The sixth Mark Motors Audi Signature concerts of the season – entitled Beautiful Baroque – will be performed on Wednesday April 20 and Thursday April 21 at 8 p.m. in Southam Hall.  The National Arts Centre Orchestra – featuring principal flute Joanna G’froerer and guest artists Daniel Taylor, countertenor, and Dominique Labelle, soprano, will be under the baton of conductor Nicholas McGegan.

PRE-CONCERT MUSIC – 7 p.m. – Southam Hall – free admission with concert ticket

Baroque music expresses order, the fundamental order of the universe, yet it is always lively and tuneful. This style of music flourished between 1600 and 1750, following the Renaissance period and preceding the Classical era. The Baroque period is notable for the development of counterpoint (two or more independent lines of music played simultaneously) as harmonic complexity grew alongside emphasis on contrast. In instrumental music, the period saw the emergence of the sonata, the suite, and particularly the concerto grosso, as in the music of Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Allesandro Scarlatti, and Johann Sebastian Bach. The Baroque period also saw composers and performers use more elaborate musical ornamentation, make changes in musical notation, and develop new instrumental playing techniques. Baroque music expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established opera as a musical genre. Many musical terms and concepts from this era are still in use today.

Concerto grosso in D major, Op. 6, No. 4 is the fourth of twelve concerti grossi which make up Opus 6 written by Corelli (1708). This is one of the finest examples of the brilliant Baroque concerti grossi that pit a small group of solo instruments against a larger ensemble in three contrasting movements: fast-slow-fast. Corelli may not have invented the concerto grosso, but he indeed ennobled the genre.

NAC Orchestra principal flute Joanna G’froerer shines in Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto in C minor for Flute and Orchestra, R. 441.

Montreal-born soprano Dominique Labelle and Ottawa-born countertenor Daniel Taylor are in worldwide demand and both artists have extremely successful international careers. They perform, separately and together, in excerpts from Rinaldo (1711), Tolomeo (1719), Rodelinda (1719), and Giulio Cesare (1724), four of Handel’s 42 operas.

Both singers are also featured in Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s (1710-1736) beautiful, graceful Stabat Mater (1736), his best known sacred work. Using medieval texts for a musical depiction of the Virgin Mary’s grief and anguish over her dying son, in performance the work requires singers with pure and transparent voices, who can effortlessly blend the dramatic expression of opera with the moving spiritual exaltation of a sacred hymn. The Stabat Mater was commissioned by the Confraternità dei Cavalieri di San Luigi di Palazzo, a group of pious and charitable gentlemen who presented an annual Good Friday meditation in honor of the Virgin Mary. While classical in scope, the work demonstrates Pergolesi's mastery of the Italian Baroque style. The work remained popular, becoming the most frequently printed work of the 18th century, and being arranged by a number of other composers. Shortly after completion of the Stabat Mater at the Capuchin monastery at Pozzuoli the composer died there from consumption at age 26.

The NAC Orchestra performs Beautiful Baroque in Southam Hall of the National Arts Centre on Wednesday April 20 and Thursday April 21 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20.45, $31.21, $42.51, $53.81, $64.57, $75.33, and $94.17, for adults and $11.38, $16.76, $22.41, $28.06, $33.44, $38.82, and $48.24 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card). Tickets are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at 1-888-991-2787; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s website www.nac-cna.ca.

Subject to availability, full-time students (aged 13-29) with valid Live Rush™ membership (free registration at www.liverush.ca) may buy up to 2 tickets per performance at the discount price of $12 per ticket. Tickets are available online (www.nac-cna.ca) or at the NAC box office from 10 a.m. on the day before the performance until 6 p.m. on the day of the show or 2 hours before a matinee. Groups of 10 or more save 15% to 20% off regular ticket prices to all NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances; to reserve your seats, call 613-947-7000, ext. 634 or e-mail grp@nac-cna.ca.

Our latest web offering -- coming soon -- NACmusicbox TIMELINE 200 orchestral works, 80 Canadian compositions, 1 interactive TIMELINE. Explore unlimited music connections and discover Canada's contribution to orchestral history. The interactive TIMELINE includes the addition of 65 Canadian works thanks to financial investment by the Virtual Museum of Canada at the Department of Canadian Heritage. We also acknowledge our partner CBC Radio 2 for providing broadcast-quality recordings of the NAC Orchestra’s archival performances.

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Information:   
Gerald Morris
Communications Officer, NAC Music
613-947-7000, ext. 335
gmorris@nac-cna.ca" href="mailto:Gerald%20Morris,%20Marketing%20and%20Media%20Relations,%20NAC%20Dance%20Programming(613)%20947-7000,%20ext.%20249%5be-mail%5d%20%20gmorris@nac-cna.ca">[e-mail]  gmorris@nac-cna.ca