The Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC) kicks off its 2025/26 season with Handel: Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day on November 22. The JUNO award-winning choir will probably be joined by Ensemble Caprice baroque orchestra, and soloists soprano Ellen Wieser, tenor Owen McCausland, and countertenor Nicholas Burns.
Along with Handel’s hardly ever heard piece, this system contains Purcell’s Welcome to all of the Pleasures and Haydn’s Missa Cellensis.
“The celebration of music, honouring the patron saint of music St. Cecilia, is considered one of nice historic significance and we’re thrilled to current a few of the most interesting works on this theme by Handel, Purcell and Haydn,” says OBC Founder and Inventive Director, Dr. Lisette Canton in an announcement.
“Be part of us as we enlarge the facility of music in ‘heavenly concord’ with extraordinary musicians on this type. Ottawa audiences gained’t need to miss this festive celebration!
Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day HWV 76
Handel wrote his Ode for St. Cecilia — the patron saint of musicians — in 1739, and it consists of 12 actions. The work had its premiere in London later that yr. The textual content makes use of a poem by English author John Dryden, A Track for St. Cecilia’s Day, which was written in 1687. Dryden, then the English Poet Laureate, wrote it for the annual competition of St. Cecilia, which was noticed in London and all through Europe every November 22. The theme of the poem is the facility of music, each in human lives and within the divine order of the world.
Purcell’s Welcome to all of the Pleasures Z339
Henry Purcell wrote his Welcome to All of the Pleasures in honour of St. Cecilia on the age of 24. It was accomplished in 1683 as a fee for The Musical Society in London, and was first carried out that yr. Purcell makes use of a textual content by Christopher Fishburn (as stipulated by the commissioning group), which focuses, because the title implies, on the thrill of music. In it, Purcell makes use of the ritornello (a string method) and floor (a repeated bass line) in what was then an modern method, and the piece was profitable from its debut. The work was the primary of a sequence of fee by the Musical Society of London to commemorate the Saint’s day.
Haydn’s Missa Cellensis Hob. XXII:5
Haydn’s Missa Cellensis in honorem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae (Hob. XXII:5) is often known as Cäcilienmesse (St. Cecilia Mass). Haydn wrote the work in 17 actions in 1766, not lengthy after his appointment to Kapellmeister to Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. It was often called the St. Cecilia Mass till the unique manuscript was found in Budapest in 1970. The work is the third, and largest, of the 14 Latin lots that Haydn would write throughout his lifetime.
The Ottawa Bach Choir
The Ottawa Bach Choir was based by Dr. Lisette Canton in 2002, and affords its audiences choral music by means of the centuries, whereas maintaining Bach’s choral music on the coronary heart of its repertoire. Along with its native live performance season, the Choir has toured nationally and internationally all through North America, Europe, Mexico, and China, and made a number of award-winning recordings.
OBC 2025/26
The Choir’s season continues with two extra concert events for his or her twenty fourth season.
Bach: Johannes-Ardour (St. John Ardour) (March 14, 2026)
Bach composed his common St. John Ardour, BWV 245, in 1724 in Leipzig. It was a sensation on its debut, and is among the composer’s most dramatic works. The live performance options the Theatre of Early Music baroque orchestra and worldwide soloists, together with soprano Hélène Brunet, countertenors
Daniel Taylor and Nicholas Burns, British tenor Charles Daniels, and different artists.
Sacred and Profane (Might 9, 2026)
This program contains Frank Martin’s mMass for Double Choir, in addition to music written for Shakespearian texts by composers Vaughan Williams, Mäntyjärvi, Perrie, Tavener, and others. The Choir will probably be joined by pianist and organist Jennifer Loveless in a celebration of spring.
- Discover particulars and tickets for the November 22 efficiency of Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day and the remainder of their season [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 many years, and a artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
