Soundstreams’ opening concert of the season at Trinity St. Paul’s on Saturday evening featured Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered and an intriguing selection of 20th and 21st century music on related ecological themes.

So, before the interval we got a programme of short varied works.  There was R. Murray Schafer’s Wild Bird for harp and violin (Judy Loman and Erica Raum) a typically meditative Schafer piece. There were three pieces for the Soundstreams Choir 21  There was Andrew Balfour’s incredibly beautiful Gaze Upon Trees setting text by Ojibway poet Duke Redbird.  There was Chris Hutchings’ heartfelt setting of Jane  protest against ecocidal indifference; Let Them Not Say.  And, finally, Arvo Pãrt’s rather grand setting of Veni Creator Spiritus with Gregory Oh at the impressive organ.

The programme was bookended and punctuated by three pieces from Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux played by Louis Bessette.  These are curious pieces.  The starting point was Messiaen’s field notation of the songs of actual birds and each piece is based on a sepcific one.  So, unsurprisingly there’s a lot of virtuosic trilling on the extreme right hand of the keyboard.  More surprisingly there’s some aggressively percussive passages in the lower registry; more dindon farci than alouette!  Fascinating pieces though and most skilfully played.

After the break it was the main event with Choir 21 and a twelve piece ensemble conducted by David Fallis bringing us Mass for the Endangered.  This six movement work combines the Latin Mass with highly allusive poetry by Nathaniel Bellows on the threat of extinction.  So, some movements; the Gloria and the Sanctus, are just the Latin text whereas others combine the Latin with Bellows’ words or riff off the idea of the Latin.  This is most apparent in the Credo where “We believe” occurs 21 times (“Credimus” not “Credo”; and I think that’s important).

Musically, it’s essentially tonal but heavily textured with multiple layers. There are multiple lines in the choral writing with occasional solos.  It’s impressive and creates a beautiful but quite disturbing sound world.  Excellent work here from all involved and a suitable climax to an intriguing concert.

Photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann