Directed by Ivars Taurins, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir will combine for an evening of Choral Splendours. Soprano Myriam Leblanc is the featured soloist in a program that features works by Bach and Zelenka from March 28 to 30.
With few of his works published, it was left to 20th and 21st century scholars and musicians like superstar oboist Heinz Holliger to rediscover and champion the work of Jan Zelenka, a contemporary of Bach whose music fell into obscurity for centuries.
Bach and Zelenka
“We know that Bach held Zelenka’s music in high esteem, which is fascinating to me, as the character of their respective musical styles is so different,” says Ivars Taurins in a statement. “Both were highly accomplished, innovative composers who wrote masterful, complex works, but Zelenka’s music is more idiosyncratic, eccentric, and extrovert: at once charged with an unusual emotional intensity, and then utterly charming and capricious.”
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 to 1750) and Bohemian composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679 to 1745) were friends who admired each other’s work.
Even during their time, Bach achieved a much greater degree of fame and fortune, and Zelenka seems to have died impoverished and in obscurity. But, while fame eluded Zelenka, both Bach and Telemann recognized the value of his music. Zelenka put his own distinctive stamp on the contrapuntal music of the time, introducing elements such as syncopation, chromatic harmonies, and polyrhythms into the usual Baroque predictability.
Zelenka worked within the newly converted to Catholic court of Dresden, but even though he was acting kapellmeister for years, he was passed over in favour of the younger Johann Adolph Hasse when it came to make the permanent appointment. To add insult to injury, Hasse’s salary was considerably larger than what Zelenka had been paid.
After his reluctant retirement, he lived on a small pension while continuing to compose. In fact, his later works — which he wrote without having any anticipation they’d ever be performed — consisted of five original and joyous Masses.
Tafelmusik has performed four of the five previously, and with Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis on this program, complete the cycle.
Zelenka’s Amen, from Magnificat ZWV 108, is also on the program, along with Bach’s Chorus “Es ist dir gesagt” from Cantata 45, the Cantata 150, and Aria “Süßer Trost” from Cantata 151.
Soprano Myriam Leblanc
Québecoise soprano Myriam Leblanc was the winner of the Audience Choice Award in the Centre Stage competition of the Canadian Opera Company in 2016. A former member of the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, she won their annual prize for excellence, and the first prize at the Mathieu Duguay Early Music Competition at the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival in 2017.
A coloratura soprano, Myriam works with equal facility in the world of bel canto and Baroque opera, with a specialization oratorios and concerts. Myriam has performed with les Violins du Roy, Dompierre, I Musici, and previously with Tafelmusik, among many other ensembles.
She will be featured in the Zelenka Mass, and sings an aria from Bach’s Cantata 150.
Find more details about the concerts on March 28, 29 and 30, and tickets, [HERE]. https://tafelmusik.org/concerts-events/concerts/bach-zelenka/
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