The Spiritus Chamber Choir, headed by the invigorating and passionate Timothy Shantz, pushes the boundaries of music and provokes the audience to reveal in deep thought and feeling with this evening’s performance. The program included a newly created piece, a collaboration between the composer Terri Hron and the Spiritus Chamber Choir, which explored the vast moods of darkness and then light, mortality and the soul. This performance of Terri Hron’s BitterSweet of fusing electronic sounds, of chant-like whispers of biblical references and dark poetic thoughts with that of the hushed voices of the Spiritus Chamber Choir, was a brave and interesting choice. Terri Hron was present at the performance to witness her creation come to life and I feel she felt proud of the Spiritus Chamber Choir’s faithful rendition of her piece. Verses such as ” I speak of my body- I’m immortal and will live like today” or “and there isn’t any hope, that anyone will ever at all, make it up to you,” were of an eerie nature, reminding the audience of their mortality and possesses a contemplative nature.
The Choir, calm and collected, obviously possessing great group dynamics, were incredible in their rendition of James MacMillian’s “Seven Last Word from the Cross,” joined by the Spiritus Chamber Orchestra, with many prominent members from the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, passionately filling the Eckhardt- Grammatte Hall at the University of Calgary with the powerful sounds of Scottish, Celtic, Eastern European and Scandinavian fusion of the Catholic faith. The piece portrays the Christ’s final words at the Crucifixion, lending themselves to be the base of emotion of this score. The strings Orchestra and the choir paints a beautiful picture, with the strings playing the final sighs of the dying Christ that are memorizing and the sudden choral outbursts of such majesty and strength recall chorales of Bach’s Passion. Deeply moving, eerie and powerful, this piece was performed wonderfully by the Spiritus Chamber Choir and the Spiritus Chamber Orchestra.
I would like to thank Tokie Brideaux @CalMusicEvents to providing tickets to such an uplifting and wonderful experience!
