Red Deer’s musical event of the decade occurred last Saturday with the performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, his major opus, in Gaetz United Memorial Church.
This was the fourth time I heard it live: once in Paris in 1962, and twice in Edmonton in 1990 and 2001. So it being performed in a medium city is a major plus as it is a very demanding work.
During the intermission, I saw director Claude Lapalme too far away to shake hands and congratulate him. Instead, we locked eyes and gave each other two thumbs up.
I wrote Graeme Leadbeater, then president of the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra Society, in 1995 suggesting the performance of the Mass in B Minor.
May I suggest one more project to put Red Deer on the musical map: Bach’s most performed oratorio: St. Matthew Passion.
Harlan Hulleman
Red Deer