December 3, 7:30 PM at Cartwright Hall, Kent State University, 650 Hilltop Drive
December 7, 4:00 PM at Cleveland Masonic Auditorium, 3615 Euclid Avenue
December 7, 1:00 PM (Family concert, 45-minute version) at Cleveland Masonic Auditorium, 3615 Euclid Avenue
Jeannette Sorrell, music director/harpsichord
With guest artists:
Meredith Hall, soprano
Ensemble La Nef of Montréal - Sylvain Bergeron, director/archlute
Also with:
Steve Player, guitar/dancer | Jesse Blumberg, baritone cantor
Apollo’s Fire reprises its popular crossover program with two local performances surrounding the group’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC) debut. Created in 2011 by Jeannette Sorrell and Montréal-based lutenist Sylvain Bergeron, performances of this Billboard Hit program have sold out the past THREE seasons. In December 2012 the program was chosen by BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE’S as one of the “Top 20 Live Events in North America.” Also that year, the program was released internationally on CD under British label AVIE and debuted at #11 on the Billboard Classical Charts. Press reviews of the CD can be found towards the end of this release.
The program is a celebration of Celtic artistic traditions – interweaving excerpts from the 13th-century Vespers of St. Kentigern (patron saint of Glasgow, Scotland) with ancient pagan carols, renaissance choral music, traditional Celtic fiddle tunes and joyous dances – creating a rich tapestry that evokes Christmas both inside Glasgow Cathedral and outside its walls. The evening of haunting Gregorian chant, lively carols and driving folk dances is launched with a dramatic procession in Gaelic.
Featured soloist is Canadian soprano Meredith Hall, who has long been immersed in Scottish/Gaelic repertoire. She is joined on stage by legendary Scottish baroque guitarist/dancer Steve Player. Baritone Jesse Blumberg serves as cantor for the St. Kentigern Vespers selections. Members of Sylain Bergeron’s Montréal-based ensemble Ensemble La Nef also join Apollo’s Fire as guests in this international collaboration. The instrumental ensemble includes bagpipes, harp, wooden flutes, archlute, baroque guitar, hammered dulcimer, strings and percussion. The program also features the acclaimed 16-voice baroque choir, Apollo’s Singers, “one of the finest choirs of its kind in the country” (THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER). Select biographies at the end of this release.
Creative Background: Sorrell originally conceived the idea for this program in 2009, following a visit to Montréal where she met Bergeron and heard his ensemble perform live.
“Meredith and Sylvain had already done a beautiful Scottish Christmas CD with the Gaelic title Oikan ains Bethlehem, Sorrell said. “I took that CD home after hearing their lovely concert in Montréal. The opening track seemed to be calling to me, wanting to be a procession in a cathedral. And from there, my imagination took over, and a program blending a Scottish medieval Vespers service with pagan/folk elements came into my head immediately. So I called up Sylvain and Meredith and convinced them to plan this with me.”
Sorrell said the biggest challenge in bringing her idea to reality was the lack of surviving sacred renaissance and baroque music from Ireland and Scotland. “Because of the Reformation, what we would call artistic church music was banned in the Scottish and Irish churches during the 17th century,” she said. “And it appears that many sacred works that had been composed in the generation before the Reformation were destroyed. So, I went back further, to the 13th-century Vespers of St. Kentigern, which is one of the few surviving major sacred works of Scotland prior to the 18th-century. St. Kentigern was the patron saint of Glasgow, and this Vespers was sung at Glasgow Cathedral.”
The Apollo’s Fire 2011 premiere of “Sacred Mysterium: A Celtic Christmas Vespers” is believed to have been the North American premiere of the St. Kentigern Vespers. The medieval work had only recently been made available in a published edition by Musica Scotia in 2011.