Choral fusion puts focus on Vivaldi

Galway Baroque Singers (GBS), directed by Audrey Corbett, will join Dun Laoghaire Choral Society (DLCS), the Fishamble Sinfonia, and soloists, under the baton of conductor David Brophy for two concerts featuring music by the Italian Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741).

The Galway concert will be on Saturday, June 17, at 8pm in Galway Cathedral – the Dublin event will be this Saturday, June 10, in St Anne’s Church.

This is the third outing in the choirs’ Choral Fusion concert series.  The collaboration has already seen them perform Handel’s oratorio, Solomon, and works by Baroque composers, Jean-Baptiste Lully and Henry Purcell.

The final collaboration in the series will see the groups perform four works for double choir by Vivaldi (1678-1741). Best known for The Four Seasons, his works are characterised by their cheerful, exhilarating style, as these concerts will illustrate.

They include four sacred piecess: Beatus Vir RV 597, Kyrie RV 587, Lauda Jerusalem RV 609 and Dixit Dominus RV594.

Beatus Vir was composed for two choirs by Vivaldi to highlight that the musical talent of Venice was more than equal to that at the court of Versailles.

The Kyrie in G minor is for double choir and orchestra. It opens with a solemn movement, followed by the Christe Eleison (second movement), and is a duet for just the sopranos and altos with string accompaniment. The last movement consists of a passionate Kyrie, in a double fugue for the choirs.

Vivaldi wrote Lauda, Jerusalem (RV609) during the 1720s, with a four-part setting for two choirs, each with a soprano soloist and string accompaniment.

The five soloists for these concerts will be sopranos Amy Ní Fhearraigh and Kelli-Ann Masterson, alto Bríd Ní Ghruagáin, tenor John McKeown and bass David Howes.

■ Tickets for the Galway concert on Saturday, June 17, are €20, available in advance from Charlie Byrne’s Bookstore, Middle Street, Galway City.