On Saturday, the CapriCCio Vocal Ensemble, directed by Michael Gormley, will close its season with a program of music by Bach and Mendelssohn (7:30 p.m., Christ Church Cathedral, $25/$22/$10, under 13 free; capriccio.ca).
These two composers are very different, but historically linked. Bach鈥檚 influence on Mendelssohn鈥檚 music was profound, and Mendelssohn鈥檚 championship of Bach, especially his revival of the forgotten St. Matthew Passion, in 1829, was momentous.
The first half of Saturday鈥檚 program comprises three of Bach鈥檚 six motets, which he composed for various special occasions and which feature some of his richest vocal writing. All three are for 鈥渄ouble choir鈥� (eight parts), and Gormley has opted to support the choir with basso continuo and with string and woodwind quartets doubling the two choirs.
The second half of the program draws on Mendelssohn鈥檚 large body of sacred music 鈥� some a cappella, some with vocal soloists, some with instruments. The selections include two psalm settings, two works for (respectively) women鈥檚 and men鈥檚 voices and, most notably, a set of six motets for various highpoints of the church year, all of them scored for double choir and clearly inspired by Bach.
Each spring since 2015, at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, mezzo-soprano Kathryn Whitney has directed an intensive art-song program 鈥� unique in Canada 鈥� aimed at amateur singers and pianists aged 30 and up.
Previous programs have focused on Schubert (twice), Schumann and Vaughan Williams. The current one, which has been running every weekend since April 6, focuses on Gustav Mahler and his wife, Alma, who was a promising composer but agreed to abandon composition after marrying him in 1902. (He was almost 20 years her senior, and theirs was not a happy union.)
Whitney, who grew up here and first trained at the VCM, is both a singer and a scholar, and currently divides her time between teaching at the VCM and co-directing the SongArt Performance Research Group, at the University of London.
For the Mahler Project, she is, as usual, collaborating with pianist Anna Cal, a VCM colleague, though this year there are two other faculty members, both of them local collaborative pianists and vocal coaches.
The characteristically diverse class comprises more than two dozen singers and pianists, who participate in solo and duo coaching, masterclasses and workshops dealing with the Mahlers as well as with practical matters of preparing songs for performance.
The repertoire of the Mahler Project includes five songs by Alma, composed in about 1900-01 and published in 1910, and various, mostly early songs by Gustav, most of them based on Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth鈥檚 Magic Horn), an influential early-19th-century collection of German folk poetry, and including two cycles, Songs of a Wayfarer and the R眉ckert Songs.
The project will culminate in public performances in the VCM鈥檚 intimate Wood Hall (admission by donation; mahlerproject.ca).
This weekend, the students will collectively perform the songs in two concerts (Saturday, 2 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m.), and on the following Sunday, June 9 (7 p.m.), Whitney herself will perform them.
The 32nd season of Eine Kleine Summer Music, the annual chamber music series, does not begin for 10 days, yet tickets are already scarce.
The series has now expanded to eight concerts. As usual, there will be four concerts on consecutive Sundays, June 9 to 30, at First Unitarian Church of Victoria, in the Saanich countryside (2:30 p.m., $35/$30; eksm.ca), but this year, for the first time, all four will be repeated at Deep Cove Winery, in North Saanich.
As of Tuesday, however, the four winery concerts, and the June 23 concert featuring violinist Timothy Chooi, were sold out, and relatively few tickets remained for the other church concerts, all of which offer attractive programs.
On June 9, members of the Muse Ensemble, EKSM鈥檚 house piano quartet, and Alana Despins, the Victoria Symphony鈥檚 principal horn, will perform works including Beethoven鈥檚 Archduke Trio and Brahms鈥檚 Horn Trio. On June 16, the Muse Ensemble will perform, among other things, music by Dvor谩k and local composer Elinor Dunsmuir. And on June 30, the award-winning, New York-based Calidore String Quartet will make its local debut in a program featuring late masterpieces by Beethoven and Mendelssohn.
