Welcome to our 48th season’s opening concert! Ever-popular Consortium Aurora Borealis soloists, cellist Peter Cosbey and flutist Doris Dungan, transport us to our Baroque roots, performing stunningly-gorgeous works. Peter will entrance us with two of the six monumental solo cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach (lived 1685-1750). Doris will play his lovely partita for unaccompanied flute in A minor, as well as one of her favourite works, a solo flute sonata in the same key by his second son, Carl Philip Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), court accompanist to flute-playing King Frederick the Great of Prussia.
They’ll be joined by bassoonist Aviner Hartwick in elegant duos by Boismortier and Corrette, prolific French Baroque composers who championed the flute but also expanded the repertoire of the bassoon, treating the instrument more virtuosically and expressively. Cello and bassoon’s rich sonorities blend superbly. The centrepieces are the unaccompanied works, but the smattering of duos by the two less familiar yet very fine composers lends variety, are a foil to the seriousness of J. S. Bach, and contrast French musical taste to German.
Amongst the most profound classical music ever written are the six unaccompanied cello suites by J.S. Bach, “the ultimate expression of the soul of the cello”, doubtless conceived as a cycle.Their opening preludes are followed by five stylized French dances, allemande, courante, sarabande, two minuets, bourrées or gavottes, and gigue. Likely written in 1720, they were first published in 1824, and regarded for decades as teaching pieces.
They languished until thirteen-year-old cellist Pablo Casals found a battered old copy of an 1866 ‘concert’ edition of the Cello Suites by the German cellist Friedrich Grützmacher in a Barcelona second-hand music store. Casals practised them for thirteen years before performing them publicly and finally recording them in 1936. Throughout his life, he played one suite each day of the week, and the sixth suite on Saturdays and Sundays.
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma has been their modern champion, saying “Bach’s cello suites have been my constant musical companions. For almost six decades, they have given me sustenance, comfort, and joy during times of stress, celebration, and loss. Over the years, I came to believe that, in creating these works, Bach played the part of a musician-scientist, expressing precise observations about nature and human nature.”
He poignantly performed the fifth suite’s sarabande on September 11, 2002 at the World Trade Centre site as the victims’ names were read on the first anniversary. We are privileged to hear these transcendental works performed expressively by our own Peter Cosbey!
Interestingly, Yo-Yo Ma collaborated with a professional landscape designer to create Toronto waterfront’s Music Garden, which opened in 1999. He visualized and physically interpreted and manifested Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major as a garden he used its six dance movements, Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Menuet, and Gigue, to create different sections of the space. Free public concerts are regularly held in this wonderful outdoor space, as people sit on the garden’s grassy steps.
J.S. Bach’s solo flute partita from the early 1720s, with its four stylized dance movements, Allemande, Corrente, Sarabande, and the more rustic-sounding Bourrée angloise, makes formidable technical demands, jumping rapidly with big leaps between registers and creating the illusion of multiple melodic lines. The complex harmonies are implied. The title of Partita was added in the twentieth century by editors; Bach had made no such designation, having called it only a solo for transverse flute in the sole surviving manuscript. It is actually a dance suite.
CPE Bach’s unaccompanied flute sonata, written in 1747, while he was working at the court of Frederick the Great, is in the new “sensitive style”, a sentimental, gentler approach to melody, with slower harmonic motion, contrasting moods, unexpected harmonic shifts, broken chords, frequent rests, and wide, jagged leaps. It is in three movements, slow, fast, faster. The opening movement evokes sadness; it’s followed by two progressively quicker movements, the last one being the most difficult technically. The work was published in 1763, but no manuscript remains.
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755), JSB’s contemporary, worked in Paris during Louis XV’s reign. He published his own works without being tied to a patron, indulging his own creative tastes. His music is sublime and effortless, graceful and sophisticated. He wrote for both voices and instruments, with some unusual combinations, e.g. six concertos for five flutes, the first French composer using the term ‘concerto’ for a solo work. His opus 14 duos, of which we’ll hear two, were written for equal bass instruments, with French-titled dance movements. A lovely sonata for flute and cello concludes the concert on a happy note, with its spirited, bubbly Giga.
The long-lived French composer Michel Corrette (1709-1795) straddled Baroque and Classic periods, outliving Mozart but composing in a conservative Baroque style for most of his life. Corrette served as church organist in Paris almost until his death at 87, taught, and organized concerts. He was incredibly prolific, composing for a great variety of instruments, including hurdy-gurdy and a concerto for four cellos or bassoons.
His 25 entertaining “concertos comiques” introduced popular French vaudeville tunes, street and theatrical melodies, and drinking songs into Baroque concerto form. Their tone was both lighthearted and virtuosic, perfectly embodying the happy spirit of Louis XV and his court.
Corrette wrote almost twenty method books for various instruments, including tonight’s, and composed pieces celebrating the French Revolution! We’ll hear the first sonata from his intriguingly-titled “Les délices de la solitude”, with bassoon on top and cello as bssso. The voices are equal, with much imitation and line-sharing. The opening fugue romps joyfully along, followed by a lyrically-expressive slower movement, and concludes gaily and energetically.
Flutist Doris Dungan, a Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra core member for 40 years, has been appearing regularly with Consortium since 1981, and more recently with Tamarack Wind Quintet. She and her harpist sister perform as a duo. Doris is also active as a quilter and knitter.
Peter Cosbey, recently appointed as the TBSO’s principal cellist, acclaimed for his versatility in a number of genres, is a regular, valued performer with Consortium, enthralling with his virtuosity, rich tone, and expressive style. He recently discovered and joined the world of goat-herding.
Bassoonist Aviner Hartwick joined the TBSO in 2022, is a member of the Tamarack Wind Quintet, holds a degree in Japanese Language and Literature, and enjoys traditional Japanese poetry. He served as President of McGill’s Table Tennis Club, still keeping his racket handy!
Our intermission ballot draw is for two tickets to any Magnus Theatre production within its 2026-2027 season. TbayTel, Lakehead Printing, Hilda Postenka, and Jaro Kotalik and Louisa Pedri are our concert’s generous co-sponsors.
Looking ahead, on September 26 Payadora Tango Ensemble, Toronto’s award-winning, superstar group, heats things up with ‘Tangomania’. Five “powerhouse” musicians perform brilliantly, with joy, virtuosity, humour, soulfulness, and passion! A tremendously exciting concert, not to be missed!
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Consortium Aurora Borealis 48th Concert Season
Artistic Director: Elizabeth Ganiatsos
St. Paul’s United Church, 349 Waverley St., Thunder Bay
Saturdays at 7:30 PM
Admission at the door: $25; $15 students; 11 & under free
ANNOUNCING OUR 2026-2027 CONCERTS!
Sept. 12: Bach and Boismortier. Unaccompanied solos and duos.
Doris Dungan, flute; Peter Cosbey, cello; Aviner Hartwick, bassoon
Sept. 26: Payadora Tango Ensemble in “Tangomania!”Toronto’s award-winning, superstar group performs with joy, virtuosity, humour and intense passion, combining tango with elements of classical, jazz, and world music.
Nov. 21: French Baroque Music: Flutes and Harpsichord. Doris Dungan, Penelope Clarke, flute; Peter Cosbey, cello; special guest Borys Medicky, harpsichord
Jan. 9: Sublime String Sextets, Brahms and Boccherini. William Sirois & James
Moat, violin; Patrick Horn & Geena Salway, viola; Peter Cosbey & Kay Chen, cello
Feb. 6: Beethoven Chamber Music. Doris Dungan, flute; William Sirois & James
Moat, violin; Patrick Horn, viola; Peter Cosbey, cello
Serenade Op. 25 (Flute Trio); String Trio Op. 9, No. 3; String Quartet Op. 18, No. 4
Mar. 20: Glories of the High Baroque. Vivaldi, J S Bach, and contemporaries.
Soloists Colleen Kennedy, oboe; Eric Li, bassoon, William Sirois, violin; with string ensemble & harpsichord
May 8: Master-pianist Angela Park returns in an all-Beethoven concert for the
bicentenary of his death. Selected piano sonatas, one from each of his three periods. Please note the location!
* At Trinity United Church, 30 Algoma St. S.
Thanks as ever to all of you for your interest in our musical offerings, your continued devotion, and your fantastic support!
Warmly,
Elizabeth