September 27, 2009

El Greco, St. James the Less (traditionally identified with James, the brother of the Lord), Museo de El Greco, Toledo, 1610-14

Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord (NRSV, James 5:14).

Christ Church Cathedral Choir Notes
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Click to go immediately to:

1) The Music Programme Homepage

2) The Music Calendar for Choral Eucharist and Evensong

3) The Concert Calendar



Both organ voluntaries and the introit for evensong this coming Sunday, September 27, are the work of Charles Villiers Stanford. Click to go to Stanford's most popular motet, Beati quorum via. Read about it and choose among 13 performances, including some by the finest choirs in the world.

Click to read all about the 11th annual fall festival of Orgue et couleurs from Friday, September 25, to Sunday, October 4, including the week of noon-hour free organ concerts of the music of Felix Mendelssohn.


As part of Quebec's Journées de la culture, and in cooperation with Orgue et couleurs, Patrick Wedd will hold open house in the tribune of the cathedral's Wilhelm organ this Sunday, September 27 from 12:30pm to 2 pm. Click for information on visiting other organs in the Montreal area.


2009 Commemoration: 350th Anniversary of the Birth of Henry Purcell (1659-95)


Click to go to Henry Purcell, Te Deum and Jubilate, Z. 232, written for Saint Cecilia's Day, 1693, the first English Te Deum ever composed with orchestral accompaniment. Performances by The King's Consort with the Choir of New College, Oxford; and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge.



Click to go to a performance of Arvo Pårt, Stabat Mater dolorosa by Lynne Dawson, soprano; David James, counter-tenor; Rogers Covey-Crump, tenor; Gidon Kremer, violin; Vladimir Mendelssohn, viola; Thomas Demenga, cello. Recording: January 1987; St. John's Church, London.



Click to go to a performance of Cantata 115 by Soprano: Edith Mathis; Contralto: Trudeliese Schmidt; Tenor: Peter Schreier; Bass: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; Münchener Bach-Chor / Münchener Bach-Orchester; Karl Richter conducting. Recorded at Herkules-Saal, München.

September 20, 2009

J. Smit, A Tree Planted by the Water

They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper (NRSV, Psalm 1:3).

Christ Church Cathedral Choir Notes
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Click to go immediately to:

1) The Music Programme Homepage

2) The Music Calendar for Choral Eucharist and Evensong

3) The Concert Calendar



Virtually all the music this coming Sunday (including voluntaries and evening hymns) is by Canadian composers. The organ voluntaries for Choral Eucharist are two movements from Gerald Bales, Petite Suite. Click to listen to the entire Petite Suite performed by Ian Sadler on the 1888 Warren; 1936, 1967 Casavant organ of St. James’ Cathedral, Toronto.



Nikolas Fehr, former assistant organist at Christ Church Cathedral, will give a doctoral organ recital (McGill) on the 1990 Guilbault-Thérien organ of the Grand Séminaire de Montréal, 2065 Sherbrooke St. W. (Bus 24; Guy-Concordia Metro) this Friday, September 18, at 8:00 pm. Admission free. Click for the programme.

Click to read all about the 11th annual fall festival of Orgue et Couleurs from Friday, September 25, to Sunday, October 4, including the week of noon-hour free organ concerts of the music of Felix Mendelssohn.

2009 Commemoration: 200th anniversay of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47)


Click to go to Felix Mendelssohn, Elijah, Oratorio Op. 70, performed by Willard White, Elijah; Rosalind Plowright, soprano solos, Widow, Angel; Linda Finnie, contralto solos, angel, Queen; Arthur Davies, tenor solos, Obadiah, Ahab; Jeremy Budd, Youth; London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus;Roderick Elms, organ; Richard Hickox conducting.



Click to go to a performance of Karol Szymanowski, Stabat Mater dolorosa by Tatiana Sharova, soprano;Ludmila Kuznetsova, mezzo-soprano; Andrei Baturkin, baritone; Russian State Symphony Orchestra; Valeri Polyansky conducting.




Click to go to a performance of Cantata 56 by Bass: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; Münchener Bach-Chor / Münchener Bach-Orchester; Karl Richter conducting. Recorded at Herkules-Saal, München.

September 13, 2009

Titian, Wisdom, Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, 1560

Christ Church Cathedral Choir Notes
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Click to go immediately to:

1) The Music Programme Homepage

2) The Music Calendar for Choral Eucharist and Evensong

3) The Concert Calendar

Movements from Paul Hindemith, Organ Sonata No. 1, are the organ voluntaries for Choral Eucharist this coming Sunday. Click to listen to all three of Hindemith's organ sonatas.

João IV, Crux fidelis, is the introit for evensong this coming Sunday. Click to read about Crux fidelis and listen to a number of different interpretations.

2009 Commemoration: The 200th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)


Click to go to a performance Joseph Haydn, Missa brevis in F major, H.XXII/1, by Judith Nelson & Emma Kirby, sopranos; Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford; Academy of Ancient Music; Simon Preston conducting.

Click to go to a performance of Giovanni Felice Sances, Stabat Mater dolorosa: Maria Christina Kiehr, soprano; Ensemble La Fenice, Jean Tubery conducting.

Click to go to Johann Sebastian Bach, Cantata 60, performed by Alto: Hertha Töpper; Tenor: Ernst Haefliger; Bass: Kieth Engen; Münchener Bach-Chor / Münchener Bach-Orchester; Karl Richter conducting. Recorded at Herkules-Saal, München.

September 6, 2009

Fra Angelico, St. Lawrence distributing alms (detail), Cappella Niccolina, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican, 1447-49

Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor (NRSV, Proverbs 22:9).

Christ Church Cathedral Choir Notes

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Click to go immediately to:

1) The Music Programme Homepage

2) The Music Calendar for Choral Eucharist and Evensong

3) The Concert Calendar

Our gratitude and best wishes to Donald Hunt, assistant organist, as he moves on from Christ Church Cathedral to Truro Cathedral in Cornwall, England, where he will take up the post of organ scholar. His debut concert will be Olivier Messiaen, La Nativité du Seigneur, on Truro's splendid Willis organ on December 20. And we welcome our new assistant organist: Hilary Punnett.

The two organ voluntaries for evensong this coming Sunday, September 6, are by John Stanley. Click to listen to a dozen of his voluntaries performed by Richard Marlow on the 1975 Metzler organ of Trinity College, Cambridge.


The Montreal Symphony Orchestra begins its 2009-2010 season on Tuesday, September 8; Wednesday, September 9; at 8:00 pm; and Sunday, September 13; at 2:30 pm, with performances of Hector Berlioz, Requiem, "Grande Messe des morts," Kent Nagano conducting; Michael Zaugg, directing the OSM Chorus; Michael Schade, tenor. Click to listen to a performance by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Robert Spano conducting; Norman Mackenzie, director of the chorus; Frank Lopardo, tenor.

2009 Commemoration: The 250 aniversary of the death of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

The psalm setting (Psalm 110, Vulgate 109) Dixit Dominus, HWV 232, was completed by George Frideric Handel in April 1707 while living in Italy. It is Handel's earliest surviving autograph. It is most likely that the work was first performed on July 16, 1707, in the Church of Santa Maria in Montesanto, under the patronage of the Colonna family (Wikipedia). Click to read brief programme notes by Barry Creasy. Click to go to performances by the Choir and Orchestra of Westminster Abbey, Simon Preston conducting; and by The King's College Choir, Cambridge, and the English Chamber Orchestra, Stephen Cleobury conducting.





Click to go to John Browne, Stabat Mater dolorosa, performed by the Taverner Choir (male choir), Andrew Parrott conducting.

Click to go to Johann Sebastian Bach, Cantata 161, performed by counter-tenor Drew Minter, bass William Sharp, soprano Julianne Baird, American Bach Soloists; with tenor Jeffrey Thomas conducting.