Pacific Baroque Orchestra “Festive Canatas – Bach and Zelenka” Concert

Saturday, December 21
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Festive Canatas – Bach and Zelenka
Joint concert presentation with Early Music Vancouver.

The Pacific Baroque Orchestra presents a program of festive cantatas for the season including the Gloria in excelsis Deo cantata BWV 191 by J.S. Bach with the Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Missa Nativitatis Domini (ZWV 8) of 1726.

Premiered in Leipzig on Christmas day, 1745, Bach’s BWV 191 work is derived from a Gloria that was later used in the great B minor Mass. It is Bach’s only sacred cantata sung in Latin.

Bohemian composer, Jan Dismas Zelenka was a contemporary of Bach and the two composers evidently knew each other. Bach is said to have highly esteemed the work of Zelenka, whose unusual and creative use of harmonic invention and counterpoint make his music unique, complex and virtuosic for his time.

Vancouver’s Pacific Baroque Orchestra, under the direction of Alexander Weimann, will be joined by the Vancouver Chamber Choir and soloists Hélène Brunet & Suzie LeBlanc, sopranos; Cecilia Duarte, alto; James Reese, tenor; William Kraushaar, bass.

Celebrate Christmas with this powerful program of choral and orchestral works, presented in the magnificent setting of Christ Church Cathedral.

Note the 3pm start time for the concert.

Because this program is a joint presentation, it is not eligible for the Flex Pass.

Program:

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068
Ouverture
Air
Gavotte​​​​

Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745)

Missa Nativitatis Domini (ZWV 8)

Interval

J.S. Bach

BWV 1068
Bourrée
Gigue​​​​​

Gloria in excelsis Deo, BWV 191​​​​​​​