Credo – Sacred Songs (online concert)

Festival Glasperlenspiel presents:
Easter Sunday, April 4th, 2021 at 7 pm (Eastern European Summer Time, UTC +3:00)
Live streaming from Swedish St Michael Church (Rootsi-Mihkli kirik), Tallinn / Estonia

Online concert: CREDO – Sacred Songs
Luc Robert (tenor, Canada), Tarmo Eespere (piano, Estonia)

Programme:
Johann Sebastian Bach – Charles Gounod: Ave Maria
Saverio Mercadante: Qual Giglio Candido (Le sette ultime parole di nostro Signore sulla croce)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Laudate Dominum
Franz Schubert: Litanei
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Ave verum corpus
César Franck: Panis Angelicus
Alessandro Stradella: Pieta, Signore!
Georges Bizet: Agnus Dei
Franz Schubert: Ave Maria
Paolo Tosti: Chanson de L´Adieu
Franz Schubert: Ave Maria

“My friends, I am working on a project of sacred songs concert that I, first, wanted to present for the last Christmas with a chamber orchestra. Unfortunately, with the restrictions that we all know, due to COVID-19, it was impossible to put it together. So, I decided to make a piano version of it on Sunday April fourth, for Easter, at noon, Eastern time. I wish it is going to bring you as much happiness as I had to prepare! Many thanks for watching!” – Luc Robert

Luc Robert possesses a remarkable tenor voice and is one of the rising Canadian artists on the operatic and concert stages. He graduated from the Conservatoire de Musique de Québec with honours and joined the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio in 2002 and made his COC main stage debut in the 2002/03 season singing Hermann in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades and Riccardo in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. In April 2015 he debuted at the Metropolitan Opera with the title role in Verdi’s Ernani. His repertoire includes leading roles from the treasury of tenor repertoire: Donizetti’s Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) and Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), the title role in Britten’s Albert Herring, Puccini’s Rodolfo (La bohème), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) and Mario Cavaradossi (Tosca), Steva Burya (Janáček’s Jenufa), Verdi’s Duke (Rigoletto), Rodolfo (Luisa Miller), the title role in Don Carlo and Macduff (Macbeth), Nicias (Massenet’s Thaïs), Orphée (Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice), Don José (Bizet’s Carmen), the title roles in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust and Gounod’s Faust.

See also: Hope and Earning, Masked Ball and La donna è mobile
Download photo of Luc Robert (photo by Kaupo Kikkas, 2016, jpg, colour RGB, 300 dpi, 6.2 MB)

Schubert, Ave Maria, Luc Robert, fragment, 2 min 36 sec, MP3, 320 Kbps

Tarmo Eespere is known in Estonian music landscape as a concertmaster of Estonian National Opera soloists. He is also the Artistic Director of concert series Opera at Town Hall.
Tarmo Eespere graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music in 1982 under the guidance of Prof. Valdur Roots. He has also participated at masterclasses of Anna Klas, Mihhail Voznessenski and Hugo Lepnurm.
In 1981–1992 Eespere worked as a pianist Estonian National Male Choir RAM. In 1993–2005 taught Eespere at Estonian Academy of Music chamber music department. As a soloist, Tarmo Eespere has performed and recorded mainly his brother´s, composer René Eespere´s music. In 1995 was revealed CD „Concentus“ (Antes, 1995). Eespere has co-operated with several renowned singers and given recitals in Finland, Italy, Germany, Canada, USA, Russia including Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center. Eespere has repeatedly participated as a concertmaster at summer courses held in Mariinsky Theatre.

Artistic, technical and management team: Johannes Vähi, Olavi Sööt, Peeter Vähi, Kadri Kiis, Tiina Jokinen, Marje Hansar