The latest instalment of Early Music Vancouver’s Summer Festival runs July 31 through Aug. 7, offing 10 events ranging from songs of Medieval England right up to piano trios of Beethoven and Schubert, all in authentic instrumental and historically informed performances. This edition of the festival has just a bit more emphasis on popular favourites than was the case in past years, starting as it means to go on with a production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Chan July 31, 7:30 pm, and Aug. 2, 2:30 pm.
Although opera as a genre surfaced in Florence, Monteverdi created the first work still in the repertoire, a telling of the Orpheus and Euridice myth, written in 1607 and first performed in rather grand circumstances at the palace of the Duke of Mantua. The greatest composer of his age got the idea of a sung, staged, and danced story exactly right: Orfeo is no historical curiosity, but living, breathing opera with all that implies, written very much in the same musical idiom as that EMV favourite, his Vespers of 1610, which has enraptured local audiences in the past.
Canadian cellist Elinor Frey has become an EMV favourite. Tam photography photo
The festival will close strongly, again back at the Chan Centre, Aug.7, 7:30 p.m. a one-night-only rendering of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons concertos. We hear these all the time, of course, but usually in performances long on charm but short on historically informed practice. This will not be the case this time around: EMV’s house band, the strings of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, will be led by none other than Rachel Podger, for my money the most exciting baroque violinist out there.
There are other highlights. Alexander Weimann will do one of his remarkable Bach recitals, The Compass Rose, Aug. 1, 3 p.m. Here the location is West Vancouver United Church, home to with a rather wonderful treasure, a mechanical-action tracker organ built by California maker Martin Pasi in 1998, an instrument worthy of Bach and Weimann. Those who heard Weimann’s superb Bach recital a couple of seasons ago will be champing at the bit for more.
EMV always includes unexpected add-ons and combinations. Bach Dances, Aug.1, 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at The Dance Centre, is a three-way collaboration between Ne Sans Opera, The Dance Centre, and EMV: dance choreographed by Idan Coheen to Bach cello suites performed by EMV favourite Elinor Frey. An even more edgy event is Songline: Musical Hike with Festival artist-in-residence Marc Mauillon, Aug. 6, starting at 11 a.m. at the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest. There’s a caveat for this one; “Audience members must be comfortable participating in a 45-minute hike of mild to moderate intensity.” Prefer to hear Mauillon while sitting down? Opt for Pien d’Amoroso Affetto, Aug. 4, 1 p.m. at Christ Church Cathedral.
Fans of English early music have two fascinating options, Lacrimæ, or Seven Tears, a Lucas Harris project that blends Dowland’s pavans with songs, Aug. 4, 7:30 p.m. at Christ Church Cathedral; and Florilegium: Songs of Medieval England, Aug. 5, 1 p.m., also at the Cathedral.
Finally, two events showcase the music of Schubert. Fortepianist Erika Switzer and baritone Tyler Duncan offer Die schöne Müllerin, twenty great, if devestating, songs, Aug. 5, 7:30 p.m. Then there’s a performance of Schubert’s incomparable Trio, D.929, with Alan Choo, violin, Jaap ter Linden, cello, and David Brietman, piano. The program also includes Beethoven’s Piano Trio, Op 70. As with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, this is repertoire we hear year in and year out from the world’s great piano trios, but not with EMV’s snazzy “Graff” fortepiano, a reproduction of an instrument from 1810 (or thereabouts).