In an era of YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Soulseek, it’s easier than ever to find music, and audio technology has advanced to the point where listening to an album on a set of closed-ear, noise-cancelling headphones with 20,000 Hz drivers is almost as good as the real thing.
Almost.
Early Music Vancouver dabbles in classics from an era where music was a communal experience, where musicians wielded real, analogue instruments made to resonate in frequencies that enveloped and swept away the listener. Add to this an environment constructed with acoustics in mind, such as downtown Victoria’s Christ Church Cathedral, and simple sound becomes a breathtaking experience.
The Pacific Baroque Festival Ensemble, led by artistic director and violinist Marc Destrubé, has partnered with soprano Dorothee Mields, organist Aaron James, and the Christ Church Cathedral Schola choir, directed by Donald Hunt, to present the 2025 Pacific Baroque Festival, entitled Peace, Friendship, and Joy: Music from the German Baroque.
The first two concerts in the week-long lineup featured James, a lifelong player of the modern pipe organ, an imposing structure with dozens of buttons, knobs, petals, and keys that makes a regular piano look like a Fisher Price toy. These solo concerts were named, and themed, Home and Abroad, and celebrated, respectively, the music of home, in the cozy St. Barnabas Church, and the grand, expansive music of 17th-century Europe, in the huge and resonant Christ Church Cathedral.
I’ve never heard a pipe organ solo show before, and I’ll admit that, at first, I was a little overwhelmed. Usually, classical music has a blend of both gentle and strong sounds, but the pipe organ bellows every note to the heavens, vibrating the stone foundations of the church, and everybody present.
As a particular treat, someone had the brilliant idea of rigging half a dozen cameras that gave a variety of viewpoints of the organ, which normally is hidden from the congregation.
For the entire time, I was fascinated at the expertise with which this massive infernal machine was masterfully commanded by James, who, without looking, was able to operate an intimidating number of buttons and pedals with his feet, all while playing simultaneously on four stacked keyboards.
The following three concerts—Peace, Friendship, and Joy—were held in the intimate setting of the Alix Goolden Performance Hall and more closely followed the structure of classical music that most are accustomed to, with a small ensemble comprised of viola, viola de gamba, violin, oboe, cello, violone, harpsichord, and organ, played by the Pacific Baroque Festival Ensemble.
Alone, this ensemble is capable of producing sublime and delightful classical music from the golden age of classical, but these showings were graced by the vocal talent of Mields, who electrified the venue with her piercing, powerful voice. While I found her singing to be impressive, I did find myself wishing that one of these three concerts had opted to have a solely instrumental performance, which would also allow the audience an opportunity to really focus on the individual melodies created by the ensemble’s myriad instruments, as well as providing a slightly more relaxed, lower-energy experience than one receives from operatic soprano. Alternatively, the inclusion of a male bass or baritone vocalist would also help to balance out the intensity of the high notes.
The final concert returned to the Christ Church Cathedral, for Reflect, a choral evensong service. This powerful performance highlighted the majesty beheld by combining many individual voices into one victorious instrument. As always, the additional treat of watching live choral and instrumental music is the performers themselves, each looking smart and regal in their evening attire while lending their own style and personality to the music they are creating.
Often, classical music is perceived in the terms of the music itself, but it must be acknowledged that the years of toil and dedication required for an instrumentalist or singer to produce these incredible and classic scores should be celebrated and admired. I, for one, will always opt to turn up and support the artists devoting their souls to live classical music, rather than settle for a digital MP3 download, and so should you.