Christ Church Cathedral鈥檚 popular Summer Organ Series was launched in 2008, and this year, to celebrate its tenth season, it has expanded from three concerts to four, will welcome its first organ duo and will even venture beyond the cathedral.
As usual, three concerts will be given at Christ Church on consecutive Fridays (June 9, 16 and 23), with a large screen in front of the altar showing a high-quality video feed of the organist in action in the loft.
This Friday鈥檚 recital will feature the renowned German-born, Vancouver-based keyboard player and conductor Alexander Weimann, who is music director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra. Weimann has performed here often in recent years, in various capacities and under various auspices.
He was attracted to Christ Church鈥檚 Hellmuth Wolff organ (the city鈥檚 largest) on a visit last year 鈥� hardly the first time this splendid instrument has been a magnet for a distinguished performer. His program for Friday鈥檚 concert is structured as an 鈥渙rgan mass鈥� comprising works by composers including Frescobaldi, Froberger, Bach, Muffat, Mozart and several French Baroque figures.
The June 16 recital will feature a local performer, David Stratkauskas, a Vancouver native who spent several years in London before becoming organist and choirmaster at the Church of St. John the Divine, in 2010. His program will span centuries and traditions, including music by Pachelbel, Bach, Franck, Debussy, Durufl茅, Alain, P盲rt and two West Coast composers, Jocelyn Morlock and Anthony Genge.
The series will close with appearances by two young Canadians with international reputations: Rachel Mahon, assistant organist at Chester Cathedral, in the U.K.; and Sarah Svendsen, music director at Collier Street United Church in Barrie, Ont.
On June 23, at Christ Church, they will split between them a conventional recital program comprising Bach, Mendelssohn, Messiaen and organ symphonies by Charles-Marie Widor and Rachel Laurin, who is from Quebec.
On June 24, however, Mahon and Svendsen will perform together as Organized Crime, which they describe as 鈥渁n organ duo like no other.鈥� Formed in 2012, Organized Crime entertains audiences by combining music 鈥� a mix of classical and popular repertoire 鈥� with wacky antics involving costumes, props and choreography.
This concert will be held at St. Andrew鈥檚 Presbyterian Church (680 Courtney St.), because the visual element is crucial to Organized Crime and the console of the St. Andrew鈥檚 organ is visible, not hidden in a loft.
(All four concerts 7:30 p.m., $20, four-concert subscription $60; christchurchcathedral.bc.ca/music.)
Quartet Fest West, the Lafayette String Quartet鈥檚 annual festival for young musicians at the University of Victoria, begins today. It will include four public concerts, the first two featuring this year鈥檚 guest artists: the Erlendis Guitar Quartet, from Poland (Friday, $15), and Cuarteto Chroma, from Mexico (June 13, $15). Both will offer wide-ranging programs, taking in music by Boccherini, Haydn, Schubert, Bizet, Ravel, Shostakovich and several Mexican composers.
The LSQ itself, bringing its rich 30th-anniversary season to a close, will perform quartets by Haydn and Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe, and will join violist Yariv Aloni in Brahms鈥檚 Op. 111 quintet (June 15, $25). Finally, the festival鈥檚 international slate of participants will offer their own concert (June 18, $10), including music by Beethoven, Dvor谩k and Glazunov.
(All concerts 7:30 p.m., Phillip T. Young Recital Hall; four-concert pass $45; lafayettestringquartet.ca.)
Also this weekend, the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra will close its season with a program with wide appeal (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Sooke Community Hall; Sunday, 7:30 p.m., Teechamitsa Theatre, Royal Bay Secondary School, Colwood; $20/$15, under 17 free; sookephil.ca).
The program opens with the ardently romantic Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from Khachaturian鈥檚 ballet Spartacus (1954), followed by Rachmaninoff鈥檚 perennially popular Piano Concerto No. 2, with guest soloist Ya-Ping Huang, a fourth-year student at the Victory Conservatory of Music.
The second half is given over to Sea Cantata, by Nicholas Fairbank, the composer, keyboard player, conductor and teacher who is the Sooke Philharmonic鈥檚 choral director. This work, for adult and children鈥檚 choirs with orchestra, is based on an eclectic mix of ocean-themed poetry, and its seven movements range from sea shanties to siren songs. It has not been performed here since its premi猫re, in 2011.