerts exploring the legacy of the string quartet on period instruments. Then in February, Vancouver Chopin Society co-presents award-winning Polish pianist Janusz Olejniczak, in two recitals of repertoire by Chopin.
The spring season continues with a parade of internationally-renowned early and classical music greats, including soprano Suzie LeBlanc with Ensemble Constantinople; pianist Angela Hewitt performing The Goldberg Variations in a continuation of EMV’s multi-year “Goldberg Experience” project; The Tallis Scholars recognizing the centenary of WWI with a programme entitled War and Peace; and soprano Karina Gauvin performing Baroque opera arias from 18th century St. Petersburg in EMV’s first co-production with Vancouver Opera.
Early Music Vancouver subscribers can attend any four Vancouver Bach Festival or 2017/18 Season performances for the price of three. All subscriptions including more than four concerts also enjoy a 25% discount. Subscriptions are available online at earlymusic.bc.ca/tickets/subscriptions/ or by phone through the Chan Centre Box Office at 604.822.2697.
