By MARGARET FISHER
FOR BACH ON THE ROCK
Bach on the Rock, Salt Spring’s own chamber orchestra and choir, kicks off this season’s theme of Music Around the World with a program of late Romantic and early 20th-century French music.
The opening work, Charles Gounod’s elegant and sparkling Petite symphonie, showcases nine of our local wind players in a delightful chamber piece.
Our second offering is Arthur Honegger’s Pastorale d’été, in which the string players join the winds. Honegger wrote this symphonic poem while in the Swiss Alps in the summer of 1920, and it seems to capture the feeling of a summer dawn in those mountains, with a beautiful theme on the French horn.
Gabriel Fauré’s beloved Requiem is featured in the second half. The Bach on the Rock Chamber Choir is excited join the orchestra for this work, along with two very talented soloists we’ve had the pleasure of working with before, Gwen Jamieson (soprano) and Louis Dillon (baritone). Fauré’s own comment on the piece captures the essence of it beautifully: “It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience.”
Our intermission will certainly be very much alive and happy featuring our very desirable offerings of both eat in and “to-go” goodies.
The concert takes place at All Saints by-the-Sea on Sunday, Oct. 26 at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets ($30 for adults and $5 for students/youth) are available online or at the door.