Sparks bows out of Pro Coro

Easter is traditionally a bittersweet celebration and this year, Pro Coro Chamber Choir’s annual Good Friday concert at the Winspear Centre has an added tinge of sadness.

It is the season closer and after 12 years, it is also principal conductor Richard Sparks last official concert. “I hope they invite me back,” says Sparks. He just flew in from Denton, Texas where he is a professor of music at the University of North Texas.

In looking back on the last dozen years, Sparks has worked with such notable Canadian composers as John Estacio, Allan Gilliland, Robin John King and St. Albert’s Trent Worthington.

But two events that stick in his mind are Pro Coro’s rendition of Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and Allan Bevan’s award-winning premiere of Nou Goth Sonne Under Wode.

“It was such a surprising work. We did it on Good Friday. Most people had come to hear Mozart’s Requiem. It was the largest audience we had. It was a sell-out. Everyone came to hear Mozart, but Allan’s piece got a lengthy standing ovation. It was very moving.”

On this Good Friday, Sparks has selected Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion, a composition that has been on his to-do list for some time.

“It’s fantastic music and has no equal. It tells the story in a dramatic way.”

He compares it to St. Matthew Passion, recently performed by the Richard Eaton Singers. “St. Matthew is a longer work overall and more reflective. St. John is more dramatic. There’s a higher percentage of the telling of the story and the action.”

Still at two and a half hours, it’s no piece of cake and puts the 24 singers, including St. Albert’s Carol Kube and Catherine Kubash, through their paces.

“It’s one of those great choral works of art that allows us to see a well-told story in a different way.”

Seventeen musicians from the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra will accompany the singers.