Spring Arts Preview 2023: Music critics’ picks

This previous week Vancouver regarded extra like an Arctic winter wonderland than probably the most famously gentle and temperate cities in Canada. There have been upsides—as a result of swaths of 1984’s Amadeus happen in snowy Salzburg, there’s one thing oddly soothing about shovelling a walkway to the movie’s best-of-Mozart soundtrack. That mentioned, sufficient already. Deliver on the spring and the next musical highlights as a result of, s stunning because the snow may be, typically you’re prepared for the solar and the flowers.

PopCappella III

At St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church March 3-4

Working with composer Marie-Claire Saindon and Vancouver A-listers like bassist Jodi Proznick, pianist Ken Cormier, and percussionist Liam MacDonald, Chor Leoni finds the candy spot between choral music and traditional pop. The Draw: Reimagined variations of the songs that make the premise for an important road-trip playlist it doesn’t matter what your age, together with smashes by Adele, Simon & Garfunkel, Kate Bush, BTS, and, imagine it or not, AC/DC.

The Ceremony of Spring

On the Orpheum March 10 and 12, and Bell Performing Arts Centre on March 11

It seems like one thing from the fantastically horrific Midsommar: as a part of a collection of spring rituals which may charitably be described as primitive, a younger woman is chosen to be a sacrificial sufferer, after which proceeds to bounce herself to dying. There’s a purpose the then-avant-garde The Ceremony of Spring despatched shock waves by means of Paris when it debuted in 1913. Right here the VSO not solely dives into Igor Stravinsky’s epic masterpiece, however expands on the theme of seasonal renewal with Rodney Sharman’s After Schumann, and Bloom, a double-koto-centred new work by Japanese-Canadian composer Rita Ueda. The Draw: It’s been an extended darkish winter, the place Netflix and the couch have been your two greatest associates. Now’s the time to begin formally celebrating spring, focussing on the thought of beginning recent fairly than, you recognize, dancing your self to dying.

Our Hearts within the Highlands

At Christ Church Cathedral on March 11

In case your thought of an ideal night time at St. David’s Corridor contains “Cymru Fach” and “Loch Lomond” then the Vancouver Welsh Males’s Choir speaks your language—on this case, two of them. That includes songs in Welsh and good olde English and directed by Jonathan Fast, Our Hearts within the Highlands helps kick off the 2023 version of Celtic Fest, which could have music, artwork, crafts, and different actions centred this yr on the Vancouver Artwork Gallery March 17-18. The Draw: Whereas, admittedly, a packed-to-the-walls Dundee pub could be a really unbeatable setting, there’s additionally one thing magical—and non secular—concerning the thought of singing alongside to “Skye Boat Tune” at Christ Church.

Angela Hewitt: Bach, Brahms, and Scarlatti

On the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on March 12

Whereas classical doesn’t get a lot greater than two of the names right here, Canadian piano legend Angela Hewitt joins Early Music Vancouver to show a highlight on the lesser-known Doménico Scarlatti. Works of the 18th century Italian piano virtuoso will lead off this system, after which Bach’s English Suite No. 6 in D minor and Brahm’s Sonata in F minor Op. 5 take cente stage. The Draw: Nice as it’s to see Scarlatti’s work getting the eye it deserves, there’s a purpose Hewitt is taken into account one of many world’s foremost interpreters of Bach. 

Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion

On the Orpheum on March 19

If not for the lengthy and deservedly celebrated historical past of the showcase, Zakir Hussain is perhaps seen as cockily overpromising with the very identify of his Masters of Percussion travelling caravan. However with a lineup that features Indian sarangi royalty Sabir Khan, French djembe ace Melissa Hié, dholak virtuoso Navin Sharma, and Columbia’s multi-talented Tupac Mantilla, one could be hard-pressed to provide you with a greater title for the showcase. The Draw: Within the driver’s seat for Masters of Percussion is Hussain, who’s collaborated with everybody from Mickey Hart to the Symphony Orchestra of India, taught at Princeton and Stanford, and been named “Finest Percussionist” honours greater than as soon as by the critics at publications like Downbeat and Fashionable Drummer.

SPRINGTIME

On the Orpheum on April 2

Calgary-raised piano nice Jane Coop joins the Vancouver Chamber Choir to have fun the return of the season well-known on the West Coast for miles of tulips, Instagram-ready cherry-blossoms and, better of all, greater than 16 seconds of solar per day. Centred across the thought of rejuvenation, SPRINGTIME fittingly options three new works: The VCC–commissioned Ay li lu (someplace in infinity) by Swedish composer Jacob Mühlrad; the four-movement Blake’s “Seasons” by Toronto-based Colin Eatock; and a bit by Iman Habibi collectively commissioned by Coop and the VCC. The Draw: Take one of many nation’s longest-running choral ensembles (the Vancouver Chamber Choir is celebrating its forty ninth season) after which add a Canadian classical big in Coop. That the bushes and flowers shall be including a much-needed splash of color to the town as you head to the Orpheum doesn’t harm both.

Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis

On the Orpheum on April 8

Not solely thought of certainly one of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s most necessary and revered works, Missa Solemnis can be seen as the best mass this facet of Bach’s Mass in B Minor. By turns spine-chillingly bombastic and quietly chic, the piece will function a backdrop for Easter Weekend, with the Vancouver Bach Choir joined by the West Coast Symphony Orchestra. The Draw: Take into account all that Beethoven achieved in life—solely beginning with Symphony No. 9, Symphony No. 5, and Violin Concerto in D—after which take into consideration the truth that Missa Solemnis holds its personal towards his beloved immortals.

The Flying Dutchman

On the Queen Elizabeth Theatre April 29-Could 7

Relying on one’s tolerance for large waves, recent salt-water air, and seafood, it seems like both a gorgeous fever dream or the worst factor this facet of a spring of 2020 PANDEMIC boat cruise. In Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman the title character is a sea captain caught on a ghost ship for eternity, his one break on land coming each seven years, when he has a window by which to fall in love and break the cycle. The issue?  Having the ability to discover real love immediately isn’t simple if you’re principally at sea 24-7 and nobody has invented Tinder but. Les Dala conducts and Greg Dahl stars on this Vancouver Opera manufacturing directed by Brian Deedrick. The Draw: Everybody loves a ghost ship—till you’re trapped on one. 

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