The 21C concert of music by Osvaldo Golijov, postponed on account of the January blizzard, finally got presented at Mazzoleni Hall on Sunday afternoon.  There was a varied line up of professional musicians, GGS students and members of the taylor Academy on display fro the various numbers; all of which were contextualized historically and musically by Barry Shiffman.

Golijov is nothing if not eclectic and his “magpie” tendencies were on how from the beginning with a tango inspired piece, The Last Request.  It’s quite unusual.  Two string quartets kind of play against each other mediated by double bass.  It combines high energy passages with more lushly romantic sections ad it does feel like an homage to the tango.

Lúa descolorida (Faded Moon) was written for Dawn Upshaw and has the soprano, here Leandra Dahm, accompanied by string quartet.  The text is by Lorca (i.e it’s about death) and the music draws on Couperin’s Leçons de ténebrès.  Despite French musical roots it sounds very Spanish and very lyrical.  Some fine string playing was excellent support from lovely singing by Leandra.

Tenebrae was also inspired by Couperin in several ways.  Scored for soprano (Daniela Carreon Herrera in this case), string quartet and clarinet, it uses melismata from the Couperin Leçons to create loops which underlie a vocal part structured (like the Couperin) around the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and finishing with melismatic repeats of “Jerusalem”.  It’s quite meditative with a lovely clarinet part that directly supports the voice.  It really suited Daniela’s quite bright soprano.

After the interval we got the Ontario premiere of a piece; Tintype, co-commissioned by the Royal Conservatory, the Banff Centre and Vancouver’s Music in the Morning.  This three movement work for viola quintet is based on themes developed for the music accompanying a documentary about Elie Wiesel so unsurprisingly it’s rooted in Jewish musical tradition.  The first movement, “Hebrew Melody”, has influences from Jewish folk music and is gently lyrical with perhaps a touch of minimalism.  The second; “Elie dreams of his father” is perhaps even more obviously “Jewish” influenced.  The third is a very dynamic and insistent setting of the prayer of faith “Ani Maamin”.  Again very skilfully done.

Finally came a piece inspired by the Yom Kippur liturgy; K’vakarat.  This started life as a piece for string quartet and cantor, morphing in stages to a work for string ensemble and clarinet and presented here in Barry Shiffman’s arrangement for viola and ensemble.  It, unsurprisingly, has a concertante structure and it’s quite dense and even abrasive though with some quieter, more lyrical sections along the way.

There were a lot of string players used in various combinations with the only constant being Barry Shiffman; on violin in the first half and viola after the break.  It was all very well played but I was particularly impressed by the kids from the Taylor Academy who played with skill and maturity beyond their years.

So, all in all, a well curated sample of the music of one the most important and influential contemporary composers performed expertly.  Worth the wait.