- Brahms' Requiem, Saturday, April 13 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 14 at 3 p.m. at NSCU Centre for the Performing Arts. Tickets $25/$20/$10 at tickets.capilanou.ca or 604-990-7810.
A German Requiem is an aural feast, considered by many to be among the greatest compositions of all time, and the music faculty at Capilano University is inclined to agree.
"It is one of the great masterworks of classical music. It's the meat and potatoes of works for choir and orchestra," says George Roberts, Capilano University voice instructor and a longtime North Vancouver resident.
Written between 1865 and 1868 by German composer Johannes Brahms, the large-scale choral composition is a departure from the traditional Catholic Requiem Mass, Roberts explains.
"It's in German, not in Latin," he starts, "and Brahms decided that he knew better than the church did and he picked the scriptures that he wanted, that he thought people needed to hear."
Brahms' work has a more positive tone than a typical Mass for the dead, Roberts adds.
"Most requiems sort of send the person who has died on to the next life. This requiem is about consolation for the people who are left behind and breathing."
Roberts will serve as baritone soloist when A German Requiem is presented by the Capilano University Singers, Capilano University Festival Chorus and the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra April 13 and 14 at NSCU Centre for the Performing Arts. Conducted by Lars Kaario and Nicholas Urquhart, the concert will also include performances of Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus and Regina Coeli, and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music.
"My role is to be the voice of every man facing death," Roberts says of his part in Brahms' Requiem. "It's like a personal conversation between me and God as I consider my mortality - and then the choir comments on it."
The moist poignant segment, in Roberts' opinion, is performed by soprano soloist Heather Pawsey.
"Brahms was very close to his mother and when his mother died he added a movement to the requiem that's all about how God will comfort you the way your own mother would comfort you," he says. "There's all these very tender, personal moments."
Roberts has performed the piece several times before, both as a soloist and as a member of the chorus.
"I like how empowering it is. I mean, (Brahms) has written something really, really grand and noble, and I just love that. And it's actually quite fun to sing. I mean, it's challenging, but Brahms is one of those composers who really knew what the human voice could do."
Roberts realized his voice could affect people when he was just a young boy growing up in the Okanagan. He recalls with clarity the very first time he took the stage at a small-town event in front of a group of seniors.
"If a four-year-old gets up and sings for seniors, it's like, how can you go wrong? So I don't know if I was any good or not, but that was the point at which I kind of got hooked on singing because I got all this positive feedback."
He earned his bachelor of music degree from UBC and later attended the Vancouver Academy of Music under the tutelage of the late Phyllis Mailing, a mezzo-soprano, internationally renowned performer and West Vancouver resident.
"Anything that I know about singing that's worth knowing, I learned from Phyllis," he says.
On top of his position at Capilano University, Roberts is also music co-ordinator at Highlands United Church in North Vancouver and teaches private vocal lessons from his Lynnmour home. He is married to Argyle secondary school choir teacher Frances Roberts and the couple's three sons have clearly inherited their parents' musical aptitude.
"They're all in band and they're all in a choir in our church and they all take piano lessons and we all go to music camps together in the summer," Roberts says.
Walking the halls of Capilano University, he has overheard mild grumblings from choir students struggling to master Brahms' challenging libretto. Reading the German text is the least of their troubles.
"It's very demanding vocally, it's very demanding musically. It's an extended work so we're looking at 45 minutes or 50 minutes of music," Roberts says. "For kids who are used to commercial breaks every nine minutes, it's a long time to concentrate. It's very, very high for the sopranos and the tenors."
For most of Roberts' students, who are on average between 18 and 25 years old, this weekend's performance will mark their first time singing with an orchestra.
"Just the sheer magnitude of the whole experience, until they've done it, it's kind of hard to imagine what that's like, to be swept along by a full orchestra," Roberts says. "I'm expecting them to be inspired by the whole experience."
Brahms' Requiem is often performed with just a choir and pianos due to the high cost of employing a full orchestra.
"Once you start hiring orchestras you're looking at $20,000 to start with. That's a lot of tickets in a theatre the size of Capilano University's theatre," Roberts explains.
But collaborating with the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra, which is comprised of amateur musicians, has made it possible for Capilano University to present a full-scale production featuring more than 200 performers.
"The fact that we've been able to pull this off and bring it to the North Shore, it's not unique, but it's kind of rare," Roberts says.
