Soundstreams to Continue Season at Trinity-St. Paul's Centre, 11/25

Soundstreams continues its 2014/2015 season with Vespers at Trinity-St. Paul's Centre on November 25 at 8:00 pm. Ancient meets modern in this glorious back-to-back celebration of universal spirituality juxtaposing selections from Claudio Monteverdi's Renaissance masterpiece Vespro della Beata Vergine with Canadian composer Gilles Tremblay's recent Les Vêpres de la Vierge. Soprano Shannon Mercer joins Choir 21 and two chamber orchestras (one made up of period instruments, the other contemporary) conducted by the Toronto Consort's David Fallis.

Nearly four centuries separate Monteverdi's monumental Vespro della Beata Vergine from Tremblay's Les Vêpres de la Vierge, commissioned to celebrate the 850th anniversary of France's Notre Dame de Sylvanès Abbey in 1986. Yet despite the striking differences in period and instrumentation, these two magnificent choral works-both taking their titles and texts from Vespers, the Catholic Church's sunset prayer service-express the same profound spirituality and reimagine ancient styles in their own ground-breaking ways.

Famed as one of the most significant collections of sacred music ever written, Claudio Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine is known for its thrilling rhythms, grand choruses and beautiful solo movements. Recognized as a musical innovator, Monteverdi embraced revolutionary techniques and brought new developments in secular music to church forms. Similarly, Montreal-based composer Gilles Tremblay was exhilarated by the affinities he noticed between ancient and modern styles, declaring his intent with his Vespers to "quote and refresh, uncovering striking common features each nourishing the other." Both pieces are performed by Toronto's Choir 21, with Shannon Mercer joining for the conclusion of Tremblay's work.

Two chamber orchestras put together for the occasion (one made up of period instruments, the other contemporary) are conducted by frequent Soundstreams collaborator, David Fallis (Artistic Director, Toronto Consort; Music Director, Opera Atelier), one of Canada's leading interpreters of operatic, choral and orchestral repertoire from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods.

Soundstreams' free Salon 21 at the Gardiner Museum on November 21 at 7:00 pm features members of The Toronto Consort performing on ancient instruments in contemporary and experimental ways.

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