Festive Cantatas: Gloria with Vivaldi & Bach

For much of his adult life, Antonio Vivaldi worked as a teacher at the Ospedale della Pietà, a charitable convent, orphanage and music school established by Venetian nuns in the 14th century. It was for those children that Vivaldi composed such pieces as The ‘Gloria’, and in doing so attracted travelers from around Europe to see them perform.

Inspired by Vivaldi’s work with young people, we have invited the Vancouver Youth Choir to perform ‘Gloria’ with us this holiday season, which is sure to be an extraordinary celebration of light and joy. The two pairs of soloists used by Vivaldi, soprano/alto and oboe/trumpet, inspired us to include two Bach cantatas for the same complement: ‘Jauchzet Gott’ and ‘Ich habe genug’. While the first is abundantly jubilant, the second embodies the still joy in having seen the light as we find it in the Song of Simeon at the end of Christmas, on Twelfth Night or Epiphany.